Southern Region Service Baseball Dominated by Former Pros: Mulcahy and Gee

The Base Realignment and Closure Act (BRAC) was passed in 1988 under Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci. The resulting commission was just getting the ball rolling as it recommended the closure of five U.S. Air Force bases that were deemed to no longer be of strategic importance or were fiscally unnecessary. Veterans who have served in the last three decades since those initial base closures have become quite familiar with the BRAC acronym.  In total, the Carlucci Commission eliminated 49 Army, Navy, Air Force and National Guard bases in that same year. From 1992 to 2005, an additional 151 bases were deactivated, though some were consolidated into multi-service branch joint bases, bringing the total of eliminated bases to 200 in 13 years.

Base closures are not unique to the last 30 years. The armed forces have always analyzed the need for maintaining domestic installations as well as bases in U.S. territories and on foreign soil, with many of them being shut down over the last century. In the first few years following the end of World War II, the U.S. saw an incredible reduction of active bases, many of which had been established during the early years of the war to meet the massive demand for personnel training facilities. However, the end of the war, combined with the armed forces’ changing strategies and national defense needs, demonstrated that many of the domestic bases needed to be closed.

Many of the once prominent and noteworthy service installations used during World War II, such as Rich Field (Waco, Texas), Sampson Naval Training Station (Seneca, New York) and the Brooklyn Navy Yard, remain in the minds of military and even baseball historians. Through our own baseball research, we are unearthing articles, game recaps and box scores that document star-studded and highly competitive service teams from bases whose names and locations have long since been forgotten by the average person.. It seems that each acquisition landing in the Chevrons and Diamonds Collection carries with it a story that is waiting to be uncovered, one which often reveals previously hidden history about veterans, battles, military bases and especially baseball.

This photo was part of a pair from Fort Oglethorpe that we acquired a few years ago. With two remaining to be identified, Fort Oglethorpe manager and outfielder, Staff Sergeant Joe Gee posed in his flannels on the right (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

In early 2019, a pair of vintage photographs was listed for sale. In each of the two photos was the same unidentified player. He posed solo next to a stand of wooden bleacher seats in one shot and stood with two other men (a teammate and an Army officer who were also unidentified) in the other. Emblazoned across the front of both players’ baseball jerseys were the letters O G L E T H O R P E in two-color athletic felt. Their flannels sported ornate soutache, applied on the button placket, surrounding the collar and extending downward from the collar to the sleeve. The photos bore no markings regarding identities, dates or location details.

Despite an absence of due diligence in researching the images, we moved forward in securing them for our collection with a commitment to identify the team and, with a measure of hope, the identities of the men in the photos.

At the time this photo arrived, the identity of this player was unknown. However, with the acquisition of a third related photograph, we were able to identify this man. Former minor leaguer and now Staff Sergeant Joe Gee is posed near bleachers, quite possibly on post at Fort Oglethorpe (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

Subsequent to their safe arrival, we conducted a preliminary and somewhat fruitless internet search. Unfortunately, our effort revealed scant details about the base, with merely a single baseball reference regarding a former Washington Senator baseball player, Hillis Layne, who was inducted into the U.S. Army Air Forces at Georgia’s (former) Fort Oglethorpe. The photos were scanned (including digital editing) and added to the Chevrons and Diamonds vintage photograph archive for preservation. Deterred by the minuscule search results, we tabled further research attempts.

A few days ago and nearly two years later, we acquired another photo that prompted us to revisit Fort Oglethorpe baseball once again. This “new” type-1 vintage press photo featured two players in flannels standing on opposite sides of an army officer who was conducting a coin toss. The player on the left is shown wearing the same Oglethorpe uniform as seen in our previous photos and is standing opposite the other player, whose uniform lettering reads, “2nd A R M Y.” Attached to the back of the photo is a printed caption slug that identifies all three men, one of whom (the 2^nd Army player) was former Philadelphia Phillies righthanded pitcher Hugh Mulcahy.

The photo that led to identifying Joe Gee in our other Fort Oglethorpe baseball photos was a great addition to our library. The caption slug on the reverse reads:
“August 27, 1943: Hugh Mulcahy (right), former pitcher with the Phillies, now a sergeant in the Army, calls the turn with Joe Gee (left), formerly with the Cincinnati Reds, now a staff sergeant in the Army. Tossing the coin is 1st Lt. Marvin E. Holmes, Special Services Officer of Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia. The scene, “Somewhere in Tennessee,” just before the game between the Second Army team, managed by Mulcahy, and the Ft. Oglethorpe team, managed by Gee. Gee won the toss and the game….Gee Whiz…!” (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection)

Over the last few years, the Chevrons and Diamonds photo collection of vintage military baseball photographs has grown considerably. Because our collection has had relatively few images from service teams in southern states, our attention in this region has been nominal. With the acquisition of the third Fort Oglethorpe image and the details it provided us, we turned our research attention to this previously overlooked area of the nation and what we found was a wealth of baseball and military history.

The team from Fort Oglethorpe, named “All-Stars,” was dominant in its region, posting a record of 40 wins and just 10 losses during its 1943 campaign. Staff Sergeant Joseph Gee (pronounced “Jee”), after being named the team’s manager, assembled a talented squad that consisted largely of former professional players. Gee had served as the starting left fielder in 1942. The demands of an Army charged with fighting a war had decimated the Oglethorpe roster as more than 75 percent of the team members had been transferred before the 1943 campaign, including the 1942 manager, Master Sergeant Cliff Smith.

Like the men he sought out for the Fort Oglethorpe All Stars roster, Gee was himself a former professional ballplayer and an all-around athlete.  Though Baseball Reference lists only his 1935 season with the Union City Greyhounds in the Class “D” Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League, he also spent time that season with the Wilmington Pirates (Class “B” Piedmont League) and the Monessen Reds (Class “D” Pennsylvania State Association). In 1936, Gee was with Paducah Red Birds (Class “D” Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League), Cordele Reds (Class “D” Georgia-Florida League) and back to Paducah before his professional career came to an end. When it came to assembling his 1943 team, Gee knew how to assess talent.

Joseph Morris Gee was born on June 7, 1908 in Nashville, Tennessee, to Bessie Louise (nee’ Stull) Gee and her husband Morris Gee. Morris supported his young family as a railroad fireman, stoking steam locomotive boilers. He worked his way up to becoming a locomotive engineer. By 1920, the Gee family had grown with the additions of younger siblings (his sister Minnie Sue and brother Cameron) and was living in Memphis. Eleven-year-old Joe was beginning to play football, basketball and baseball. By 1931, Gee was a 23-year-old, first-year student at the University of the South (now known as “Sewanee: The University of the South”), where he played on the freshman football team, played basketball and ran track. By 1932, Gee was the star halfback of the varsity football team. In his junior football campaign at the university, Gee suffered an injury during an 18-0 loss to the University of Kentucky Wildcats. Two weeks later, he saw action but again he was lifted due to subsequent injuries.  After college, Gee was signed as an outfielder by Union City at the age of 27 but would be out of professional baseball for good before his 28^th birthday. With professional sports behind him, he began working in a steadier occupation for the John A. Denies Sons Company as a building materials salesman in Memphis.

As with other men who were fulfilling their Selective Service obligation, 33-year-old Gee was five years over the draft’s upper age limit due to a 1941 revision in the law that capped the peacetime draft age at 28 years of age. Gee was ten months into his 12 months of required service when the Army began separations of the over-aged men on December 5. Joe Gee, having served at Fort Oglethorpe since reporting there for his induction on February 4, was a civilian once again. However, as with other American men, Gee was no doubt stunned to learn that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7 and just 46 days later, the divorced, 33-year-old Army veteran enlisted on January 21, 1942, returning to Fort Oglethorpe.

As the armed forces ranks began to swell with the massive influx of volunteers and selectees from all walks of American life, including professional baseball, service team rosters began to be populated with considerably more baseball expertise. Competition in Fort Oglethorpe’s region ranged from marginal to keen, depending upon where the former major and minor leaguers were distributed. Fresh from its 1942 season in which the All-Stars’ roster featured just four former pro ballplayers, new manager Staff Sergeant Joe Gee saw the arrival of 13 former minor leaguers and  Frank Grigonis of the Detroit Lions (NFL) to the team for the 1943 campaign.

 

1943 Fort Oglethorpe “All-Stars”

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Rank	Name	Position	Former
Cpl.	John Barger	P	Fulton (KITL)
Lt.	John “Johnny” Beazley*	P	Cardinals
Pvt.	Tommy Bergdoll	SS	Salisbury (NCSL)
Col.	Lucien S.S. Berry	Commanding
Cpl.	George Blackmore	OF
Cpl.	Les Burge	1B	Montreal (IL)
Cpl.	Greyson “Goat” Davis	OF	Greenville (APPY)
Pvt.	Lynn Dowdy	C
Cpl.	Lou Fitzgerald	3B	Americus (GAFL)
Pvt.	Del Friar	C	Savannah (SALL)
S/Sgt.	Joe Gee	Mgr./OF	Union City (KITL)
Pvt.	Frank Grigonis	C	Detroit Lions (NFL)
Pvt.	Charlie Heffner	2B/OF	Kingsport (APPY)
Lt.	Marvin C. Holmes	Spec. Svc. Off.
Pvt.	Willard Johns	UT
Sgt.	Gene Lambert	P	Phillies
S/Sgt.	Early Maxwell	Promotion Mgr.
Pvt.	Jimmy “lefty” McClure	P	Memphis (SOUA)
Sgt.	Hugh Mulcahy*	P	Phillies
Sgt.	Carvel “Bama” Rowell*	2B	Braves
Capt.	Cliff Smith	Advisor
	Tatum	LF
Pvt.	Ned Thaxton	P	Jacksonville (SALL)
Cpl.	Claude Trivett	OF	Kingsport (APPY)
Cpl.	Pat Vescova	OF	Union City (KITL)

*Made limited Appearances on Oglethorpe’s roster for exhibition/all-star games

Two of Oglethorpe’s biggest diamond threats in 1943 came from the Atlanta Naval Air Station nine and the Memphis, Tennessee-based 2^nd Army squad, led by Hugh Mulcahy.

