Motivation Quote by Bob Feller

A hair dryer is a perfect prop for Bob Feller to jab at what he saw as baseball getting soft: it’s domestic, fussy, and faintly comic in the macho mythology of midcentury sports. By contrasting it with “baseball equipment,” Feller isn’t literally worried about luggage space. He’s mocking a shift in priorities, suggesting players now travel with comforts and grooming rituals that would’ve been unthinkable in his era of cramped trains, rougher clubhouses, and a culture that treated inconvenience as a badge of honor.

The line works because it’s built like a scouting report disguised as a joke. “Nowadays” frames the target: not one guy, but a whole generation. “More trouble” implies excess, baggage, complication - a lifestyle inflated beyond the game itself. The punch is the swap: tools of craft replaced by tools of appearance. Feller, a Hall of Fame ace who lived through wartime service and a harsher, less pampered MLB, is effectively arguing that modern professionalism has been confused with modern comfort.

There’s also a quieter subtext about masculinity and image. The hair dryer signals vanity, but it also hints at media-era performance: players are packaged for cameras, endorsements, and constant scrutiny. Feller’s gripe isn’t just nostalgia; it’s anxiety that the sport’s center of gravity has moved from competing to curating. The joke lands because it’s specific, visual, and petty in the way the best generational critiques are - a small object made to stand in for a big cultural change.