Bob Feller Career

[BobC]

Originally Posted by bbcard1

Gotta share my Feller story...in the late 1970s...I'd guess 1978...he came to Watt Powell Park in Charleston WV. For the sum of $2 you could take a cut off Rapid Robert...remember he had to be in his 60s then. All proceeds benefitted the American Cancer Society. It was the pregame to a minor league baseball game. I blooped a single over second finishing 1-1 against hall of famers. After he took a shower and signed autographs for anyone who wanted.

Late in his life he was one of the first victims of cancel culture that I recall. He said something that was probably slightly behind the time and some POS announcer accused him of being a racist. I don't think any serious study of Feller's life would support that.

Yes, don't know the details of that particular incident/story, but find it highly doubtful Feller would ever deliberately and intentionally make racist comments. In fact, Feller was the main force after the war behind the 1946 barnstorming and exhibition game tour where a white, ML all-star team with the likes of himself, Musial, Rizzuto, and others went across the country right after the WS ended and played 35 games over 27 days in 17 different states across the country and British Columbia. Their opponent was a team of Negro League All-Stars headed by Satchell Paige, and the likes of Buck O'Neil, Quincy Trouppe, Hank Thompson, and others. And to make it all work, Feller did something else unprecedented and never done in baseball before. Feller charted two DC-3 planes to fly everyone to all the games for the whole barnstorming tour. He even had them paint "Bob Feller's All-Stars" on the outside of the planes. Apparently the tour was a huge success, everyone shared in the profits, and supposedly most everyone made more in that one month than they'd made over the entire baseball season that year. All the players apparently got along great, and Feller referred to and thought of the Negro League players as friends. Doesn't sound or come across as a racist type person to me.

Oh, and because the chartered planes and constant flying were not things ML teams were doing yet, at this time MLB baseball travel was still primarily by train, some team owners were scared and didn't want to risk their star players getting injured or killed in a plane crash. As a result, supposedly Hal Newhouser and Ted Williams were each paid $10,000 by their respective team owners to not go on the tour. Always thought that a bit ironic and funny in Williams' case as he served as a pilot in WWII and the Korean War.

This is another thing that could also be posted in the "It only ever happened once........" thread over in the Water Cooler - All Sports Talk forum.