Hugh Mulcahy spent parts of the 1935 and 1936 seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, followed by four full campaigns from 1937 to 1940. In his pre-military-service years with the Phils, Mulcahy never posted a winning record and led the National League twice with twenty or more losses.  He was a workhorse hurler for a team that was baseball’s worst in the 1937-1940 four-year-span. Even the American League’s cellar-dwelling St. Louis Browns’ 205-403 (.337 winning percentage) record was not as bad as that of the Phillies, who posted a record of 202-406 (.332). Mulcahy’s individual season records nearly mirrored those of his team. Hugh’s moniker, “Losing Pitcher” (bestowed upon him by Philadelphia sportswriters for the frequency that “LP” appeared beside his name in box scores), taken at face value, seemed justified. However, it can be argued that he suffered due to the consistently poor-performing team he played for, more than from his performance on the mound. Mulcahy appeared in 176 games in that four-year stretch, starting 128 and completing 59 with a whopping 988.2 innings pitched. Mulcahy twice led the league in earned runs and batters hit-by-pitch and in his lone All-Star season in 1940, he led the league in surrendered hits (283). Playing for the hapless Philadelphia Phillies certainly didn’t help his career. Mulcahy’s pitching performance since becoming a full-time major leaguer was less than stellar but he was showing his potential to be successful in the majors

On September 27, 1940, Hugh Mulcahy pitched his final start of the season at the Polo Grounds against the second-division New York Giants. Mulcahy pitched a gem with a four-hit shutout while his opponent, future Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell, surrendered six runs on 11 hits.  Mulcahy held the Giants’ three All-Star batters hitless – leftfielder Jo-Jo Moore (0-3), third baseman Mel Ott (0-2 with two walks) and catcher Harry Danning (0-4) – while smashing a single (one of the 11 Phillies hits surrendered by Hubbell) in the third inning. On October 16, nineteen days after his last appearance on the mound, Mulcahy registered for the United States’ first peacetime selective service at local draft board No. 112 at Newton Center, Massachusetts.

1943 Second Army (Memphis, TN)

Rank	Name	Position	Former
	Bernardi	P
	George Byam	RF	Louisville (AA)
	Carmen “Coots” Castle	LF	Birmingham
Cpl.	Ervin “Erv” Dusak	OF	Cardinals
Cpl.	Al Flair	1B	Red Sox
	Jack Griffore	P	Columbus (AA)
Pvt.	Lee Grissom	P	Dodgers
	Al Kozar	2B	Scranton (EL)
	Johnny Lang	3B	Browns
	Jim Levy	SS
Pfc.	William “Billy” Long	3B	Lancaster (ISLG)
Sgt.	Hugh Mulcahy	P	Phillies
	Jack Ridings	SS	Portsmouth (PIED)
	Lou Roede	CF	Chattanooga (SOUA)
Cpl.	Kenneth J. “Ken” Silvestri	C	Yankees
	Sofia	SS
	Floyd Yount	C	Toronto (IL)

Set to report to spring training at Miami Beach, Florida for the Phillies’ 1941 season, Mulcahy’s request to delay entry into the armed forces (citing being a partial financial provider for his parents) was denied and instead he was sworn in to the Army on March 8, becoming the first major league player to be drafted into the armed forces under President Roosevelt’s Selective Training and Service Act of 1940.  Upon entry into the Army, Mulcahy was stationed at Camp Edwards, which was 50 miles northwest of his home in Newton Center, Massachusetts. He played baseball in addition to his training assignments and normal duties.

Unlike Hank Greenberg, who entered the Army on May 7 under the Selective Service Act and was subsequently discharged on December 5 (due to the aforementioned revision of Selective Service putting the age limit at 28), Mulcahy’s service end date (March 1942) became indefinite, apparently at his own doing. The pitcher was eligible to apply for a discharge but refused. According to an article in the January 29, 1942 edition of the Muskogee Daily Phoenix and Times-Democrat (Muskogee, Oklahoma), Mulcahy chose to continue his one-year obligation, stating that he wanted to “see it through.”

During our research, we noted a few contemporary sources stating that Mulcahy was separated and re-entered the service following the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; however, no records could be found to substantiate these claims.  Instead, documentation, including his Veterans Administration Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) file and newspaper reports regarding Mulcahy’s service, specifically point to his service being unbroken. “Although others, notably the Phillies’ Hugh Mulcahy, who lost a year in service and has little chance to get out now that war is on,” wrote the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Cy Peterman in his December 10, 1941, Strictly Sports column, “preceded Bob (Feller) into uniform, he (Feller) will lead the latest contingent into service.”

After Pearl Harbor, Private First Class Mulcahy, classified as a first class machine gunner, was assigned to duty at Fort Devens, Massachusetts and added to the post’s baseball team. With the mass influx of volunteers entering the service requiring training, all branches of the armed forces were rapidly transforming from peacetime to wartime operations. Private industry began to transition to war production and President Roosevelt dispatched the “Green Light Letter” to major league baseball commissioner Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, giving baseball the go-ahead to play the game. Service teams re-formed in the spring of 1942 with a mission of fundraising in addition to morale and recreation for the troops.

Throughout the spring of 1942, Mulcahy pitched in several fundraising games. In May, he was invited to Shibe Park to throw out the first pitch. Playing host to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Phillies required every person in attendance to pay to gain entry. All players, umpires, vendors, law enforcement officers and attendants paid to enter the ballpark, though Mulcahy’s former teammates covered the cost of his ticket. The game was somewhat of an historic event as it marked the first twilight game in major league history with a 5:00 p.m. start time. Just four days later, with Bob Feller starting for the Norfolk Naval Training Station Bluejackets at Fenway Park, Mulcahy took the mound for the Fort Devens team in an Army vs. Navy clash. The Navy was routed, 5-0, as Mulcahy, Joe Kwasniewski and Mike Nash pitched a combined 2-hit shutout. Feller and the Navy got revenge against Mulcahy in an abbreviated game on June 14 at the Polo Grounds that was part of the All-Sports Carnival that raised over $800 million in war bonds. Feller, pitching for Quonset Point Naval Air Station, blanked Mulcahy’s Army squad, 4-0, in a five-inning contest. One of Mulcahy’s former Philadelphia teammates, Jim Carlin, accounted for three of the Navy’s runs with a home run off Hugh with two Navy men on base.

In late spring, LT Mickey Cochrane, manager of the Great Lakes Naval Training Station Bluejackets, was assembling a service all-star team consisting of former major leaguers now serving in the armed forces. It  would take on the winner of Major League Baseball’s mid-summer classic, the All-Star Game. Mulcahy was tapped by Cochrane but his ineligibility was announced due to his appointment to the Air Force Officer Candidate School in Miami Beach, Florida. Mulcahy reported to the school on July 6 and was joined by Hank Greenberg and George “Leon” Whittock, former Temple University star quarterback.

With the departure of Master Sergeant Cliff Smith, manager and first baseman for the Fort Oglethorpe All-Stars who guided his team to a 38-4 record in 1942, leftfielder Staff Sergeant Joe Gee was named to fill the void and guide the team for the 1943 season.  Picking up where M/SGT Smith left off, Gee guided his team to a 14-5 record by mid-June despite the increased level of competition from surrounding service teams whose rosters were being augmented by the influx of former professional ball players. In addition to facing base teams from Georgia, Tennessee and Florida, the Oglethorpe nine saw exhibition action against surrounding minor league teams, including the Chattanooga Lookouts.

In early February, Sgt. Mulcahy was transferred from the officer training program in Miami to Fort Bragg in North Carolina where he, in addition to his normal Army duties, authored a sports column for the base newspaper. By mid-March, Mulcahy was serving at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, where he headed the 26^th Division’s recreation program. In this capacity, he organized and formed a six-team service league with three teams at Fort Jackson, two Columbia area bases and one at Shaw Field in Sumter. Mulcahy took on pitching and managerial duties for the 26^th Infantry team.

By the middle of June, Mulcahy had pitched in his last games for Fort Jackson. On the 15^th, he made his final mound appearance at Shaw Field as he led his time to an 8-7 victory over the 334^th Bomb Group “Bombers.” Mulcahy was transferred to the Second Army in Memphis. Mulcahy’s new club was set to compete in the Midsouth Service Baseball Championship Tournament. Two of the more challenging competitors in the tournament were the Fourth Ferrying Group, headed by former Giant hurler Hal Schumacher, and the Naval Air Technical Training Center squad, managed by former Detroit Tigers infielder Johnny Lipon. In the finals, Lipon’s naval team took down the Second Army, 3-0, handing Mulcahy a rare loss.

On July 31, Oglethorpe faced Camp Campbell’s 20^th Armored Division in a regional semi-professional Tennessee-Kentucky District championship matchup. It came out on top with a ninth-inning tie-breaking run, scored by Frank Grigonis with two outs. The Oglethorpe All-Stars sealed their 25^th victory in 32 games with Sgt. Gene Lambert on the mound against the 20^th. Lambert held them to just two runs through the eighth inning, when he was spelled by Jimmy “Lefty” McClure, who pitched a scoreless bottom half of the ninth to close the game. With the win, Oglethorpe secured a birth in the National Semi-Pro Baseball Congress in Wichita, Kansas, though the team opted to play a charity game against Naval Air Station Atlanta.

By August, both Gee’s and Mulcahy’s teams were out in front of their respective regions’ leagues. Fort Oglethorpe clinched the Tennessee-Kentucky service baseball championship and accepted a challenge from Mulcahy’s Second Army for a three-game series spread throughout the month. On August 7, the first game was hosted at Nashville’s Old Hickory diamond. Though the 2^nd Army squad led by Mulcahy was stacked with six former major leaguers and a handful of minor leaguers, they were held at bay by the Oglethorpe nine, with Jimmy McClure starting for the All-Stars.  McClure limited Mulcahy’s men to just seven hits scattered throughout the game, though former Cardinal outfielder, Erv Dusak, took McClure deep for the 2^nd Army’s only run. With the score tied at one apiece in the sixth inning, Charley Heffner drove in Les Burge from second base. Though Heffner was the only Oglethorpe batsman to hit safely more than once, Burge drove in two of the three runs scored in the game.

Accepting reinforcement for an August 12 fundraising game against Naval Air Station Atlanta, the Fort Oglethorpe All-Stars roster was augmented with the temporary addition of Carvel “Bama” Rowell, whose most recent professional experience was with the Braves in Boston. “Bama,” on loan from Camp Siebert, had been a thorn in the side of Gee’s club as Siebert was responsible for three of  Oglethorpe’s seven losses that season. Also joining Gee’s team was former St. Louis Cardinal and 1942 World Series star pitcher Johnny Beazley. Beazley was serving in the USAAF and playing for the Berry Air Field nine but was brought on board in the impromptu Army versus Navy fundraising game to benefit the Army Emergency Relief fund.

