Читать книгу Bad Boys, Bad Times. The Cleveland Indians and Baseball in the Prewar Years, 1937–1941 онлайн

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The Indians batters came to life in the bottom of the second inning. Sammy Hale smacked a double to left field and Campbell walked. St. Louis pitcher Jim Walkup checked the runners and delivered to Frankie Pytlak, who hammered the ball to the fence. Both runners scored while Pytlak raced to third with a triple. Feller came to bat with a chance to cut into the lead. Once again the fans stood as Feller singled, scoring Pytlak from third. Now the Indians trailed by only a run.

Feller struggled through another four innings until he gathered his courage and confessed to O’Neill that he had hurt his arm. Trainer Lefty Weisman took Feller to the clubhouse and carefully examined the arm. It did not appear to be anything serious, allowing Feller to advise reporters he would throw again in a few days. Though the Indians lost the game, 4–3, the big story in the papers was the scary arm injury and the possible ramifications.

On the positive side, Feller had struck out eleven batters in his six innings. After giving up the four runs, he blanked St. Louis over the next five innings. He did walk six Browns. Walks were a major concern of the front office, but out-of-town writers would reference them as evidence that Feller was just wild enough to be effective.