Seventeen-Year-Old Bob Feller Strikes Out 17

On September 13, 1936, Bob Feller of the Cleveland Indians struck out 17 Philadelphia Athletics batters in a 5-2 victory at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. He was 17 years old. He struck out his age, tied the major league record held by Dizzy Dean, and set a new American League record, breaking Rube Waddell's mark that had stood for 28 years.

Feller had arrived in the major leagues from Van Meter, Iowa, earlier that summer without spending a day in the minor leagues. The Indians signed him off his family's farm at age 16, and he appeared in his first game in July 1936 as a relief pitcher. His fastball was immediately recognized as exceptional. Batters could hear it. One opposing hitter described the sound as a ball cutting through paper.

The September 13 start against the Athletics was his fifth career start. He had already struck out 15 St. Louis Browns on August 23 in his first start. The 17-strikeout performance confirmed that the teenager was not a curiosity. He was a legitimate force.

Feller threw nothing but fastballs and curveballs. He had no changeup and no need for one. His fastball was clocked informally at speeds above 100 miles per hour, though the measurement technology of the era was imprecise. What was not in doubt was the result. Hitters could not catch up to it.

He went on to win 266 games over 18 seasons, losing nearly four full years to military service in World War II. He enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor and served in the Navy aboard the USS Alabama, earning eight battle stars. The years he lost to the war, from ages 23 to 26, were likely his best.

Feller was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962. The 17-strikeout game remains a landmark performance by one of the youngest players ever to dominate the major leagues.