FanHouse Bob Feller

SAN FRANCISCO -- Even though Randy Johnson was the one who was pitching, catcher Dave Valle still woke up the next day with a sore left shoulder.

Valle, the Mariners' primary catcher in the early '90s, was the man who had to handle Johnson when he was more Wild Thing than Big Unit.

"The fastball would soar up and away (to righties) and if you'd catch it at the wrong angle, it would feel like your arm is going to be pulled out of the socket," Valle told FanHouse. "Then he'd throw that slider down at the back foot. So that was a lot of territory to cover for a catcher ...

"He was a rough day at the office for a catcher. He was throwing 100 mph and didn't have a real good idea where it was going."

Apparently, the reason the Padres have won all these games the first two weeks of the season is that they needed the postgame handshakes.

To introduce themselves to one another.

If you enjoy old-timey baseball players, there's a pretty swell story in today's New York Times. Jack Curry catches up with the only two living players from the 1939 All-Star Game, played at Yankee Stadium. Lonny Frey and Bob Feller are both generous with stories about the old days. Each one falls into a stereotypical description of the former athlete.

Frey comes off as a lucky to be there sort of guy, both in his stories about the old days and, at 98, today. Feller, on the other hand, is a back in my day everything was better type who certainly feels no shame about sharing his thoughts on any topic.

Curry recalls that the honorary A.L. captain was Lou Gehrig. Two months after retirement and a week after the luckiest man alive speech, Gehrig didn't have long to live. He asked both players for their memories.

Frey said he remembered Gehrig's powerful words and felt sympathy for a fellow player. Feller said Gehrig's speech grew more powerful as the years passed. Regarding Gehrig saying he was the "luckiest man," Feller bluntly said: "He's wrong. I am. I'm still alive."

Take that, Iron Horse! He's not wrong. In the general scheme of things he's much luckier than Gehrig, I'm just a bit surprised that's actually the way he thinks about it.