Author Archives: VetCollector
A Hall of Fame Softball Greeting
The impetus behind Chevrons and Diamonds and our curatorial pursuits has always centered on baseball. That term, for us, is quite specific in that it simply refers to the game that was founded in the mid-nineteenth century and is centered upon a 9 to 9-1/4-inch, hide-wrapped and stitched sphere. All the artifacts that we pursue are connected to the history of the game. Some would argue that baseball’s younger brother, softball, is the same game. The debate is an interesting one but in terms of artifacts, the two are distinctly different.
Aside from a handful of artifacts acquired through gifts/donations, the Chevrons and Diamonds collection consists largely of baseball pieces. With the current market trends, pursuits of new items require greater diligence and patience as prices and competition have increased dramatically. Until recently, corresponding softball militaria remained conversely inexpensive, quite literally valued at pennies on the baseball-comparative dollar.
Softball bat, ball and glove prices have risen to a point of being cost-prohibitive. When listed at auction, the bidding can be fierce for pieces that six months ago sold for less than $25 but are now 10 or more times that price. Watching the bidding wars at such auctions is new for us as we were not previously interested in such pieces. When a colleague who shares a similar interest in the absurdity of the bidding sent a link to an auction listing for a wartime softball, I was prepared to follow it for the next several days to see how high the price would climb.
Wartime softball equipment is as diverse in terms of origins and manufacturers as that of baseball material. Pursuing such artifacts requires an amount of due diligence equal to what we spend when we find a prospective baseball artifact. The ball that was shown in the aforementioned auction listing matched what we had seen in the past dozen years; so there was no cause for concern as to the ball’s wartime authenticity. Based upon the $10 starting price, we knew that there would be a significant amount of interest and thus numerous bids. There was something odd about the listing that caught our attention as we were about to click the button to set a “watch.” An option to buy the ball outright was also provided and the price was the same as the starting bid. Without further consideration, we purchased the softball.
Within moments of submitting the payment, a sense of remorse set in, prompting a second look at the already purchased softball. In addition to the clear indications of use were what appeared to be three signatures on two of the ball’s panels. A closer inspection showed one to be that of former New York Yankees catcher Bill Dickey. The other legible autograph was quite clearly that of former Cubs and Dodgers second baseman Billy Herman. The third was not distinguishable and would have to wait for further examination.
With the ball literally in hand, utilizing proper handling techniques to avoid introducing substances such as oils from skin that could accelerate deterioration of the signatures or stamps, we examined the various markings. Paying close attention to the decayed signatures and comparing them against known, authentic autographs from Dickey and Herman that were signed in the corresponding 1940s era, we were able to determine that both were genuine. What was believed to be another player’s signature above Dickey’s looked to be a birthday greeting from the Cooperstown-enshrined Yankees catcher.
Three panels of the ball included manufacturer’s stamped markings including the brand, model and material composition. The maker’s mark, “Universal Sports Co., Empire State Building” was one that is seen on numerous balls; however, we were unsuccessful in locating a definitively matched company.
The “Day and Night” feature for softballs was common across softball makers. It enhanced visibility regardless of the lighting conditions. Unlike cork-center baseballs, many softballs had a center of kapok that absorbed the energy when hit, which limited the velocity and trajectory, helped to keep the orb within the field of play and thus made it more challenging to put it over the outfield fence.
The stamping on the ball that truly captured our attention was the one that indicated service use. Quite obviously applied with a flat rubber stamp (as noted by the heavier ink on the extremities), “THIS BALL BUILT EXPRESSLY FOR U.S. ARMED FORCES” was a departure from the more commonly used “U.S.”, “U.S.N.”, “Special Services U.S. Army” and “U.S. Army.”
The ball’s covering was quite obviously aging and the signatures had significantly faded. In-person analysis of the signatures removed any doubts that remained at the time of purchase. Confirming both Dickey’s and Herman’s writing, we started on the line directly above Dickey’s autograph and realized that it was not only applied using the same pen as Bill’s, but it was written by the same person. Rather than the writing being a signature, instead we noted that it was a birthday greeting that was also written by Dickey.
In the absence of provenance, it is our belief that this ball originates from World War II and can be further pinpointed to 1945 or as early as the last quarter of 1944 after Herman arrived at Pearl Harbor. In addition, we suspect that the signatures were applied while the two were serving in the Navy together on the island of Oahu.
Brooklyn Dodgers second baseman Billy Herman entered the Navy in early March 1944 after being reclassified as 1A by his draft board in early February. Rather than to face the draft, Herman joined the Navy and was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station (GLNTS) for indoctrination and instruction. Soon after his arrival, Herman was added to the station’s Bluejackets baseball team by manager Gordon “Mickey” Cochrane (see: No Amount of Winning Could Ever Offset a Harsh Loss for Mickey Cochrane). Without missing a beat, Billy Herman found himself at home playing second base for the team whose roster included Schoolboy Rowe, Virgil Trucks, and Gene Woodling as well as his 1943 Brooklyn teammate, infielder Al Glossop. In June of that season, Joe Cronin led his Red Sox onto the Station to face the Bluejackets on their home field and walked away with a 3-1 loss. In addition to Virgil Trucks’ masterful 12-strikeout pitching performance, Billy Herman drove Trucks across the plate in the bottom of the eighth to leave the Bluejackets up by two runs heading into the ninth.
Many of Herman’s Bluejackets teammates were dispatched to Oahu in the summer ahead of the Service World Series against the Army squad. The future Hall of Fame second baseman remained with Cochrane and finished the GLNTS season. By mid-October, Herman was aboard a ship that was bound for Oahu but would arrive well after the 11th and final game of the Series.
Herman was not the only ballplayer making his way to the islands at this time. Arriving with the Dodgers second baseman were 33 players ranging in experience from major and minor leagues to semi-professional and amateur baseball. The talent included catchers Manny Fernandez (Dayton Wings), Bennie Huffman (Browns) and Frank Wolf. Pitchers included Johnny Rigney (White Sox), Bob Klinger (Pirates), Hal White (Tigers), Lou Tost (Braves), Lou Ciola (Athletics), Jim Trexler (Indianapolis Indians), Mike Budnick (Seattle Rainiers), Max Wilson (Phillies) and Frank Marino (Tulsa Oilers). The islands were getting a fresh stock of Infielders that consisted of Elbie Fletcher (Pirates), Connie Ryan (Braves), Al Glossop (Dodgers), Merrill “Pinky” May (Phillies), Johnny McCarthy (Braves), Frank Juliano, Gibby Brack (Montreal Royals), Tom Carey (Red Sox), Fred Chapman (Athletics), Sherry Robertson (Senators), Eddie Robinson (Indians), Mickey Vernon (Senators), Buddy Blattner (Cardinals) and Pete Pavlick (Erie Sailors). The outfielder contingent included Red McQuillen (Browns), Dick West (Reds), Gene Woodling (Indians), Red Tramback (Oklahoma City Indians), Barney Lutz (Elmira Pioneers) and Del Ennis (Trenton Packers).
By January of 1945, Lieutenant Bill Dickey had assumed duties as the 14th Naval District’s Athletic Director and was charged with assembling two teams of Navy ballplayers that would tour the Western Pacific for the purpose of entertaining the troops and boosting their morale. It was initially reported that Bill Dickey would be leading the tours, “One of the greatest collections of baseball stars ever gathered will leave the Fourteenth Naval District soon to take baseball, America’s No. 1 sport, directly to the fighting men in the forward fighting zones,” the February 5, 1945, Honolulu Advertiser reported. “The group, headed by Lt. Bill Dickey, USNR, former catching star of the New York Yankees,” the story continued, “heads out on a 14,000-mile trip which is intended to supply the best possible sports entertainment for thousands of men in the Pacific.” However, when the rosters were finalized and the men departed, Bill Dickey, according to Harrington E. Crissey, Jr. in his 1984 book, Athletes Away, “saw to it that he (Dickey) and two other veterans, Billy Herman and Schoolboy Rowe, were excused from going.”
Dickey continued to run the Fourteenth Naval District’s athletic department, which included the baseball league, and aside from umpiring a few early season games, Herman was assigned to the Aiea Naval Receiving Barracks team and played his familiar second base position with the club for the entire 1945 season.
In attempting to validate the softball and the signatures, we must consider several factors. We are certain that the softball is genuine, based upon the materials, construction and markings. We are also convinced that both signatures are genuine, leaving us to speculate on the circumstances that brought those two particular players together to sign the ball.
Since both Dickey and Herman were in Hawaii and serving in the Navy together from October of 1944 through the end of the war, we can easily place them together on Oahu. However, we further speculate that the two men had some sort of bond that went beyond the basic factors. Considering Dickey ensured that Herman was excused from the Pacific tours, we surmise that the two had some sort of a friendship that transcended the obvious. Herman and Dickey faced each other in the 1932 (Cubs versus Yankees) and 1941 (Dodgers versus Yankees) World Series and both men were in their early-to-mid 30s in age and were nearing the end of their professional careers by 1945. Perhaps the ball was signed for a mutual friend of Herman and Dickey.
Based upon the visible details, it Is our belief that the softball dates from 1945 and was most likely signed in Hawaii by the two future Hall of Famers. Displaying it alongside the Navy-marked bats and gloves only enhances the ball’s visual aesthetic, making it a fantastic addition to the Chevrons and Diamonds collection.
A Tropical and Baseball Paradise: Reese Lands at the (Aiea Naval) Hospital
Note: This is Part two of a three-part series. See part one: Surplus Middle Infielder: Pee Wee Reese Flies High in the Navy
Following the conclusion of the 1943 baseball season at Norfolk, Boatswain’s Mate First Class Harold “Pee Wee” Reese was serving as the manager for the Norfolk Naval Air Station’s basketball team while he completed his athletic instructor training at the base’s “Tunney School.”
