#Shortstops: Courtship by wire
Following the passing of Feller’s second wife, Anne, a donation of the Feller Family Papers included almost 70 telegrams, the majority of which are between Feller – the renowned righty of the Cleveland Indians – and his future wife, Virginia “Dolly” Winther, dating from 1941 and ’42.
Feller burst onto the baseball scene in 1936 before he had even finished high school. After several relief appearances, Feller made his first start on Aug. 23 and fanned 15 St. Louis Browns in a 4-1 victory.
On April 23, 1941, after Feller, the Van Meter, Iowa native, defeated the St. Louis Browns earlier in the day, he sent Winther, who was living in Waukegan, Ill., the following telegram:
“HI DOPEY ARRIVING 7 AM SURE WANT TO SEE YOU WILL BUZZ YOU UPON ARRIVAL. PLEASE PLAN TO COME EARLY AND WILL HAVE A JOB SESSION & BIG PARTY
“SCREWBALL”
“I didn’t mind that she knew nothing about baseball. In fact, it was a relief. She made no effort to flatter me. She was completely herself and I felt relaxed at once.”
Before he left Rollins, Feller planned a group visit to New Orleans during Mardi Gras in February.
“I thought about Virginia often before we met again in New Orleans,” he wrote. “If it wasn’t love at first sight, it was certainly deep interest on my part.
“We were together often that summer when the Indians were in Chicago, but nobody ever wrote a line about us in the gossip columns. We enjoyed being left alone to our golf games, our movies and our dinners. We never went out to nightclubs, which probably accounted in a good part of our freedom from unwanted publicity.”
Being as the Feller telegrams are personal in nature, what was being discussed in them is often lost to time. But with the nicknames being used and the obvious affection on display, there’s little doubt absence was making the heart grow fonder.
The telegrams between the pair continued after the 1941 season ended.
“HI DOLLY. JUST RETURNED FROM PHEASNT HUNT LOADS OF BIRDS BUT NO DUCKS AND GEESE LEAVING THAT UP TO OUR LATER PLANNED TRIP. SURELY APPRECIATED ONE SWELL LETTER WHICH I AM STILL READING. FLYING CLEVELAND SUNDAY NITE ARRIVING CHICAGO 830 PM WOULD BE DELIGHTED TO ENTERTAIN YOU IN THE WINDY CITY AT SAID TIME MUST BE CLEVELAND NOON MONDAY WIRE WESTERN UNION DES MOINES”
But the day after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, Feller enlisted in the Navy and would miss most of the next four seasons. Feller would return to the game fulltime in 1946, winning 26 games, and would remain a Cleveland fixture for the next 10 years.
“HI DOLL,” Feller’s telegram on Feb. 6, 1942 from Norfolk Training Station in Virginia began. “ENCOURAGING LETTER REAL PICK UP FOR THIS LANDLUBBER…ATTEMPTED TO CALL TONITE ALL LINES RESERVED FOR DEFENSE.”
By Aug. 3, 1942, Feller’s telegram from Norfolk to Winther in Waukegan continued the familiar themes of a long distance relationship.
“DEAREST DOLL MY MORALE SLUMPED 99% UPON RECEIVING YOUR WIRE CONCERNING OUR LITTLE ESCAPADE LETTER FOLLOWING CONTAINING CONFIDENTIAL DOPE WHICH POSSIBLY MAY BOOST MORALE A FEW POINTS MISSING YOU MORE EVERY MINUTE ISNT THERE A LIMIT OR LAW AGAINST SUCH THINGS ANYWAY IM NO LAWYER RIGHT”
On Nov. 30, 1942, Winther’s mother announced the engagement of her daughter to Feller, a report that was in the next day’s newspapers across the country.
Less than a week after Feller’s father passed away – the Iowa farmer trained his son in baseball – he married Winther on Jan. 16, 1943. Feller, who was granted leave to attend his dad’s funeral, went ahead with the wedding plans before returning to his ship in Norfolk.
“Ours was a very modern courtship,” Mrs. Feller said to the press after the ceremony. “We had such a short time to be together that we kept our dates by plane. Now it looks as if we will have to do the same thing again whenever Bob gets leave.
“I was shaking a little until I saw Bob at the altar and then everything was all right. Now I just feel like Mrs. Feller and an ardent baseball fan. I never was really interested in baseball until now.”
Feller and his wife, each 24 years old, flew to New York City for a brief honeymoon before he reported back for duty aboard ship.
Feller’s mound accomplishments are legendary – including fanning 17 batters in one game at the age of 17, tossing three no-hitters and 12 one-hitters and leading the league in strikeouts seven times. After ending his 18-year big league career in 1956 with 266 victories and 2,581 strikeouts, Feller was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.
Bill Francis is the senior research and writing specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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