American Valor Quarterly Issue 11 - Fall 2014 | Page 5

Baseball

War

GOES TO

The National Pastime in World War II
By James C. Roberts

The national pastime played a key
role in the American war effort during
World War II and it is a story that has
not been fully told.
From the frozen tundra of Iceland
to the jungles of the South Pacific;
from the deserts of North Africa
to the Nazi stadium in Nuremberg,
American soldiers, sailors, airmen and
Marines played baseball whenever, and
wherever, they could.
All told, over 500 major league and
more than 2,000 minor league baseball
players went into the armed forces.
Among the first of these was Bob
Feller, the former right-handed star
pitcher for the Cleveland Indians. Feller
was the sole support for his family
because his father, an Iowa farmer, was
dying of cancer, and because of this he
could have easily gotten a deferment.
Instead, upon hearing of the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor, he drove
to Chicago and reported to a Navy
recruiting office.
“We were losing the war,” Feller said.
“We needed heroes.”
Feller subsequently served as a
gun captain on board the battleship
Alabama and saw action in the
Atlantic and then in the Pacific theater,
participating in numerous battles. But
baseball was not left behind. Feller
FALL 2014

played baseball and softball in Scotland,
Iceland and on numerous islands in the
Pacific.

then throw them into the infield by
a remarkable method of flipping and
rolling the ball.

Among the many other baseball
stars serving were Stan Musial, Joe
DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Warren
Spahn, Yogi Berra, Pee Wee Reese, Phil
Rizzuto and Hank Greenberg.

Although the quality of play may
have suffered during the war years,
the fans turned out in droves to follow
their favorite teams, with servicemen in
uniform admitted free.

BASEBALL ON THE HOME FRONT
Given the loss of professional
players to the services, there was much
speculation that professional baseball
would be suspended for the duration of
the war.
However, in his famous “green
light” letter, to Major League Baseball
Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain
Landis, President Roosevelt expressed
his personal hope that baseball would
continue during the war because of its
impact on the citizenry.
Baseball responded to this request,
maintaining a full schedule of games
and drawing on teenagers, over-the-hill
veterans and “the lame, the halt and the
blind” to fill out the major and minor
league rosters.
Among the more unusual
replacement players was Pete Gray, an
outfielder for the St. Louis Browns.
Gray had lost his right arm in an
accident, but nonetheless managed
to bat one-handed, as well as field fly
balls and grounders in the outfield and

Baseball also got its fans to support
the war effort financially, with the
players taking part of their salaries in
war bonds. The players and owners
were also active in fundraising drives.
In one notable fundraising
extravaganza Washington Post sports
columnist-turned-impresario Shirley
Povich packed 30,000-seat Griffith
Stadium for an exhibition game
between the Washington Senators and
a team of Navy All-Stars featuring such
players as Bob Feller, Phil Rizuto and
Joe DiMaggio (Needless to say, the AllStars won).
Also helping to attract a crowd were
singers Kate Smith and Bing Crosby
and a guest appearance by Babe Ruth.
The event raised $2 million – enough to
construct a Navy cruiser.
Another successful innovation of the
war years was professional women’s
baseball - specifically the All American
Girls Professional Baseball League
formed by Chicago chewing gum
magnate William Wrigley. Working
on the assumption that professional
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