Chattanooga’s Engel Stadium was packed with more than 6,500 in attendance.  With 3,500 uniformed personnel and 3,000 civilians present, the game was a success as local fans who braved the inclement weather received a taste of big league baseball and an exciting game. Beazley was on the mound against the Navy’s Joe Lazenby. After Lazenby surrendered three first-inning runs plus two more in the second to Oglethorpe, Larry Miller took over for him and held the Army to seven hits and one run. Beazley struck out 10 Navy batters while giving up five runs on 10 hits and four walks.

The Oglethorpe offense had a two-run Claude Trivett blast over the right field fence in the bottom of the second, sending Joe Lazenby to the showers. In the fourth inning, with the Army ahead, 5-2, Buddy Bates knocked a 3-1 Beazley pitch to left field, driving in two runs. The former Card only allowed two more hits for the remainder of the game, though the Navy would score an unearned run as one of the two hits plated a baserunner who reached on a walk and was moved into scoring position on an error. Private Charlie Heffner, formerly of the Kingsport Cherokees (Class “D” Appalachian League) led off the bottom of the fifth inning with a single. A wild pitch by Miller allowed him to reach second base, followed by a fielder’s choice that pushed him to third. Carvel “Bama” Rowell drove Heffner home with a base hit to left field. The score remained 6-5 through the end of the game, with Oglethorpe finishing on top.

Days after his team defeated Mulcahy’s 2^nd Army squad, manager Staff Sergeant Gee, who was also serving as the non-commissioned officer athletic director at Fort Oglethorpe, was transferred to an engineer unit at Camp Sutton, North Carolina. Initially, centerfielder Corporal Claude Trivett was the planned successor to Gee at the helm of the Oglethorpe nine; however, team captain Corporal Les Burge took over. Corporal Lon Fitzgerald, the team’s third baseman, was elevated to the role of the Oglethorpe captain as announced by Lt. Marvin Holmes, Special Services Officer at the post.

On September 14, Oglethorpe faced off against the 2^nd Army once more for the Southern Army championship. Seeking to settle the season series as well as to claim the title, manager Hugh Mulcahy slated himself to start on the mound against Oglethorpe. The game had major league billing as the ex-Philly was pitching against the 1942 World Series hero, Johnny Beazley. The two teams were dominant in the South with comparable records: Oglethorpe posted 40 wins against 10 losses but Mulcahy’s 2^nd Army boasted a record of 44-5. The two squads had faced each other twice during the season with each claiming a win. The third game would decide which team would claim the title.

Wirt Gammon of the Chattanooga Daily Times claimed the championship game was, “One of the finest ball games ever played in this section of the country,” in his September 15, 1943 article. Spectators, including more than 1,000 civilians in Fort Oglethorpe’s home park, were treated to an epic pitching duel between Oglethorpe’s Beazley and Mulcahy of the 2^nd Army, with both pitchers going the distance. The Fort Oglethorpe hurler pitched a six-hit gem, allowing only one extra base hit to Ken Silvestri. while Long, Kozar, Flair and Byam all managed singles against  Beazley’s stingy pitching. In addition, two free passes were issued to the 2^nd Army. However, it was Hugh “Losing Pitcher” Mulcahy who bested the World Series champ by tossing a three-hit shutout, propelling the 2^nd Army to the title. It was Silvestri, with just 17 major league games under his belt for the 1941 Yankees, whose bat delivered the game-winning blow, an inside-the-park home run in the top of the seventh inning. A great defensive play by centerfielder Lou Roede robbed Oglethorpe’s Tatum of a home run in the fifth inning. Aside from the pre-game billing that the outcome would decide the Southern Service Championship, an unofficial title, three more games were scheduled between to two clubs, making an eventual six-game series the way to determine the championship.  On September 29, the fifth game was played at Memphis’s Old Hickory Park, with the 2^nd Army prevailing, 6-0, as Mulcahy pitched another shutout.

In the sixth and final game of the series, played in Memphis on October 3, Mulcahy secured an 8-4 win, defeating Beazley, who surrendered 12 hits, including a three-run homer to his former Cardinal teammate, Erv Dusak. Though Mulcahy won, his 11-hit, four-run performance demonstrated the toll that the heavy pitching load was taking on his arm.

Following the championship loss to the 2^nd Army, the Oglethorpe men had one game remaining on their schedule. It was against Camp Campbell’s 20^th Armored Division. Whether reeling from their loss to the 2^nd Army or showing wear from their grueling season, Oglethorpe took an 8-2 pounding in a road game at Camp Campbell, Kentucky. With an equally impressive record to their credit, the 20^th secured their 39^th win of the season in their last game against the northern Georgia fort’s nine.

The Army career paths of the two men, Fort Oglethorpe’s Joe Gee and the 2^nd Army’s Hugh Mulcahy, diverged towards the end of the 1943 season. Mulcahy pitched for and managed the 2^nd Army squad in Memphis for most of the 1944 season until he deployed to the South Pacific as part of the 8^th Army Headquarters staff. Sailing from San Francisco on August 14 aboard the USS General John Pope (AP-110) and taking with him a hand-selected group of players (some from the 2^nd Army club) to serve and play for the troops in and around New Guinea as part of the 8^th Army. Mulcahy would land on the Philippines as part of the invasion forces to fulfill General MacArthur’s promise to remove enemy occupation forces from the islands. Mulcahy led the charge to repair Manila’s Rizal Stadium and return baseball to its diamond in the spring of 1945. Gee was discharged from the Army on September 23, 1945. Unfortunately, details regarding his life after the war are minimal. By 1960, Gee and his wife Nell were listed in the Memphis city directory. Joe was an assistant vice president in sales with the John A. Denies Sons Company, for whom he worked before the war. Gee passed away in 1985, just a few weeks shy of his 77^th birthday.

Having accumulated enough points from service tenure and time overseas, Mulcahy returned to the U.S. by the end of July and was discharged on August 5, the day before the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Two days after Nagasaki was bombed, Mulcahy rejoined the Phillies on August 11 and made his first pitching appearance against the Boston Braves on August 26. Mulcahy lasted six innings and despite yielding just one earned run, a home run to Vince DiMaggio in the second inning, the Phillies’ shoddy defense in the form of three errors (including one of Mulcahy’s own) allowed three unearned Braves runs to taint his return. Mulcahy’s major league career was finished after two appearances with the Pirates in 1947, leaving him to spend the next four seasons in the minor leagues.  Baseball fans in Memphis saw the return of the 2^nd Army’s pitching hero for the 1948 and ’49 campaigns as he compiled a 28-18 record with the Chicks (Class “AA” of the American Association). His playing career behind him, Mulcahy had a lengthy player development, coaching and managing career and saw his way back to the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox as a pitching coach. Mulcahy lived the remainder of his life in Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh, passing away in 2001.

Fort Oglethorpe was deactivated in 1946 and subsequently sold in January, 1948. Less specific is the location of the Second Army facility that served as the post for Mulcahy’s team. In 1941, a local high school served as a short-term location before the Second Army HQ took over virtually every square inch of Cumberland University until sometime in 1943.

As has occurred many times for us in the past, an addition to the Chevrons and Diamonds photograph collection opens the door and sends us on a research expedition, only for us to discover multiple gems of baseball history which will no doubt lead to future articles in the weeks to come.

 

Diamond Score: Major League Baseball’s First Service Relief Game

In the weeks that followed December 7, 1941, the nation began a massive effort to build up troop and equipment levels to effectively take the fight to the declared enemies in the global war.  The considerable influx of manpower into the various branches, combined with the considerable losses suffered at Pearl Harbor, underscored the enormity of the present and subsequent needs that would be faced by families of actively -serving naval personnel.

The overwhelming percentage of naval personnel killed at Pearl Harbor was enlisted and the United States Government Life Insurance program (USGLI), established in 1919, provided a nominal amount for their beneficiaries.. The Navy Relief Society addressed a myriad of needs beyond the reach of the insurance payout for families by stepping in and filling the gap.

Commencing with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Greenlight Letter,” a response to a letter from Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, major league baseball’s commissioner, regarding the future state of the game during World War II, baseball experienced a monumental shift in manpower and objectives. With professional ballplayers heading into the armed forces, leaders within the Navy Relief Society recognized the coming needs and the opportunity to make a greater impact. On March 30, 1942, it introduced its new director of the national special events committee fund-raising campaign. Stanton Griffis, a World War I Army captain who served on the General Staff during the war, was chairman of the executive committee of Paramount Pictures, Inc. and was already involved in early war bond drives, starting in January. After the sudden, February 12 death of his wife, Dorothea, following a brief illness during a winter stay in Tucson, Arizona, Griffis propelled his efforts and attention into his role with the Navy Relief Society.

Formally incorporated by prominent society folks in 1904 in Washington D.C., the Navy Relief Society’s stated purpose was, “to afford relief to the widows and orphans of deceased officers, sailors and Marines of the United States Navy.” What set Navy Relief apart from previous endeavors was that the Society was formed with enlisted sailors in mind. Until the early twentieth century, enlisted personnel were managed under the Navy’s Bureau of Construction, Equipment and Repair, established in 1862, while officers were managed under the Bureau of Navigation. Enlisted personnel throughout the Navy’s existence until the 1920s were considered as mere equipment while officers were the backbone of the Navy and highly regarded in long-term planning and daily operations.. The Navy Relief Society’s move to recognize the needs of enlisted personnel along with officers was a ground breaking step, as stated in the organization’s incorporating mission statement. “It is also its purpose to aid in obtaining pensions for those entitled to them; to obtain employment for those deserving it, and to solicit and create scholarships and supervise educational opportunities for orphan children.”

“Sports leaders are giving wholesale support to Navy Relief fund-raising activities, it was announced today by Stanton Griffis, who heads the special events division of the Navy Relief Society’s $5,000,000 campaign. “Virtually every sport is represented in the drive,” Griffis said.” – The Casper Tribune-Herald, April 16, 1943

The significance of the game was not lost on the scorecard’s original owner as the twilight start time of the first service relief game was played in support of the Navy Relief Society. This note is inscribed on the top of the scorecard (Chevrons and Diamonds collection)

Navy Relief fund-raising games were commonplace in major and minor league parks during World War II. Whether the games were exhibition events involving service teams or regular season contests, the Relief games were highly successful in their fund-raising objectives. Stanton Griffis quickly established himself in his role. In a May 15 New York Daily News piece covering Griffis’ work, he was touted for his planning and organizing prowess, “The biggest promoter and supervisor of sports events in the country today is a chunky, hard-punching, ball of fire named Stanton Griffis, chairman of the special events committee of the Navy Relief Society’s fund-raising campaign,” the Daily News article described his efforts. “Among the sport programs planned by Griffis are Navy Relief baseball games in every minor league park in the country, all-star games, professional football games, and a comprehensive setup that will have practically every “name” boxer, footballer and baseballer performing in a mammoth drive that is expected to net close to $2,000,000 for the wives, widows, mothers and children of our Navy heroes.”

