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Show I i 1 t LEIII FREE PRESS, LEHI, UTAH COUNTRY BOTS DREAM COME TRUE Bob Feller, at 17, Left the Iowa Cornfields to Stand Big League Sluggers on Their Ears; He's New Idol of Youth. league baseball. Tall gangling kids are leaning on hoes y look in their with a and eyes dreaming of breezing 'em past the Giants, the Cardinals, the Yankees. ,' l 1 . ' ' .. If Mr A. Onion am in p'YV ' 1 ' Prton j : i r - : Peddler's Epic M Freckle - faced youngsters, stretched out on the cool grass eround the old swimmin' hole, conjure up visions of making Mel Ott run for cover with a blazing fast ball, or handcuffing Al Simmons Still oth- at the pages of his- tory and algebra books and find them covered with "earned runs" averages and strikeout records. Reason: Bob Feller, christened Robert William, of Van Meter, Iowa. Other boys in their teens dreamed of walking right out of the cornfields to the major leagues and standing the heavy hitters on their burning ears. Bob Feller actually did it. Which proves that America is still America, and a country boy can make good overnight in the "big time" if he has the heart. Feller's "Color" Rivals Ruth. Babe Ruth was that kind of a boy, even if he came from a big city. He was an orphan who had to make his way in the world. He became baseball's highest paid player, reaching at his peak a contract which called for $80,000 for a single season. He was a national hero with his 50 or 60 home runs a year, and in every open field and sand-lo- t the kids were gripping heavy bats at the end and swinging for all they were worth in the effort to ape their idol by lambasting one into the next congressional district. With his hulking frame, his good humor, his Horatio Alger history, he was probably the most colorful figure sport has ever produced. Up to now. They are saying that Feller will be a greater hero to young America than even the mighty Babe. Since that memorable day, September 13, 1936, when Bob Feller, wearing the gray uniform of the Cleveland Indians though he was only seventeen years old, struck out 17 Philadelphia Athletics to break an American league record which had stood for 28 years, and tie the major league mark set by the great Dizzy Dean himself, the Iowa farm boy's name has been at the tip of every youthful tongue. It's a good thing. Bob Feller is a clean, strong, healthy boy a real boy. He is not afraid of hard work, never forsaking chores on his dad's farm, even for baseball, until he made baseball his profession. He'll get $10,000 for playing this year, and another $40,000 from advertising testimonials. But he still wears the same size hat. He hasn't taken up smoking, drinking or" dancing, his studies go on under a tutor for he hopes to be graduated from high school, and he gets 12 hours sleep a night. Better than anything else he likes to pitch that baseball. He has everything, except a change of pace perhaps, but he doesn't miss that much. Sport writers say his fast one is as fast as Walter Johnson's a generation ago; about Johnson they used to say, "How can you hit what you can't see?" Coach Wally Schang of the Cleveland team, who, in his day, caught Eddie Plank and Chief Bender and others famed in the annals of the game, says: "There was never anyone like him. Mark my words he'll go down in history as the greatest pitcher who ever lived." But the most important praise of all came from Umpire Bill Klem, grizzled veteran who has called 'em as he saw 'em for longer than most After of us care to remember. watching Feller make the National league champion New York Giants look like grammar school boys trying for his fast ball, Klem said: "I've never seen anything like it." Son Lives Father's Dream. How did Bob Feller get that way, at an age when most boys rre try ing to tram that cowlick out of their ttair to look slick at the high school "prom"? The answer is found m William Andrew Feller, the tall, wiry Iowa farmer who gazes with mingled awe and satisfaction at his son's exploits. It was all part of the senior Feller s plan. Never sue seeding in his own ambition to become a professional ball player, he determined to make one of his son Accordingly, Bob's baseball edu cation began early when he was four. He and his father played catch, using the barn for a backstop, for Bob's control wasn't very good then, either. By the time he was fourteen young Feller could throw them