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

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On this day, eighteen-year-old Bob Feller took the mound to challenge the pennant-bound club from New York. Despite his young age, he already had impressive credentials in his brief career, including shattering the American League single-game strikeout record. The Cleveland sportswriters went all out in their game stories. Ed McAuley stated, “The dimple-chinned Bob Feller from the furrows of a farm in Iowa against the swarthy Joe DiMaggio from the humble home of a fisherman on the coast of San Francisco. Make or break hero or goat, the two outstanding youngsters of modern times.”

The atmosphere at the stadium was reminiscent of an opening day. A U.S. Army squadron went through a number of drills, followed by a Scottish fife-and-drum corps marching smartly about the field. A group of fans from Buffalo presented gifts to two former minor-league Bisons, Yankee manager Joe McCarthy and Cleveland’s Frankie Pytlak. A similar group arrived from Pittsburgh to honor their favorite son, Moose Solters. The Fellers made the long-distance trek from Iowa, their first opportunity of the year to see Bob on the mound. With all the pregame ceremonies, the game started nearly twenty minutes late.