The legend of Bob Feller always comes complete with tales of superhuman strength and blinding speed. Throwing fastballs past speeding motorcycles tossing no-hitters on Opening Day measuring his velocity using military-grade equipment designed to measure the velocity of artillery - "Rapid Robert" did everything big the tales were tall and he was one of the game's early legends. A Time magazine cover story from April of 1937 relates the story of Feller's youthful games of catch with his father: "At 14 he could pitch so fast that his father had a hard time catching the ball and once when the son's curve ball missed his glove it cracked three of the father's ribs." The relationship between Feller and his father remained a constant in news stories throughout his career and long after. His 1962 election to the Hall of Fame prompted a press photo where Feller posed with his famiy the catcher's mitt used by his father on his left hand. Later in Feller's life he became friendly with noted collector Barry Halper. Halper accumulated quite a bit of Feller memorabilia including the mitt purportedly used to catch those youthful fastballs - the mitt the elder Feller was wearing when those ribs were broken. Along with the mitt is an index card signed by Bob Feller reading as follows: "This is the mitt my father used to catch me when I was a kid - 13-16 years old - on our farm near Van Meter Iowa. It was this mitt he was using when I threw a fastball in 1934 that hit him in the chest and broke three ribs - as described in TIME magazine April 19 1937." In early 2000 the mitt was purchased by another noted collector author Seth Swirsky. Halper included a letter describing how he came into possession of the mitt: "Bob Feller and I have been friends for many years and in one of his visits to my ome he saw the very diversified items in my collection and was quite impressed. He asked if I would like to own the mitt that his father used to catch with him; he said there was a story about it in Time Magazine in 1937. I agreed to his asking price paid him on the spot and gave him a mailing label - the glove was in my home wi