Former heavyweight champion Gene Tunney, known as the “Fighting Marine” due to his service during the Great War, recognized the need for continuous, rigorous physical training for American troops across all branches of the armed forces in order to maintain a high state of conditioning and readiness. Tunney received a commission in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander and immediately began to build his program in early 1941. By the year’s end, the Physical Instructor School at Norfolk was in operation and two former major league players, Sam Chapman and Bob Feller were among its students. Two years later, Reese graduated from the program and was rated as a Chief Athletic Specialist in January, 1944.
In 1943, as Reese was serving and playing baseball at Norfolk, Navy leadership was transferring former professional ballplayers to the Hawaiian Islands and spreading them throughout many naval installations, where they were added to service team rosters. The Navy’s powerhouse in Hawaii, the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base Dolphins, claimed championships in the Hawaii and Hawaiian Defense Leagues as well as winning the Cartwright Series along with the Army-Navy series. The roster included former major leaguers such as Rankin Johnson (Philadelphia Athletics), Jimmy Gleeson (Cincinnati Reds) and Walter Masterson (Washington Senators) along with a handful of star minor league players and highly skilled athletes drawn from within the Navy’s ranks.
Second Row: (standing) Philip Simione (SS), Karl Gresowksi (2B) Clovis White (2B), Karl Fastnatch (OF), Maurice Mozzali (OF) Dutch Raffies (Coach), Oscar Sessions (P), Frank Hecklinger (1B), John Jeandron (3B) and James Brennen (P).
Third Row: R. A. Keim (P), William Stevenson (P), H. J. Nantais (C), John Rogers (OF), Richard Fention (P), (face slightly obscured) Eugene Rengel (OF), John Powell (OF) and Jim Gleeson (OF).
Fourth Row: Rankin Johnson, Walter Masterson, Arnold Anderson, Charles Medlar, Ray Volpi and George Henry – all pitchers (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
The Dolphins’ success drew significant attention from GI’s stationed on Oahu Island as well as from senior leaders within the service branches. Supporting the island-hopping campaign in the Pacific meant that the troop population on the Hawaiian Islands continued to increase. Several service hospitals on Oahu were expanded and new facilities were built to handle the significant influx of wounded soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who flooded back from the front for surgeries and recuperation. Spurred by the desire to boost the morale of the troop population as well as seeking bragging rights, senior leaders began pulling greater numbers of ballplayers to Hawaii.
A quiet undercurrent of disdain for former professionals serving in the armed forces and playing ball had been developing since 1942 with the likes of Feller and others capturing headlines at Norfolk and drawing attention from mothers of men who were serving as the military suffered setbacks in the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island and in the waters of the Coral Sea. However, the feedback from the men in those combat theaters showed that the need for a taste of home was considerable. The hunger was satiated through news of the games. Harry Grayson wrote in his March 1, 1944 Scoreboard column of Scranton, Pennsylvania’s The Tribune, that troops “on far-flung battle fronts would like to hear and read of pitchers like Bob Feller, Red Ruffing and Johnny Rigney” who were all serving in the armed forces. He went on to mention “infields with shortstops of the caliber of Scooter Rizzuto, Pee Wee Reese and Johnny Pesky and outfields built around DiMaggios and Ted Williamses, Country Slaughters and Terry Moores.” Quoting from a letter that he received from Corporal Al Rainovic of the 2611th Engineers in North Africa, Grayson stressed the importance of baseball news among the troops. “’That would give everyone interested something to follow, and it certainly would build morale because practically all soldiers are sports-minded’ writes Corporal Rainovic.” The countless thousands of armed forces members who attended service baseball games in 1943 was a resounding indicator that the sport was indeed important to the troops and Pee Wee Reese was about to witness this on a larger scale than he had seen at Norfolk.
The Atlanta Constitution reported on February 26 that five former major league ballplayers were detached from their naval duties in the Norfolk vicinity and transferred to other assignments. Norfolk Naval Training Station saw the departures of infielder Jim Carlin, catcher Vinnie Smith and pitcher Hank Feimster. The Naval Air Station had two of their stars, pitcher Hugh Casey and shortstop Pee Wee Reese, depart. Upon detaching from the Air Station, Reese returned on furlough to his Louisville, Kentucky home for some much-needed family time to meet his new baby daughter, Barbara Lee.
Reese arrived in San Francisco in early March and awaited further transportation, joined by Hugh Casey. The Hawaii-Tribune (Hilo, Hawaii) reported on March 25 that the two former Dodgers were rumored to be aboard a ship bound for Pearl Harbor, speculating that the two might wind up on the “Big Island as the Navy expands service baseball for the 1944 season.” By early April, speculation was still in play as to where Reese and Casey were transferred, though Hawaii seemed to be the consensus among sportswriters. “Latest reports are that (Johnny) Mize is among those taking healthy socks at Tojo on the Pacific front,” wrote the St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press/Gazette on April 9. “(George) Dickey, (Tom) Ferrick, (Joe) Grace, (Bob) Harris, (Johnny) Lucadello, (Barney) McCosky and (Vern) Olsen, together with Marvin Felderman and Jack Hallett, are on duty in the 14th (Naval) district (Pearl Harbor), where they have been assigned to assist in physical conditioning,” the article continued. “Among those recently detached from the base (Norfolk) and assigned posts elsewhere in the Navy are Hugh Casey and Pee Wee Reese of the Dodgers, Vincent Smith of Pittsburgh, Jim Carlin of Washington and Hank Feimster of the Red Sox.” The St. Joseph News-Press/Gazette also noted, “Athletes aren’t given any preference at either Navy or Army camps. They receive no extra remuneration or even extra time for practice. They take their regular training and play during their leisure.”
The rumors held true as the Crater class cargo ship, USS Ascella (AK-137) carrying CSP(A) Pee Wee, CSP(A) Casey, SP(A)2/c Sal Recca, CSP(A) Eddie Shokes and SP(A)2/c Eddie Wodzicki arrived at Pearl Harbor on April 9 following a nine-day transit from San Francisco.
Scorecards from WWII service baseball are considerably scarce and this one from the April 19, 1944 All-Stars game is one of the more challenging to find. The Navy team consisted largely of the remaining 1943 champions Pearl Harbor Submarine Base Dolphins (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection). 
This rather unconvential scoring grid lists all of the players from the Dolphins squad along with their rating and rates. Note that Walter Masterson is listed on this roster as well as the Major League Roster (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection). 
Most likely printed in haste, this roster/line-up doesn’t quite capture the team that defeated the Navy stars (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
Wasting no time following their arrival, Reese and Casey were added to a roster of major league players and billed as “All-Stars” to face the 1944 roster of the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base Dolphins squad in a game that was essentially a tune-up for a scheduled war bond game. The event also served to get players ready for the upcoming season in the Hawaiian baseball leagues. The April 19 game was played at Weaver Field, the Sub Base team’s home park. The major league squad consisted of George Dickey, C; Johnny Mize, 1B; Barney McCosky, 2B; Johnny Lucadello, SS; Marvin Felderman, 3B; former Dodger Tom Winsett, LF; Joe Grace, CF and Vern Olsen, RF. Hugh Casey started the game with Tom Ferrick and Bill Holland (Senators) pitching in relief. Though Reese was listed on the roster for the game, he did not participate in the 9-3 victory over the Navy squad due to a minor foot injury.
| Rank | Name | Position |
| Sp(A) 1/c | George “Skeets” Dickey | C |
| Sp(A) 2/c | Johnny Mize | 1B |
| Sp(A) 1/c | Barney McCosky | CF |
| CSp (A) | Johnny Lucadello | SS |
| Sp(A) 1/c | Marvin Felderman | 3B |
| Tom Winsett | LF | |
| Sp(A) 1/c | Joe Grace | 3B |
| Sp(A) 1/c | Vern Olsen | RF |
| Sp(A) 1/c | Hugh Casey | P |
| Sp(A) 1/c | Tom Ferrick | P |
| Bill “Dutch” Holland | P |
Ahead of the start of the regular season, Reese recovered from his injury and did participate in an all-star preseason tilt, a 12-inning battle, in support of war bond sales. The event raised $650,000 solely from gate admissions with another $350,000 from a corresponding autographed memorabilia auction. The major league all-star roster consisted of Reese, SS; Grace, RF; McCosky, CF; Mize, 1B; former Philadelphia Athletic Al Brancato, 3B; Lucadello, 2B; Winsett, LF and Felderman, C. Casey started on the mound and was spelled by Jack Hallett (Pirates), Vern Olsen, Tom Ferrick and Walt Masterson. The game saw the major leaguers defeat an aggregation of Honolulu baseball league all-stars along with several service team players including Kearny Kohlmeyer (SS) , Joe Gedzius (2B) and Eddie Funk (P) of the 7th Army Air Force, Sam Mele 1B), Ed Puchlietner (CF) and Andy Steinbach of the Marines and Bob Usher (LF), Bill Holland (P), Frank Roberts (C) and Joe Wells (P) of Aiea Naval Barracks. The All-Stars held their own against the former big leaguers through 11 innings with the score knotted at two runs apiece. Reese had defensive trouble in the sixth as he couldn’t handle a hard shot deep in the hole at short off the bat of rightfielder Tom Saviori, which ultimately deadlocked the game at two. Reese had six plate appearances and reached base with three singles but did not factor in any of the scoring. “The smoothness of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Pee Wee Reese at short was something to see, “ the Honolulu Advertiser’s Red McQueen wrote in his May 2, 1944 Hoomalimali sports column, “and it was just Pee Wee’s luck to get hit on his sore heel by a bad throw-in from center by Barney McCosky.”
The Williams Sportlight souvenir program from the April 29, 1944 War Bond Game. Besides the rosters inside, the Hawaii Baseball League schedule is a fantastic historical record (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection). 
