rossiter@cornell.UUCP (David Rossiter) (02/20/85)
It was nice to see mention of one of the greatest pure power pitchers of all time, Bob Feller. I don't know if he was Dwight Gooden's boyhood idol (Dwight seems a bit young, as Feller was retired by the time Gooden was born), but he certainly could have been. By all accounts, Feller had a fearsome fastball. My father served with Feller in the Navy, on the battleship Alabama in the Pacific theater. When the Alabama baseball team played against some other ship, Feller was of course a star, but in fairness he didn't pitch, but played in the field (had he pitched, there could have easily been 27 K's per game, not to mention a severely-bruised mitt hand of whoever had the misfortune to catch without major-league equipment, experience, and pain tolerance!). Did Ted Williams play baseball at all during his two hitches as a Marine aviator?