Feller had struggled in recent years with his health and had been undergoing treatment for his leukemia since August 2010. He was recently moved into hospice care.
Feller, known by the nicknames "Rapid Robert" and "Bullet Bob," made his major league debut as a 17-year-old in 1936, after scout Cy Slapnicka signed him for $1 and an autographed baseball off his family's farm in Van Meter, Iowa.
Feller never threw one pitch in the minor leagues and spent his entire career, which spanned 18 seasons, with the Cleveland Indians.
Pat McManamon: Bob Feller's Delivery Fierce to the Finish
More: Reactions Around Baseball to Feller's Death
More: Reactions Around Baseball to Feller's Death
As his nicknames imply, Feller was known for his blazing fastball. Long before radar gun readings, his fastball was clocked at 104.5 mph in 1940 by Major League Baseball in a test that involved a Harley Davidson motorcycle traveling at high speed and two bull's-eye targets on a closed street in Chicago's Lincoln Park.
That blistering heater helped Feller win 266 games and strike out 2,581 hitters in his career, marks that rank 37th and 26th, respectively, all-time. He had a lifetime ERA of 3.25.
The right-hander could have climbed perhaps much higher had his career not been interrupted by World War II. Feller volunteered to join the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor -- on Dec. 8, 1941 -- becoming the first active player to do so in the wake of the attack. He missed three full seasons from 1942-44 and most of the 1945 campaign while a gun captain aboard the U.S.S. Alabama, earning five campaign ribbons and eight battle stars for his service.
The military honors came at the expense of a portion of the prime of his baseball career -- in the three years before he enlisted, Feller won 76 games and posted a 2.88 ERA with 767 strikeouts in 960 innings -- but he had few regrets.
Said Feller when asked about his service: "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."
But rather than wondering what if, perhaps Feller's career is best summed up by a few more bite-sized tidbits.
He threw three no-hitters, including the only one on Opening Day in major league history in 1940. He shares the record for the most one-hitters in major league history with 12. He set a modern record that has since been eclipsed by striking out 18 Tigers in a game in 1938. He and Kerry Wood are the only players in major league history to strike out their age in a game (Feller whiffed 17 as a 17-year-old, Wood 20 as a 20-year-old in 1998).
Long before there was Stephen Strasburg or Mark Fidrych or Fernando Valenzuela, there was Feller, the original flame-throwing pitching phenom.
"I just reared back and let them go," Feller once said of his pitching style.
Indeed he did, better than most everyone else in baseball history.
Comments (Page 1 of 3)
I am 63 years old. The first baseball mitt that I had was a Bob Feller model. I remember all the fuss about his fastball. Thanks to him for serving his country and R.I.P.
Yanks tried to sign him last year.
Yet another great gone who played for the love of the game , and the quote "MONEY " like kevin brown and cliff lee just to name a few . Had feller played today in his prime he would be making more than aroid and everyone else . RIP my fellow Iowan .... Van Meter will never be the same .
I ment to say for the love of the game and NOT the money .... tow gtreat loses in two weeks First RON SANTO and now BOB FELLER .
One of the finest men, of the finest generation, ever to play. God bless "Rapid Robert" and the men with whom he served and played. Class knows no bounds, no limits. Nor did Bob Feller. We are all a little less than we were this morning. RIP.
Not only a great pitcher but even more so a great American. There will never be another Bob Feller. A true gentleman and although he denied it, a real hero.
A great pitcher. Sadly, the famous WWII Vets are leaving us.
We lost a legend! A great pitcher, he may have been a bit terse, told it like it is and blunt and never sugar coated anything. RIP Mr. Feller.
Bless Coach/Player Feller. America's favorite sport lost another golden lad of summer. Only those who played so long ago can help us keep the game real and on track but as they go, it seems does the deminishment of the history's dream from the sport.........You are loved Bob Feller....you will be remembered.......you will be missed.....
Bob Feller will be missed greatly by our community as he spent spring training with the Cleveland Indians every year in our hometown. He was an inspiration to us all as he threw pitches before every game, and afterwards would greet and give autographs to fans.
Thank you Bob Feller. You were a gentleman. You were a giant. As a kid I loved baseball because of you. As a senior citizen, I still love baseball because of the real giants of baseball like you, Bill Wamby, and Mel Harder. Ealier this year in Goodyear, Arizona at Cleveland Indians Spring Training you signed a photo for me of the first pitch of the 1948 World Series. You taught us about excellence, about teamwork, about loyallty, about hard work, about sacrifice -interrupting your career to serve your country in the military so that we could enjoy this wonderful country we take for granted. When I die I want my baseball autographed by you in my casket. There will never be anyone like you.
Boy I wish there were more pro athletes like this what a class act God speed Mr Feller
I am 71 and I use to babysit for Bob Feller's sister. I was about 12 - 15. His sister and brother-in-law held wonderful dinner parties, and hes was very kind to a young girl who knew he was a professional baseball player, and good looking, but I didn't know his fame. How embrrrassed my father would have been as he was the sports writer for the Toledo Blade. If you know how to reach his neices, I'd appreciate you sending this to them.
Barbara McGeorge Brandt
What a great man and baseball player. I wish his family the best in this hard time for them.
America not only lost a great hall of fame pitcher, but a true man that loved his country and the people. He loved basebal for baseball. Not too many players in the game have that attitude now. God Bless Bob Feller who will be greeted by his family members in heaven and the hall of famers up there now. Dizzy Dean is most likely greeting him at heavens gate.
A genuine HOF pitcher and an American Patriot as well. Outspoken, honest, brutally frank...opinionated. His stats are impressive. Its always tricky to compare players from different eras...and it is my feeling that you need to compare a players stats to his peers, not to someone from a different generation. On that basis Feller ranks quite high on any list of greatest pitchers of all-time. His speed was dazzling and he was quite a competitor. The pitching staff he was part of was one of the best ever as well. However, if I'm the manager and I have to pick one guy to go out there and win the big game....it would now, and always, be Koufax.
Of course.
My father told me that, as a kid, he would listen to Feller pitch on the radio (with his dog spot cuddled up next to him). Like something from a Norman Rockwell painting in a time now long gone. Great pitcher. Outstanding human being.
A true gentleman.
The best barometer of a players ability is how he measured up to his peers or contemporaries. To try to project a players greatness into the past or the future is almost impossible to do with any certainty. Unless of course it happens to be a player the caliber of Bob Feller... He dominated his era.
When you can throw 104 mph with ACCURACY and movement you will be star in ANY era. Like the great Ted Williams this mans numbers would have been even MORE amazing were it not for his time spent in service to our country during 4 seasons in his prime. Simply said there have been tens of thousand of major leaguers. Without fear of equivocation NONE were better than Mr. Feller both as a player and as a man. Heaven just called up a hell of a right hander. RIP sir.