BOB MITVAH:

The beginning of the Feller legend (Anthony Castrovince, 8/24/06, MLB.com)

The boy stood tall on the mound.

He peered into the mitt of catcher Charlie George much the same way he'd stared at the outhouse at which he chucked baseballs as a boy back on the Iowa farm where he cut his baseball teeth.

But on this day -- 70 years ago this week -- the target sat on a grander stage.

And on this day, the boy, named Bob Feller, would become a man.

The date was Aug. 23, 1936, and the event was an otherwise nondescript, series-ending ballgame at League Park between the second-place Cleveland Indians and the lowly St. Louis Browns.

The Tribe was looking for a series sweep of the visitors, but general manager Cy Slapnicka and manager Steve O'Neill also wanted to get a look at what this 17-year-old pitching sensation, who'd come out of the cornfields of the Hawkeye State, could do in the big leagues.