in fast enough to crack his father's ribs, and he did. That was when Dad got a little careless judging the bop on Son's smoke ball. .The tarn's sides were appar ntly more solid than those of Mr. Feller, for they were only dented a bit when Bob let loose with a wild ; ens. Bob could throw a baseball 275 t"cet by the time he was nine, and U50 feet when he became thirteen; (hat is farther than the distance from the outfield fence to the home I YORK. As an itiner- onion peddler, Juan March used to tie up his daily He shirt-taiearnings in his N'EW l. far-awa- inshoot. By Lemuel F. iji Story Is Recounted in the country SPRING feverfever this year-- big it WHO'S NEWS THIS WEEK... Spanish By WILLIAM C. UTLEY with a jack-rabber boys stare iii ' ' - - F Ml- i - that prettv nearly had Spain war his of start the "too, at way, which he against the republic, less peror more and bankrolls Rome, from conducts sonally disto today's where, according patches, he is now in residence. the Foreign correspondents put the as March Mr. on finger main financial spark plug of the war, both in its origin and continuance. Vrk Ibanez is pretty tame even a cursory look after reading Senor March's career. He is a at ".-; . .' .. . i, financial genius, one of the richest i.ttn trf men in the world, who never saw that a hotel at is, Bob's dad and sister, Marguerite, join him for dinner the inside of a schoolhouse IViis George VI. where the Cleveland Indians are stopping. as a pupil. At the age of forty, he had a string of twelve banks, steamplate in most major league ball their work. Bob said, "I think I ship lines, newspapers, beautiful estates and Kispana cars, and he parks, and there are few big league can do better than that." The next year word got 'round to couldn't read or write a word alplayers who can throw a ball that far on the fly. Cyril C. Slapnicka, scout and as- ways signing his name with a big Dad Feller thought Bob was ready sistant to the president of the X. to begin playing in 1932, so to make Cleveland American league club, Bom in the Island of Majorca, of sure he would start under the right that there was something burning (Special) London, England. poor parents, he was a desperately circumstances Mr. Feller built a up the Iowa cornfields and it wasn't in a corn merchant's sack toil for carrier of mortal A full on their diamond day baseball good the drouth. With some misgivings itinerant an then peddler. and shop, a and concerned, and a farm, provided fences he journeyed out to give Bob Feller His parents were members of an the principals small grandstand. He organized his the obscure Jewish sect known as "Chu- - day and night of heroic vigil own team, the Oak Views, with Bob What Slapnicka saw he was re- etas." He went to Africa, as a la- for thousands of spectators the playing shortstop and chasing luctant to believe. But after watch- - borer, and became a grower of towere required before George cattle and fowl out of the "park" a few games he finally became bacco. before the games. Playing short in ing VI and Elizabeth, his queen, reto Feller Bob and signed convinced, In the years that followed, Juan 1933, Bob hit .321, which means he a contract with the to Buckingham palace, hounded turned made a safe hit in just about one club of the Northern league. March was trailed, jailed, ruler and consort of inand of every three trips to the plate. national and persecuted by is a rule in organized baseThere off Med- Britain by virtue of one of the He had a throw that nearly tore ball which forbids a major league ternational police around the a the first baseman's hand. as iterranean smuggler. most splendid and spectacular club to sign an unattached amateur His biographers say that, if the coronations the world has ever Bob Starts a Game. player until he has served an apIn grade school young Bob had prenticeship with a team in some international struggle for control of seen. the Mediterranean should eventualliked to pitch, and had organized a minor league. Five million persons, it was estily require a more detailed knowl- nine to give the Van Meter high $100,000 Bid for Him. of coves and inlets than Italian mated, lined the processional route, With edge school team some practice. Some clubs contended last win- naval maps now supply, Senor over which the King and Queen in Bob on the mound the little fellows that this rule had been violated March can supply it. He has per- - the