April 29, 1944 War Bond Game scorecard rosters (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
Still hobbled by the injury that was re-aggravated in the War Bond Game, Reese was left off the roster for the May 30 Army-Navy All-Star game that pit two rosters of former professional ballplayers against each other at the Schofield Barracks’ home venue for the CPA League season, Chickamauga Park (shared with the Wheeler Field Wingmen). While Pee Wee may have been missed by the record 18,000 fans that squeezed into the 9,500-seat ballpark, the Navy All-Stars didn’t seem to mind his absence as they shut out the Army All-Stars, 9-0.
Baseball in Hawaii was vibrant and active in a highly compressed environment before World War II and was constantly expanding as troops and war workers poured onto the islands starting in early 1942. By the time Chief Petty Officer Reese arrived, Oahu was overrun with talent drawn from all levels of the game. In pulling players from the mainland, the Navy evenly distributed the men across the many unit teams, ensuring that each roster had a mixture of professional and amateur experience. Reese was assigned to the “Hilltoppers” of the Aiea Naval Hospital. Situated on a volcanic ridge overlooking Pearl Harbor, the Aiea Naval Hospital was a sprawling facility that by early 1945, as the high numbers of combat-wounded casualties were pouring in from the battle of Iwo Jima, was providing care for nearly 5,700 of them simultaneously. On the site of what is now the Marine Corps base, Camp H. M. Smith, that serves as the headquarters of the United States Indo-Pacific Command (INDOPACOM), Special Operations Command Pacific, and Marine Forces Pacific, Aiea Naval Hospital was quite literally at the top of the hill, hence the baseball team’s nickname Hilltoppers.
The only major leaguers assigned with Reese on the Aiea Naval Hospital squad were Philadelphia Phillies utility man Jim Carlin, who was previously with the 1943 Norfolk Naval Training Station team, and Vern Olsen (Cubs) and George “Skeets” Dickey, who had played for Mickey Cochrane on the Great Lakes Naval Training Station nine. Other former professional players on the Hilltoppers roster were Hank Feimster (Bi-State League Class “D” Danville-Schoolfield), Max Patkin (Wisconsin State League Class “D” Green Bay), Eddie Shokes (Syracuse, Class “AA” American Association) and Pee Wee’s former Norfolk Naval Air Station teammate, Eddie Wodzicki (Portsmouth, Class “B” Piedmont League). The balance of the roster consisted of men who had experience as semi-professional players or were outstanding scholastic and amateur athletes prior to their naval service.
The Hilltoppers competed in the Central Pacific Area (CPA) League that included the Wheeler Field Wingmen, Pearl Harbor Submarine Base Dolphins, Aiea Naval Barracks Maroons, Naval Air Station (NAS) Kaneohe Bay Klippers and the 7th Army Air Force (7th AAF) Fliers. With the somewhat even distribution of Navy talent, the league would seem to have had a manner of parity. However, as the first half of the CPA League’s season progressed, the Hilltoppers quickly got out in front of the pack. The month of May belonged to the Aiea Naval Hospital but the competition stiffened in early June as the 7th AAF received an unprecedented boost in players. Seeking to dominate the Navy and to provide a little payback for the Dolphins’ performance during the 1943 season, the Army pulled together their stars from its West Coast air base teams and shipped them to Hawaii to reconstitute the Fliers as a powerhouse. A veritable team of all-stars, the 7th AAF featured five major leaguers including Joe DiMaggio, the best player in the game at that time. In addition, the Fliers received five high-minor leaguers who would all go on to play in the major leagues after the war.
| Rank | Player | Position | Pre-Service Experience |
| C. Burton | C | Semi-Pro | |
| F. Burton | 1B | Semi-Pro | |
| Jim Carlin | OF/2B | Phillies | |
| Capt. | Ceres | C.O. | |
| R. Cookus | 2B | Phoenix | |
| Cliff Craig | P | Semi-Pro | |
| Sp(A) 1/c | George “Skeets” Dickey | C | White Sox |
| F. Dompier | RF | Semi-Pro | |
| C. Brooklyn Fabrizi | CF | Semi-Pro | |
| Hank Feimster | P/OF | Danville-Schoolfield (BIST) | |
| R. Ferguson | Semi-Pro | ||
| Hank Fleagle | P | Cedar Rapids | |
| Edgar “Special Delivery” Jones | P/LF | U of Pitt | |
| Bill Lockwood | CF | Semi-Pro | |
| F. McAllister | SS/3B | Semi-Pro | |
| Eddie McGah | C | Scranton (EL) | |
| Russell Messerly | P | Hollywood (PCL) | |
| L. Moyer | LF/RF | Williamsport (EL) | |
| Sp(A) 1/c | Vern Olsen | P | Cubs |
| Max Patkin | P | Green Bay (WISL) | |
| CSp (A) | Harold “Pee Wee” Reese | SS/MGR | Dodgers |
| CSp (A) | Eddie Shokes | 1B | Syracuse (AA) |
| W. Spears | Semi-Pro | ||
| O. Stamerman | RF/2B | Semi-Pro | |
| Weige | CF | ||
| J. White | Semi-Pro | ||
| Eddie Wodzicki | 3B | Portsmout (PIED) |
The 7th AAF talent boost affected the CPA League and the Hilltoppers suddenly faced stiff competition. By the end of the first half of play, Reese’s squad was deadlocked with the Fliers with 7-3 records on June 9. As the significantly longer second half of the season got underway, the Hilltoppers led out of the gate and had a 6-0 record. NAS Kaneohe trailed by two games at 4-2. DiMaggio and company were tied for the third position with the Aiea Receiving Barracks with 3-3 records while the Dolphins and Wingmen were paired up with 1-5 records to bring up the rear. Following a win streak, the 7th AAF faced off against the Hilltoppers in a pitchers’ duel. After seven innings deadlocked at one run, the Fliers opened up on Aiea’s Vern Olsen and plated five runs. Unable to mount an offensive against the Fliers’ starting pitcher, Don Schmidt, the Hilltoppers fell and their unbeaten record was tarnished.
Aside from his defense, Reese was leading the Hilltoppers’ charge with his bat. By the middle of June, Reese was tied with Johnny Mize (of NAS Kaneohe) for the CPA League batting lead with a .428 average. A week later, Pee Wee and Mize were surpassed by Reese’s teammate, pitcher Vern Olsen, who was clubbing at a .470 clip.
In a June 22 game against the Kaneohe Bay Klippers, the Hilltoppers’ hurlers were embarrassed as they were torched for 15 hits including three home runs. Pee Wee’s bat was silenced by his old NAS Norfolk teammate, Hugh Casey, with four fruitless trips to the plate.
Oddly, the CPA League officials scheduled the Hilltoppers for a playoff game against the 7th AAF to determine a clear winner of the league’s first half of play. With matching 7-3 records, the teams faced each other at the neutral site of Furlong Field, situated in Pearl Harbor’s Civilian Housing Area (CHA) 3. With the high level of fan interest, CHA-3’s athletic director, LT Don Touhy, scoured the base for all available bleachers to accommodate the anticipated crowd of 5,000-7,000 spectators. Since getting their stars, the 7th AAF hadn’t dropped a game, having already beaten the Hilltoppers in their only meeting.
Despite the addition of seats, the crowd was beyond capacity with standing-room-only entrants watching a battle that saw the Fliers jump out to a 4-2 lead over the first three innings. In the top of the first, a walk issued to Ed Jaab set the stage as a pair of singles by Joe DiMaggio and Mike McCormick plated the game’s first run. In the bottom of the frame the Hilltoppers countered with a bunt single by Edgar Jones. Eddie Shokes sacrificed Jones to second, setting the table for the former Dodger, Pee Wee Reese. Pee Wee singled sharply off the glove of Jerry Priddy, who in turn attempted to catch Jones as he headed for third. Priddy’s wild throw allowed Jones to score and gave time for Reese to move to third on the two-base error. Jim Carlin’s single allowed Reese to score and put Aiea Hospital ahead, 2-1.
In the top of the third, Vern Olsen was torched for three runs on back-to-back doubles by Bob Dillinger and McCormick (Dillinger scored). Jaab singled to drive in McCormick. Priddy, making amends for his erroneous throw, singled and drove in Jaab, providing the 7th AAF with a 4-2 lead.
Hilltoppers pitcher Olsen allowed seven hits in those early innings but tightened up for the duration of the game. The former Cubs hurler pitched six shutout innings with just two hits from the fourth inning-on. The 7th AAF’s starter, former San Francisco Seals hurler Al Lien, lasted 7-2/3 innings before being replaced by veteran Sacramento Solon Bill Schmidt with a 4-2 lead. In the eighth inning, Schmidt issued two free passes after getting the first batter out before “Skeets” Dickey doubled in the two baserunners and tied the score.
In the bottom of the ninth, with the score still tied at four, Jim Carlin took the Fliers’ second relief pitcher Don Schmidt’s offering deep over the right field fence to nail the door shut on the CPA League’s first half title, 5-4.
With the book closed on the first half of league play, Chief Charles Fowler named four Hilltoppers – George “Skeets” Dickey at catcher, pitcher Vern Olsen, rightfielder Jim Carlin and shortstop Pee Wee Reese – to the Honolulu Advertiser’s All-Star list.
As second half league play continued, the Hilltoppers picked up their winning pace with three consecutive victories in July. By July 18, Aiea Naval Hospital was leading the CPA League’s expanded field with a 6-1 second-half record. The Hilltoppers’ only loss was an error-filled, 3-2 tilt at the hands of the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base on July 9. The 7th AAF Fliers were struggling in the second half and were firmly and uncharacteristically in seventh place with a 2-4 record. Fans wondered if the Hilltoppers could extend or hold onto their league lead and claim the CPA League title outright by season’s end. With Pee Wee Reese carrying a .370 batting average and holding the number two spot in the batting title race, Aiea Hospital was certainly in the driver’s seat.
