I know you’re talking about the specific strains put on the body by throwing a baseball 100-MPH, but you might choose your words more carefully when talking about a guy who spent those years fighting in a war.

What impact losing almost four full seasons of his prime to the war had on his career is impossible to know, but the man was as good in his 20s as any pitcher in history, his peak is as high as that of any pitcher in history.

I don’t think he was the single best pitcher ever, but when you discuss the best pitchers, he absolutely belongs in the conversation.

Regarding his career, yes, clearly Feller was an excellent pitcher, and certainly deserved his place in the Hall of Fame. No argument. But let’s not get carried away with the “greatest pitcher ever” discussion. If he’d stopped pitching at age 29, when his career ERA+ was still 135 and he’d already compiled 55.8 WAR, then he’d be in the discussion the same way Koufax is. Short but dominant career, worthy of being included in that conversation.

But Feller didn’t stop then. He pitched 8 more years in varying degrees of health and effectiveness, and never came particularly close to the performance of his youth. (ERA+ of 104 from age 30 onward, 3.9 K/9, just 10.2 total WAR in those 8 seasons) All of that dragged down his career numbers to the point that his final career ERA+ of 122 was the same as Jimmy Key’s, his shutout total was surpassed by Luis Tiant, and he managed fewer career strikeouts than Chuck Finley. Nothing shameful in any of that, those were all excellent pitchers. But it does take the edge off the “greatest ever” conversation.

And the argument that the war years blunted his accomplishments doesn’t carry much weight with me, because I think there’s just as much evidence that the war may have actually lengthened his career. The guy threw over 275 innings at age 19 and then saw his workload go up every year until he joined the Navy. Shortly after his return, he suffered through a series of arm problems that left him essentially a league-average pitcher after age 30. Isn’t it pretty likely that if he’d continued to rack up massive inning totals when he was 23 and 24 and 25, with no intervening years of rest, that he may have suffered those problems even sooner? His awesome 1946 season may have never happened at all if he’d blown out his elbow throwing inning number 370 as a 24-year old.

Thanks to Feller’s willingness to talk baseball and sign baseballs with and for anyone, my dad once brought me home an autographed ball from a work trip to Cleveland.

I’m FAR too young to have seen Feller play, but as an Indians’ fan, he’s always been one of my favorite players from the past. RIP, sir.