Eddie Feigner:
Posted on 02/10/2007 10:42:00 AM PST by groanup
Eddie Feigner, the hard-throwing softball showman who barnstormed for more than 50 years with "The King and His Court" four-man team, died Friday. He was 81.
Feigner, the former Marine known for his trademark crewcut and bulging right arm, died in Huntsville, Ala., from a respiratory ailment related to dementia, wife Anne Marie Feigner said Friday night.
With a fastball once clocked at 104 mph, The King threw 930 no-hitters, 238 perfect games and struck out 141,517 batters while playing more than 10,000 games. He was inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame in 2000.
A stroke in 2000 — a day after he threw out the first pitch before the women's softball competition in the Sydney Olympics — ended his playing career at age 75. He left the team for medical reasons last summer, and lived in Trenton, Tenn., for the last several years until recently moving to Huntsville.
Feigner, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II, visited more than 300 military installations around the world during his long career, including a stop in Cuba last summer.
Feigner not only pitched from the standard mound, 46 feet from home plate, but also from second base, behind his back, on his knees, between his legs, from center field and blindfolded. In a nationally televised exhibition against major leaguers at Dodger Stadium in 1964, he struck out Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Maury Wills, Harmon Killebrew, Roberto Clemente and Brooks Robinson in order.
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Couldn't find this posted but, if so, please delete. Thanks.
Condolences to Eddie Feigner's family and friends. I saw him back in the mid 1950's in (Allen Park I believe) Michigan when I went with my dad. We lived in the next community. I was a little kid.
Picture of Eddie in an article here...
http://www.llu.edu/lluch/newsstory.html?id=79
That boy could bring it.
Eddie Feigner:
I heard that once in an exhibition game someone from the opposition got a hit and they started ribbing him about it. So he got mad and told his teammates in the field to take a seat on the bench and pitched the rest of the game with just himself and the catcher and just struck out everyone from then on.
Honestly, I'd never heard of him, but he was apparently an amazing athlete. Prayers and peace to those who loved him.
This guy played a lot of softball all around the South.
I got to play against Fast Eddie in Wichita Falls, Texas, the summer of 1971. Struck out three times. He pitched from second base. He was a phenomenon and a really nice fellow; God bless him....
Fast Eddie was a King. I saw him as a child and it was amazing.
Another piece of our father culture is now gone. At least a visual record exists to show our own children and grandchildren.
For Chicago western suburbanites, the Court played in Parichy Stadium, Forest Park, Illinois.
Everything said about him above is absolutely true.
He was all seven of the Seven Wonders of Softball.
Leni
They must have headquartered around there for a while, because a good friend of my ex's played with them in late 70s, early 80s and we got to see him all the time when we lived in OKC and he lived somewhere down by Lawton.
Feigner & Co were fun to watch.
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