Bob Feller, the Iowa farm boy who became one of the greatest pitchers baseball has ever seen, has died aged 92, reports the Cleveland Plain-Dealer. The Hall of Famer—whose fastball earned him the nicknames "Bullet Bob" and the "Heater from Van Meter"—signed for the Cleveland Indians at age 17 in 1936 and spent his entire career with the team. He is still the Indians' career leader in shutouts, innings pitched, walks, complete games, wins, and strikeouts, the AP notes.
Feller's career statistics would be higher still if he hadn't left the game in the prime of his career for a 4-year stint in the Navy. He enlisted just after Pearl Harbor, becoming the first major league player to do so. "More impressive than his vast accomplishments on the field was being part of `The Greatest Generation,'" Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said. "Bob was a great pitcher, but he was first and foremost a great American." (More Bob Feller stories.)
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