Man with a Golden Arm

When he pitched in exhibition games for the old Philadelphia Athletics and the St. Louis Browns, the late Rube Waddell occasionally waved his fielders to the bench and tried to strike out the side. It was a sensational stunt, but Eddie Feigner, the Rube Waddell of softball, puts on a similar display of prowess in every inning of every game he pitches.

Feigner makes his living by pitching with only three other players on his side--catcher, first baseman and shortstop. His four-man squad, billed as the King and His Court, plays the country's top professional and semi-pro teams and wins eleven games out of every twelve. It can do that because Feigner is very probably what he claims to be: the best softball pitcher in the world.

Although he clowns a lot while pitching, Feigner (pronounced Fay-ner) still manages to strike out most of the batters. Against a Poughkeepsie, N.Y., all-star team last week, he struck out 17 in seven innings (the regulation game), and that was not an unusual performance for him: many times he has struck out all 21.

The Rock-Thrower. Feigner, 38, traces his pitching prowess to his lonely childhood in Walla Walla, Wash. "I was a love child," he says, "and none of the parents would let their kids play with me." Left to himself, young Eddie spent countless hours alone in woods and fields, throwing rocks. After he developed into a rock-thrower of prodigious force and accuracy, he switched from rocks to softballs. Pitching for his grade school and high school teams, he won 103, lost none.

In 1946, as a semipro, Feigner pitched a Walla Walla team to a 33-0 victory over Pendleton, Ore. "I'm so good," he said afterwards, "all I need is a catcher to lick you guys." The Pendle ton team took up the challenge. After considerable discussion, it was decided that Feigner would really need three players in addition to himself "in case we ever got the bases loaded." Using a catcher and two infielders, Feigner humiliated Pendleton, 7-0.

A few years later, Feigner decided to take his four-man show on the road, sent out 385 letters to towns and cities across the U.S., offering to perform the four against nine act for money. He got only one reply, from a town in faraway Florida, so off to Florida he went with three teammates. Since then King Eddie and his courtiers have performed in every state of the U.S. except Alaska, as well as in Latin America and Canada.

Softball is a major spectator sport in the U.S., and Feigner makes a good living out of it. With the King and his Court getting 50% of the gate receipts from each game, Feigner's own income runs to $45,000 a year.

Partly to amuse the crowds and partly to prove what a great pitcher he is, Feigner does a lot of show-off stunts during every game. He pitches one inning on his knees, another while standing at second base, a third while wearing a blindfold. Sometimes he throws the ball between his legs or behind his back. When the ball is hit back toward the mound, he snares it and, instead of throwing to first, pretends to examine the seams; then, just in time, Feigner fires the ball behind his back and throws the runner out.

Windmill & Whirligig. The King has led an erratic personal life, studded with three divorces and several bouts of psychiatric treatment, but on the playing field he has magnificent control. He walks only one batter in 100. Equipped with what he calls a "free-swinging ball socket" that makes it possible for him to move his arm in a complete, 360DEG circle, he boasts an arsenal of 19 different windups, 14 distinct delivery motions and five speeds, which give him, as he figures it, more than 1,000 different pitches. They include the "figure8 windmill with quarter-speed outraise," which breaks away from the hitter and upward, and the "whirligig with a crossfire indrop at three-quarter speed," which breaks in and down. "My arm," says Feigner, "never ceases to amaze even me."

To keep the games from becoming too one-sided, Feigner serves up an easy pitch now and then, sometimes has his teammates deliberately pop up. A powerful slugger, Feigner occasionally helps even things up a bit by going up to hit with a child's 22-in. bat. But King Eddie just can't help being a winner. In a recent game he went to the plate with his 22-in. bat and, after the laughter died down, hit a triple.

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