Questions surrounding the Fliers’ struggles were quickly addressed on July 19 when the 7th AAF bats sprang to life. In a game that saw the winners pound out 20 hits and five home runs, the Fliers had answers to the doubters’ questions with a 13-5 drubbing of the Hilltoppers. Gerry Priddy, Mike McCormick, Don Lang, and future Hall of Famers Joe Gordon and Joe DiMaggio all homered, feasting off Hank Feimster’s and Vern Olsen’s mound offerings. After the 7th AAF scored a run in the first and five in the second, the Hilltoppers didn’t respond until they plated four runs to draw within two. Unfortunately, the Fliers neutralized Aiea Hospital’s gain by tacking on five more runs in the bottom of the fourth and taking an 11-4 lead. The Hilltoppers tried to spark a rally in the top of the seventh but only scored one run. The Fliers tacked on two more in the bottom half of the eighth to end the game’s scoring. Despite the loss, Reese was spectacular at the plate with a 4-5 performance including a double and a home run.
As the 7th AAF were climbing in the standings, Reese’s Hilltoppers were stagnant in the CPA League. Playing a handful of non-league games allowed other CPA teams to improve. The Fliers, 4-4 by July 20, pulled up to the fourth spot while NAS Kaneohe Bay surpassed the Hilltoppers for the lead. On July 27, the Hilltoppers squared off against Kaneohe in a pitching duel that left Aiea Hospital on top of the standings with an 8-2 record. A check in their rearview mirror showed that the 7th had climbed and were now tied with the Klippers for second with matching 7-4 records. A 5-2 defeat at the hands of Schofield Barracks allowed the Aiea Receiving Barracks squad (9-5) to inch closer and move into second place behind the 8-3 Hilltoppers with the two teams set to face off in a week’s time.
On August 2, with the league lead at stake, Aiea Receiving Barracks was seeking to topple their cross-town rivals but the Hilltoppers held on to win another tight game, 4-3. The win gave Aiea Hospital a full-game lead over the hard-charging 7th AAF, who held second place in the league standings. Pee Wee Reese’s game-deciding home run in the seventh inning drew praise as the Williams Equipment Company player of the week. Three days later, facing the South Sector squad at Fort Franklin, the Hilltoppers held on in another close game to win 6-5. Despite winning and having an 11-4 record, the Hilltoppers were now tied for first place with the Fliers in the CPA League at 11-4.
Another game and another win for the Aiea Hospital crew on August 9 over the Redlanders of Schofield Barracks helped the Hilltoppers to remain within a half-game of the 7th AAF, who had defeated the Pearl Harbor Sub Base Dolphins. Reese was 2-4 with a home run, 2 RBI’s and a run scored in the 11-6 victory. The Fliers played two games to Aiea Hospital’s one and slipped ahead in the league standings with a head-to-head match between the two teams scheduled on August 11 on the island of Kauai.
More than 10,000 fans saw the heralded matchup between the two best CPA League teams in a game that would either see Aiea vault past the Fliers or see the 7th open up a wider margin in their lead. Unfortunately for the Hilltoppers, they faced a future Hall of Fame pitcher, Charlie “Red” Ruffing, who had recently arrived from the 6th Ferrying Group team in Long Beach, California. Ruffing was the ace-in-the-hole for the Fliers as he held the hospital men to a single run on just five hits. Pee Wee Reese, who had last faced Ruffing in Game 1 of the 1941 World Series, didn’t have the same luck against the big right- handed pitcher as he had when he went 3-4 with a run scored. Instead, Pee Wee was held hitless. Not only did Ruffing dominate from the mound but he also was 2-4 and scored a run in his 6-1 win over the Hilltoppers. The victory left the 7th AAF in sole possession of first place in the CPA League with a 1-1/2 game lead.
The batting race was also changing. The hitters on the 7th AAF now had the minimum number of at-bats to qualify in the standings. The addition of DiMaggio (.343), Dillinger (.382), Dario Lodigiani and Ferris Fain (both with .386 averages), along with his 0-4 performance against the Fliers, shoved Pee Wee down to seventh place with a handful of games remaining on the schedule. Kaneohe Klipper Tom Ferrick held on to the top spot (.432) with Vern Olsen in second place (.396).
By August 21, Aiea had lost another game in the standings to the 7th AAF. With a 15-6 record, the Hilltoppers trailed behind the Fliers by 2.5 games. Five days later, the two teams faced off once more. The 7th came into the game with an incredible 27-game win streak (including non-CPA League contests). Vern Olsen was masterful on the mound as he shut out the Fliers and limited the heavy-hitters to eight inconsequential hits. Reese, now in the CPA League’s top five in hitting, managed a lone double while Olsen pushed his batting average higher and helped his own cause with a 2-3 and 1 RBI-day at the plate. The Hilltoppers stood in second place (16-8), three behind the Fliers (19-5).
August 29 saw the 7th secure the CPA League second-half season title with a 3-2 win over the Aiea Receiving Barracks team. Despite their 19-5 pummeling of the Kaneohe Bay Klippers, the Aiea Naval Hospital Hilltoppers finished with a 17-8 record and held the second-place position behind the 21-5 7th AAF Fliers. Reese’s team had held their own against a powerful team that got hot when it mattered most. Finishing in second place behind the powerhouse Fliers by 3.5 games was no small feat. For Reese and the Navy, the best was yet to come for the 1944 baseball season in Hawaii; however, a three-game CPA League championship series was on the docket for September 8, 9 and 11, bringing together the winners of each half of the season to decide on the overall winner.
Unfortunately for Reese and the Hilltoppers, the 7th were firing on all cylinders heading into the series. Al Lien pitched all nine innings of the first game for the Fliers and held Aiea Hospital to three runs on 8 hits while his team was racking up 11 runs on 13 hits. Olsen, Russ Messerly and Cliff Craig were ineffective in slowing their opponents’ bats. Shokes, Eddie McGah and Reese each had two hits off Lien, who didn’t walk a single Hilltopper batter. The Aiea men were unable to capitalize on three Flier defensive miscues (Jabb, Fain and Joe Gordon) and succumbed, 11-3, at Hickam Field.
Tallying six runs in the first four innings of the second game, the Fliers attacked Aiea Hospital’s Hank Feimster. Don Schmidt lasted into the eighth inning for the Fliers and despite allowing nine Hilltopper hits, only two runners crossed the plate. Pee Wee Reese’s 1-4 showing at the plate was difficult enough for Aiea Hospital but it was his two errors that translated into Flier runs that were even more costly. The 6-2 victory secured the CPA League crown for the 7th AAF, negating the need for the third game of the series.
Despite losing the league title, the Hilltoppers held their own against a league that was filled with talent. Their roster remained consistent throughout the season whereas the 7th started off league play with a modest roster; but the Fliers ended up with a complete overhaul that added three future Hall of Fame players and a future two-time batting champ (Ferris Fain) along with a host of competent major leaguers.
The Army played their hand with the 7th as the Fliers captured the CPA, Hawaii League and Cartwright Series crowns along with a third-place finish in Honolulu League play.
Throughout August, preparations were underway for an All-Star championship series that would see the best of each service branch’s baseball talent face off against one another. The Navy rosters would encompass players from Navy and Marine Corps teams stationed throughout the Island while the Army would cull theirs from the Army Air Force and regular army commands. Planned as a best-of-seven championship, the series was scheduled to be played on Oahu at four separate sites: Furlong Field (games 1, 5 and 7), Hickam Field (games 2 and 6), Schofield Barracks’ Redlander Field (game 3) and Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station (game 4). As the venues were making alterations to accommodate the dramatic increase in their normal attendance, Navy leaders were pulling out the stops on assembling their roster.
The Army built their All-Star squad around 17 players that were drawn from the dominant 7th AAF Fliers. What the Army didn’t account for was that the Navy had greater numbers of top-tier talent spread throughout the island and were not only planning on utilizing them but on recalling two additional baseball stars, Phil Rizzuto and Dom DiMaggio, who spent most of the year serving in Australia.
This very ordinary cover of the scorecard from the fifth game of the Service World Series hardly equals the extraordinary talent that was on the field (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection). 
The team rosters as shown on the Service World Series Game 5 scorecard (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
Unlike the decision made by Norfolk Naval Training Station manager Gary Bodie, Bill Dickey, who was leading the Navy contingent, simply moved Rizzuto to third base and left Reese at short. To prepare for the series and to help Dickey determine his lineup, the Navy played two tune-up games. The first pitted the Navy All-Stars against an ad hoc “Pearl Harbor Submarine Base Dolphins” (a “B” team of Navy All-Stars) in what amounted to a split squad game akin to contemporary major league early spring training games. The starters (sans Reese) defeated the “Sub Base” 7-4. The second tune-up match showed the All-Stars were meshing well together as the starters of “Navy #1” were defeated by the backups of “Navy #2” in a close, 5-3 split-squad game in which Reese was 1-4 with a stolen base against pitchers Jack Hallett and former semi-pro Jimmy Adair.
Billed as the Service World Series, the first game got underway following considerable fanfare, culminating in the ceremonial first ball being thrown by Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet. More than 20,000 servicemen and women witnessed the Navy completely shut down the Army All-Stars with a 4-hit performance by former Detroit hurler Virgil “Fire” Trucks. Navy batters got to Army pitching for 5 runs on 10 hits. Pee Wee Reese returned to mid-season form as he drew three free passes in his four plate appearances, confounding the Army defense with two stolen bases and scoring two of the Navy’s five runs.
In the second game, Pee Wee was 1-4 against Army starter Al Lien as the Navy jumped out to a 2-game Series lead by taking down the Army, 8-2, in front of 12,000 spectators at Hickam.
Schofield Barracks’ Redlander Field saw the two teams score in the first four innings, leaving the third game knotted at three runs into the 12th inning when the Navy’s Ken Sears ended the stalemate with a solo home run to right field. Pee Wee was 1-3 with two walks and three steals. In the sixth inning, Reese stole both second and third.