Recognizing the fund-raising campaign’s need for those who had a greater stake in the program as well as people who possessed name recognition and could shine an even brighter spotlight on the effort, Griffis enlisted assistance from the biggest name under the Navy’s sports banner: the “Fighting Marine” himself, Commander Gene Tunney. “The Navy thinks so highly of Mr. Griffis’ work that Commander Tunney has been temporarily assigned to the new sports program,” the New York Daily News described. “Gene has his famous physical education program flourishing now with 3,000 hand-selected specialists on the job from coast-to-coast hardening our Navy personnel. Griffis is a great admirer of the Tunney thoroughness technique.”

Despite some corner wear and a few nicks on the cover, this May 8, 1942 this Giants versus Dodgers Navy Relief game scorecard turned out to be a fantastic find (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

 

In collecting service game ephemera such as ticket stubs, programs, scorebooks and scorecards, one will assuredly encounter a piece that was used for a Navy Relief  fund-raising event. The Chevrons and Diamonds ephemera collection features a few Navy Relief scorecards from exhibition baseball games that were played for the direct benefit of the charity, such as this piece from the July 15, 1942 game between the Toledo Mud Hens and the Great Lakes Naval Training Station Bluejackets); however, the opportunity to acquire one from a major league regular season game had yet to arise for us.

Beautifully and meticulously scored, this grid details the Giants’ progress throughout the Game (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

One of the earliest Navy Relief fund-raiser games took place on May 8, 1942 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, New York, with the Dodgers playing host to their crosstown National League rivals, the Giants. Brooklyn, the reigning champions of the National League, held a 1.5-game lead in the league over the Pittsburgh Pirates. The visiting Giants were already 5.5 games behind, sitting in fifth place after 22 games in the new season. When the game was played, it was one of 16 scheduled events to raise money benefiting the service relief organizations. The game at Ebbets was arranged by Brooklyn’s former team president, Leland “Larry” MacPhail, who had resigned his position at the end of September, 1941 and returned to the Army after an absence of more than 20 years, following his service during the Great War.

The pregame festivities set the tone for subsequent charity games with pageantry and pomp and circumstance on the field, with 450 recent graduates from the Naval Academy along with 500 enlisted sailors from the Navy’s receiving ship unit and officers from the recently commissioned Dixie-class destroyer tender, USS Prairie (AD-15), all in attendance. Commander Tunney addressed the crowd with gratitude directed towards those in attendance, along with the players and the Giants and Dodgers organizations, as every person in the ballpark required a ticket to gain access, including players, umpires, security, concessionaires, ground crew and press. Even the active duty personnel required tickets to enter the park, though their tickets were paid for through donations from the ball clubs or other contributors (including 1,000 tickets purchased by a contractor in Trinidad). Though the ballpark’s seating capacity in 1942 was 35,000, 42,822 tickets were sold for the game.

The game netted Navy Relief more than $60,000, which included $1,000 from the scorecard vendor, the Davis Brothers. When one of those scorecards was listed for sale in an online auction, we didn’t hesitate to make a reasonable offer to acquire the piece as it aligned well with the overall direction of our collection of baseball militaria ephemera.

Brooklyn native, Joel Williams served in the Army Air Forces during the war flying patrols on the eastern seaboard. He was present at the May 8, 1942 Navy Relief game and kept score (courtesy of Michael Williams).

Seated in the stands along with countless active duty personnel was Army Air Forces pilot, Joel Williams, who meticulously kept score of his baseball heroes on that Friday afternoon, taking in  major league baseball’s first ever twilight game ( the first pitch was at 4:50 pm) in its history. No stranger to Ebbets Field, Williams attended games as a youth and saw some of the “daffy” Dodgers of old, despite his family not being able to afford the price of tickets. “As a kid, they had no money, so he used to sweep the stands at Ebbets Field for free bleacher seats,” Michael Williams wrote. Joel Williams’ duties saw him patrolling the Eastern Seaboard, scouting for approaching enemy units during the war. “He flew guard planes on the East Coast and did not serve overseas,” his son wrote. Williams joined hundreds of fellow uniformed comrades at the game on this day, no doubt as a guest of the Dodgers (or Giants), which purchased many of the troops’ tickets for the game.

Williams remained a true blue Dodgers fan and suffered the indignation of seeing his beloved “Bums” follow the Giants to the opposite coast. “Dad tried to be a Mets fan but was never completely satisfied with that,” Michael stated. “And the Yankees were from the Bronx and that was not for a Brooklyn boy.” Joel Williams never ceased his love for the old Brooklyn Dodgers. After reaching an amicable agreement and a few days of shipping, the scorecard arrived safely.

Opening up to the scorecard’s centerfold, the details of the game’s progress feature fantastically detailed hand notations that align with the historic record of the game showing that this airman’s attention was focused on the field (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

On the field, the game was exciting as the Giants got ahead of Brooklyn’s Whit Wyatt, 2-0, with a single and a run scored by Johnny Mize (driven in by Buster Maynard) in the top of the second inning and single and run scored by Giants pitcher Cliff Melton to lead off the top of the third (driven in on a sacrifice fly by Mel Ott).

Dodger bats came to life in the bottom of the third with singles by Wyatt, Billy Herman and Arky Vaughn (Wyatt was tagged out stretching for third base). Pete Reiser singled to load the bases, followed by a two-RBI double by Johnny Rizzo leaving Reiser at third. Joe Medwick reached on an error which also scored Reiser and Rizzo. Melton was relieved by Bill McGee, who coaxed Dolph Camilli into a comebacker, igniting a double play to end the Dodger feast and the third inning.

Wyatt’s pitching wasn’t as much of a story as was his bat. The Brooklyn starter followed Pee Wee Reese’s lead-off fly-out with another single and advanced to second on a throwing error. Herman singled and another Giants miscue plated Wyatt as Herman arrived at second. Vaughn flew out but Reiser singled to score Herman, putting the Dodgers up, 6-2, after four innings of play.

Wyatt struggled in the top half of the fifth inning after striking out the leadoff batter, pitcher McGee.  A single by Dick Bartell, two free passes to Billy Jurges and Mize and a hit batsman (Willard Marshall) plated Bartell and cut the Dodgers’ lead in half, leaving the score in Brooklyn’s favor, 6-3.

May 8, 1942 Giants Line up:

Batting	Branch	Entered
Dick Bartell 3B	Navy	1943
Billy Jurges SS
Mel Ott RF
Johnny Mize 1B	Navy	1943
Willard Marshall LF-CF	USMC	1943
Harry Danning C	USAAF	1943
Buster Maynard CF	Army	1943
Babe Barna PH-LF
Mickey Witek 2B	USCG	1944
Cliff Melton P
Bill McGee P
Babe Young PH	USCG	1943
Ace Adams P

 

May 8, 1942 Dodgers Line up:

Batting	Branch	Entered
Billy Herman 2B	Navy	1944
Arky Vaughan 3B
Pete Reiser CF	Army	1943
Johnny Rizzo RF	Navy	1943
Joe Medwick LF
Dolph Camilli 1B
Mickey Owen C	Navy	1945
Pee Wee Reese SS	Navy	1942
Whit Wyatt P
Bob Chipman P
Hugh Casey P	Navy	1943

The Giants drove Wyatt from the hill in the top of the seventh after he struck out the leadoff batter, Bartell, and walked Jurges and Ott, bringing the tying run in power-hitting Mize to the batter’s box. Brooklyn’s Bob Chipman faced the challenge by walking Mize and loading the bases. Facing Willard Marshall with the sacks full, Chipman failed to deliver as the left fielder singled to score Jurges and Ott, though Mize was tagged out in his attempt to reach third base. Durocher had seen enough of Chipman and replaced him with Hugh Casey with two out, two runs in and Marshall at first. Casey coaxed Giants catcher Harry Danning into a long flyout to right field to preserve the one-run lead.

In the bottom half of the frame, Dodgers first sacker Camilli led off the inning by taking Bill McGee deep and putting Brooklyn up by two, driving in what would end up being the deciding run of the game. In the top of the 8^th, Mickey Witek singled with one out. Babe Young pinch-hit for McGee, reaching on an error by second baseman Herman (his second of the game), allowing Witek to reach third.. Dick Bartell plated Witek with a 5-3 fielder’s choice. Jurges grounded out to Reese to end the inning. Hugh Casey allowed two hits to Mize and Danning in the top of the ninth but kept the Giants from scoring and preserved Wyatt’s first victory of the season.

The Dodgers struck back in the 3rd inning and never looked back though their opponents made a game of it, tallying six runs on Brooklyn’s pitching. Dolph Camilli’s 7th inning homerun proved to be the difference (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

For the 1941 National League champions, the 1942 season was shaping up to be a repeat performance and predictions for a Dodgers return to the World Series seemed to be coming to fruition until the St. Louis Cardinals overtook Brooklyn. With just fourteen games remaining in the season, the Dodgers were unable to retake first place and finished the season behind St. Louis by two games. Before the start of the 1943 season, the Dodgers lost Reese, Casey and Rizzo to the Navy and Reiser left for service in the Army. From the Giants, Bartell (Navy), Maynard (Army), Mize (Navy), Marshall (USMC) Danning (Army Air Forces) and Young (Coast Guard) were all in the service by spring training.

The game scorecard is two-color (red and blue), printed on thin cardstock and features 14 internal pages. Each interior page is predominated by advertisements for products and local businesses. The ads are positioned on either side of a one-inch band across the pages’ mid-sections that provides scoring instructions, the 1942 season schedule, divided into home and away games, and Brooklyn Dodgers historical details and records. New to baseball scorecards, located on page 12 are instructions and regulations in the event of an enemy air raid taking place during the game as well as the call for citizens to purchase “Defense Bonds.”

Of the 24 men who played in this first major league service relief game, thirteen served in the armed forces during the war, with several of them participating in other fund-raising games while playing for service teams.This further enhances the desirability of this scorecard as a baseball militaria piece. Considering all of the historic aspects of the game, this is one of the more special pieces of ephemera in the Chevrons and Diamonds collection.

 

A Combat and Baseball Story Uncovered: Discovery From a Lone Name on a Photo

Halfway through the 1930s, amid the Great Depression that gripped the United States with record unemployment and increased poverty, hopelessness was a common concept for Americans. Though Wall Street was already feeling the Depression’s birthing pains in previous months, Black Tuesday (October 29, 1929) marked the day that the financial system fell into near collapse. Months later, the Midwestern and Southern Great Plains states, known as “America’s breadbasket,” were struck by a drought that would grip the region throughout the 1930s. While unemployment and soup lines grew, America’s Game entered its golden era.

