HOF Pitcher Bob Feller Called a Racist?
Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2005 3:15 am
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2133101
I met Bob Feller to get his autograph when I was probably 15 or so (5 years ago). He was by far one of the coolest and most down to earth Hall of Famers (in any professional sport) that I have ever met. He handled the publicity and kids very well (he even handled many requests of my friend graciously and with all the class in the world). I hope the truth comes out because if he is a racist, that will change my entire view of him. The only HOFer I've met that stacks up to him in terms of kindness was Harmon Killebrew (also baseball). Sonny Jurgenson also puts on a pretty good show, too.
Friday, August 12, 2005
Feller tells newspaper he's not a racist
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller, who hung up on a talk show host after he was accused of being a racist, told a newspaper his views on diversity in baseball were misrepresented.
"I'm anything but a racist," Feller said in an interview with the Des Moines Register, which published his remarks in a copyright story Friday.
Feller, the Van Meter farm boy who won 266 games with the Cleveland Indians, got into a heated exchange on Wednesday with co-host Mike Claiborne on KFNS-AM in St. Louis after being asked what was right and wrong with baseball today.
According to the Register, Feller said as part of his response, "A lot of these players coming from the Caribbean, they don't even know the rules."
Pressed by Claiborne to clarify those remarks, the two sparred until Feller, who was talking by telephone, hung up. Feller told the Register he resented being called a racist.
"I played with Hispanics and blacks and men of all races ever since I was a little boy out on the farm in Iowa," he said. "This fella wants to say I'm a racist. He's a liar."
The Register said Claiborne asked Feller several times to explain his point about certain players not knowing the rules. Feller eventually told Claiborne, "Let me tell you something, if you don't be quiet, I'm going to cut this off."
Claiborne, according to the Register, responded: "You can cut it off right now as far as I'm concerned, you racist."
Feller said that's when he hung up.
"I said some of the boys from the Caribbean area don't know the rules quite so well," Feller, 86, told the Register. "He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'Well, they don't know the ground rules and they don't know some of the fundamentals, but they're learning them.'
"He kept harping about 'What rules don't they know?' And I said, 'The entire rule book is something that they just don't know, that they should know.' He got a little testy about it and he said, 'If you don't like it, hang up' -- which I did."
Earlier this week, the San Francisco Giants' flagship radio station fired talk show host Larry Krueger because of his racially tinged criticism of the team and manager Felipe Alou, including a remark about "brain-dead Caribbean hitters hacking at slop nightly."
That situation was never mentioned during the interview with Feller, the Register said.
I met Bob Feller to get his autograph when I was probably 15 or so (5 years ago). He was by far one of the coolest and most down to earth Hall of Famers (in any professional sport) that I have ever met. He handled the publicity and kids very well (he even handled many requests of my friend graciously and with all the class in the world). I hope the truth comes out because if he is a racist, that will change my entire view of him. The only HOFer I've met that stacks up to him in terms of kindness was Harmon Killebrew (also baseball). Sonny Jurgenson also puts on a pretty good show, too.
