(Updated Nov. 20, 2024)
Bob Feller pitched against major leaguers for the first time when he faced the Cardinals as a 17-year-old.
Feller is hailed as one of the great pitchers in baseball history and the Cardinals were the first big-league opponents to glimpse his greatness.
On July 6, 1936, the Cardinals played an exhibition against the Indians at Cleveland during the All-Star Game break. Interleague play didn’t exist then, so any matchup between National League and American League teams was an event.
The Indians, who signed Feller because of his fastball, wanted to test him against big-league batters and the exhibition provided an ideal opportunity.
Feller, who a month earlier completed his junior year of high school in Iowa, entered in relief of starter George Uhle in the fourth inning with the score 1-1. In his 1990 book, “Now Pitching, Bob Feller,” Feller said he wasn’t scared of facing a team he’d seen play two years earlier in the 1934 World Series at St. Louis.
“Not in my entire pitching career was I ever scared of any hitter or any situation,” Feller said.
In the book “Baseball When the Grass Was Real,” Feller told author Donald Honig, “I never had any concern about the hitters as long as I could get that ball over the plate. My only concern that day was the crowd. I’d never seen so many people before in my life.”
Cleveland manager Steve O’Neill, a former big-league catcher celebrating his 45th birthday, wanted to see Feller firsthand and decided to catch when Feller came into the game. He told the teen to just throw fastballs. Feller was flattered the manager would make such an effort.
“He wanted to give me his personal treatment because he thought I had the potential to make it big,” Feller said.
Cardinals manager Frankie Frisch intended to play second base, but after watching Feller sail a fastball over the catcher and against the backstop in warmups, he changed his mind. “I’m getting too old to get killed in the line of duty,” Frisch said, according to author Bob Broeg in the book “Memories of a Hall of Fame Sportswriter.”
Feller said to author Donald Honig, “If anybody was nervous that day, it was the Cardinals. I was very wild and had them scared half to death.”
The first batter to face Feller was Bruce Ogrodowski.
“My first pitch to Ogrodowski was a called strike, and it made something of a smacking sound as it hit O’Neill’s mitt,” Feller said. “Ogrodowski turned to O’Neill and said, ‘Let me out of here in one piece.’ He was serious and he laid the next pitch down, bunting down the third-base line.”
Third baseman Odell Hale fielded the ball and threw out Ogrodowski. “He achieved the purpose — he got out of there in one piece,” Feller said.
The next batter was Leo Durocher. According to the book “Bob Feller: Ace of the Greatest Generation,” written by John Sickels, Durocher stepped to the plate, glared at Feller and growled, “Keep the ball in the park, busher.”
One of Feller’s fastballs sailed over Durocher’s head. Another went behind his back. According to Feller, Durocher stepped out of the batter’s box and said to the plate umpire, “I feel like a clay pigeon in a shooting gallery.”
With the count at 2-and-2, Durocher went into the dugout and “pretended to hide behind the water cooler,” Feller said.
After umpires ordered him to return to the plate, Durocher struck out swinging.
The next batter, Art Garibaldi, also struck out.
“I had a big windmill windup and a habit of glancing into left field and then flashing my eyes past third base as I turned toward the plate,” Feller said. “It scared the hitters even more.”
Cleveland scored in the bottom of the fourth.
In the fifth, Feller struck out Les Munns before Terry Moore singled to left and Stu Martin walked. Attempting to rattle Feller, Frisch called for a double steal. Feller rushed the pitch and his fastball eluded O’Neill. Moore raced home, tying the score 2-2, and Martin advanced to third.
The Cardinals had two of their top veterans due up next, but Feller collected himself and struck out Pepper Martin and Rip Collins.
In the sixth, Ogrodowski led off with a double near the foul line before Feller struck out Durocher, Charlie Gelbert and Munns.
Impressed, O’Neill lifted Feller. In three innings, eight of the nine outs he recorded were strikeouts. Cleveland won, 7-6.
In the book “Voices From Cooperstown, Feller said to author Anthony J. Connor, “That day, I was as fast as I’ve ever been.”
Plate umpire Red Ormsby said Feller is “the best pitcher I have seen come into the American League in all my experience,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
“He showed me more speed than I have ever seen uncorked by an American League pitcher,” Ormsby said. “I don’t except Walter Johnson either.”
According to the John Sickels book, a photographer asked Cardinals ace Dizzy Dean to pose with Feller afterward. “If it’s all right with him (Feller), it’s all right with me,” Dean replied. “After what he did today, he’s the guy to say.”
Feller said Dean told him, “You sure poured that ol’ pea through there today.”
Feller said “praise from Dizzy Dean was approval from the baseball gods.”
Feller’s outing convinced the Indians he was major-league ready. Two weeks later, on July 19, 1936, Feller made his big-league debut with an inning of relief against the Senators. Boxscore
It was the start of a Hall of Fame career.
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