The thing about Bob Feller (and some others) is he wasn't just "in the Navy" playing f-ing baseball, he earned battle stars in combat.

In June of 1984, Roger Neufeldt, of Sports Memories, asked my brother and me to "baby sit" Bob Feller for a couple of hours. Roger needed to open his card store before taking Mr. Feller to the show he had come into town to sign at. Roger picked Mr. Feller up at the airport and drove him to the store. When they got out of the car, Roger introduced us and the first thing Mr. Feller said to us, as he pointed to a nearby Grandy's, was "are you boys hungry." We walked over to the restaurant and sat with Mr. Feller for almost 2 hours as he signed a couple of autographs for us and told stories about pitching to the likes of Ted Williams. The part of the conversation I remember the most was when he talked about spending almost 3 years on the USS Alabama BB-60. He didn't regret it, he was proud of it and said he would do all over again. When it was time to go, Mr. Feller opened up his brief case and gave me an autographed photo and a couple of Cleveland Indians stickers that I still have to this day. And that was it. And best of all, Mr. Feller paid for breakfast.

Great, great story there! I love stories like that.

I remember walking around Twinsfest in 2008 and randomly looked up and met eyes with Bob Feller at a both. It said "$20 autographs" and figured why not? Nicest guy in the world and added HOF for free.

My son was a medical student doing a special surgery fellowship in Paddington
 

and was walking one day in a public park when he saw Bob Feller and his agent approaching him. Nathan knew who he was because we had met him at Cooperstown in 1974 at the Induction of my great uncle, Sam Thompson. The interesting part was that when Nathan greeted him, Bob was clearly pleased and said to his agent -- "see, my fans know me anywhere."

I read somewhere that Bob Feller struck out Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio and Mickey Mantle each over a dozen times. Love it.

1948...

Bob and His son. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a8198aeb83.jpg

Odd timing, but my uncle called me this weekend to ask if I wanted his Bob Feller ball that was also signed by Feller's first cousin and former major leaguer, Hal Mander, who gave him the ball. I don't collect autographs, so if anyone here would like to buy it shoot me a message.