In 1927, baseball attracted fans in droves as Babe Ruth anchored the New York Yankees’ famous “Murderers’ Row,” which included Earle Combs, Mark Koenig, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel, and Tony Lazzeri, as the team clubbed their way to a 110-win season and the World Championship. The Yankees’ place in history was cemented by five championships in the thirties and saw the end of the career of the most popular player in the game’s history as Ruth announced his retirement on June 2, 1935. For many Americans, the Yankees, if not the game itself, provided a measure of hope during dark times. With talent, dedication, hard work and timing, a poor kid from the sandlots could find himself on a semi-professional or minor league squad, working his way toward the major leagues.

In 1936, Joe DiMaggio, one of three baseball-playing sons of a hardworking Italian immigrant fisherman, found himself in negotiations for a major league contract to play baseball for the New York Yankees. He was being secretly assisted by one of the game’s greatest ballplayers, Ty Cobb. In San Diego, a young and impoverished 17-year-old kid, Theodore Samuel Williams, with the help of his single mother, negotiated a contract to play for the Pacific Coast League’s Padres on his way to achieving his goal of becoming the greatest hitter in the game. The game provided a way out of poverty for players, no matter if they made it to the major leagues.

Baseball was also symbolic, if not analogous especially during a time when people were faced with employment and economic challenges such as during the Depression. A batter could fail seven times out of ten attempts and still be considered great as he continued to strive for perfection. While revered by many Americans, the Yankees represented Goliath as they claimed five of the ten championships in the 1930s. The other five victors were teams with significantly smaller budgets, with four of them playing in smaller markets, giving hope that the underdog still had a fighting chance.

As the thirties came to a close and the 1940s dawned, the winds of war were blowing in Europe and the Far East as the fascist regimes in Germany, Italy and Japan began invading neighboring nations in search of territory and natural resources.  The United States and baseball were in transition. The Selective Service Act of 1940 was signed by President Roosevelt to begin rebuilding the nation’s defensive capability both in manpower and equipment. The professional ranks began seeing ballplayers departing to fulfill their service obligation. The major leagues saw their first player, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Hugh “Losing Pitcher” Mulcahy report to his draft board on March 8, 1942 for induction.

Leading up to the war, baseball truly was America’s pastime. While the major and high minor leagues were attracting substantial audiences, even during the waning years of the Great Depression, fans were also following baseball closer to their homes with amateur and semi-professional baseball leagues. Many players who took the field for these teams spent their entire baseball careers at these levels despite having the talent to advance through the professional ranks in the minor leagues. For their own reasons they chose not to sign pro contracts. In researching wartime service baseball teams, many of the players rounding out rosters dotted with former major and minor leaguers are men who before the war were semi-pro stars. One such man was Joe Batcha of Jeddo, Pennsylvania.

Catching for a highly competitive team in his hometown, the Jeddo Athletic Association’s Stars, Batcha followed in his father’s footsteps with the team. Following a one-month stint with the Hazleton Red Sox, he withdrew as the team faced financial difficulties before signing on with Jeddo, according to an article in the April 14, 1941 News Leader (Staunton, Virginia). In the late 1930s, Batcha established himself as both an outstanding defensive catcher and as a feared batsman, averaging .401 from 1937-1940 which got the attention of the Class “C” Virginia League’s Staunton Presidents as he signed on along with three of his former Jeddo teammates.

As with Hugh Mulcahy at the major league level, the peacetime selective service requirements impacted players at the semi-professional level. In April of 1941, the Jeddo Stars honored their first draftees, George “Goose” Rollins and Arthur Wilkinson, with a farewell party. One month following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Batcha set down his “tools of ignorance” and enlisted in the U.S. Army at New Cumberland, Pennsylvania.

Following his basic training, Batcha was assigned to the 145th Infantry Regiment, 37th Infantry Division, where he served as an infantryman, machine gunner and, according to his obituary, an M1 mortarman.  As Commander Joseph Rochefort’s Station Hypo code-breakers were confirming the target of a Japanese assault at Midway, transports and escorts carrying the 37th Infantry Division sailed on May 26 from San Francisco bound for the Fiji Islands, where they would spend the next several months preparing to take on the Japanese in the Solomon Islands. Joe Batcha sent a letter home in the fall of 1942 to inform his parents of his Fiji location. It was published in the local newspaper, The Plain Speaker (Hazleton, Pennsylvania) on Monday, November 23, 1942. The Solomons campaign was launched in early August, 1942 with Operation Watchtower and the First Marine Division’s landing on Guadalcanal. Enemy forces put up strong resistance on land, in the air and on the seas surrounding the islands as the heavy fighting lasted into early 1943.

As detailed in another letter to his parents, Batcha’s unit trained in both the Fiji Islands and New Zealand. The former Jeddo Stars catcher included souvenirs of his time in both locations.  Following the lengthy and arduous training period, the 145th did not get into the fight until late spring with the launch of Admiral Halsey’s New Georgia campaign, called Operation Toenails. Batcha’s unit engaged forces. According to the October 14, 1943 edition of The Plain Speaker (Hazleton, Pennsylvania) Batcha was in the thick of the fighting. “Joey Batcha saw heavy action in recent fighting in the SW Pacific, according to word received by his parents,” the article stated.  “The popular backstop was in the first wave of infantrymen to go ashore at Rendova Island at the start of the new offensive early in July. His unit quickly wiped out the few Jap outposts on this island, but they had tougher going when they moved across the channel to reduce the Munda airport on New Georgia Island.”

During the fighting, as forces from the 145th assaulted the Munda airport, Batcha ran into a familiar face from home, John Billy. Billy stated that the two connected under hails of enemy fire on multiple occasions during the battle yet for obvious reasons, the two could not catch up on news from the home front.

After New Georgia and Rendova were secured, Batcha’s unit was dispatched to Bougainville following Admiral Aaron Merrill’s and Admiral Arleigh Burke’s naval battle and the 3rd Marine Division landing at Empress Augusta Bay in early November. Just ahead of spring, the 145th Infantry Regiment, occupying the high ground on the island, became the center of the defense against a Japanese attack that included an uphill saber charge against the entrenched Americans. Batcha’s unit fought for five continuous days against the enemy onslaught, with reinforcement from the second battalion of the 148th Infantry Regiment after two days. The Americans virtually destroyed the second and third battalions of the Japanese 23rd Infantry and the 13th Infantry. For the next several months, Batcha exchanged his weapons for a glove and bat as he played in the unit’s baseball league while participating in a rigorous amphibious training cycle. For the time being, baseball served as a respite from his daily duties.

Joe Batcha’s popularity among baseball fans in the Hazleton, White Haven and Freeland region of Pennsylvania kept his name in the hometown newspaper throughout his service in the South Pacific.  Following President Roosevelt’s executive order, the newly established Combat Infantryman Badge was authorized to be awarded to troops who met the criteria: be an infantryman satisfactorily performing infantry duties; be assigned to an infantry unit during such time as the unit is engaged in active ground combat and actively participate in such ground combat. On April 4, 1944, The Plain Speaker of Hazleton announced, “Corporal Joseph Batcha, of Jeddo, has been presented with the Army’s newest award for infantrymen, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, for exemplary conduct in combat.” The Plain Speaker piece spotlighted Batcha’s service with the 37th Division up to that point. “Since starting his tour of overseas service on May 26, 1942, he has been stationed in New Zealand, the Fiji Islands, Guadalcanal, Vella Lavella and Empress Augusta Bay and is a veteran of the New Georgia campaign.”

Baseball on Bougainville, July 1944. This photo of a game involving the XOV Corps Headquarters team illustrates the conditions that Batcha and the 145th’s Barracudas faced. The 37th Division was one of two principle units of the XIV Corps during the Bougainville campaign (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

By July of 1944, Corporal Batcha was establishing himself as a star among the men of the 37th Infantry Division. His offensive prowess was the subject of a hometown newspaper article in the Wednesday, July 19 edition of The Plain Speaker. “Cpl. Batcha, former Jeddo Stars catcher now with the 37th Infantry on Bougainville, still packs a ‘punch at the plate’ according to a new story received today from the division headquarters in the Southwest Pacific. In a recent baseball game on the island, Batcha’s double to left scoring two mates climaxed a fifth inning rally which gave Col. Whitcomb’s ‘Barracudas’ a 7-4 victory over Col. Frederick’s Blues.” Similar to many other military unit teams, Batcha’s Barracudas roster was stocked with former semi-professional ballplayers from across the country.

According to the article, apart from combat, Batcha saw plenty of diamond action in 1943, “Despite all the battling that he has done against the Japs, Batcha has been quite fortunate enough to get in his baseball. Last year he led his team in batting,” having spent more than two years in the South Pacific in combat, “as a machine-gunner (sic) with the 37th Infantry Division.”

That fall, Batcha and the 37th’s Barracudas (led by Colonel Cecil B. Whitcomb) were vying for a championship as they moved into a tie for first place in one of the Southwest Pacific leagues. Backstop Joe Batcha tallied two runs on a pair of solo home runs in a contest with the 37th Division Engineers. His second homerun pushed the Barracudas ahead on their way to a blow-out victory. His battery mate, pitcher Private G. Thomas Dilday*, formerly of the Shamrocks (a semi-pro club in Petersburg, Virginia) held the Engineers to three runs, assuring the Barracudas of a berth in the 37th Division League playoffs for the island’s championship. Those that secured a playoff spot included teams from Artillery, Engineers, Medical and Infantrymen, the rosters of which also included former professional baseball players. Unfortunately, research has not led to the outcome of the 37th Division tournament. As the baseball diamonds fell silent in the following weeks, the men of the 37th began preparations to depart Bougainville as General Douglas MacArthur’s 1942 promise was soon to be fulfilled.

