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Saturday, February 10, 2007

Yahoo! News: Barnstorming softball star Feigner dies

Farewell to a pitcher who made Hank Bauer look like a quiche-eating, Volvo-driving, NPR-listening wimp:

Feigner began “The King and His Court” in 1946 on a dare in his hometown of Walla Walla, Wash. He had just thrown a shutout in his nine-man team’s rout of a team from Pendleton, Ore., and the Oregon team challenged him to another game. Backed by just a catcher, first baseman and shortstop, Feigner pitched a perfect game, winning 7-0.

Some 30 years ago Feigner and his Court came to my hometown to play against our local softball team (one of our players, a young Steve Wulf, wrote about the game years later in a Sports Illustrated memory piece). Before the game Feigner took the mike and said, “People ask me, ‘Why do you have four players on your team? Why not two or three?’” Our guys manhandled them in short order. Afterwards I got Feigner’s autograph—the first pro athlete’s signature I ever had…

AndrewJ Posted: February 10, 2007 at 07:40 AM | 16 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: amateur

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1. Slinger Francisco Barrios (Dr. Memory) Posted: February 10, 2007 at 02:35 PM (#2295200)

When I saw him, John Bateman was his catcher. I thought that was cooler than anything else I saw that day. The King had his own friendly ump, for Pete's sake. And the King's son, playing SS, was a whiny little bee-yotch.

2. AndrewJ Posted: February 10, 2007 at 03:46 PM (#2295214)

Feigner threw 930 no-hitters, 238 perfect games and struck out 141,517 batters

All right, Sean Forman, get to work to see what Feigner's numbers would have been pitching for the 1968 Dodgers...

3. tfbg9 Posted: February 10, 2007 at 03:58 PM (#2295217)

I saw him at Reading (PA) Municipal Stadium with my Dad, I would estimate 35 years ago. He and his 3 teammates (1B, C, SS?) lost the ballgame, and think it was 0-1, on a bloop and an oppo XBH by a righthanded batter that just fell fail down the line and rolled all the way to the outfield corner, necessitating a long "sprint" by the tall, Bud-bellied 1Bman to get it back to the infield, far too late it turned out. I was kind of pissed, wanted to see him absolutely dominate. The other pitcher was really good too, southeastern PA/northern MD was kind of a fastpitch hotbed back then, IIRC, a town called Rising Sun from the area became World Champs. This long-forgotten opposing pitcher, however, didn't K any guys by whipping the ball between his legs, or from 2nd base.

4. Jolly Old St. Neck Wound, Moral Idiot

Posted: February 10, 2007 at 04:11 PM (#2295220)

I saw Feigner at the old Durham Athletic Park sometime in the mid-60's, and the two eye-poppers were the strikes thrown from deep centerfield, and the blindfolded strikes thrown from second base. The article here mentions those feats, but you almost had to see him do it, and do it many consecutive times, to realize that they weren't some sort of urban legends. I always wondered why Feigner and some of the other great fastpitch softball pitchers never tried to take their skills to baseball---though in Feigner's case I'm sure it would have been too much of a drop in income even if he had made it into the Bigs.

5. Repoz

Posted: February 10, 2007 at 05:01 PM (#2295229)

I saw Feigner & co. at NJ's Miller Stadium back in the mid-60's...they kicked the donuts outta our local combined police/fire dept team, but this was the second game of a double-dip as the cops played the firemen in a pitiful "donkey game" in the first game...so natch, by then our local firemen/policemen were drunk, tired, and drunk.

6. Fred Garvin still has outstanding warrants Posted: February 10, 2007 at 05:16 PM (#2295235)

Feigner had a Q&A session at the SABR Convention in Cincinnati a few years ago. It was quite a good, entertaining session. I'm glad I caught it.

The funny thing is that just a few weeks ago, I was talking about him with a friend.

7. tfbg9 Posted: February 10, 2007 at 05:37 PM (#2295240)

"donkey game"

Insensitive to the Irish?

8. Joe Bivens, Idiot Posted: February 10, 2007 at 06:02 PM (#2295258)

Our guys manhandled them in short order.

Your guys manhandled Eddie Feigner?

9. RMc is the loyal supporter of the MLB event Posted: February 10, 2007 at 06:41 PM (#2295279)

struck out 141,517 batters

What's more amazing: the fact he struck out 141,517 batters, or the fact somebody was actually counting them...?

10. Transmission Posted: February 10, 2007 at 06:55 PM (#2295284)

They just showed this episode on King of the Hill, I had no idea that their story line was based on a real urban legend.

And this IS an urban legend, right? RIGHT?!?!? Reading the article, I can't quite grasp that this is real....

His corpse would still be a better FA signing than Gil Meche.

11. The cushions are crowded for Edmundo

Posted: February 10, 2007 at 07:13 PM (#2295293)

Tranny, he was the real deal. My friend's dad was a fastpitch softball whiz locally and his team played against the King about 35 years ago. Total dominance; my friend struck out twice (the dad wouldn't even bat) and knew he would never, ever be able to hit one of Fast Eddie's pitches. His girlfriend got to bat and managed to put the ball in play, steaming my anger-challenged friend even more. Of course, Eddie threw about a 1/2 speed pitch to the girlfriend. He was a fun show.

12. Toolsy McClutch Posted: February 10, 2007 at 08:53 PM (#2295324)

They just showed this episode on King of the Hill, I had no idea that their story line was based on a real urban legend.

13. LunaticFringe82 Posted: February 10, 2007 at 08:56 PM (#2295327)

I was lucky enough to face "The King" about 15 years ago. I batted once and have never been so happy to ground out in my life. My brother-in-law wasn't so lucky. He became one of the 141,517 strikeout victims... while Feighner was blindfolded.

Oh.. He got my dad back in the '50s, too.

14. TomH Posted: February 10, 2007 at 09:56 PM (#2295345)

wow, I remember seeing him in about 1970. Pitched blindfolded, and then from second base... it's a great memory.

15. Benji Posted: February 10, 2007 at 11:00 PM (#2295357)

I saw him when I was 8. They brought out the blindfold, put a candle on the plate, and his fastball put it out. Then he went to second base, still blindfolded, and struck out the side in 9 pitches. I was absolutely blown away. RIP Eddie, and thank you.

16. pthomas Posted: February 11, 2007 at 02:07 AM (#2295403)

Back when Wide World of Sports was a Saturday television staple, the episodes with the King and His Court were always must see TV. A staggering thing to watch.

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Yahoo! News: Barnstorming softball star Feigner dies

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