A Pesky Group of Type-1 WWII Navy Baseball Photos

How does one follow-up such an amazing acquisition of an historic photographic baseball artifact as the original, Type-1 image of Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio posing in his 7th Army Air Force uniform at at Honolulu Stadium? Considering that I touched upon Ted Williams’ impressive 1941 performance in concert with that of DiMaggio and his 56-game streak, landing an original type-1 of the Splendid Splinter in his service team uniform would seem to be an appropriate, yet nearly impossible accomplishment. As unbelievable as it may seem, that is exactly what happened.

In Ben Bradlee, Jr.‘s fantastic biography, The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams, Ted’s military service is thoroughly examined including his reluctance (and near boredom) from being called upon to play on the base teams (following his tenure with the Cloudbusters of Chapel Hill in early 1943 while he was still a Naval Air Cadet in the V-5 training program) once he earned his gold aviator’s wings. Williams entered the naval aviation training with his Red Sox team mate, Johnny Pesky at the Navy’s Preliminary Ground School at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Following the completion of their first few months of training Williams, Pesky and others from their class continued training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the U.S. Navy Pre-Flight School where both were tapped to play baseball on Navy’s local team, joining forces with other major leaguers such as Johnny Sain, Louis “Buddy” Gremp, Joe Coleman, John “Buddy” Hassett, Joe Cusick and Pete Appleton.

1945 Pearl Harbor American vs. National League All-Star Baseball Series program. Rare original program. This particular program belonged to Pesky and was sold at auction (image source: Hunt Auctions, LLC).

In Bradlee’s book, he delves into a notable exhibition game played between Williams, Johnny Pesky (and other major leaguers that were currently serving) in Boston versus the National League’s Braves. The service all stars were coached by Babe Ruth with a pre-game home run hitting contest between the Babe and the Kid which was a disappointment due to Ruth’s first swing resulting him fouling a ball off his leg, forcing him to withdraw. The Cloudbusters would compete against collegiate and other military teams (such as the star-studded Norfolk Naval Training Station Bluejackets) during Williams’ and Pesky’s tenure.

Ted Williams, after serving as a flight instructor for nearly a year in Florida, was in transit to Hawaii as the atom bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki prompting the Japanese to accept an unconditional surrender. Upon his arrival at Pearl Harbor, the Splendid Splinter was added to the all-star Navy roster of major leaguers to play in the September-October, seven-game Navy World Series (not to be confused with the 1943 series played at Naval Station Norfolk’s McClure Field). Navy players, originating from National League teams before WWII, defeated their American League counterparts, four games to two despite the AL’s composite tally outscoring the NL, 30-24 total runs (the AL, led in part with a home run by Pesky, took the fourth game by a 12-1 margin). Though he was on the roster, Williams was a non-factor, perhaps distracted by thoughts of shedding his Marine Corps uniform, not having been sent to fight after more than three years of service.  Though the rosters were stocked with major league ball players there were only a handful of stars from the big leagues. Culled together from multiple sources (in the absence viewing the program shown above) are the rosters of Navy ballplayers from each of the major leagues (the asterisk denotes election to the Hall of Fame). There is name on the American League roster who I was not able to narrow down (there were multiple players named Harris).

National League			American League
Charley Gilbert	CF		Jack Conway	2B
Jim Carlin	3B		Johnny Pesky	SS
Billy Herman *	2B		Chet Hajduk	1B
Stan Musial *	RF		Ted Williams *	RF
Whitey Platt	LF		Dick Wakefield	LF
Wimpy Quinn	1B		Jack Phillips	CF
Ray Lamanno	CF		Bob Kennedy	3B
Ray Hamrick	SS		Rollie Hemsley	CF
Clyde Shoun	P		Freddie Hutchinson	P
Hugh Casey	P		Bob Lemon *	P
Max Wilson	P		Harris	P
Louis Tost	P		Hank Feimster	P
Henry Schenz	2B		Jack Hallett	P
Gilbert “Gibby” Brack	OF		Edwin “Ed” Wieland	P
James “Jim” Carlin	OF		Ken Sears	C
Wellington “Wimpy” Quinn	P		Joe Lutz	1B
Bob Scheffing	C		Joe Glenn	C
Richard “Dick” West	C		Lynwood “Schoolboy” Rowe	P
			Ted Lyons*	P

The series was in hand for the National League team following their 4-1 victory in the 6th game but as the games were being played for the enjoyment of the ticket-holding service members, the seventh game was played.

Date	NL	AL	Notes
26-Sep-45	6	5	Pesky knocked in the 5th AL run in the bottom of the 9th, Williams was hit-less after popping up for the 2nd out with 2-on.
28-Sep-45	4	0
29-Sep-45	6	3	Williams 2-run HR helped end the shutout in the bottom of the 9th.
3-Oct-45	1	12	Pesky was 3-3 with a single, double and 2 run HR.
5-Oct-45	1	4	Williams was scratched from the line-up due to illness and did not play the remainder of the series.
6-Oct-45	4	1	Pesky got a hit and scored a run in the victory.
7-Oct-45	2	5

Johnny Pesky finished the series batting .346 (9 for 26) with three runs batted in (RBI) and one home run. Pesky’s team mate, Ted Williams batted .272 (3 for 11) with 2 RBI and one home run.

This very large photograph shows Pesky in his Navy flannels with 9 year-old Jimmy Raugh seated on his lap, listening intently to the shortstop.