Batcha and the men of the 145th Infantry Regiment landed as part of 37th Division and the rest of the Sixth Army at Lingayen Gulf on the Philippine island of Luzon on January 9, 1945.  The objective for the 37th was the capital city, Manila.  The Japanese resistance on Luzon was representative of what the Marines saw on Tarawa, with the fierce counter attacks. Enemy forces had become entrenched since the island nation fell in the spring of 1942. By the end of January, the 145th advanced to Clark Field and Fort Stotsenburg. On January 31, the American flag was raised at the fort, the Americans having suffered 350 casualties in the three days of fighting. As the Americans advanced towards Manila, the Japanese troops not actively engaged in the fighting stepped up their atrocities on the American and European prisoners that were captured when the nation fell in 1942. The Allied soldiers had been unable to evacuate along with Filipino women and children. A month-long campaign of terror, which commenced on February 3, saw as many as 500,000 people terrorized and slaughtered at the end of Japanese bayonets. Girls aged 12-14 were selected and imprisoned at the Bayview Hotel (the designated “rape center”) in Manila and were submitted to round-the-clock brutalities by a constant stream of officers and soldiers. Afterwards, the girls were subjected to horrifying mutilations (such as slicing off their breasts and being doused with gasoline and set alight while mocked). Such scenes took place at schools, convents, hospitals and churches. Liberation came with a horrifying cost as the men of the 37th advanced on the city and the fortifications and artillery emplacements in the surrounding mountains overlooking the area.

Manila Retaken (1945 Film):

Advancing units of the 37th and 145th were met with heavy resistance by the retreating Japanese. Armored units of the 37th engaged heavily entrenched enemy troops at Rizal Memorial Stadium with American tanks pummeling machine gun and mortar positions in the stands of the ballpark. By the end of March, the city of Manila was in ruins as mop-up efforts came to a close after the March 4 fall of the Japanese-held historic walled city of Intramuros.

Battle of the Ballpark Film (1945):

Rizal Memorial Stadium was a ballpark that had played host to a contingent of American baseball all-stars in December of 1934. Lou Gehrig christened the (then) new ballpark as he crushed the first home run hit there during a December Far Eastern Championship game featuring the All-Americans, fresh from their tour of Japan. Babe Ruth followed suit and drove out the second bomb at the park. With 5,000 permanent grandstand seats, the game with the All-Americans saw 10,000 additional spectators seated down the respective left and right field foul lines. Rivaling those in the largest major league ballparks, the center field scoreboard was one of the largest of its kind. After the Americans wrested the city of Manila from its repressive occupiers, leaders took stock of the destruction of the ballpark, noting that the stands were riddled with holes from ordinance, machine gun fire and mortars. The diamond was chewed up from tank tracks. The grandstand seating had been entirely removed during the Japanese occupation, leaving the concrete risers exposed and damaged.

This snapshot of Rizal Stadium (ca. 1945-46) shows the home plate entrance of the ballpark with a Jeep parked in front (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

In a matter of weeks, Rizal Memorial Stadium underwent a dramatic transformation as the GIs and local citizens worked diligently to bring baseball back to the diamond. The monumental tasks of clearing booby-traps and more than 800 landmines, removing the enemy dead, filling bomb craters and tank tracks in the field and clearing debris took weeks while the men reformed their unit teams and prepared to reintroduce baseball to the once venerable venue.

A soldier captured game action at Rizal Stadium from behind the screen. Though poorly exposed, this photo shows the large centerfield scoreboard that survived the battle at the ballpark (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

“The crack of willow against horsehide is being heard again in the heart of Manila.” wrote Russ Newland in his April 18 article, US Soldiers Play in Rizal Stadium, which appeared in the Rocky Mount Telegram. “American soldiers have brought baseball back to Rizal Stadium. Garrison troops are playing regular games before thousands of fans in what once was Manila’s most elaborate sports establishment.” Combat-worn troops had a sense of home as they watched games from the naked, battle-damaged, concrete grandstand tiers. Despite the absence of hot dog or beer vendors in the stands and the lack of flannel baseball uniforms worn on the field, the games were welcomed as if the men were seated at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn for just a few hours. “The dugouts are black from flame throwers and chipped from shells,” Newland wrote. “Outfields are foreshortened by crumbled walls and Japanese bunkers. The former turf is now dirt, carefully rolled by the doughboys.”

Surviving the Japanese occupation and the 1945 battle at the stadium, the marker still remains to commemorate the ballpark’s first home run hit by Lou Gehrig (Press Photo).

Monuments to the legendary 1934 All-American game still existed as stated by Newland, “One sign notes the late Lou Gehrig hit the first and sixth homers near the right field foul line. Earl Averill knocked the third and fifth into right center.” The correspondent continued, “The home run records of Babe Ruth and Jimmie Foxx were erased by the war. The mark of the Japanese is still there, too – the occasional stench of dead entombed deep within the concrete stadium.” Newland concluded, “But baseball lives again in the Philippines.”

Led by Master Sergeant Hugh Mulcahy, the hard work of repairing the ballpark paid off as the “Horsehide Inaugural” was held at the beginning of May with games featuring major and minor leaguers, all veterans of the retaking of Manila. The field was dedicated to Colonel Rinaldo Coe, Eighth Army Headquarters Commandant, who was killed in action on February 3 in the Nasugbu region, 90 kilometers southwest of Manila.

Packed with servicemen, the grandstand at Rizal has had some rudimentary repairs to accommodate seating with slightly improved comfort. This photo was captured later in 1945 or early 1946 (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

The Horsehide Inaugural featured several teams playing before more than 6,000 troops seated on the concrete grandstand tiers. On hand for the first pitch was comedian Joe E. Brown, who spent the entire war entertaining troops and hosting fundraiser exhibition games to supply them with baseball and recreation equipment (see: A Passion for the Troops: Joe E. Brown’s All Pacific Recreation Fund and Service All-Stars Raising Funds on the Diamond for their Comrades in the Trenches). He was honored to participate. Rather than a ceremonial toss to a catcher, Brown faced an honorary batter in the 8th Army’s commanding officer, Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger, who struck out laughing. Receiving Brown’s pitches was Eighth Army chief of staff, Brigadier General Clovis E. Byers. The opening game featured the Eighth Army Chicks, who handily downed a team from the Signal Corps by a score of 11-4. Leading from the bench, Hugh Mulcahy had been sidelined following an injury to his back that was strained as he “worked so hard getting the diamond ready,” reported by war correspondent, Richard C. Bergholz, in the wire story, Joe E. Brown Is Starter as Leyte Ball Season On, carried by the Pomona Press on May 4, 1945. The game saw former St. Louis Cardinal and Chicks outfielder Erv Dusak score two of the 11 runs with his 2-4 plate performance. Dusak’s teammate, former Louisville Colonels first baseman George Byam, was not outmatched. He had a 4-5 day at the plate, scoring four runs.

A clipping from the May 1, 1945 New York Daily News, Shows Eddie Waitkus dressed in a t-shirt, fatigue trousers and combat boots at bat in the battered Rizal Stadium in Manila. Notes the pockmark-damage in the concrete along the first base grandstand face.

Perhaps one of the most notable Associated Press images captured during the initial games played at Rizal Stadium in the early spring of 1945 shows former Los Angeles Angels and Chicago Cubs first baseman, Sergeant Eddie Waitkus, bedecked in a t-shirt, fatigue trousers and boots, at bat in Rizal Stadium. Waitkus, a combat veteran attached to the 544th Engineer Boat & Shore Regiment (E.B. & S.R.), 4th Engineer Special Brigade, fought at Bougainville and participated in the amphibious assault at Morotai before fighting on Luzon at Lingayen. He earned four campaign stars for his Asiatic Pacific Campaign medal and his Combat Infantryman Badge. After the fighting in Manila, Eddie was tapped for diamond duties with the 544th E.B. and S.R. squad at Rizal Stadium. In a letter written on the back of a program/scorecard, now housed in the National Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, Sergeant Waitkus touched on a few details surrounding the game as well as his encounter with former Philadelphia Philly Morrie Arnovich, who spent the first few years of the war as a player-manager of the Fort Lewis Warriors (see: Morrie Arnovich: Breaking Ground for Branch Rickey’s Bold Move).

“Dear Jim,

Here’s the game I spoke of. We got beat, but I got 3 for four and had a good day. Ran into Morrie Arnovich here. If we don’t move out, we’re playing his team soon. It’s supposed to have been the first game played here since the Japs came about three years ago.

It was swell to play again, and we’ll have plenty of baseball for a while at least.

Eddie

The guy that pitched against us was a left hander Cincinnati had at Syracuse. Pretty good boy. 544th E.B. and S.R. vs. 145th INFANTRY 37th DIV.”

– Handwritten note from Eddie Waitkus. Source: National Baseball Hall of Fame

The press photo of Waitkus captured game action as the 544th faced Corporal Joe Batcha’s 145th squad. Due to his unit’s operational pace, Waitkus had little time for baseball. However, following the retaking of Manila, he was finally able to play. Batcha’s team proved to be too much for Waitkus despite his 1-3 batting performance.

In the shadow of the heavily-damaged grandstand of Rizal Stadium, former Jeddo Stars slugging catcher, Sergeant Joe Batcha swings at a pitch for the 145th Infantry Barracudas as they face Eddie Waitkus’ 544th Engineer Boat & Shore Regiment. The caption slug on the reverse reads, “April 1, 1945 – Manila, Philippines: Having captured the ballpark (Rizal Stadium) during battle for Manila, troops of the 37th Division put on first game of organized baseball since re-capture of the city. Catcher Batcha, former Los Angeles diamond star, now with the 145th Infantry of the 37th Division, connects with a fast one. The 544th Engineers opposed the 145th in the game which featured many former ball stars now in service.” (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection)

Regarding the game, our research trail went cold and left us without a box score, players for either team or game details. In reaching out to Claudette Scrafford, Manuscript Archivist at the Hall of Fame, we were hopeful to obtain a scan of the interior of the scorecard in search of further information. Disappointment set in when Ms. Scrafford informed us that the reverse side was blank. It seems that the scorecard internals were not donated along with the cover and handwritten letter. Despite the roadblock that we encountered regarding the game at Rizal, Batcha’s trail extended well-beyond the war. Just weeks after the Japanese surrender, Batcha was sent back to the U.S. mainland, arriving from the Philippines on October 3. He was sent to Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, where he was discharged on October 19. After more than three years of service, much of it in heavy combat, Batcha picked up where he left off with the Jeddo Stars.

The Jeddo Stars’ teams of 1947 and 1948 were, according to a retrospective of the team in the July 7, 2013 Standard Speaker (Hazleton, PA), “could rival class D, C and B minor league teams,” wrote Sam Matta. “When the Stars took to the field, as many as 5,000 fans came to watch.” It was the dominant team in the Anthracite League and built a 32-game winning streak from 1946 into 1948. During the war, with most of the Stars’ players away serving in the armed forces, the Jeddo team faced a two-game home and away series against the 1945 Sampson Naval Training Station team that featured major leaguers such as Mickey Owen, Tony Ravish, Tony Lupien, Jim Konstanty and Clem Dreiseward. Sampson handily won both games.