With a three-game lead, the Navy played host as the Series visited Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station. 10,000 fans were shoehorned into the small venue to witness the Navy clinch the championship. With the Navy scoring runs in every inning except for the second and eighth, the victory was never in doubt despite the Army plating five runs in the top of the sixth and pulling to within four runs of the Navy. With another run scored in the bottom of the seventh, the Navy held the Army scoreless for the rest of the game to secure a 10-5 victory. Reese was 2-3, walked twice, stole a bag and scored two runs in the win.
With the attendance at an all-time high for the island with more than 56,000 GI-fans at the first four games, the decision was made to play the remaining schedule of games to ensure that as many troops as possible could see the baseball extravaganza.
Game five saw the series return to where it began as 16,000 poured into Furlong Field. Army fans were hungry to see their boys get a win against the Navy powerhouse but unfortunately, they witnessed a blowout that commenced in the fourth inning. Army gave their fans a glimmer of hope as they scored the first two runs but all hopes were dashed when the Navy held a veritable batting practice and tallied 10. Johnny “Double-No-Hit” Vander Meer pitched a five-hitter while only allowing the two Army tallies in the 12-2 win. Pee Wee Reese was hitless against Army pitching but walked twice and scored two of the Navy’s 12 runs.
The series moved a short distance away for the sixth game as Hickam Field played host for a second time. Army fans, hoping their team would preserve some manner of respectability by returning to friendly territory, once again saw a Navy victory. With 12,000 in the stands, moundsmen Jack Hallett and Walt Masterson combined to secure the 6-4 victory for the Navy while Pee Wee was held hitless by Don Schmidt. Reese was issued one free pass and wound up scoring. It negated his first inning error, his only one of the series.
It took seven games for the Army to finally secure a 5-3 win in the Series but they finally broke through against the Navy’s Virgil Trucks. “Fire” Trucks went the distance in the loss as he surrendered home runs to Don Lang and Bob Dillinger among the nine safeties allowed. The score was tied heading into the top of the ninth inning as Trucks coaxed Joe Gordon to strike out swinging. Walt Judnich worked Trucks for a one-out walk before the pitcher faced off against first baseman and league batting champ Ferris Fain. Fain stroked a 390-foot drive off Trucks and deposited it over the fence, scoring two runs and putting Army on top. In the loss, Pee Wee was 3-3 with a run scored and a stolen base. The win gave the Army fans among the 16,000 in attendance at Furlong Field something to cheer about after a dismal showing in the first six games.
| Date | Score (winner) | Location | Attendance | |
| Friday, September 22, 1944 | Game 1 | 5-0 (Navy) | Furlong Field | 20,000 |
| Saturday, September 23, 1944 | Game 2 | 8-2 (Navy) | Hickam Field | 12,000 |
| Monday, September 25, 1944 | Game 3 | 4-3 (Navy) | Redlander Field | 14,500 |
| Wednesday, September 27, 1944 | Game 4 | 10-5 (Navy) | NAS Kanehoe | 10,000 |
| Thursday, September 28, 1944 | Game 5 | 12-2 (Navy) | Furlong Field | 16,000 |
| Saturday, September 30, 1944 | Game 6 | 6-4 (Navy) | Hickam Field | 12,000 |
| Sunday, October 1, 1944 | Game 7 | 5-3 (Army) | Furlong Field | 16,000 |
With just one error in 14 attempts, Pee Wee Reese’s defense was a factor in the Navy’s easy Series victory over the Army; but it was Reese’s actions at the plate and on the base paths that factored against the opposition. Aside from batting .350, the shortstop worked Army pitchers for seven free passes. Once on base, Reese’s speed was a factor in manufacturing runs and keeping Army pitchers off-balance as he swiped seven bases and scored nine times.
While the teams flew East to Maui for a continuation of the series for two of the four remaining games, three of the Navy All-Stars did not play. “Phil Rizzuto and Dom DiMaggio, two of the stars of the Navy team during the Oahu Series, left Hawaii after showing up on Maui,” Bert Nakah of the (Hilo) Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported in his Sport Dirt column on October 8. The two were sent back to Australia to resume their duties. The other Navy player who did not show for the remaining four games, Pee Wee Reese, is down with appendicitis,” Nakah mentioned. Reese did not make the flight and remained on Oahu. The Navy won games eight and 11 as well as tying game 10. The Army claimed game nine and finished the series with eight losses.
On the U.S. mainland, conversation was churning about flying the recently crowned World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals to Hawaii to face the Navy All-Stars but the timing was not conducive. The concept, an all-around-the-world championship on Oahu, had been pitched earlier that fall by the servicemen’s newspaper in the Pacific Theater, the Mid-Pacifican. “They should have thought of the idea earlier,” Cardinal manager Billy Southworth told the Sporting News. “Then there would have been a chance to consider it.” The secretary to baseball commissioner Landis, Leslie O’Connor, stated, “I think the Navy boys could beat our winner.”
Baseball and 1944 quietly came to an end for Pee Wee Reese in Hawaii. With the Japanese continuing to be pushed back towards their home islands with each American victory in the island-hopping campaign, 1945 was about to be dramatically different for Reese and several Navy ballplayers.
Bluejacket Ink – Professional Base Ball Fund Signatures
Perhaps the most significant artifact or the flagship piece that baseball memorabilia collectors can pursue is the ball. The name of the game is derived from the principal piece of equipment. The orb is thrown, caught, pitched and hit. All facets of the game are centered on interactions with the 9-inch cowhide, or prior to 1974, horsehide.
Longtime Chevrons and Diamonds readers are aware of our quest to source and acquire service-marked baseballs for our collection. Since we made the transition from collecting militaria to focus entirely on baseball militaria, we have been seeking baseballs for the collection. In the last dozen years, we have been successful in locating a few pieces that not only date to World War II but are also signed by members of wartime service teams. Locating service-marked baseballs has always been a principal goal and yet it is one that we have been unsuccessful in achieving.
One of the specific markings that we have been seeking for our collection stems from the wartime charity that was headed by Washington Senator owner and president Clark Griffith. A reprise of the original that was founded in 1917 following the United States’ entry into World War I, the Baseball Equipment Fund raised money for the purpose of purchasing baseball equipment to provide to troops. Baseballs that were purchased with these funds were prominently stamped with “Professional Base Ball Fund” on the sweet spot (see: Is My WWII Baseball Real?). Vintage baseballs are a challenge to source as survivors tend to be considerably worn with the markings significantly obscured or faded from use.
Finding any service-marked baseball can be a challenge. The World War II era team-signed pieces that we have in our collection are all official American or National League baseballs that were, no doubt, donated or purchased (by other recreational funds) for use by GIs and service teams.
- Seeing Stars Through the Clouds: 1943-44 Navy Team Autographed Baseball
- Signature Search: The 1945 Hickam Bombers
When we found in the spring of 2020 a 1944 Official American League baseball that was signed by the 1944 Norfolk Naval Training Station (NNTS) Bluejackets, it helped to make a dreary year seem a little bit better (see: Dominating Their League (and our Collection): The 1944 Norfolk NTS Bluejackets). The manufacturer’s stampings and several of the autographs are faded, which seems to indicate that the ball was displayed in such a way that it was exposed to damaging ultraviolet (UV) rays for a lengthy period of time. Nevertheless, all of the signatures are still very discernible.
The 1944 NNTS Bluejackets team was a powerhouse that managed a won/lost/tied record of 83-22-2. As incredible as that record is, the star-studded 1943 team was even more competitive. With players such as Fred Hutchinson, Charlie Wagner, Eddie Robinson, Benny McCoy, Dom DiMaggio and Phil Rizzuto, it is no wonder that they dominated the Eastern Service League and defeated the American League’s Senators and Red Sox as well as the star-studded Cloudbusters of Navy Pre-Flight, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Locating a “Professional Base Ball Fund” baseball with signatures from the 1943 Bluejackets is no easy feat. However, we managed to find a ball that includes signatures from some of the key Norfolk NTS Bluejackets players. As with our 1944 NNTS ball, the 1943 signed baseball has unfortunately been exposed to excessive UV that caused significant fading. Photos of the ball as it was listed in an online auction showed one prominent autograph from former St. Louis Cardinals catcher and outfielder Don Padgett along with heavily faded ink marks from other players. Due to the deterioration of the autographs, the baseball was very affordable. Because we were in pursuit of the ball with our primary motivation being the “Professional Base Ball Fund” stamp, we reached a deal with the seller. Once in our hands, we were able to discern several of the many more details that were not visible in the auction photographs.
The 1943 Norfolk Naval Training Station played 91 regular season games, posted a 68-22 record and had an 11-inning, 1-1 tie (called due to venue scheduling requirements) against a highly competitive field that included military teams such as Fort Belvoir, Langley Field, Fort Story, Camp Pendleton (Virginia), New Cumberland and Curtis Bay Coast Guard. They faced local professional teams including Portsmouth and Norfolk of the Piedmont League, Baltimore of the International League and Washington and Boston of the American League. However, the largest challenge the team faced was with their cross-base rivals, the Norfolk Naval Air Station Fliers, that boasted a major league talent-laden roster that featured Crash Davis, Chet Hadjuk, Sal Recca, Eddie Shokes, Hugh Casey and Pee Wee Reese.
When the ball arrived, we able to take a closer look at the manufacturer’s markings as well as the Professional Base Ball Fund stamp. Made by GoldSmith, the stamps on the ball were used by the company from 1940 to 1944. After inspecting both the manufacturer’s and the Professional Base Ball Fund stamps, the ball was easily confirmed to have been used by or issued to the 1943 Norfolk NTS ball club.
A close examination of the signatures revealed that there were at least ten autographs present on the ball; however, only a few of them were discernible. On the panel with the most prevalent autograph of Don Padgett, three other significant signatures were discovered. In order, ascending from Padgett’s ink are Benny McCoy, Charlie Wagner and Phil Rizzuto. Of the players on the Bluejackets, Rizzuto is the only one to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The 13-year veteran shortstop played his entire career with the Yankees and was voted in by his peers (the Veterans Committee) in 1994. There is another signature between Wagner’s and Rizzuto’s that we were unable to see well enough to identify. All four of these visible signatures can be seen not just with the ink but also their pen impressions in the horsehide.
