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February 17, 2015Kyrie Irving Haters Club v. City of Cleveland: Case Closed
February 17, 2015I never knew there was a Bob Feller museum in his hometown of Van Meter, Iowa, but today I found out it was closing. I also didn’t know where Van Meter, Iowa was, but it’s just over 680 miles away from the Bob Feller statue outside of Progressive Field. It’s about a 10 hour drive due west. It’s an interesting read about how the museum stayed open each year.
“We would have a big autograph day, and people would come from as far away as Chicago,” said Bob DiBiasio, a Cleveland Indians executive who served on the museum’s board of directors. “We made good enough money to keep the museum afloat for a year.”
But when Feller died in 2010 at age 92, the business model collapsed. Without reciprocity, DiBiasio said, players declined to appear for free. And Van Meter, a town of about 1,100 people just west of Des Moines with no other tourist attractions, could not support it. Museum memberships dropped to fewer than 100 by last April from about 450.
A couple things came to mind. How would a Bob Feller museum do here in Cleveland? Despite the love for Bob Feller, it’s hard to imagine it would work as a standalone museum here either. So, while it’s sad in a way that this era is coming to an end, it’s all kind of working out the way it should. The Indians will continue to honor Feller prominently at Progressive Field and Van Meter will continue to keep his memory alive in their new town hall with some Feller items there.
Even if not in the way it was, “Rapid Robert” will still be honored as one of the greatest pitchers in Indians history. Every time I think about Feller I end up looking up his career highlights and I get amazed all over again. He’s tied with Nolan Ryan with 12 one-hitters. He led the league in wins six times and strikeouts seven times.
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Hoynsie was on this a few weeks ago: the Indians will add some sort of mini-museum to the Jake this season to house some of the contents of the Van Meter museum: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2015/01/cleveland_indians_will_create.html
I’ve been following this story for a few years, and it’s been a tough go for the folks who run the museum. It had a lot going against it. Van Meter’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, and Feller hasn’t pitched in about 60 years. Feller was really proud of it, but times change.
Maybe they can auction off some of this stuff to memorabilia collectors. And perhaps the Tribe, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and some of the other curators of our history can divvy up the rest. You would think that someplace in Des Moines would like to display some of it to honor one of the sons of Iowa. And maybe Cooperstown.
These dudes should have talked to whoever runs this: http://www.rvmhhalloffame.org/
Every drive to Chicago that thing amazes the hell out of me it is an actual thing.
I know some hard core autograph hounds that used to love that show b/c they could mail in items to be signed.