“Rapid Robert” Feller’s Remarkable First Major League Start, August 23, 1936!
Gary Livacari
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Bob Feller Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:
Bob Feller’s traveling All-Star team
Bob Feller with Cy Young
Bob Feller with Lou Boudreau
Indians manager Ossie Vitt and Bob Feller, 1939
“Curve ball” specialist, Bob Feller
Bob Feller in the Navy during WWII
Bob Feller on the mound
Bob Feller during the later years of his life
Bob Feller
Bob Feller pitching to Joe DiMaggio
Bob Feller with catcher Frankie Hayes on the day he pitched a no-hitter
Bob Feller
Bob Feller sits in front of his locker in Indians clubhouse
Indians great pitching staff: Bob Lemon, Bob Feller, Mike Garcia, Herb Score
Bob Feller with mother Lena and father William
Jimmie Foxx and Bob Feller
Lou Boudreau with Harpo Marx and Bob Feller
Game One starters of 1948 World Series, Bob Feller and Johnny Sain
Larry Doby and Bob Feller, August 8, 1951 as Feller wins his 18th game
Johnny Vander Meer with Bob Feller
“Rapid Robert” Feller’s Remarkable First Major League Start!
“Three days before he pitched I would start thinking about him. I’d sit in my room thinking about him all the time. God I loved it …I’d think about him for three days!” –Ted Williams
Eighty-two years ago this week, on August 23, 1936, a highly touted 17 year-old rookie from Van Meter, Iowa made his first major league start for the Cleveland Indians. He had made his major league debut a month earlier on July 19, a relief appearance against the Senators.
And what a start it was!
His name was Bob Feller, and all the rookie did is strike out three batters in the first inning, and six over the first three innings. He recorded 15 strikeouts in route to earning his first career victory, a 4-1 complete game win over the St. Louis Browns. His strikeout total was the highest for a starting pitching debut. Three weeks later, he struck out 17 batters, tying a single-game record previously set by Dizzy Dean. He finished the season with a 5–3 record, having recorded 76 strikeouts in 62 innings.
His record-setting rookie year made him, according to baseball writer Richard Goldstein, “the best-known young person in America, with the possible exception of Shirley Temple.”
Bob Feller with Satchel Paige, 1948
Over his Hall-of-Fame career, Bob Feller played 18 seasons in major leagues (1936-1941 and 1945-1956), with four years lost to the Navy during WWII. In a career spanning 570 games, he went 266-162 (.621), with 3,827 innings, 279 complete games, 44 shutouts, and a 3.25 ERA.
Career highlights for the eight-time All Star include seven times leading the American League in strikeouts, six times in wins, once in ERA, a pitching Triple Crown (1940), three no-hitters, and a World Series championship (1948).
And how about 1946, which he called his “greatest season”? It was surely one for the record books. He started the year with a three-hit, 10-strikeout shutout. He went on to a 26-15 record with a 2.18 ERA. He led the league with 348 strikeouts, 36 complete games, 10 shutouts, and 371.1 innings pitched. He even saved four games for good measure. He struck out at least 10 batters 12 times, which is even more impressive when you realize all other major league starters combined to do that just 20 times – and nine of those were by Hal Newhouser. He also won the All-Star Game and pitched a no-hitter in Yankee Stadium.
…And then there was the day Bob Feller threw the fastest pitch ever!
The date was August 20, 1946. In a promotion staged by Clark Griffith at Griffith Stadium, a Bob Feller fastball was clocked by Army ordinance equipment – equipment used to measure artillery shell velocity – at 98.6 mph, which at the time was the fastest pitch ever thrown. This was in the days before radar guns, so it’s hard to gauge just how accurate this actually was. The speed of the ball was measured as it crossed the plate; later, more sophisticated devices measure the speed as it leaves the pitcher’s hand. Using the primitive equipment, Feller’s pitch was said to average out at 107.6 mph.
Bob Feller’s #19 has been retired by the Indians. He was elected to the Hall-of-Fame in 1962, on the same day as Jackie Robinson.
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