Remembering 'Rapid Robert' Feller

CEDAR RAPIDS - Bad luck prevented Art Pennington from getting a chance to take his hacks at Bob Feller's famed heater, and the 87-year-old Cedar Rapids man has always regretted that.

“I would have loved to have faced him,” Pennington said.

It was San Francisco in 1946, and “Superman” - as he was known during his baseball days - was on a team of Negro Leaguers opposing Feller and a team of major leaguers as part of an off-season barnstorming tour. Pennington couldn't play this game because he had been accidentally spiked in the foot the day before by a teammate.

All he could do was watch as “Rapid Robert” and Satchel Paige dueled on the mound.

“Satchel got him that game,” Pennington said.

Feller died Wednesday night at the age of 92. One of the greatest pitchers of all time, the Van Meter native is being remembered for his ability (266 wins, three no-hitters, pitching in the major leagues at 17) and his patriotism (enlisting in the military in the middle of his career).

“Bob Feller made us all proud to call ourselves Iowans,” governor elect Terry Branstad said in a statement.“He was the embodiment of the American spirit, learning the value of hard work on an Iowa farm and rising to be one of the greatest athletes to ever set foot on a baseball mound. Bob Feller gave that all up in order to serve his country during World War II for four years. His selfless act of bravery should inspire us all, and I am thankful to have known this great man.”

Feller also was known for his outspokenness. If you wanted a good quote about anything baseball related, he was your man.

Pennington remembers Feller saying Jackie Robinson would never make it in the big leagues.

“If he were a white man, I doubt if they would even consider him big-league material,” Feller said of the man who broke baseball's color barrier.

“Bob Feller, I didn't get along with him real well,” Pennington said. “He was prejudiced, very prejudiced. Heck, everybody was back then. The way he talked about Jackie Robinson ... He was a good pitcher, though. You can't take that away from him.”

Ray Petrzelka of Cedar Rapids signed with the Cleveland Indians in 1949, by the same scout (Cy Slapnicka) who signed Feller. Petrzelka came across Feller a few times in spring training and said he was a good man.

“A very nice fella,” Petrzelka said. “Not a showboater or anything like that. He just knew how to throw the baseball very, very hard.”

Over 100 miles per hour, by many accounts. Former Cedar Rapids Kernels General Manager Jack Roeder said one of the highlights of his 30-year career in professional baseball was having lunch with Feller in the 1980s while Roeder was general manager of the Midwest League's Wausau Timbers.

Feller told him about how people would try various things to determine how hard he threw. The United States Army even got involved.

“Back then, he'd come to ballparks and sign autographs,” Roeder said. “Then he'd throw batting practice. Four or five people would get the chance to hit off him. He wouldn't try and strike them out or anything, he'd just throw them some pitches.

“He was a lot of fun, a lot of fun to talk to ... He told you what he was thinking. His answers were always simple: ‘I was better.'”

That wasn't a lie.