When I discovered the DiMaggio Type-1 photograph (see: My Accidental Discovery: A Photographic Military Baseball Holy Grail of Sorts), I was taken by surprise and was ecstatic to win the auction, virtually unopposed. Less than a week later, lighting struck (me) twice resulting in me discovering a collection of photographs of the Red Sox legends (Williams and Pesky) from their wartime service, wearing their Navy flannels. One of the images, a larger print (roughly 11″ x 17″) shows Pesky in his Cloudbusters uniform, speaking to an apparently delighted nine year old James Raugh* (the Coudbusters’ batboy and mascot) seated on the ballplayer’s lap. Though the image of Pesky posing with Williams is what initially drew my attention, the photo from the  1945 Navy World Series game truly stands out as the showcase photograph of the group. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the collection of photos is that all three of them originated from Johnny Pesky’s collection – these were owned by him.

The photo of Williams and Pesky (seen in the lower right corner) was sold with this small lot of photos and and a Navy enlisted crow (image source: Hunt Auctions).

Johnny passed away in 2012, leaving behind an incredible collection of baseball history. His artifacts stemmed from a career in the game that spanned more than 60 years and consisting of trophies, photographs, balls, gloves, bats, cleats, awards, baseball uniforms and even his 2004 Red Sox World Series Ring. Hunt Auctions, LLC was selected by Pesky’s son (David) to facilitate the liquidation of the baseball treasures. As an aside to the baseball memorabilia listed and sold, being the militaria (especially navy items) collector, I was in awe to see Lieutenant (junior grade) Pesky’s military uniform items while the selling price ($2,000) wasn’t at all a surprise.

The mailer arrived without any issues and upon unpacking everything, I noted that I was provided with a copy of the auctioneer’s certificate from the lots that contained the photographs now in my collection, indicating their origination from the Pesky collection. The enormous size of the package caught me off guard though I knew that one of the photos was larger than any that I had ever acquired. The reason for the larger shipping container was that the photo was mounted on a large, card-stock backing and probably set into a frame, years ago.  The two other photos are more reasonably sized.

Though he didn’t complete flight training, Johnny Pesky was issued a flight jacket. His dress blue visor cap was also part of this group (image source, Hunt Auctions, LLC).

Pesky’s overcoat and flight bag were part of this $2,000 group (Hunt Auctions, LLC).

The image clarity is so crisp that one can read the model numbers of the visible glove.

The second photograph in the group was a great image of both Pesky and Williams (along with Buddy Hassett, formerly of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Bees and New York Yankees) in a kneeling pose at the UNC Chapel Hill’s Emerson Field. All three players are wearing their Cloudbusters home flannels. I was able to locate this print among on of the Hunt Auction listings. As with my DiMaggio photo, this is an image that is not widely distributed across the internet; in fact, it has not been seen elsewhere. It’s uniqueness leaves me wondering what became of the original negatives and how Pesky came to be the one to possess it (and the others) rather than any of the other Cloudbusters team members or if everyone on the team was provided prints and only Johnny managed to keep them throughout his life.

The last photo of the three is as significant in terms of the historical content, who is pictured, and what is written on the print’s back. Rather than to simply scan the image and capture every detail, I decided to additionally scan it at the highest resolution possible and break the image into segments in order to capture the most important details that can be seen. This photo, taken at the 1945 Navy World Series shows the full rosters of each team, lined up on Furlong Field down each base line with Pesky at the image’s center.

I thought that it would be interesting to see who (among my readers) can identify any of the major leaguers in these photos:

From the third baseline, the National League players of the United States Navy at Furlong Field.

 

This team was loaded with major league talent. Johnny Pesky is the shorter player standing in the right batter’s box (just to the left of the image center).

 

How many major leaguers can you spot, starting with Ted Williams on the far left (with his hand to his face)? This photo could be from the first game (played on September 26, 1945). It certainly is from the first four games as Williams didn’t play beyond game four.

When I turned the image over, I noticed a hand-written note that detailed Pesky’s return home from the War. At first glance, I thought that the handwriting might be Johnny’s but then I compared the way his name is written with various examples of his autograph (some dating back to the 1940s).

“L..T. (j.g.) Johnny Pesky arrived home, Wednesday nite (sic), 9:45. Dece. 5-1945.”

My analysis ruled Pesky out as the scribe, however there is a possibility that the note was written by his wife (whom he met in 1944). Finding photos from these historic games is very rewarding as there are but a handful that exist (cameras were a rarity among the GIs in attendance) and the press photos (there had to be many) have yet to surface from the newspaper archives.

I am glad to have these photos for several reasons: historical significance, rare glimpses into the military service of some big names from the game and that they were part of the collection of a legend from one of my favorite teams.

*James Raugh would pursue his own baseball dreams, following in the footsteps of Williams and Pesky and playing his collegiate years on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill team before signing with the Detroit Tigers organization as right-handed pitcher. Raugh and Pesky would cross paths seventeen years later when the young pitcher, in the fourth season of his professional career with the Victoria Rosebuds (AA – Texas League). Johnny Pesky was in his fifth season managing in the minor leagues and was in his only season with the Rosebuds when he had his former batboy had a dominating season as a starting pitcher (11-4, record with a 3.33 era, 102 strikeouts against 45 walks). Raugh is the subject of 2018 book, The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II (published May 1, 2018 by Skyhorse Publishing), written by his daughter, Anne Keene (foreword by Claudia Williams, daughter of Ted Williams).

References:

• United States Navy Pre-Flight School (University of North Carolina) Photographic Collection, 1942-1945
• When Cadet Ted Williams Came to Chapel Hill
• Ted Williams At War (by Bill Nowlin)
• SABR | The National Pastime # 26: The 1945 All-Star Game The Baseball Navy World Series at Furlong Field, Hawaii (pg. 111)