From his birth in 1919 in the Bronx to his 1962 death in Fort Smith, "Hard Luck" Harry Feldman made a name for himself all along the way. And now his name is etched in stone in a cemetery on the north side of Fort Smith.
Harry "Hank" Feldman pitched two no-hitters while in high school and one afternoon he took off from his job at a shirt factory (where he was making $14 a week) and went to an open tryout for the New York Giants.
The eighteen year-old hung around the Polo Grounds for three days without so much as getting a glance. On the third , he went to manager Bill Terry and asked for an opportunity, and Terry had him throw some batting practice.
The club was impressed enough to sign Feldman to pitch for their Blytheville Giants of the Northeast Arkansas League in 1938 and he dominated the low minor league hitters with a 13-1 record and 2.02 ERA, the best ERA and winning percentage in the loop. Harry's pitching helped lead the squad to a minor league title that season.
He was promoted to the Fort Smith Giants of the Western Association the next year and went 7-7 with a 3.98 ERA his first season there. In 1939 he improved to 25-9, one win behind the league leader.
During his two year stint at Fort Smith, Feldman met his future wife, Lauretta "Lollie" Myatt. That relationship became a long distance courtship when Feldman was promoted to the Jersey City Giants where he spent the 1940 and 1941 seasons and went 19-29 with a 3.64 ERA.
In his two seasons in town, 18 of those 29 losses were by a single run. He was nicknamed "Hard Luck Harry" as a result. Feldman was called up to the NY Giants at the age of 21 as a September addition in 1941. Doing a decent job in three appearances, he went 7-1 with a 106 ERA+ (3.16 ERA).
At the end of that two year stint, Feldman returned to Fort Smith and married Lauretta. The couple bought a home and lived here the rest of their lives. It was sometime shortly after that marriage that Feldman converted from the Jewish faith to Christianity.
With the outbreak of WW2, Feldman was turned down by the Army due to lung problems stemming a childhood illness.
Early in 1944 Harry decided to retire due to his wife's poor health. but later returned to the Giants and pitched for the team until 1946.
Early 1946 Feldman joined what became a total of 27 major league players, including Max Lanier, Mickey Owens, Vern Stephens and George Hausmann, in jumping to the "outlaw" Mexican League.
Feldman signed with the Veracruz Blues.
The following year he played in Havana, Cuba. In 1949 he pitched for a while in the Provincial League for Sherbrooke, Quebec,
After Commissioner Happy Chandler rescinded a ban on players who had jumped to the Mexican League, he moved to San Francisco where he pitched his last two seasons with the San Francisco Seals, going 6–9 with a 4.31 ERA in 1949 and 11–16 with a 4.38 ERA in 1950.
He retired after that season at age 30. After retiring, Feldman opened a record store in Fort Smith. He was also involved with some semi-pro baseball teams in the area during that time.
At age 42 on March 14 1962 Feldman hitched up his boat and headed into Oklahoma for what was just another one of his frequent trips to fish the waters of Lake Tenkiller. While unloading the board he suffered a heart attack and was brought back to a hospital in Fort Smith where he died two days later.
Feldman was laid to rest at Rose Lawn Cemetery on the northside of Fport Smith. "Lollie" remarried but when she died at age 88 in 2008, she was interred in a shared plot next to her beloved "Hank".