Bob Feller

SPORTING GOODS

In the mid to late-60s, Reingold beer—one of the Mets' sponsors at the time—started one of its tv commercials with the line, "They come from places like Van Meter, Iowa and Alvin, Texas ..." Somehow, the ad then segued into selling beer.

Anyway, the "they" in the commercial were pitching phenoms. Everybody in the NYC area knew who the Van Meter, IA denizen was, and it just so happened that the Mets had on the team a 20-year-old fireballer from Alvin, TX named Nolan Ryan that they were portraying as the next Feller.

And they STILL traded him!

Anyway, it seems to me prescient that Reingold made this call 45 or so years ago, because it seems to me that Nolan Ryan has pretty much become the Bob Feller of this generation of baseball fans.

Requiescat in pace.