On the panel opposite the “Padgett” panel, another autograph is visible that is not nearly as faded as those above Don’s. After examining the signature, it was obvious that the first letter of the three-letter first name was an “A.” The first letter of the last name is clearly a “P,” which corresponds to Ensign Clarence McKay “Ace” Parker, the 1937-1938 Philadelphia Athletics infielder. Parker’s baseball career was just getting started when the U.S. was drawn into World War II. Parker was a star tailback, defensive back and quarterback at Duke University in addition to playing baseball for the school. He was drafted by the National Football League’s Brooklyn Dodgers in 1937. From 1937 until 1941, Parker was a two-sport athlete and played in both the major leagues and NFL long before such actions impressed the sporting world when Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders drew spotlights. In the fall of 1945, Parker returned to the NFL with the Boston Yanks and played through the season’s end of 1946, finishing with the New York Yankees. Ace Parker was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of fame in 1972 along with Ollie Matson and Gino Marchetti. After comparing the signature on our ball with several verified examples, it was easy to confirm the ink as being placed by the Hall of Fame tailback.
Only one other signature was visible. Located beneath the stamping that details the construction and size of the baseball, the autograph of Dominic DiMaggio, the star center fielder of the Boston Red Sox, could be made out. There are a few other signatures that are so badly faded that we were unable to determine who the signatures were placed by.
With the unfortunate condition of the autographs, this ball can no longer be displayed without further deterioration and fading of the ink and stamps. We will place the ball into a breathable, non-plastic container and store it in a location that will provide consistent temperature and no exposure to light, especially UV from the sun. With such precautions, the ink that remains should stabilize, greatly slowing its rate of decay.
It is a boon to the Chevrons and Diamonds Collection to acquire a Professional Base Ball Fund-marked ball from the Norfolk Naval Training Station Bluejackets that has signatures of some of the team’s most significant ball players including two Hall of Fame inductees.
See Also:
Surplus Middle Infielder: Pee Wee Reese Flies High in the Navy
Author’s Note: This is the first segment of a three-part series documenting Harold H. “Pee Wee” Reese’s three years in Navy dungarees during World War II. Please see part 2: A Tropical and Baseball Paradise: Reese Lands at the (Aiea Naval) Hospital
Seven weeks after the Japanese signed the instrument of surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay before a throng of sailors and Marines surrounding the starboard deck beside turret number two, a breakthrough took place nearly 7,000 miles away in Brooklyn, New York as two men signed a contract that spelled the end of major league baseball’s impenetrable color barrier. As Kansas City Monarch second baseman and former Army Second Lieutenant Jackie Robinson and Brooklyn Dodger general manager Branch Rickey signed the player contract that would send the former for seasoning in the Dodgers’ farm system at Montreal, a former Dodger middle infielder was made aware of the ground-breaking circumstance while aboard transport from Guam back to the States.
Roger Kahn, famed author of the 1972 romanticized historical narrative of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s, The Boys of Summer, wrote in an August 19 1992 Los Angeles Times article (He Didn’t Speculate in Color), “Pee Wee Reese was riding a ship back from Guam when he heard the wrenching news that Branch Rickey had hired a black.” Kahn continued, “Reese had lost three seasons, half of an average major league career, to the United States Navy and he was impatient to get on with what was left when a petty officer said, ‘It’s on the shortwave. His name’s Jackie Robinson. A colored guy to play on your team.’”
Harold Henry “Pee Wee” Reese was the diminutive middle infielder on Brooklyn’s team of giants that secured the only World Series Championship for the Dodgers and for their long-fatalistic fans in the borough. At 5-foot-10 and weighing 160 pounds, Reese’s nickname suited him, though his leadership both on the field and in the Dodger clubhouse proved that he was a bigger man than most. Despite leading his team to seven National League pennants, including the 1955 World Series crown, securing 10 All-Star selections and being ranked among baseball’s top 20 defensive shortstops, Reese’s 1984 election to the Hall of Fame was the result of a vote of his peers (the Veterans Committee) as the baseball writers had given the Dodgers’ long-time captain the collective cold shoulder.
With one season of professional baseball under his belt with the American Association’s Louisville Colonels, 20-year-old Reese was displaying his abilities as a solid major league prospect. On September 8, 1938, in an effort to emulate the talent development successes of St. Louis Cardinal general manager Branch Rickey, Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey purchased Reese’s team as he set upon constructing his own farm system. Some rumors persist that one of the Sox owner’s targets was the talented shortstop. Red Sox player-manager Joe Cronin was anchored in his shortstop position and was thereby in control of Reese’s future in the organization. “The deal (for Louisville) takes in all real estate, including an up-to-date stadium, the club’s franchise, and all players,” reported the Tampa Bay Times (Boston Red Sox Buy Louisville For Farm Chain – September 9, 1938). “’One of the bigger assets, (Red Sox general manager) Eddie Collins said, ‘would be shortstop Harold (Pee Wee) Reese, for whom several major league clubs have already offered $40,000.’”
Perhaps the only person in baseball who didn’t recognize Pee Wee’s potential or had no intention of relinquishing his playing position, Cronin traded Reese midway through the 1939 season to Brooklyn for $35,000 cash and three players to be named at a later date (one of which was pitcher Red Evans). The deal with Brooklyn stipulated that Reese would finish the season with Louisville before reporting to the Dodgers.
After two solid seasons on the Colonels’ roster, Reese arrived at the Dodgers’ 1940 spring training camp staring at a similar situation that he faced with the Red Sox. His manager, Leo “The Lip” Durocher, had been the team’s starting shortstop in 1938 and ’39. After seeing Reese’s fielding abilities, Durocher relegated himself to managing from the bench and playing occasionally in either middle infield position as needed. In Reese’s 84 games that season (shortened by an injury), he batted .272, walked 45 times and struck out 42 times. On defense, he gloved a .960 fielding percentage with just 18 errors in 446 chances. Reese found his home with the Dodgers, who finished in second place, twelve games behind the Cincinnati Reds, who defeated the Tigers in that season’s Fall Classic.
Things were looking up for Reese and the Dodgers in 1941 as Durocher’s squad of homegrown and veteran talent truly meshed as a team. Pee Wee played in 151 games at shortstop for his first full season in Dodger blue. Despite his drops in batting and fielding average, he had developed into an on-field leader with the club at only 22 years of age. Despite his league-leading 47 errors, he was still an asset to the team as they captured their first National League pennant since 1920. Unfortunately, in the World Series the Dodgers ran into the hot New York Yankees led by Joe DiMaggio, who won the 1941 American League Most Valuable Player award.
Pee Wee Reese played in all five games of the 1941 World Series, managing four hits in 20 plate appearances. The Dodger hitters were outmatched by Yankee pitching as they were limited to 11 runs on 29 hits (only one home run). Game four of the Series was heartbreaking as Brooklyn was in the driver’s seat, leading the Yankees, 4-3, heading into the top of the ninth inning at Ebbets Field. Durocher stuck with reliever Hugh Casey, who had entered the game in the fifth inning, spelling Johnny Allen. Casey had been effective through the eighth inning, holding the Yankees scoreless. After coaxing consecutive groundouts by Johnny Sturm and Red Rolfe, Casey faced Tommy Henrich. Casey pitched the Yankee right fielder to a full count. With two outs and the bases empty, the burly pitcher uncorked a “jaw-dropping curveball” that badly fooled Henrich, who swung and missed, but the ball got away from catcher Mickey Owen. Though there is some debate as to the scorer’s decision to levy a passed ball on Owen, some experts offer that Casey’s pitch was wild. Regardless of the blame, Henrich reached first despite striking out and Casey fell apart as centerfielder DiMaggio singled and leftfielder Charlie Keller doubled, scoring both base runners. Casey walked catcher Bill Dickey who scored along with Keller on second baseman Joe Gordon’s double. Shortstop Phil Rizzuto walked and Casey faced pitcher Johnny Murphy, who grounded to Pee Wee Reese for the final out in the top half of the inning.
Trailing 7-4, Pee Wee Reese came to the plate, 0-4 for the day, stepping in to face Yankee reliever Johnny Murphy. Durocher, who years later said of Reese, “The best leadoff hitter in the National League, and if there is a better one in the American League I never heard of him,” watched the future Hall of Fame shortstop foul out to the catcher. Murphy coaxed both rightfielder Dixie Walker and centerfielder Pete Reiser into infield groundouts to end the game and send the Dodgers into a 3-1 Series deficit.
Game five saw Yankees pitcher Tiny Bonham limit Brooklyn to one run on four hits. Whit Wyatt’s second World Series appearance was respectable as he surrendered three runs on six hits. Pee Wee was hitless once again and erred on a sharp ground ball from the bat of Dickey. After three empty trips to the plate, Durocher lifted Reese for pinch hitter Jimmy Wasdell, who made the final out of the Series.
Pee Wee Reese’s 1942 season performance showed that he was back on track and that the troubles of the 1941 season were in his rearview mirror. Reese’s batting average was elevated 26 points and his on-base percentage jumped by 39. Reese’s fielding improved as his errors were cut to 35 from his 1941 league-leading 47. With his improvements, Reese was awarded with his first All-Star selection. Following the end of his season, Reese returned to Kentucky and began working in a defense job. For major league baseball, 1942 saw the exodus of several players into the armed forces and the writing was on the wall for the Dodgers and for Reese. The Dodgers farm system was already taking hits as four of the organization’s prospective shortstops were already serving in uniform, leaving general manager Branch Rickey to negotiate Leo Durocher’s 1943 contract to include a provision for playing time.