ancient coronation coach rolled licked the high school in seven of ter in Feller case and that, therethe miles eight practice games. Dad Feller fore. Feller should be declared a sonally explored them in the dark solemnly the six and of the moon, say current news acthe palace to Westminster abfrom remembered this in the third inning M. and back again of a game in Winterset, Iowa, in the "free agent" by Judge Kenesaw counts, and could smell his way in- bey in baseof commissioner Landis, high to any of them blindfolded. in the early evening. spring of 1934. The Oak Views had ball. A "free agent" is a player The money rolled in. In the post- hired a pitcher to hurl this imporThe solemnity of the occasion tant encounter. He had to be taken who is not the property of any club war years, Senor March was back was observed by the crowd, even from the game with the bases full and may sell himself to the highest in Spain, investing many millions by the 300,000, mostly in vast areas of land which made who had come from across the seas and nobody out in the third inning. bidder. Bob actually never him one of Spain's most imposing to witness it. But the cheers were Although Bob was sent in to pitch. He struck out the next two batters and got pitched for any -- ninor league club, grandees, traveling with an entour- he had beerr o ned by two, and age of generals and flunkies in His- Landis decided that he was still pana limousines. His was the buildthe property of the Indians. It was up of Primo de Rivera as dictator. reported that other clubs had been Quite a few years before the over0 ready to offer Bob as much as throw of Alfonso, the drive for the cona as a bonus for signing break-uof big land holdings was tract if the commissioner had demomentum, and Senor gaining cided otherwise. March, combating it, became the club had imThe most powerful and resourceful conto New Bob over mediately turned tender for fascism in Spain. Orleans, in the Southern associajr. The republic jailed him for eightV tion. New Orleans retired him last een Details of his months. release spring so, that he could attend high are obscure, but, when the jail doors school, As soon as his school ses f. f mester was over, Cleveland drafted swung outward, the real troubles of him from New Orleans. Manager the republic began. According to Steve O'Neill of the Indians allowed dispatches of last August and Sepv the youngster to play with a semi-pr- o tember, Senor March's bank in i ' team in the Great Lakes city, Palma, on Majorca, was the finan1 V so the Indian brain trust could keep cial mainspring of revolution, and an eye on him. They didn't have Palma was the entrepot not only of planes, cannon and munitions but to watch him for long. of the African Riffs, being landed 6 O'Neill decided Bob On July on a eo:ast which he knew from was ready to taste big time opposiHeir presumptive to the most im- Gibraltar to Istanbul. and allowed him to tion, pitch A lot of blood has flowed under rortant throne on earth is charming, three innings of an exhibition game the Fnncess Elizabeth. since he peddled onions, against the St. Louis Cardinals. The but, bridge Ready to heave fast one. at there probably House looked no Gas Gang hale and hearty and the attitude tougher two strikes over on the third. Then to Bob from the pitching mound isn't an onion or a cannon peddled Vas One of rplehrntinn nc tVia around the Mediterranean that he of the the runner on third tried to steal than they had from the grandstand doesn't know guns in the historic Tower about. home. A perfect throw from Bob in that World Series of 1934. They of London split the air of the spring a enabled the catcher to nip him at hardly even saw his fast ball and afternoon. It was the signal that on Kipling. the plate. his curve had them breaking their ueorge Vi r.aci worn upon his head the backs, just as had the cornfield FREDERIC F. VAN DE WATER, for the first time the Crown of St. By the middle of that July Oak Views had decided Bob was swingers out in Iowa. a good reporter who became an Edward, or Crown of England, and good enough to be used as a startauthor, snapped into the called for the cry from 5,000,000 Wins Bob Praise. Diziy's a start him routine when he saw that Kipling mroats as one, "God Save the ing pitcher, and let At the end of his game against the Waukee, Iowa, story lying around loose in Vermont. King!" had Bob struck out eight His stretch