Bob Feller Career

[BobC]

Originally Posted by howard38

Feller was doing a phone interview around 2005 & passed a comment about Caribbean players not knowing the rules. The interviewer pressed him for examples but Feller wouldn't or couldn't elaborate. Things became contentious & Feller threatened to hang up whereupon the interviewer said something like "Go ahead you racist!".

Was not aware of and never heard that before. If anything, not sure how that is necessarily considered racist either. I know that back in his day Feller wanted to play Winter ball in Cuba at one point I believe, and apparently got into it with then baseball commissioner Happy Chandler about a rule supposedly not allowing US ML ballplayers to play in Cuba, but Latin/Carribean ML ballplayers could. That is the only questionable Latin/Carribean player situation I've ever heard of him being involved with.

For the heck of it, did a little online searching and found some stuff on the issue after all. Seems he was doing a live radio interview over the phone at 86 years of age with someone on a small local radio station in Iowa I believe, possibly trying to make a name for themself and generate ratings. Guessing Feller came across as rude/obnoxious/opinionated because the a--hole interviewing him either wouldn't shut up and let him finish, or just pushed what Feller was possibly not saying in the nicest, sweetest, and most kiss-ass PC way possible was therefore proof he was racist. Seems Feller said Latin players first coming here didn't know or understand all the rules and that not speaking good English maybe didn't help in their understanding, or something along those lines. Seems to me Feller was more or less merely stating facts about differences between MLB rules and exactly how they play baseball here in the states, and then how that can differ with the way the game's played in other parts of the world, and that language issues and misunderstandings can further complicate those differences and learning. I can understand Feller being pissed if this guy then tried pushing him as a racist.

And another thing many may not know about Feller, in 1956 he became the inaugural President of the Major League Baseball Players Association, a position in which he represented all ML players of all ethnicities. I somehow doubt he would have been elected to such a position if he actually was a racist.