Born in 1918, Bob Feller honed his pitching skills on the family farm in Van Meter, Iowa. He has been referred to as one of the first modern businessman-players, endorsing and promoting baseball since he stopped playing the sport professionally in the 1950s.

Today, Mr. Feller can often be spotted at Indians games, often with his wife of 26 years, Anne. He approaches life with a practical resolve, instilled in him by hardworking parents who raised him and his sister, Marguerite, a retired hospital administrator. Let's find out more about his attitude towards work, play and aging.

You've had some incredible life experiences, being a renowned major league pitcher. Then you became somewhat of a war hero during World War II.
I had eight battle stars-I served on five campaigns. I was the chief gunner's mate on the battleship Alabama in the North Atlantic and South Pacific. It's now the largest tourist attraction in the state of Alabama. I was just down there for a reunion. I see it quite often. They bring out Boy Scouts to spend the night there. It's open to the public and is a nice memorial to World War II and also to the people who served on that ship.

Why did you choose to serve in the Navy when you were at the peak of your pitching career?
I volunteered the day of Pearl Harbor. I called a recruiter in Washington, a fellow who happened to be the heavyweight boxer Gene Tunney. I did not have to go; my father was dying of brain cancer so I was pardoned. But it was a war we had to win. I was on active duty 45 months. We really had cohesion as a nation. We had people everywhere in the free world believe in what we were doing: those who were at home, in factories, or on the farm.

Do you keep in touch with your former shipmates?
Yeah, I keep in touch with quite a few of them. I know the people that keep it open, who run the reunions. I see the guys who return for the reunion. I don't have any buddies here in the neighborhood. Once in awhile I go to the Chief Petty Officers' Club here in town at the Coast Guard headquarters.

When you were a child, did you want to be a ball player?
I had no intention of being anything but a baseball player. I was here in Cleveland my junior and senior year of high school, then I went back and rode the bus with my sister, Marguerite, all winter long. In spring training in '37, I had a tutor every night, seven days a week. Then I received my diploma.

Why did you always want to be a baseball player?
Baseball, boxing and horse racing were the only major sports around my area in those days. They had car racing and horse shoes, but there was not much football, basketball or hockey. All these other sports, and golf, tended to only be in the major cities. Golf was for the very well-to-do then. Although we had a very successful farm. We were far from destitute, even during the Depression. My father was a very successful farmer, and that was for one reason: he worked, and he was smart. When everyone would raise hogs, he'd raise sheep or cattle. If everyone grew wheat, he'd grow oat. He was his own man.

He had all these sayings, like, "You always find the most clubs under the best apple trees," meaning people are always trying to knock down what's best. I always wanted to play baseball with people who were older than me, and my father's philosophy on life helped motivate me to excel. My mother was supportive and strong-willed, too. She was a very smart woman. She was a schoolteacher as well as a nurse. She used to be a correspondent for the newspaper for the county where I'm from. She was very involved on the school board and active in the church. My father was on the school board, too. He always liked to be on the jury; he was a pretty good country lawyer.

My father died in 1943 at age 56, and my mother died on her 60th birthday in 1954. My father saw me pitch five and a half years in the majors; my mother became ill just before we played the 1954 World Series. She had lung cancer, though she never smoked.

You practiced pitching on the farm as a child.
Yes, we had an area right between the house and the barn set up for pitching, with a home plate. And we had our own ball park, which was built 57 years before the one in Dyersville, which was where the film "Field of Dreams" was filmed.

Have you ever hurt your arm or shoulder?
I only hurt my arm once, in 1937. I slipped on the mound throwing a curve ball at League Park. It hurt my elbow. Mother Nature took care of it. I didn't have to have surgery. The second time I slipped, it did a little damage to my left knee, which makes me limp a little bit. That was in Florida; I missed the All Stars game in 1947 because of it. I didn't have to go on the DL; they didn't have a DL then.

Why did you choose to be so loyal to the Indians?
The city of Cleveland and the people at the Cleveland Indians have been loyal to me. Cy Slapnicka signed me, the same guy who signed Herb Score, Mel Harter and Lou Boudreau. He became kind of like a father to me; he and his wife had no children. I was like a son to them.

The Robert Feller Museum was established in your home town of Van Meter, Iowa. How does it feel to have a museum dedicated to you?
It's very nice to be honored and immortalized while you're still above the grass [laughs]. Like my statue [outside Jacobs Field], that was great.

What did you think when you saw that statue for the first time?
It was very nice to see this area would think enough of me to honor me in that way. Rocco Scotti, who sings the National Anthem, [local radio personality] John Lanigan and Bobby DiBiaso, the Indians' public relations director, were all really involved in it. A lot of people from the [Greater Cleveland] Growth Association contributed to it as well. All the bricks they bought with their names on them helped pick up the money for it. It was sculpted by Dr. Gary Ross, who's a professor at Capital University in Columbus. I was there when he first molded the clay.

What do you think of being considered by many to be a living legend?
You have responsibility 24 hours a day; you've got to watch the way you conduct yourself. Anybody in the public life who says, "It's nobody's business what I do with my private life" is wrong, in my opinion. By being in the public eye, you're constantly exposed. If your life's a fishbowl, you better act like a fish.

Do your pitching days feel like a long time ago, or does it just seem like yesterday?
It's both. I can remember most major things that happened during my career. Not all of them, of course.

What do you consider to be your hobbies?
I play a lot of charity golf; I don't play much as a hobby. But I think it's a good exercise and a good fellowship. There are other hobbies. My wife and I have five acres of land, so I spend a lot of time mowing the lawn with a tractor, and taking down shrubs or trees. I work on the tractors, and I like to work on cars, too. I attend the Indians' games when the team's in town. Of course I go down to Spring Training. Overall, I keep busy-I do quite a few speeches.

How do you think you acquired this active attitude? Is this just how you always have been?
It's probably from my parents, I presume, and what I've observed in the many years since I stopped playing ball. I've noticed other ball players who retire in their late 30s or early 40s and they don't have a business or a hobby. When you retire from being an athlete, it doesn't mean you retire for the rest of your life. Your hand-to-eye coordination usually leaves you in your late 30s/early 40s when it comes to professional sports, and your speed of foot, too. Physically, you begin to level off.

What do you do to keep yourself in shape?
I've got good nutrition, I do some exercise, the same things I used to do: push ups, knee bends, stretching. Moderate exercise. Once in awhile, during Spring Training, I work out in the Indians' weight room.

I'm involved in what goes in my local community, and what goes on in baseball. I read the major papers: USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Plain Dealer. When I travel to a local town, I read the local paper, and many magazines. My wife reads a lot, too; she reads two or three books a week when she has time. She's a very fast reader. When we drive to Iowa, she gets cassettes with the books on tape.

What do you see is important in aging successfully?
I really think people have to have a hobby, and keep busy. I think people who don't have a hobby tend to get depressed or lonesome. I'm just a layman. But if I were to suggest to someone what they could do, I'd say you have to do some planning as well as keeping busy. See your doctor; keep up with your dentist and dermatologist; all the things that must be handled. Hopefully you'll have enough resources to take care of all that. You've got to plan ahead. Nobody plans to be unhappy, but if you don't plan ahead, you will be.

When you think of the average person who retires at 65, there's an awful lot of brains out there that could be put to good use by the government or corporations in this country. There are people way past 65-people in their 70s, 80s and even 90s who still have their mental faculties about them. These people can tell what their experiences have been.

What would you say are the greatest lessons you've learned?
How important your health is. Telling the truth ... telling it like it is. It might not be popular, but when you make a decision, you're not in doubt. Also, how important your spouse is. Anne and I are a team.