team. published account of why KipHotels Sold Out. "I was fifteen years old then," Cardinals, including some of the ling left America, after his thunderof This was probably the most im cream attack. their row with his , says Bob, "and weighed about 140 ing one run and three looks like the point in the pounds. I m six feet now and weigh Theyoffgot only Freudian key to the portant him. Even Dizzy Dean was hits around 185." "for this tion ceremony, which was heavily dislike impassioned poet's He was wild against Waukee, but moved to talk about some one other country. ieugious mrougnout and extremely to the principals as when he put men on the bases by than himself. "The kid's got plenty That passace in his memoirs burdensome u n nnn ,uuu peers ana their virtue of walks he relied on the fast of stuff," he admitted. Pepper Mar- about the hallowed peace of Can- i'rll aai. iu me ladies who eatherpd in id one to get himself out of the hole. tin, another of the league's topflight ada and the e over an just "I still do that today," he says. stars who had gone down before invisible line seems to require some minster abbev to do hnmano tr, Feller's blazing pitches, testified, "I such "Pitching for Cleveland, I have couldn't explanation. His rancor, in king and to display for one day find his curve ball at all. fanned three In a row, using nothing this connection, always has suggest- jewels and trappings the cost of He knows how to pitch." which ran far into the millions. but speed." ed some most experience It was enough to convince O'Neill here. Mr. Van unhappy Bob struck out 23 Waukee playIt was the climax of the occasion De Water fills us ers, allowing two hits, and the Oak that Bob Feller was no dream, but in, and the story is still good after for which souvenir manufacturers baseball play- forty years. One can be more char- had been planning for a real Views won, 9 to 2. many er. He nominated the kid on Augu- itable toward Kipling, after learnBob Sees World Series. months; for which every hotel and st-23 e to start his first full ing of his troubles with the report- boarding house room in London and And so it went. Game after game, game. its environs was sold out; for which ers. Iowa's boy wonder went on to fan The results were all that could be Mr. Van De Water Is a good apartments rented up to $3,000 for 13, 15, 18 or 20 of the opposing nines, a single day; for which the for. As Bob walked from the choice to cover governallowing only two or three hits and asked the literary beat. ment two hours after field had spent $2,600,000, with a later, striking He U a grandson of Marion often pitching a shutout. By the of 15 St. batters the out Louis end of the 1934 season he had rolled the novelist, who was tlnnnnnV EutUng back Perhaps Browns, the crowd roared. A seventeen-- Virginia Hawes Terhune. Her Mary the sale of seats up the almost incredible record of year-old chilthe processional route at $2 toalong boy had come within dren are Albert 157 innings pitched, 25 games won $250 Payson Terhune, of tying the American Christine Terhune Herrick and Vir- a head. against four lost, and 360 strikeouts. one strikeout Souvenir manufacturers, distractHe allowed only 41 hits and 21 league record set by the immortal ginia Terhune Van De Water, all ed at first over the abdication earned runs. To top it all off, his Rube Waddell in 1909. "Heck," said writers. of Educated at King Edward VIII-"I did better than that New York for had batting average for the year was Bob Feller, and university they Columbia, back in Iowa!" struck h,s likeness off on millions Mr. Van De Water was a .403, a phenomenal mark. reporter of medals spoons, As it has been related, he did bet- and editor on several New Bob got his reward that fall after plates and other York became jubilant. For the season in Iowa was over. His ter than that in the American newspapers and later a New York articles-la- ter the souvenir collectors were dad took him to St. Louis to see the league, breaking Waddell's mark literary critic. so anxious to obtain the mistaken souveWorld Series games. They lived in three weeks later against the AthHe is the author of seventeen novnirs that the latter sold at a a tourist camp, and It was great letics. He finished the season with els and a vast predeal of critical writ- mium. But the quality of major a record of five won and three lost, fun. time ing, out for taking with That the league