Quite a Feller!

Jut-jawed Manager Joe McCarthy of the New York Yankees, who seldom uses superlatives, wagged his head and said: "He made Dick Merriwell look like a bum."

The man he was talking about was Bob Feller. The Cleveland Indians' pride & joy had just pitched a no-hitter that was a prime cut above the average no-hitter. This time luck had practically nothing to do with it; the 27-year-old Iowa strong-boy had just.rared back and blown down the Yankees, baseball's most fearsome array of sluggers. The victory tasted doubly sweet after two recent defeats and press-coop barbs that Feller's $45,000-a-year right arm was losing its sting.

Before the game, deadpanned Robert William Andrew Feller, six pounds underweight at 183, went through his usual routine. He hunted up a razor-blade and shaved down the hard calluses on his right thumb and ring-finger. He picked up a baseball to see if it felt light and small (a good omen) or heavy like a pumpkin (a bad omen). It felt soso.

Guessing Game. Feller was finally ready for the first pitch. His arms heaved from below his knees to a great overhead stretch, his left leg twisted up & around, he practically put his gloved hand in the batter's face, his right arm snapped through with as much wrist English as though he were cracking a blacksnake whip. The Yankee lead-off man hardly saw the first one that buzzed by with a full two-inch hop on it.

Exactly 132 pitches later, rapid Robert Feller had walked five men, fanned eleven, and given up nothing more substantial than two lazy outfield flies. For this great performance, he rated about 75% of the credit. The other 25% went to lean-jawed, iron-man Catcher Frank Hayes, who outguessed the Yankee hitters all afternoon. When they expected the fast one, Hayes signaled for Feller's equally effective curve, or his new slider (a pitch that begins fading away from a right-handed hitter halfway down the alley). Said Feller: "I didn't shake off his signals once."

A ninth-inning homer by Hayes, who guessed Yankee pitching as well as Yankee batting, won the game, 1-0.

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