Bob Feller has passed away

• OneBuckeye

  

  Ty Webb;603501 wrote:Yea...he's such a good man that he said Jackie Robinson couldn't hit his fastball simply because he was black and called Lou Gehrig's speech "horseshit" because Gehrig wasn't the luckiest man on earth,Feller himself was

  
  Link?
• brutus161

  

  There aren't many things on this site that actually bother me, but i am very close to finding Ty/Gibby and giving him a real beatdown (not an internet one). Bob Feller was a fellow Chief Petty Officer, and I will have his back forever (as I will of every other Chief).
• Sonofanump

  Al Bundy;603623 wrote:Ty/Gibby, you truly are a POS.

  
  QFT
• Ty Webb

  

  Al Bundy;603623 wrote:Ty/Gibby, you truly are a POS. A great American has passed away, and you have to make up crap about him. He volunteered to fight for your freedom. The same freedom that you use to insult him.

  bigdaddy2003;603628 wrote:Sad news. I got his autograph sometime in the 90's at a local car dealership.
  
  I take it he was a republican. If Gibby hates him that just about has to be the case.

  OneBuckeye;603889 wrote:Link?

  brutus161;603960 wrote:There aren't many things on this site that actually bother me, but i am very close to finding Ty/Gibby and giving him a real beatdown (not an internet one). Bob Feller was a fellow Chief Petty Officer, and I will have his back forever (as I will of every other Chief).

  Brutus,I don't really give a shit if he served in the Navy,my uncle was an Army Ranger and got spit on in San Francisco and called a baby killer coming back from Vietnam. So If my uncle,who was 6 days short of finishing a 3rd tour and had already signed up for a fourth didn't get any respect,why does a devout racist get any?
  
  Had Bob Feller pitched in New York,Boston,Chicago,or Detroit,none of you would be sticking up for him. The only reason you are is because he pitched in Cleveland.
  
  
  Simple fact,Bob Feller= Great Pitcher,shitty person
• Ty Webb

  

  "He's tied up in the shoulders and can't hit an inside pitch to save his neck. If he were a white man, I doubt if they would even consider him big league material, except perhaps as a bat boy."
  
  Quoted from SI about Jackie Robinson
  
  Feller said Gehrig's speech grew more powerful as the years passed. Regarding Gehrig saying he was the "luckiest man," Feller bluntly said: "He's wrong. I am. I'm still alive."
• mucalum49

  

  Ty Webb;604592 wrote:"He's tied up in the shoulders and can't hit an inside pitch to save his neck. If he were a white man, I doubt if they would even consider him big league material, except perhaps as a bat boy."
  
  Quoted from SI about Jackie Robinson
  
  Feller said Gehrig's speech grew more powerful as the years passed. Regarding Gehrig saying he was the "luckiest man," Feller bluntly said: "He's wrong. I am. I'm still alive."

  
  I wouldn't say that the quote makes Bob Feller a racist. I heard the same thing from many people of different races that said if Larry Bird were black he would have just been an average basketball player. It's like saying Danica Patrick is a good race car driver. She gets her publicity because shes going against the grain and is a pioneer of sorts. I'm not debating that Jackie was or wasn't a good player but I can understand why some who knew his abilities better than I may make a statement like that.
  
  The second quote shows that you may not be able to comprehend meaning behind what he was saying. Bob Feller said this after serving in WWII so I am guessing he saw and was exposed to many things that could have ended his life. He wasn't demeaning Gehrig but saying that he himself was the luckiest man on the face of the earth because he was still alive after what I suspect may have been some near death experiences.
  
  And to say the speech wasn't as powerful that day, what speech reached the height of its impact the day it was delivered. Speeches such as this, MLK "I have a dream", and Abe Lincoln's address at Gettysburg (first examples that came to mind) grew more powerful in retrospect for what happened in and around the speech but not just for the speech itself.
  
  Hopefully this has cleared up any misconception you may have had and you can no longer hate the legend that is Bob Feller.
• Hb31187

  

  Wow....said that about Jackie?
  
  
  Great pitcher, and great man for serving his country. Buts downright fucked up to say, and 100% wrong too btw.
• Sonofanump

  Ty Webb;604592 wrote:"He's tied up in the shoulders and can't hit an inside pitch to save his neck. If he were a white man, I doubt if they would even consider him big league material, except perhaps as a bat boy."
  
  Quoted from SI about Jackie Robinson
  
  Feller said Gehrig's speech grew more powerful as the years passed. Regarding Gehrig saying he was the "luckiest man," Feller bluntly said: "He's wrong. I am. I'm still alive."

  Just before the 1946 World Series between the Red Sox and Cardinals started early that October, what would prove to be a historically more significant baseball tournament opened in Pittsburgh. It featured competing teams of all-stars. One was from the all-white major leagues. The other was from the Negro Leagues, where white baseball men forced the relegation of black players after instituting an unwritten racist policy over half a century earlier.
  
  The black vs. white all-star tournament was the idea of star major league pitcher Bob Feller.
  
  In the immediate wake of his death Wednesday at 92, Feller was remembered for a lot of things, most notably being the hardest-throwing pitcher anyone had ever seen and for being the first major leaguer to volunteer for the armed services after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. He missed four seasons as a gun captain aboard the Alabama, where he earned eight medals.
  
