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1966 • Baseball Clip • Bob Feller on 1940 Opening Day - Radio Show · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
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• 0:08
  Open day in the major leagues is a very special day. It always has been and always will be.
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  Fans get their first look at their ball club and care little whether reporters who cover spring training
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  had pegged it as a potential first division club or one that would have to struggle to stay out of the summer.
• 0:26
  That's the way it was on April 16th, 1940 in Chicago's Comiskey Park.
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  The White Sox had finished fourth the year before. Their opening day opponents were the Cleveland Indians who had finished third.
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  While the fans, the coaches, every player had his reason for fitting something special that day, I too had a reason.
• 0:46
  A particular one. For Cleveland had tagged me to be the pitcher.
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  The year before I had won 24 games against eight losses. My fastball was humming during spring training and my hopes for another good season were high.
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  The Sox went down 1-2-3 in the first inning and the fans gave me a courtesy cheer as I left the mound.
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  The crowd roared when the first Chicago batter was announced in the second inning. Remember, we were playing in Comiskey Park.
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  I walked the first batter on four pitches, but the cheers turned to moans as the next two batters grounded out.
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  Two outs now, my control was holding. But wait, the next batter walked, then another.
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  The bases were loaded. One minute I was all but finished with the inning and the next minute I was in trouble.
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  My blades of fastball passed Bob Kennedy and the trouble vanished, temporarily.
• 1:39
  We Indians got a low run in the fourth inning. Beyond that, the zeros kept popping up on the scoreboard.
• 1:45
  I sighed with nervous relief as one after another of the Sox batters prated back to their dugouts.
• 1:51
  By the eighth inning, I had retired the last 15 batters in order. By now, everyone knew I was working on a no-hitter.
• 1:58
  And they started picking up support from the Chicago fans who were naturally torn betwixt applauding a great performance
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  and going home without an opening day victory for their own club to whom they were always so loyal.
• 2:11
  Fans yelled for me to mow them down, but still other fans and of course were yelling, Sox get a hit.
• 2:18
  Then came the tell-tale inning, the ninth, and I'll tell you about that one in 60 seconds.
• 2:25
  Shadows closed in as the first batter came to the plate in the ninth. I got him, two more to go.
• 2:30
  I retired the second batter, and I could feel a chilly breeze whistling through the park as I retired him.
• 2:36
  One more to go, and I couldn't have faced a tougher hitter, one of the most dangerous hitters in the American League, no less than Luke Apling.
• 2:43
  I worked carefully, I had to. The count went to three and two, and Apling fouled off a half dozen pitches before walking.
• 2:50
  That brought up the toughest hitter in the American League for me to pitch to in the Persian of Taft Wright.
• 2:56
  The tying run on the first, the winning run at the plate. Our first pitch was a fastball, he fouled it off to the screen.
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  Then a low ball outside, one and one. Next pitch, a fastball at the knees, which he pulled between first and second.
• 3:11
  Ray Mack, a great defensive second baseman, dashed to his left, back on the grass.
• 3:16
  He dove, speared the ball, did a complete somersault through the first base, and nipped right by less than half a step.
• 3:23
  The game was over. Indians won, Sox 0, and I had pitched the first no hitter on opening day.