From the Archives - 1957: Mike Wallace interviews Bob Feller

[SoxJox]

I thought some might find this of interest.

From the archives at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin

The Mike Wallace Interview with Bob Feller on 8/4/57

Bob Feller, one of the great baseball pitchers of all time, talks to Wallace about ballplayers' salaries, the reserve clause, rich ball clubs, Pay TV, beer companies as sponsors, bean balls, spit balls, gambling, and Joe DiMaggio versus Ted Williams.

A 19 year-old Curt Flood must have been listening. Maybe Dave Messersmith and Dave McNally, too.

Kinda funny looking back on the unadulterated hawking of Phillip Morris cigarettes, which Mike enjoys throughout the interview.

I shared this with an older friend of mine. Here was his take:

You to forgive Wallace for his style because he always played the devil’s advocate and asked the tough questions. It’s what got him there. We don’t see that style anymore.

I think that “Rapid Robert” missed a couple of opportunities. First of all he never had problem with his contracts with the Indians as he was usually the highest paid player on the team. When you throw out the handful of the highest priced top players, like Feller, (Joe D, Teddy BG, Stan, etc.), the average salary was far lower. $18K sounds a line a lot for sixty years ago, and it was - but the median salary was far less than $18K. Nearly everyone else only two options: sign or hold out and risk losing it all. And these were usually the 400 best people in their industry. When MLB players were compared to the top people in other industries, $18K was probably quite reasonable.

About the “Players Commish”: I have long believed that the players should have been represented at the Commish level. In our time nearly every Commish has served the owner’s interests. I can think of only one that did not and he didn’t last long.

I also thought that Feller was a bit soft on the gambling issue as that is very relevant in the Rose case today.

And finally the, the question that they didn’t have time for: Robinson. Feller was an outspoken critic of Jackie when he came up. I would be interest in to learn how Feller felt about him ten year later.