3/21/2023 0 Comments Softball underhand throwIn 1946, after beating an Oregon team 33-0, he responded to a taunt by saying, "I would play you with only my catcher." He was pitching on adult softball teams by the time he was 9. ![]() I threw a ball against a wall to play pitch and went down to the creek and skipped thousands of stones. "I know the hurt and rejection that comes when you don't know who your folks were. "I was an orphan," he told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in 1997. The one thing he could do well was throw. He was thrown out of school in his teens and joined the Marine Corps during World War II but was discharged after a nervous breakdown. His name as a child was Myrle Vernon King and, when he began his career, he adopted his mother's maiden name and a friend's first name. Feigner was born in Walla Walla, Wash., on March 26, 1925, and was adopted at birth. He was 56 at the time.įormer major leaguer Jim Northrup said "no man alive" could hit him. Feigner and his Court beat a nine-man team that included several major league players. During the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, before 16,000 fans at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., Mr. Nevertheless, he persevered through the years, driving from one small town to the next, leaving a trail of pleased fans and baffled hitters behind. "It's like being a world-champion noseblower." "I'm a pipsqueak because I'm caught in a nothing game," Mr. Sports Illustrated once called him "the most underrated athlete of his time." Feigner had the misfortune to be supremely talented at a sport, men's fast-pitch fastball, that has all but disappeared. He often appeared on television and once knocked a cigar out of Johnny Carson's mouth with a pitch - while wearing a blindfold. I don't know how anybody ever hit the guy." There was no way to get the bat off my shoulder before the ball got there. Feigner described the experience to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper: "I was waiting for a pitch, heard a noise, watched the catcher throw the ball back. To give his opponents a chance, he often pitched from second base or, on occasion, from center field. He had a curveball that would dip 18 inches. He could strike out players while blindfolded (8,698 times) or while pitching behind his back or between his legs. ![]() ![]() Feigner created his most lasting impressions with a series of remarkable pitching stunts. An excellent hitter as well, he once slugged 83 home runs in a 250-game exhibition season.īeyond the staggering numbers, Mr. Feigner kept meticulous records of his victories (9,743), strikeouts (141,517), no-hitters (930) and perfect games (238). He struck out all six - Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Brooks Robinson, Willie McCovey, Maury Wills and Harmon Killebrew - in succession. Feigner faced a lineup of six Major League Baseball players (five of whom were later elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame). In a 1967 exhibition at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Mr. He appeared in all 50 states and in 98 foreign countries. He and his "court," which included only a catcher, first baseman and shortstop, played everywhere from Yankee Stadium to the Great Wall of China, with countless military bases, rodeo arenas and cow pastures in between. Pitching in hundreds of games each year against local all-star teams, Mr. The fastest documented pitch ever thrown by a major league pitcher is 103 mph. ![]() His underhand fastball was once timed at 104 mph - or, according to some accounts, 114 mph. Feigner threw a softball harder than any major league pitcher has ever thrown a baseball. In a barnstorming career that began in 1946, he and his four-man team were all but unbeatable.Īt his peak, Mr. Feigner (pronounced FAY-ner) was, beyond dispute, the greatest softball pitcher who ever lived. 9 from complications of dementia at Cogburn Health and Rehabilitation facility in Huntsville, Ala. Eddie Feigner, a crowd-pleasing softball pitcher and showman who toured the world for 55 years as The King and His Court, died Feb.
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