This photo, taken January 30, 1943 shows Pwee Wee Reese’s induction into the armed forces. The affixed caption reads: “Pee Wee” Reese Sworn Into Navy. It’s Apprentice Seaman Harold Reese, Now. The diminutive Brooklyn Dodger shortstop is shown as he is sworn into the Navy today by Ensign C. S. Combs. “Pee Wee” will train in Lieutenant Commander Gene Tunney’s Physical Education Department at Norfolk, Virginia (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
Originally classified in 1942 as 3-A due to being the sole provider for his wife, mother and sister, his six-month deferment time was about to expire, prompting the Dodgers shortstop to seek approval from his local Louisville, Kentucky draft board to enlist in the Navy. Beating the enlistment deadline by mere hours, Reese joined the Navy on Saturday, January 30, 1943, and by the following Monday was on his way to Norfolk, Virginia, to begin his naval training at the Tunney School for physical education instructors. Thus, the Dodgers prepared for spring training without their star shortstop. Brooklyn replaced Reese with a platoon of players (Red Barkley, Boyd Bartley and Al Glossop, along with Durocher) and by splitting Arky Vaughn’s 136 games between third base and “the hole.” As Durocher and Rickey dealt with the loss of Pee Wee and 17 other veteran players who were serving, Reese commenced his six weeks of training at the Naval Training Station.
New York Daily News sports columnist Hy Turkin, in his Ted’s Still Batty! column of February 4, 1943, pondered the possibility of Reese being assigned to the Naval shipyard in Brooklyn where he (and recent Navy enlistee Hugh Casey) would join fellow Dodger pitcher Lieutenant Larry French. “This brings up the question in some minds,” Turkin wrote, “whether they couldn’t drop in on nearby Ebbets Field, Sunday afternoons, to spend their days off performing in Dodger livery.” A similar situation had arisen weeks before in which French petitioned Navy leadership for the opportunity to pitch for Brooklyn in the hopes of claiming the three wins he needed to reach the 200-victory career milestone. Despite keeping in shape by pitching for the local semi-professional club, the Brooklyn Bushwicks, during his off time, his request was denied by Rear Admiral W. B. Young, who was seeking to avoid setting a precedent with professional ballplayers on active duty. Major league baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis established criteria that aligned with Admiral Young’s decision regarding the National Defense List (NDL). “Any player accepted into any branch of the armed services shall be automatically placed onto the NDL and shall not count in the player limits of his club until removed from such national defense service list.” Landis’ ruling ensured that LT French and any other player would not be allowed to play for any professional team during the war.
Within days of Reese’s arrival in Norfolk, the press began to address the Naval Training Station’s already successful baseball team that had had a high-quality roster for the 1942 season and, despite the transfer losses of a handful of veterans, had only improved with a new crop of enlistees over the course of the winter. The Naval Training Station’s Bluejacket roster already included a young star at the shortstop position in Phil Rizzuto, who had been at Norfolk since early October following the Yankees’ World Series loss to the Cardinals. The NTS Bluejackets were stacked with talent at every position. Aside from Rizzuto, the field included Dom DiMaggio (Red Sox), Benny McCoy (Athletics), Jim Gleeson (Reds) and Don Padgett (Cardinals) all with major league experience. The squad included up-and-comers like Eddie Robinson and Jack Conway (both with appearances with the Indians), “Hooks” Devaurs (Oakland, Pacific Coast League), Jim Carlin (Phillies) and Vinnie Smith (Pirates). The pitching staff was anchored by Fred Hutchinson (Tigers), Walt Masterson (Senators), Tom Earley (Braves) and Charlie Wagner (Red Sox), making the team formidable for the upcoming season. Reese, who arrived with Dodger teammate and pitcher Hugh Casey, only compounded manager Gary Bodie’s challenge to find room for the stars.
Whitney Martin of Troy, New York’s The Times Record wrote in his Wednesday, April 7, 1943 editorial “It Appears Cox Should Have Bid for Norfolk Club,” “It really is quite remarkable how all these players, tossed into the whirlpool of war, come to rest at Norfolk.” The assemblage of players was truly impressive and compared favorably with the scouting and front office efforts of any major league club. Whitney continued, “Or maybe the Norfolk club has some pretty good scouts on the road and is signing the men before they complete their major league schooling.” Bodie did have such a person in his employ. Former Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch assistant sports editor Harry Postove, according to his March 12, 1999 obituary (Southeastern Virginia Jewish News), “played a prominent role in bringing together top major league players to form teams at the Naval Base” during the four years he served in the Navy during World War II. Not only was the former sports editor notable in his pre-war profession, he leveraged his Navy baseball scouting experience into a major-league scouting career for five decades.
Facetiously, Whitney Martin’s column chastised William Cox for purchasing the perennial second division-dwelling Philadelphia National League baseball club when he should have made a push to acquire the all-star-laden Bluejackets. “It looks like Cox was a little hasty in buying the Phillies – in hopes of building them up,” Martin commented. Making further light of the progress of Norfolk talent acquisition, Whitney Martin concluded, “We’ll have to get Commissioner Landis to look into this. Do you suppose he could declare them all free agents if he found anything wrong?”
At the time of Pee Wee Reese’s arrival in Norfolk, Signalman Chief Gary Bodie was serving as the manager of the Norfolk Naval Training Station’s baseball club. Bodie, a veteran ballplayer in his own right, had already spent a career serving in the Navy and had begun to manage the ballclub in 1934. He had retired from the service in the late 1930s. With war looming on the horizon and in need of experienced veterans, the Navy recalled Bodie to active service in 1940 and he once again took the helm of the baseball team. In 1941, the Bluejackets posted a 66-10 record, having competed against area civilian and service teams. Despite his club’s pre-war dominance, his wartime teams would prove to be even more dominant with the influx of top talent.
In 1942, the Navy baseball pipeline was feeding two teams with talent from the professional ranks. Soon after Lieutenant Commander Gene Tunney, the former heavyweight boxer, established the Navy’s physical fitness program, he facilitated former Detroit Tigers catcher and manager Gordon “Mickey” Cochrane’s entry into the Navy and assigned him to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station to head up the fitness program at the base and to assume the command of the baseball team, the “Bluejackets.” As Cochrane began to lure Selective Service-eligible ballplayers into the Navy, he was able to select players that he wanted in order to field a competitive team. In Norfolk, Chief Bodie lacked Cochrane’s professional baseball connections; however, players who attended Navy boot camp at Norfolk found their way into the Norfolk NTS fold. One of the men who aided Bodie in spotting baseball talent that arrived at Norfolk was Harry Postove, the aforementioned former sports editor for the local newspaper, the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch. An early-war enlistee himself, Postove had been at the Norfolk Training Station since joining the Navy on January 26, 1942. Connecting with the Norfolk team’s manager must have been easy to do since Postove was familiar with the Training Station’s “Bluejackets” and their 66-10 record from the previous season. Bodie’s and Postove’s paths had no doubt crossed in 1941.
With Postove’s experience and connections, he sourced players from the ranks of the newly-enlisted and more than likely was able to attract talent into the naval service and influence the Navy’s leadership to have them assigned to Norfolk. “During his four years in the service, he played a prominent role in bringing together top major league talent to form teams at the Naval Base and Air Station,” Postove’s 1999 obituary stated.
“Every day new players show up,” said Gary Bodie, “There are so many that I don’t have time to ask them their names – just where they played ball.” – The News Leader (Staunton, Virginia) March 26, 1942
With an abundance of star players on his roster, Bodie was force to make roster decisions as talent continued to pour into the Training Station. With shortstop Rizzuto already in the fold and the pitching rotation fairly solidified, Bodie dispatched his excess players to his crosstown counterpart, Chief Athletic Specialist Homer Peel, manager of the neighboring Naval Air Station Flier nine. Peel was a 21-year professional ballplayer who had spent his last two major league seasons (1933-34) with the New York Giants, with whom he won a World Series championship. Peel, staring at a Yankee-like opponent, gladly accepted Bodie’s “cast-off” players in Reese and Casey. Also arriving from NTS were Al Evans and Crash Davis, both former major leaguers. During his playing days, Peel, as was noted by the Associated Press writer Robert Moore in a May 12, 1943 article, held the distinction of being the only major leaguer to hit into three triple plays.
| Name | Position | Former |
| Alexander | (unknown) | (unknown) |
| Hubert “Buddy” Bates | OF | Atlanta (SAL) |
| Bob Carpenter | P | Semi-Pro |
| Hugh Casey | P | Dodgers |
| Fred “Ripper” Collins | OF | Kansas City (AA) |
| Jim Colman | OF | College |
| Bennie Cunningham | 3B/UT | Mooresville (NCSL) |
| Lawrence “Crash” Davis | 2B | Athletics |
| Paul Dunlap | OF | Hartford (EL) |
| Al Evans | C | Senators |
| Murray “Red” Franklin | 3B | Tigers |
| Chet Hajduk | OF/1B | White Sox |
| Ralph “Bruz” Hamner | P | Shreveport (TL) |
| Bubber Hart | OF | Suffolk (Richmond, VA semi-pro) |
| Claude Hepler | P | Guilford College |
| Bill “Lefty” Holland | P | Semi-Pro |
| Dale Jones | P | Phillies |
| Mark Kilmer | P | Evansville (IIIL) |
| Emil Lochbaum | P | Atlanta (SOUA) |
| James Lowdermilk | P | Centerville (ESHL) |
| Homer Peel | OF/MGR | Oklahoma City (TL) |
| Sal Recca | C/LF | Norfolk (PIED) |
| Harold “Pee Wee” Reese | SS/2B | Dodgers |
| Jack Robinson | P | Binghamton (EL) |
| Jim Ruark | C | Sanford (BIST) |
| Eddie Shokes | 1B | Syracuse (AA) |
| Al Shrick | P | Sedalia Merchants (MO semi-pro) |
| Harvey “Hub” Walker | OF | Minneapolis (AA) |
| Webb | PH | (unknown) |
| Charley Whelchel | P | Durham (PIED) |
| Eddie Wodzicki | 3B/UT | Portsmout (PIED) |
Reese stood out as a man among boys on a Fliers’ squad that was predominantly stocked with former minor league and amateur talent. His Dodger teammate, Hugh Casey, was immediately thrust into the forefront of the pitching staff. For their manager, there was sense of irony at the notion of two prominent Brooklyn stablemates now working for a former New York rival. The irony was not lost on reporters who questioned Peel on the situation (Strange Baseball World? Ex-Giant Harboring Two Former Dodgers –in Navy | The News Leader, Staunton, Virginia – Friday, April 30, 1943). “Of course, the Giants and the Dodgers have always been great rivals, but the feud has really reached the boiling point since I left New York.” Peel commented. “Boy oh boy, if Bill Terry or Mel Ott could see me now,” the Air Station manager chuckled to reporters. “Sure, they’d probably say it was a crime, all right – me, an old New York Giant outfielder, harboring a couple of Brooklyn Dodgers,” remarked Peel. “How does it feel? Great! It doesn’t seem so strange to me!” Homer Peel knew that he had a gem in the middle of the infield. “Reese is a great shortstop,” said the manager, “one of the best!” Peel drew crosstown comparisons to the ex-Yankee at the same position. “He and Phil Rizzuto, who plays shortstop for the neighboring Norfolk Naval Training Station, are about equal,” he said. “Rizzuto may be a little better hitter, but Reese is pounding the ball at a .357 clip for us right now.”