Prompted by the acquisition of a seemingly insignificant photo with a very faint caption slug on the reverse, we were inspired  to identify the one player, the batter, listed only by his last name (“Batcha”) and incorrectly associated, as we learned, with baseball in Los Angeles. Shining a light on the average GI who served in combat with distinction during World War II and who established himself on the diamond for his unit and comrades is one of the greatest aspects of what we do with Chevrons and Diamonds.  For every star of the major leagues who served, there were countless average Joes who served on the field of battle. A handful of them found themselves playing the game alongside their pre-war baseball heroes.

 

*Private First Class Graham Thomas Dilday, Sr, was killed in action on April 12, 1945 near Baguio during the Luzon Campaign. In details provided by his son, Tom Dilday, Jr., PFC Dilday was serving as the lead scout for 3rd Platoon, Co. C, 1st Battalion, 145th Regiment during an assault on enemy positions on Mt. Pacawagan. While moving forward on the mountain, Dilday was struck in his chest by fire from a Japanese machine gun nest. According to Dilday’s son, his father, “though mortally wounded, managed to throw several grenades toward the enemy and succeeded in eliminating the machine gun nest.” wrote Dilday, Jr. “By the time his platoon reached him he had died with his hand still clutching a grenade.”

At an Army Day observance on April 7 1946 at Camp Lee, Virginia, PFC G. Thomas Dilday, Sr. was posthumously awarded the Silver Star Medal for his actions on Mt. Pacawagan. Brigadier General George A. Horkan pinned the Silver Star Medal on the soldier’s three-year-old son.

“Private Dilday, while in the process of moving forward to locate an enemy position on Mt. Pacawagan, was seriously wounded by a burst of enemy fire. Despite a badly bleeding chest wound he edged within 10 yards of the Japanese bunker. Mustering his quickly diminishing strength, Private Dilday threw two hand grenades at the enemy emplacement, one of which successfully neutralized the bunker. Seven enemy dead were later counted.

Private Dilday’s display of extreme courage at the cost of his life reduced a strong obstacle to the advance of his platoon and the company.”

A Patient Find: Joe and Charlie Headline 1943 Hammond General Hospital Game

It probably shouldn’t seem strange to us after more than a decade dedicated to the pursuit of baseball militaria but 2020 has been a surprising year in terms of the scarcity and rarity of artifacts that have arrived at the Chevrons and Diamonds collection: treasures such as bats, gloves and baseballs that have left us stunned and four wartime flannel uniforms (all Navy) that began to trickle in early in the year. Keeping with that trend, another treasure that had previously seemed unobtainable for well over half  a decade became available.

Collecting baseball militaria is a far different endeavor than what baseball or militaria collectors experience. We often find ourselves  seeking the unknown as so much of what we uncover has not been documented in previous sales or auction listings.  One such occurrence toward the end of 2019 was the acquisition of the only known example of a scorecard from the first game of the 1945 ETO World Series (see: Keeping Score at Nuremberg: A Rare 1945 GI World Series Scorecard). Though we had been in search of a scorecard or program from this series,  exactly what was used to keep score was unknown..  When the ETO piece surfaced, there were several elements that helped us to quickly determine that it was from the series and that we had finally found the Nuremburg-used piece that we had been seeking. (We also discovered that there was another scorecard used for the games hosted at HQ Command’s Athletic Field, located at Reims in France.)

Ephemera such as scorecards, programs and scorebooks from service team games or fundraiser exhibitions (games played between service and professional teams) can pose quite a challenge to locate due to numerous factors. Some of the games were played in front of small audiences, which resulted in a small number of scorecards or programs being distributed among the attendees. Of those who kept their paper items after the game, how many survived travel, moves and the elements during the last 70+ years?

On October 3, 1943, a fundraising game was played at Stockton Field,  which was home to the Army’s West Coast Training Center and the Air Corps Advanced Flying School, before a capacity crowd of 6,000. Similar to many other fund-raising service exhibition baseball games, this contest pitted the San Francisco Seals against an All-Star conglomeration of West Coast-based service personnel who were formerly professional ballplayers.

McClellan Field Fliers teammates, Ferris Fain (left) and Mike McCormick work on an aircraft engine with (former minor leaguer) Eddie Funk in 1943 (photo courtesy of Harrington E. Crissey, Jr.).

All eyes were focused upon the two stars, future Hall of Famers, who were playing for the service team..  Charlie Gehringer, the Detroit Tigers’ “Mechanical Man” second baseman who retired after a 19-year major league career, enlisted in the U.S. Navy and attended instructor’s school at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in the Navy Pre-Flight program. After graduating from the program, Lieutenant Gehringer was assigned as an instructor at the Navy Pre-Flight School, St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California, and was named the head coach (he also played) of the school’s baseball team. During the 1943 season, Gehringer’s club posted a 24-5 record, including defeats handed to San Francisco and Oakland of the Pacific Coast League as well as Stanford and University of California, and claimed the All-Service League’s championship (see: Discovering New Research Avenues: SABR and The U.S. Navy Pre-flight School at St. Mary’s). The other star under the spotlight, Joe DiMaggio, entered the U.S. Army Air Forces on February 17, 1943, despite his 3A draft deferment status, just as his Yankee teammates were starting spring training.  Recognizing the public attention that DiMaggio would bring to fund raising efforts, the USAAF leadership assigned him to the Santa Ana Army Air Base (SAAAB) in Southern California following basic training at Fort Ord, CA, which was the headquarters for the West Coast Army Air Corps Training Command Center. The Yankee Clipper’s new squad had modest success. The Rosebel Plumbers, a civilian industrial league club, and the 6^th Ferrying Group team bested the SAAAB nine in 1943 league play,  despite DiMaggio’s 20-game hitting streak.

Future McClellan Field Fliers teammates Dario Lodigiani (left) and Walter Judnich take a breather at basic training at the Presidio of Monterey, California (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

With combat in the Pacific raging on and around the Solomon Islands ashore, on the seas and in the air, the physical toll on service members required more medical care facilities on the West Coast. Three months after Pearl Harbor, the Army Corps of Engineers purchased acreage from Stanislaus County and immediately began construction on a 2,500-bed facility. One year after the initial land acquisition, the new Army medical facility, Hammond General Hospital, was designated as one of only five thoracic surgical centers on the West Coast and could treat the most severe combat traumas. When combat wounded arrived at Hammond, it was clear for most of them due to the severity of their injuries that the treatment they received was for stabilization and for their return to society. Troops would receive neurological care, general and orthopedic surgery, neurosurgery and psychiatry as well as rehabilitation during their stay at Hammond.

Recreation at Hammond General Hospital was needed for patients and staff alike. Baseball was a universal activity that could be incorporated into the rehabilitation process for recovering wounded troops (Phil Rizzuto formed a league for wounded Marines and Sailors recovering in Brisbane, Australia, in 1944. See: Serving Behind the Scenes, Rizzuto Shared His Heart for the Game). With the regular California service league play completed in September, the Hammond charity game was scheduled for Sunday, October 3, allowing time for the teams to be assembled. The game was promoted as a fund raiser “for the benefit of wounded veterans at Hammond General Hospital” (“Joe DiMaggio Will Be Feature of Game” – The Spokesman Review, September 28, 1943) in West Coast newspapers, with DiMaggio as the “main attraction.”

One of the nicest wartime service game programs, this 1943 Hammond General Hospital( fundraiser All-Star game featured two future Hall of Fame players who were serving in the armed forces (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

Several years ago, a program was listed at auction showing only the cover of a program from the charity game played on October 3, 1943, between a “Service All-Stars” team and the San Francisco Seals. The price was considerably steep ($299.00) for the piece and yet the listing was scant in detail and only mentioned Joe DiMaggio as one of the players on the service team. Considering the price and the lack of detail, we decided not to pursue the piece. As we researched the game with hopes of finding another available copy of the program, we discovered that the Baseball Hall of Fame’s museum also had a copy of the program in their archives (see: Baseball Enlists: Uncle Sam’s Teams). Their site, as with the auction listing, showed only the cover and mentioned an additional star player on the service team.

The 1943 Hammond General Hospital fundraiser All-Star game program (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

The program and scorecard consists of front and back covers with six interior pages. Constructed from a sheet of cardstock (covers) and lightweight paper (interior pages), the piece succinctly describes the reason for the game and provides the lineups for each team on separate pages, along with scoring grids. Advertising occupies the two interior pages opposite  the front and back covers and the centerfold page features head shots of DiMaggio and Gehringer.

The centerfold of the Hammond game features Joe DiMaggio and Charlie Gehringer, both future Hall of Fame enshrinees (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

“The U.S. Army Air Forces and Stockton Field take this opportunity to express their appreciation to the San Francisco Seals, 1943 Pacific Coast League baseball champions, for their cooperation in making today’s game possible.

Victors over Portland and Seattle in successive Shaughnessy playoffs, the Seals come here today to meet one of the best all-service nines assembled in the West to play in a benefit game dedicated to a great cause – the athletic and recreation fund of the Hammond General Hospital at Modesto. Our thanks, therefore, also are extended to the commanding officers of the various army posts who released their all-star players to make this contest a reality.

Today’s tilt not only helps a worthy cause but also marks the realization of every baseball fan’s dream – a game between two great teams. Stockton is fortunate to play host to such an outstanding assembly of baseball greats.”

Despite his central billing in the game’s promotion, DiMaggio’s bat was not a factor. In his first appearance, the Yankee Clipper reached on an error and his three subsequent at-bats resulted in outs. Gehringer was 1-for-4 with a single in the third inning. The offensive star for the service team was catcher Ray Lamanno with a 3-for-4 showing (two doubles and a single). Former San Francisco Seals first baseman Ferris Fain was the only other service member with a multiple-hit game (two singles). DiMaggio did display his defensive skills with four putouts from center field. On the mound for the Service All-Stars were Rinaldo “Rugger” Ardizoia and Tony Freitas (Athletics, Reds), both of whom hailed from Northern California.