baseball, even as played by and in C2 innings he had fanned the slightest provocation.fishing He has which ,s thesentiment for averthe Gas House Gang (who were to 76 batters. His earnod-run- s chief bond ho!din?S a summer home in Vermont and learn about a young man named age, the best measure of a pitcher's that's how he came to tmp.re together, lives healthy and run down the strong was Feller at a later date) and the effectiveness, was 3.34, second only apparent from the Kipling story. cla63.v Detroit Tigers,failed to give to .the .veteran Lefty Grove of the who, not being able to afford Consolirt itpd Ncw Feature! C reserved seats, took their Bob cold feet. After watching some Boston Red Sox. WNU Service. Wtrtern N.wapapcr Unloa. of the game's famous pitchers at along the curb, long before tCe Blasco . ii - ... , ilt Queen Elizabeth. 5.000,000 Line London Streets to View Coronation Procession 360-ac- re once-ove- r. Fargo-Moor-hea- d full-fledg- ed one-ha- lf mid-morni- non-Briton- s, $100,-00- p Fargo-Moorhea- d V - 7 - fifty-seve- Low-Dow- n, n old-tim- e three-innin- g far-fame- d brother-in-law- .... ta hell-hol- flesh-and-blo- major-leagu- Har-lan- well-know- ( n d, setting of the sun on May 11. Jf w..j naii iu ;.i.t 10 the! watch and all the next day. they did not even see the coronaM ceremony itself. They witnessei only the procession as it passed ii 1 the Mall. I Queen Precedes King. The ceremony at the abbey only for the peerage, the persoj of royal blood and the king's reprf sentatives. With the clergy, thef were waiting at the west door of tJ handsome Gothic edifice, takiil their places inside as the approacl oi the coronation coach, an omaf vehicle made for Queen Anne f 1761, was noted. Or.ce inside thef were doomed to sit for seven houii in their heavy trappings of crimsof or purple velvet and ermine, nevf seat spacef moving from the allotted them until the end of th day, after the King and Queen haf departed. When the coach pulled up, Queet Elizabeth proceeded ahead to tj recognition chairs, there to aw4 her lord. When King George enf tered, to the sound of anthems anf prayers, he was introduced to thf four sides of the assemblage bf the archbishop of Canterbury, whi assumed the mastery of the ceremo nies" from that point on. It was the archbishop who, a fei minutes later, was to ask the king "Sir, is your Majesty willing H take the oath?" The king answered according to the ritual, "I am wil ing," and the Archbishop questionef him: "Will you solemnly promise anl swear to govern the peoples i Great Britain, Ireland, Canadj, Australia, New Zealand and the Uf ion of South Africa, of your posse sions and the other territories any of them belonging or pertarf me. and nf vonr Errmire of Indii lawi according to their respective and customs?" "I solemnly promise to do so, i the king replied. "Will you to your power canst law and justice, in mercy, to be ex cuted in all your judgments?" W archbishop asked. And the king plied, "I will." He promised further to uphold the clergy and the Chun ' I of England. Vestment. His Given King There followed a long drawn oi communion service during wmctt the king was presented with various jewels with which the flee vests him, and was anomtef fact upon the hands, breast and tne with the holy oil. Among els presented him wore the sta? and sceptre, with '.he cross anf froif golden spurs, handed down the time of St. Edward; the thr mem jeweled swords signifying temporal justice and ppirituai w tice; the king's sceptre with and equ5i dove symbolic of mercy the' sword of state; the kings -J and diamond orb, surmounted prnwn ii.- i. me i.nr .simn crubs. of In crown state and the imperial cer? the in dia. The jewels used monies are reputed to be worxn least $25,000,000. befo. Then as the king kneeled u. the altar, the archbishop placeanew Crown of St. Edward upon his but only for a fleeting mornem us weignt is i o g- J : uoa, crown yuu .;tv, a crown tv,tM glory and righteousness that our ''fned'2 ministry of this having a right faith andmay fruit of good works, you ooj the crown of an everlasting , whose dom by the gift of him forever." J dom endureth .ri . The choir sang: "Be strong and play ll,c rn s keep the commanrhi walk m Lord thy God, and jjvieff ways." Solemn, , for the man who must w" most the crown of one of f. tant nations on earth in time e " the seething caldron of hate threatens nouny , thought-provokin- g |
