Show and tell Bob Feller

[obiwan1129]

I've heard that Feller could be rather short with folks, however, that was not my experience with meeting him. When I was in high school my grandparents took me on a trip to Cooperstown. We didn't realize it was induction weekend until we got there. I think it was 1990 but it might have been 1989, can't remember now.

We hit the museum and I managed to talk my way into a few card shops. Well, we walked into one small shop and who is in there but Rapid Rob himself signing autographs. My grandparents and I chatted with him for a few minutes. He was very nice. We are shirt tail relations to Dick Wakefield, and asked if he remembered him. He smiled and was like of course he remembered him.

My other grandma used to go down to Tucson every winter to snowbird for a few months. I was very close to her. She met Feller at some function and got his autograph for me. I had it in a scrapbook for a long time and recently reorganized my autographs into new binders. When I pulled the autograph out and looked at the back of it for the first time in probably 30 years, I discovered a note from my grandmother. She's been gone for a long time, so it was quite a moment to see her beautiful cursive writing for the first time in a long time.

[Angyale]

Whats rarer than a signed Feller item?

An unsigned one…..

Angyale

[butchie_t]

I have an autographed OAL ball signed by Bob Feller. I don't even know when or how I came across it. That is it!

Cheers,

[CTDean]

Bob Feller was the first major league player I received a signed photo from. In the mid 1950's our little league team went to a Motorola TV store in Easton, Maryland and Feller was there signing a stack of photos provided by Motorola (for free). I don't know what ever happened to that photo. Then in the early 1980's Feller was set up at a card show that I was doing, maybe one of the New Jersey shows.

[jingram058]

Somewhere I have one of those MCI Ambassadors of Baseball cards signed by him, and a color postcard signed by Johnny Vander Meer. They came aboard USS Independence CV-62 when I served on that aircraft carrier. I met Bob Feller, Johnny Vander Meer, Graig Nettles, Rick Waite, and Bert Campaneris. They were all very, very nice gentlemen, and didn't charge any money for anything. You could also have someone take photos with them if you had a camera. Bob Feller had a stack of those MCI cards pre-signed. We talked a few minutes and shook hands. Johnny Vander Meer personalized a postcard for me, and also wrote "back-to-back no-hitters, 1938". Super nice guy. Nettles, Waite and Campaneris signed a USS Independence photo. I think this was one of our in-ports while the ship was tied up at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego.

[ocjack]

For a while it seemed like Feller was at every card show in the area, even the smaller motel shows. We always knew the Feller line would move slowly because he would spend 10-15 minutes talking to each person and answering questions. A great guy - but if you wanted to get in and out quick - wasn't going to happen.

[ALR-bishop]

Feller in the Topps Scoops baseball subset, both scratched and unscratched. Plus John Travolta welcoming the Braves to Milwaukee in 1953 :-)

[h2oya311]

Although I never met him and honestly don't know a ton about him, I do have a "connection" to Mr. Feller. As a young kid collecting in the '80s, my grandmother asked me if I had any Bob Feller cards. I probably had some Circle K or other A/T Greats card of Feller, but nothing from his playing days. She was disappointed.

My grandmother then showed me some family photos and told me that Mr. Feller was my third cousin, twice removed. To this day, I still don't even know what that means, but apparently he is "family". I'm happy to say that I do have a few career contemporary cards now.

Here's an un-autographed "rookie" card of his (which, according to this thread, apparently means it's rare):



When I saw the note about him autographing "everything", I remembered having this in my collection...a 1980 Charlotte O's Program (when Cal Ripken was playing for the team) autographed by Mr. Feller:

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by jingram058

Somewhere I have one of those MCI Ambassadors of Baseball cards signed by him, and a color postcard signed by Johnny Vander Meer. They came aboard USS Independence CV-62 when I served on that aircraft carrier. I met Bob Feller, Johnny Vander Meer, Graig Nettles, Rick Waite, and Bert Campaneris. They were all very, very nice gentlemen, and didn't charge any money for anything. You could also have someone take photos with them if you had a camera. Bob Feller had a stack of those MCI cards pre-signed. We talked a few minutes and shook hands. Johnny Vander Meer personalized a postcard for me, and also wrote "back-to-back no-hitters, 1938". Super nice guy. Nettles, Waite and Campaneris signed a USS Independence photo. I think this was one of our in-ports while the ship was tied up at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego.

Found 'em. Johnny Vander Meer goes with the Bob Feller card.

[egri]

I’ll dig up the pictures later, but I have a PSA-slabbed 1953 Topps Bob Feller that PSA labeled 1954. I like to think it was shoddy QC on their part, and not a lack of knowledge.

[MikeGarcia]

..Printers' Proof/Office Copy from a New Jersey family whose relative worked at the shop where Dixie had their exquisite work done ; this never made it as far as the hole-punch process ; shows handling though ; there are survivors from the salesman's sample portfolios showing up sometimes : those have about 25 little holes across the top from being liberated from the spiral metal coil binding .... P.S. - The Foxx from this set is simply pure art.

..

[steve B]

I've told this before, but not for a while.

In Probably 1974 I lived near Pittsfield, Ma where the rangers had a minor league team. On day dad brought me to a game, a double header and Bob Feller was pitching a home run contest between games.

When the second game started, he came up in the stands with a huge stack of photo sheets, 8 1/2x11, picture on the front and career highlights on the back. Lots of kids looking for autographs, which kept him pretty busy. Being shy I was pretty much the last in line (Or crowd which would be more accurate, he was surrounded.. ) Got one for me, one for dad, and one on paper for dads old autograph book. Lots of kids came back for more, and were making paper planes out of them. I asked if that bothered him and he just said "they're kids, that's what they do" Since I was the only one left, he asked about baseball, I wanted to pitch, but the lowest level league had an upper age limit for pitchers.
he had me sit with him for a couple innings and explained what the pitchers were doing, what pitch, what location and why.
Then he said he had to go keep the grownups happy. He genuinely seemed like he would rather stay talking about baseball.

It wasn't until several years later I realized how cool it was to get a lesson in pitching from one of the best. *

Not that I could ever use it, and my "fastball" probably topped out in the upper 50s