Service All-Stars Roster (bold names indicate former major league experience):

Branch	1943 Team	Player	Position	Previous
USAAF	McClellan Field Commanders	Rugger Ardizoia	P	Yankees
USAAF	McClellan Field Commanders	Bob Dillinger	2B	Toledo (AA)
USAAF	Santa Ana Army Air Base	Joe DiMaggio	CF	Yankees
USAAF	McClellan Field Commanders	Ferris Fain	1B	San Francisco Seals (PCL)
USAAF	Mather Field Fliers	Tony Freitas	P	Sacramento Solons (PCL)
Navy	Navy Pre-Flight St. Mary’s Air Devils	Charlie Gehringer	2B	Tigers
USAAF	Hammer Field	Harry Goorabian	SS	San Francisco Seals (PCL)
		Hein	P
USAAF	McClellan Field Commanders	Walter Judnich	RF	Browns
Navy	Naval Air Station Livermore	Ray Lamanno	C	Reds
USAAF	McClellan Field Commanders	Dario Lodigiani	3B	White Sox
USAAF	Mather Field Fliers	Joe Marty	LF	Phillies
USAAF	McClellan Field Commanders	Mike McCormick	RF	Reds
USAAF	Stockton Air Base	Hal Quick	LF	Williamsport Grays (EL)
Navy	Navy Pre-Flight St. Mary’s Air Devils	Bill Rigney	SS	Oakland Oaks (PCL)

Though the scorecard lists the opponents as the San Francisco Seals, the actual team was a conglomeration of players from the Pacific Coast League and from California. The “Seals” team featured five former major leaguers (pitchers Tom Seats and Bob Joyce, catchers Joe Sprinz and Bruce Ogrodowski and left fielder Hank Steinbacher) who were on the Seals’ 1943 roster along with two others. Former Athletics hurler Joyce went the distance on the mound in the losing effort, surrendering six runs.  Sprinz, formerly with the Cleveland Indians, served as Joyce’s receiver. Anderson was the leading batsman for the so-called Seals with three hits and centerfielder Vias stroked a pair of singles, though only two runs were plated in the loss to the service team.

“San Francisco Seals” (West Coast All-Stars) Roster:

Player	Pos	1943 Team
Willis Enos	LF	San Francisco (PCL)
Bob Joyce	P	San Francisco (PCL)
Bruce Ogrodowski	C	San Francisco (PCL)
Tom Seats	P	San Francisco (PCL)
Joe Sprinz	C	San Francisco (PCL)
Hank Steinbacher	LF	San Francisco (PCL)
Bill Werle	P	San Francisco (PCL)
Manny Vias	CF	Sacramento (PCL)
Carl Anderson	2B	Portland (PCL)
Harry Clements	SS	Hollywood (PCL)
Steve Barath	CF	Louisville (AA)
Nelson	1B

Scorecards from service team games are scarce and pose considerable challenges to locate, let alone acquire. The Hammond General Hospital charity game program eluded our reach until a much more reasonably priced copy surfaced a few weeks ago at auction. Our winning bid secured the piece at a fraction of the aforementioned copy and after years of waiting, we finally landed our own copy. Aside from rust stains surrounding the two staples that secure the lightweight internal pages to the cover, the condition of our artifact is excellent, with no dog-eared pages or creases.

The program’s inside front cover and the line-up and scoresheet for the “San Francisco Seals” team (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

Pages 5 and 6 feature the line-up/scoresheet for the Service All-Stars as well as the acknowledgements and local businesses’ advertisements (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

The back cover features advertisements from local Modesto, California businesses (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

Until we saw the initial copy of this scorecard, we had no idea that it existed. Not knowing what to look for poses perhaps the most significant challenge in collecting baseball militaria. Once we knew about the Hammond piece, it took several years to find one within our reach.

See also:

• A Passion for the Troops: Joe E. Brown’s All Pacific Recreation Fund
• Accidental Discovery: A Photographic Military Baseball Holy Grail of Sorts

“Game Used” Lumber: Wartime Service Adds Meaning for Collectors

Collecting vintage baseball bats is an interesting venture and those who (nearly) exclusively pursue these old pieces of wood (and for some people, aluminum) can be quite rewarding. Understanding the nuances within this part of the baseball memorabilia hobby requires substantial knowledge of all of the manufacturers, models, market levels, brands, marks and other differentiators in order to make informed investment decisions. The arena of bat collecting has many specializations, ranging from those who pursue game-used bats (meaning those used by major or minor leaguers in their games) and those who collect at-game, stadium giveaways for special events. Still, there are individuals who chase down baseball bats from obscure or defunct manufacturers that can date back into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Clearly, baseball bats are a central component within the realm of collecting baseball militaria as they were a component of the kits that were shipped throughout the combat theaters to troops during the war. As athletic equipment was non-essential to the war-fighting effort, tax dollars could not be used to appropriate sporting goods for the troops to use during recreation. Recognizing the physical and mental benefits that playing sports had for GIs in boosting their morale and well-being, considerable fund-raising efforts were taken on by notable Americans to provide the necessary equipment (see: Ted Williams: BATtered, Abused and Loved). In addition to the sports equipment purchased through fundraising events, manufacturers such as Rawlings, GoldSmith, Spalding and Hillerich & Bradsby donated their wares directly to the War Department for distribution to the ranks.

The game-used market can be an eye-opening experience when one discovers the prices and values of bats from journeyman players, let alone those from stars and legends of the game. A 1934 game-used bat from Philadelphia Athletics first baseman Jimmie Foxx sold at auction in 2018 for a paltry $90,000 while a 1939-1942 Ted Williams piece sold for $24,000.  Contemporary game- used bats can sell for far less than the aforementioned examples yet one could easily see four-digit selling prices.

In the realm of military-used wartime bats, collector interest is significantly reduced and so the prices for these artifacts follow suit. Service-used bats we have seen were manufactured by Hillerich & Bradsby (maker of the famed Louisville Slugger brand) yet bats from other makers were also used. In terms of market availability, most of the examples of military baseball bats were made by the historic company that remains in the city where it was founded, Louisville, Kentucky. Our pursuit of vintage bats is nearly entirely focused upon military-used (or issued) examples.

The lack of finish on the barrel and the smoothed-over usage marks reveal an incomplete refinish attempt (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

Service or military baseball bats are by no means rare and they command prices that are mere fractions of their professional game -used counterparts. One of our most recent acquisitions, a Hillerich & Bradsby “Safe Hit,” U.S.N.-stamped, Stan Musial signature model, is one of the nicest examples that we have seen in recent years. Often referred to as a “store” or “consumer” model bat, this “H&B”- brand bat was sold as an inexpensive product geared towards entry-level players. The bats are typically marked with a different (from that of the Louisville Slugger line) center-brand stamp that features a catalog number. The barrels of the bats are limited to the player endorsement signature unless they were also marked with a service branch stamp above or below the autograph (Stan Musial served in the Navy from January 22, 1945 until March 1, 1946, playing baseball for Navy teams at Bainbridge, Maryland, Fleet City (Shoemaker), California and Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii. See: 1945 US Navy Road Gray Uniform: Stan Musial).

The top of the center brand is as crisp as the bottom. The H&B line received a black-foil stamp rather than a burned-in brand (as with the higher-end product lines). Typical examples from this show excessive loss of the black foil (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

The markings of the center brand are consistent with Hillerich & Bradsby’s H&B-line, 1932 – 1952 bat label manufacturing period, which includes bats used during the war years. Considering that Stan Musial’s major league debut was at the end of the 1941 season and he didn’t establish himself as an everyday player until the 1942 season, it is reasonable to think that he would not have seen a consumer product endorsement until well into the 1943 season,  the year of his first All-Star appearance and his being named the National League Most Valuable Player. With Musial’s ascension to star status,, it is most likely that Hillerich and Bradsby began to capitalize on his name recognition with signature model bats in their 1944 catalog. Based upon this timeline, it is safe to assume that our Stan Musial bat dates from 1944 or 1945.

The H&B center brand is in near-pristine condition as is the bat’s original finish from this point, upward toward the handle. Note the Hillerich & Bradsby “60S” catalog number (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

It is safe to assume that service-marked bats are game-used by definition though it is impossible to trace them to a specific player (as can be done with major league game-used examples). The service bats in the Chevrons and Diamonds collection are all game-used and are in varying states of condition. While a spotless, near-new condition bat displays incredibly well in a collection, we prefer to preserve the signs of play (ball marks, dings and dents) that serve as reminders of service members’ wartime use. “Game used” to a baseball militaria collector is a common factor within our collections as practically all (marked) uniforms, gloves, bats and other tools of the diamond saw action by veterans.

Slightly longer than many of the standard H&B models (typically 34″), this U.S.N. stamped Musial signature bat is 35-inches (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

Our Stan Musical model is made from the darker hickory wood (rather than the typical ash wood) and the knob is stamped 35”, indicating the overall length. The condition of our Musial bat shows some game use and also appears to have been subjected to a restoration attempt. A significant portion of the bat’s finish has been removed through a very light sanding process, predominantly on the barrel. Fortunately, the stamps are still very much intact. The surface of the barrel end is considerably worn, most likely from the bat being stored for years standing on end in continuous contact with a hard surface, perhaps a concrete floor in a basement or garage.

To return our H&B Stan Musial signature model bat to a more original state, surface cleaning followed by a simple coating of linseed oil will provide a consistent appearance across the entire surface of the bat while also providing a measure of preservation and protection from oxidation and decay.

The transition from the barrel to the end – the hickory is smooth with nominal usage marks (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

It is evident that someone removed much of the bat’s finish with sanding residue accumulated in the signature and U.S.N. brandings (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

Showing some storage wear on the bat’s end, the hickory is a bit chewed-up (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).

A key function of Chevrons and Diamonds’ mission is to provide an in-person and hands-on educational experience through artifacts. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing the reaction of a youth or elderly veteran when he holds a bat or glove that was used by veterans who served nearly eight decades ago.

Related Chevrons and Diamonds Articles

Vintage Bat

• Ted Williams: BATtered, Abused and Loved – February 7, 2019
• Hard to Find Military Sticks: “Double-X” Joins Our World War II Baseball Lumber Pile – April 9, 2019
• Charlie “King Kong” Keller Rattles the Woodshed ending a Yearlong Silence – May 8, 2020
• Tools of the Trade: Wartime Equipment used by (Former) Professional Ballplayers – July 9, 2020
• Nothing to Write? I Think I’ll Just Restore a Vintage Bat, Instead – June 12, 2018
  • Close to Completion: Restoring a 1950s Ferris Fain Signature Model Bat – July 10, 2018
  • Bat Restoration: New Life for Ferris Fain’s Signature lumber – August 8, 2019

Equipment Fund Raising Events

• A Passion for the Troops: Joe E. Brown’s All Pacific Recreation Fund – October 17, 2019
• Service All-Stars Raising Funds on the Diamond for their Comrades in the Trenches – October 2, 2019

External Resources:

• Inexpensive Store Model Bats with H&B Center Brand – KeyMan Collectibles
• Hillerich & Bradsby H&B Safe Hit Baseball Bat Guide – KeyMan Collectibles