#Shortstops: Rapid Robert at the bat
But thanks to a recent donation to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, “Rapid Robert” shares with a bat manufacturer his thoughts on bats and batting. The undated missive – typewritten, two pages in length, and on “Hilton Hotels Corporation” letterhead – is a rough draft addressed to longtime Hillerich & Bradsby Company executive Jack McGrath.
Feller, who had been in the insurance business since he retired from baseball in 1956, began working for Cleveland’s Sheraton Hotel in 1969. He would later work for Hilton Hotel in Cleveland as Director of Sales-Sports.
The longtime Indians star, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 92, ends the letter with a rousing celebration of the National Pastime.
“A baseball bat and a ball,” he said, “are the two most essential items in the American sports scene and have furnished millions of baseball fans with thousands of thrills throughout the history of baseball.
“And if baseball is dying, if anyone alive today should have the privilege of living long enough to be invited to baseball’s funeral, they no doubt would have outlived Methuselah by 2,000 years.”
Bill Francis is the senior research and writing specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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