  But what I thought was most remarkable about him was his brainstorm to provide an opportunity to a generation of athletes who hadn't been allowed to prove themselves simply because of the color of their skin.
  
  "It [Feller's all-star tournament] kind of helped convince people that the Negro Leagues' players were as good as the major league players, but that they needed to be given a fair shot," the baseball historian John Sickels -- who six years ago wrote the most-recent biography of Feller, Bob Feller: Ace of The Greatest Generation -- told me Thursday evening.
  
  Indeed, Sickels noted that the first contest on Sept. 30, 1946, between Feller's side and one comprised by legendary black pitcher Satchel Paige ended with the white team on the short end of a 3-1 score.
  
  How many more games were played between the white all-stars and black all-stars, and which side won, was not well documented. It was a barnstorming tour. They played doubleheaders. They may have played more than 20 games or as few as 11. The white all-stars by one account won 17 games and by another count won just seven games against six victories by the black all-stars.
  
  But the point was proven. Black players could keep up with, and even best, their white peers. A season later, the major leagues allowed Jackie Robinson to re-integrate its game.
• BRF

  

  BRF will miss our icon hanging around and had the fortune to chat with The Man a few years ago. As for this "racism" bull crap, how do you explain him being a team mate of the first blacks in the AL? Did he complain about that? (Answer: no). Did he accept blacks on his team and count them as team mates? (Answer: yes). I knew that that certain poster would come on here and make his crappy remarks. That is sad.
• like_that

  

  Well gibby, you can kindly stfu and gtfo now.
• BRF

  

  Oh, I forgot to say that I give a BRF tip of the hat to Art Modell for having some grace on this thread.
• ernest_t_bass

  

  Gibby, you ate looking at that quote through a 21st Century mindset. The mindset was incredibly different when he said it. Why do you fail to recognize/admit things like this? Take another hiatus!
• Sonofanump

  like_that;604729 wrote:Well gibby, you can kindly stfu and gtfo now.

  
  Apparently that has happened.
• BRF

  

  Sonofanump;605443 wrote:Apparently that has happened.

  
  Good! Tainting a thread to honor a sport's icon is taboo. Someone brought up Feller's stats and the interruption of military service. If you would project his stats IF he hadn't gone to war to defend our rights to post stuff on here, his final numbers would have been "sick".
• HitsRus

  

  Gibby, you ate looking at that quote through a 21st Century mindset. The mindset was incredibly different when he said it. Why do you fail to recognize/admit things like this? Take another hiatus!

  Yes, at best it was a quote taken out of context, as well as the context of the time it was said.
  It is one thing to troll around and just post stuff to harmlessly get under someone's skin....quite another to mislead and slander such that someone actually believes it might be true...such as Hb31187 who posted:

  Wow....said that about Jackie?
  
  
  Great pitcher, and great man for serving his country. Buts downright fucked up to say, and 100% wrong too btw

  Only a low life POS does that kind of stuff...there is nothing you can now post that has any crediibilty on this site.
• grodt

  

  BRF;605472 wrote:Good! Tainting a thread to honor a sport's icon is taboo. Someone brought up Feller's stats and the interruption of military service. If you would project his stats IF he hadn't gone to war to defend our rights to post stuff on here, his final numbers would have been "sick".

  
  I read an article that had his projected stats if he hadn't gone off to war. It was something like 373 wins and 3700 Ks. I'm not sure who/what did these projections but it's safe to say that his numbers would be up at stratospheric levels.
• Hb31187

  

  HitsRus;605566 wrote:Yes, at best it was a quote taken out of context, as well as the context of the time it was said.
  It is one thing to troll around and just post stuff to harmlessly get under someone's skin....quite another to mislead and slander such that someone actually believes it might be true...such as Hb31187 who posted:
  
  
  Only a low life POS does that kind of stuff...there is nothing you can now post that has any crediibilty on this site.

  What are you even talking about.
  
  
  I am now slandering him because im shocked that he said something blatantly racist? And I said hes 100% wrong too, because obviously Robinson was one hell of a ball player. Jesus you act like you personally knew Feller or something
• HitsRus

  

  I wasn't talking about you...I was talking about Ty Webb. What he posted has misled you into thinking Feller was a racist and made you think less of him. I know of no other, and I challenge anyone to find any other evidence of Feller's supposed racism other than a statement taken out of context from a different era....60 + years ago. I suppose the statement itself as judged by 21st century standards is racist.
  But for anyone's sake, I hope the sum of our life is not judged by a single solitary statement made when we were young.
  
  I think it is a POS thing to do to impugn a good man on such flimsy evidence.
  Did i know Feller? No. I did/do know people who knew him well.
• Y-Town Steelhound

  

  Sorry Ty, not buying your Feller is a racist thing. First of all, it's easy to call ANY 92 year old white guy a racist since he grew up and lived during times of segregation. Second of all, the reason why I think Feller WASN'T a racist is Satchel Paige. It was he who suggested the Indians sign Satchel Paige and remained good friends with him his entire life. Feller also came up with the idea of a white-black all star game of sorts so that african american players could showcase their talents. Here's an article that better outlines it (written by an african american as well). Sorry Ty, but you rode on the fail bus on this one...
  
  http://kevin-blackistone.fanhouse.com/2010/12/17/bob-fellers-brainstorm-helped-pave-way-for-baseball-integration/