Baseball season is right around the corner. Cleveland Indian's spring training games began being broadcast on the radio this week enough though we are experiencing snow flurries here in Ohio. If you are an Indian's sports fan, you can't think of the Tribe without also thinking of one of baseball's real heroes...Bob Feller. So Bob, as you watch players take to the field from your heavenly bleacher seat, I take a moment to honor you.
For those of you in the dark about who Bob Feller was, let me briefly tell you a little about him. Bob Feller started his baseball career pitching in an exhibition game for the Indians in 1936-at the ripe old age of 17 and still in high school. In just 3 innings during that game, he had struck out 8 St. Louis Cardinals. He racked up those kinds of stats throughout the season, and by season's end, the New York Times was covering his exploits. He played for Cleveland his entire career, finishing up in 1956...and he left behind a laundry list of accomplishments...some of which are so overwhelming, they will never be duplicated, let alone surpassed.
Feller spent his entire career with the Indians, and in 1962 he was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Some times the measure of a man isn't about things accomplished on a ball diamond. Two days after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, at the peak of his career, he enlisted in the Navy .He was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Alabama most of the 44 months he spent in the Navy. He earned 8 Battle Stars.
Now, let's advance the clock by 50 years...
I collect sports memorabilia, and every year when my family vacations in Hilton Head, South Carolina, there is a little store I love to spend an afternoon in during my trip. An old man and his daughter run one of the most amazing sports memorabilia shops I have ever visited. While I love to look around, and gaze at all the things hanging on the walls, what I enjoy most is catching the old man in a talkative mood. For you see, the real treasures of that store are spoken...not seen.
On one particular trip to the store, I had made a comment about some Bob Feller signed photos he had, and that brought to mind the following story from the old man.
It seems that the shop owner had Bob Feller visit his shop from time to time over the years. He said that on this one occasion, Bob was busily signing autographs. According to the owner, there were maybe a 100 people standing in line, waiting for their opportunity to get something signed, or to have their picture taken with Bob.
The owner then told of this woman who came into the shop, and very nervously came up him and asked if it would be possible for Mr. Feller, after the autograph session, to come out to the parking lot to meet her father. She went on to explain that her father had claimed that he had served on the same ship as Bob during the war. Her father was too feeble to make it into the store on his own.
The owner said he would see what he could do, and with that, he walked over to Bob and whispered the woman's request into Bob's ear.
What happened next totally shocked the store owner. He said that he had no sooner finished whispering in Feller's ear, when Bob got up from his chair and told those standing in line, "Folks, please excuse me for a minute, there is a war hero out in the parking lot...and I have got to go say hello."
With that, Bob was out the door and standing next to the daughter's car, shaking hands with the old man in the passenger's seat.
The old man in the car, started off the conversation by saying, "I bet you don't remember me, but I served on the same ship with your during the war."
The shop owner continued on with his story...but from this point on, with tears rolling down his cheeks.
As the shop owner looked on, Feller said to the old man in the car, "The hell I don't, you're name is Joe, and you were 3 bunks down from me." Feller turned to the daughter, and said, "Your father was a brave man during the war, and it was my honor to have served with him!" Feller continued to chat with his former bunk mate for about 10 minutes more, trading stories of the war. They shook hands, and Feller explained he had to get back to the people standing in line, and he waved to his old buddy as he returned to the store.
The daughter stood there, tears running down her cheeks, telling the store owner that all these years her father had bragged about how he had served with Bob Feller during the war. She said that her family had sort of half believed him. Oh sure, maybe he had served on the same ship...but to have Bob Feller, after all these years, to remember her dad...
Bob Feller could have been an arrogant jerk that day. He could have stayed in that shop on his celebrity pedestal. He could have long forgotten all the little people from his past...the people that didn't matter anymore.
But he didn't. He didn't miss an opportunity to be kind to someone... someone who could do absolutely nothing for him.
None of us will ever be in the Hall of Fame, or pitch in the World Series. We may never get the opportunity to make as big an impression on another human being, as Bob Feller did that day.
But each of us will have thousands of opportunities to be a blessing to another, let's make sure we take full advantage of those opportunities...just like Bob Feller did in the parking lot of a sports memorabilia store in South Carolina.
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