I give the Indians and the Feller family a lot of credit for the Bob Feller memorial service held Thursday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Cleveland Heights. It was very well done, with just the right balance of everything. There were great stories, funny stories, poignant stories, told by the speakers. The pace of it was great. The musical choices were great. It's the first time I've ever heard "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" played in church, and it sounded great.

The most emotional moment was when Bill Tunnell, representing the USS Alabama, the battleship on which Bob Feller served, presented a flag from the ship to Annie Feller.

Jeff Idelson, president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, gave a terrific talk. Jeff knew Feller very well, and some of the stories he told were priceless.

To me the only disappointment was that there weren't more Indians players in attendance. I presume the ballclub made it optional for the players to attend, and only four did: Travis Hafner, Justin Masterson, Shin-Soo Choo, and Chris Perez. If I was running the Indians I would have made attendance mandatory for all the players. Bob Feller is the greatest Indian of them all, and all the currrent Indians players should have been there. The team's workout that day was later in the afternoon. That wasn't an issue, obviously, because four players found a way to attend.

I think it looked bad to have such a meager turnout from the players. Bob Feller deserved better than that.

But everything else about the service was first class in every way.