Bob Feller's Quotes

Robert William Andrew Feller (November 3, 1918 – December 15, 2010), nicknamed “The Heater from Van Meter“, “Bullet Bob“, and “Rapid Robert“, was an American baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians. Feller pitched from 1936 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1956, interrupted by a four-year engagement in the United States Navy. In a career spanning 570 games, Feller pitched 3,827 innings and posted a win–loss record of 266–162, with 279 complete games, 44 shutouts, and a 3.25 earned run average (ERA).

Bob Feller's selected quotes:

Bob Feller about Heaven:

Where the ball went was up to heaven. Sometimes I threw the ball clean up into ...
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Bob Feller about Baseball:

I don't think baseball owes colored people anything. I don't think colored people owe baseball anything, ...
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Bob Feller about Leadership:

There was great leadership in this country at the time of World War II. There was ...
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Bob Feller about Game:

I would rather beat the Yankees regularly than pitch a no hit game.

Bob Feller about Gun:

I spent 34 months on the battleship Alabama, South Dakota-class. I was a gun captain. First ...
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Robert William Andrew Feller (November 3, 1918 – December 15, 2010), nicknamed “The Heater from Van Meter“, “Bullet Bob“, and “Rapid Robert“, was an American baseball pitcher who played 18 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Cleveland Indians. Feller pitched from 1936 to 1941 and from 1945 to 1956, interrupted by a four-year captivation in the United States Navy. In a career spanning 570 games, Feller pitched 3,827 innings and posted a win–loss photo album of 266–162, with 279 answer games, 44 shutouts, and a 3.25 earned run average (ERA).

A prodigy who bypassed baseball’s minor leagues, Feller first played for the Indians at the age of 17. His career was interrupted by four years of military assistance in World War II, during which period he served as Chief Petty Officer aboard USS Alabama. Feller became the first pitcher to win 24 games in a season since the age of 21. During his career, he threw no-hitters, in 1940, 1946, and 1951. Feller after that recorded 12 one-hitters (his no-hitters and one-hitters were chronicles at the epoch of his retirement). He helped the Indians win a World Series title in 1948 and an American League-record 111 wins and the pennant in 1954. Feller led the American League in wins six era and in strikeouts seven times. In 1946, he recorded 348 strikeouts, a total not exceeded for 19 years. An eight-time All-Star, Feller was ranked 36th on Sporting News‘s list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players and was named the publication’s “greatest pitcher of his time”. He was a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999.

Baseball Hall of Fame aficionado Ted Williams called Feller “the fastest and best pitcher I ever saying during my career.” Hall of Famer Stan Musial believed he was “probably the greatest pitcher of our era.” He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, on his first ballot appearance; at the time, only three players had ever had a forward-thinking percentage of ballot votes. He was elected the inaugural President of the Major League Baseball Players’ Association and participated in barnstorm exhibition games which featured players from both the Major and Negro leagues. Feller died at the age of 92 in 2010.

All quotes from Bob Feller sorted alphabetically:

Bob Feller about Time:

Baseball is only a game, a game of inches and a lot of luck. During a time of all-out war, sports are very insignificant.

Bob Feller about Life:

Every day is a new opportunity. You can build on yesterday's success or put its failures behind and start over again. That's the way life is, with a new game every day, and that's the way baseball is.

Bob Feller about Time:

I did what any American could and should do: serve his country in its time of need.

Bob Feller about Baseball:

I don't think baseball owes colored people anything. I don't think colored people owe baseball anything, either.

Bob Feller about War:

I needed to join the Navy. If you ask the people in Europe who won World War II, they don't say the Allies, they say the United States won the war and saved the world.

Bob Feller about Gun:

I spent 34 months on the battleship Alabama, South Dakota-class. I was a gun captain. First we went to Russia for about 11 months with the British convoys. Then we were up in Norway and Scandinavia.

Bob Feller about Good:

I try to be a good human being and keep up with what's going on in the world by reading and staying in touch with the current events.

Bob Feller about Home:

I was only a gun captain on the battleship Alabama for 34 months. People have called me a hero for that, but I'll tell you this - heroes don't come home. Survivors come home.

Bob Feller about Good:

I went on inactive duty in August 1945, and since I had stayed in such good shape and had played ball on military teams, I was ready to start for the Indians just two days later, against the Tigers.

Bob Feller about Game:

I would rather beat the Yankees regularly than pitch a no hit game.

Bob Feller about War:

If you ask the people in Europe who won World War II, they don't say the Allies, they say the United States won the war and saved the world.

Bob Feller about Experience:

If you believe your catcher is intelligent and you know that he has considerable experience, it is a good thing to leave the game almost entirely in his hands.

Bob Feller about Life:

Life comes down to honesty and doing what's right. That's what's most important.

Bob Feller about Time:

My father kept me busy from dawn to dusk when I was a kid. When I wasn't pitching hay, hauling corn or running a tractor, I was heaving a baseball into his mitt behind the barn... If all the parents in the country followed his rule, juvenile delinquency would be cut in half in a year's time.

Bob Feller about Home:

I'm no hero. Heroes don't come back. Survivors return home. Heroes never come home. If anyone thinks I'm a hero, I'm not.

Bob Feller about Baseball:

My father loved baseball and he cultivated my talent. I don't think he ever had any doubt in his mind that I would play professional baseball someday.

Bob Feller about Life:

Nobody lives forever and I've had a blessed life.

Bob Feller about Baseball:

Nowadays, they have more trouble packing hair dryers than baseball equipment.

Bob Feller about Sympathy:

Sympathy is something that shouldn't be bestowed upon the Yankees. Apparently it angers them.

Bob Feller about Greatest:

Ted Williams was the greatest hitter I ever saw, but DiMaggio was the greatest all around player.

Bob Feller about Hero:

The soldiers that didn't come back were the heroes. It's a roll of the dice. If a bullet has your name on it, you're a hero. If you hear a bullet go by, you're a survivor.

Bob Feller about Today:

The difference between relief pitching when I did it today is simple, there is too much of it. It's one of those cases where more is not necessarily better.

Bob Feller about Leadership:

There was great leadership in this country at the time of World War II. There was also unrelenting resolve at home, in America's factories and on the farms, in the cities and the country.

Bob Feller about Heaven:

Where the ball went was up to heaven. Sometimes I threw the ball clean up into the stands.

Bob Feller about Day:

When I pick up the ball and it feels nice and light and small I know I'm going to have a good day. But if I picked it up and it's big and heavy, I know I'm liable to get into a little trouble.

Bob Feller about Teamwork:

You can talk about teamwork on a baseball team, but I'll tell you, it takes teamwork when you have 2,900 men stationed on the U.S.S. Alabama in the South Pacific.