The 1943 season ultimately proved to be quite competitive for the Air Station club despite their dropping their first two exhibition games to the visiting Washington Senators, 5-4, on April 4 and a 10-4 rout on April 5. Led offensively by Gerry Priddy, the Senators captured three of four games during their visit to both Norfolk teams. Led by Pee Wee Reese’s solid defense and small-ball play, the NAS Norfolk nine then took flight, winning five consecutive games against the University of Richmond and two area Piedmont League clubs, the Norfolk Tars and Portsmouth Cubs. Despite the five consecutive wins, the Fliers dropped 11 of their first 22 games. Contributing to their woes was the loss of two key players. Chet Hadjuk who was leading the offense with a .407 batting average, was transferred while pitching ace Ralph Hamner was laid up for 30 days with a case of the mumps.
Throughout the season, the Air Station faced competition from the Eastern Service League, local area colleges and universities and the vaunted Navy Pre-Flight “Cloudbusters” at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, that featured a star-studded roster including former major leaguers Johnny Sain, Buddy Hassett, Buddy Gremp, Joe Coleman, Johnny Pesky and Ted Williams. However, a built-in home rivalry with the cross-base Training Station Bluejackets meant that the two teams would meet 43 times during the season.
Facing major league teams in exhibition games was part of World War II service team baseball and both Norfolk clubs, having played host to the Washington Senators to start the 1943 season, sought to entertain other big league clubs as the season progressed. The April 26 matchup between the two Norfolk clubs drew a capacity crowd (5,000) which purchased nearly $100,000 in war bonds and were rewarded by Hugh Casey’s 4-0 no-hit gem.
The Bluejackets and Fliers put on a show for the 3,000 fans in recognition of Independence Day with a day-night doubleheader. In the first game, Pee Wee Reese sparked the Fliers’ attack with a grand slam and a triple, helping starter Hugh Casey to secure the 11-7 victory. The abbreviated nightcap saw Hank Feimster hold the Fliers to one run on six hits as the Bluejackets plated two in support. Between the two games, the players of both teams staged an athletic competition that included timed baserunning and other sprinting events. While Hooks Devaurs and Dom DiMaggio tied for the best time around the bases at 14.9 seconds, Pee Wee captured the 60-yard dash crown with a 7.5-second time.
The Training Station scheduled a contest to host Boston for a single-game exhibition following the Red Sox’ five-game series in Washington. Pee Wee Reese joined Hugh Casey for a short trip to Brooklyn for a few days’ leave. During their stay, the two visited with Dodger president Branch Rickey and manager Leo Durocher in an attempt to sway the National League club to visit Norfolk for a game with the Fliers. “My commanding officer told me not to go back to Norfolk unless I got the Brooklyn club to go down there later on for an exhibition game,” Casey told the Brooklyn Eagle in early July. “Incidentally, that’s one game I want to pitch.”
Most of the games played by the Air Station team served as vehicles for fund raising. On Sunday, July 25, the Fliers visited Newport News to face a city league team of all-stars at Builders Park for the sole purpose of selling war bonds to build the Essex class aircraft carrier, USS Shangri-La (CV-38). The ship was named in response to President Roosevelt’s reply to a reporter’s question about the point of origin of the Doolittle Raid aircraft.
Pee Wee’s on-field actions garnered plenty of newspaper ink as he led the team with his glove, bat and base-running. Surprisingly, he toed the rubber on occasion as a competent relief pitcher.
The Training Station team was a powerhouse that had a 92-8-2 record in 1942 and a 68-22-1 log in 1943. The caliber of the competition had increased dramatically in 1943. Facing Pee Wee Reese’s near-evenly matched Naval Air Station left Bodie’s men with only a six-win advantage in the 43-game season series (one game finished in an 11-inning 1-1 tie). Had it not been for the Air Station, the Bluejackets would have had only three losses on the year. The Fliers took 18 games from the Training Station and 11 of their 24 losses were by only one run (five of them in extra innings). Despite the record, Navy leadership decided that the teams and the fans needed a championship series to settle any debates as to which team was better.
The 1943 best-of-seven game Navy “Little” World Series was scheduled to be held from September 12-20 at McClure Field, the home park of both teams. Neither team dominated the series as each game was a close contest. Casey got the start for opening tilt and faced “Broadway” Charlie Wagner. Both hurlers would complete all nine innings with Wagner giving up three runs on seven hits while Casey kept the Training Station off the scoreboard and secured the victory.
After the second game, it was clear that series would be tight as the Training Center evened things up. Fans attending game two on September 13 witnessed an old-fashioned pitching-duel between Emil Lochbaum of NAS and Max Wilson of NTS that ended with 1-0 NTS shutout. The Training Station nine started to get things rolling in the third game in as many days. The Bluejacket’s Hank Feimster and the fliers’ Bruz Hamner were both touched up in the middle innings after being stingy in the first three. However, the Bluejackets tallied three runs in the fourth and another in the sixth while the Fliers only managed two in the fifth. Both starters were lifted. Dale Jones took over for Hamner and Frank Marino spelled Feimster as the game finished with a 4-2 Training Station advantage.
Hugh Casey started game four on September 15 against the Bluejackets’ Tom Earley and the two dueled into the late innings. Neither team scored until the tenth frame when the Fliers plated five runs including a two-run blast by Pee Wee Reese. In the home half of the frame, the Training Station mounted a comeback that stalled two runs shy. Lochbaum took over for Casey to close out the game and seal Casey’s second victory as the series was tied at two games apiece.
Following two off days, the Series picked up with game five on Saturday, September 18, with the Fliers’ Lochbaum facing off against NTS’ Max Wilson. Both pitchers were evenly matched as neither allowed their opponents to score through the first four innings. The Bluejackets drew first blood as they tallied a run in the top of the fifth inning with Eddie Robinson’s lone base hit, but the Fliers were able to even the score in the bottom of the sixth, thanks in part to one of Reese’s two hits in the game. The game remained knotted through nine innings with both pitchers going the distance. In the top of the tenth frame, Lochbaum was showing signs of tiring as the Training Station loaded the bases. Helping his own cause, Wilson singled off Lochbaum and drove in the go ahead run. In the home-half of the tenth, Lochbaum was lifted for pinch hitter Sal Recca but the Fliers were unable to answer. Wilson secured the victory as the Training Station earned the 2-1 win and was one victory away from clinching the Series.
Hugh Casey started game six on September 20 and held the NTS nine to one run as he faced former Red Sox hurler Charlie Wagner. Hugh went the distance as he tallied his third win of the series in a game that was scoreless until the Bluejackets half of the fifth inning when the only NTS run was scored when McCoy, Robinson and Cross all singled. The Fliers responded in the sixth inning. Bubber Hart doubled off Wagner and was driven home when Hub Walker singled. Pee Wee singled and pushed Walker to third. When Franklin doubled, Walker scored and Reese wound up on third base. Chief Bodie replaced Wagner with Fred Hutchinson and then called for Al Evans to be intentionally walked to load the bases. Hutch was unable to get Buddy Bates out and lost him with another walk to force in Reese. Hutchinson was able to get off the hook by coaxing Ed Wodzicki into an infield groundout. In the eighth frame, Hutch surrendered a solo home run to Evans while Casey was perfect in the last four innings as he didn’t allow another Bluejacket baserunner. With the 4-1 win, the series was tied with the deciding game remaining.
After inclement weather postponed the final game, it was played two days later on September 22.
The series was played before capacity crowds that included the addition of 1,000 temporary seats on the first base side of the park. With the exception of the final game that had been delayed, all of the seats were full with only 3,500 in attendance at the finale. With three victories in the series, Casey was on the mound to capture his fourth victory. His performance had been spectacular and there was no reason to doubt his abilities. Through five innings, Casey was up to the task as he held the Bluejackets scoreless with just two hits. Max Wilson was equally impressive for NTS, having held the Fliers scoreless. In the NAS half of the sixth, seeking to spark the offense, Casey was lifted for a pinch hitter. Unfortunately, nothing came of the offensive change. Lochbaum took the mound in the bottom of the sixth, continuing where Casey left off, pitching three more scoreless innings and allowing just one hit. With the game still scoreless in the bottom of the ninth, Fred Hutchinson, who had been playing right field, lined a base hit over Fliers’ second baseman Franklin and was promptly replaced by speedy pinch-runner Hooks Devaurs. DiMaggio sacrificed Devaurs to second with a bunt, leaving the Bluejackets with two outs to drive the run home. Benny McCoy sent a deep fly to right field, allowing Devaurs to move 90-feet away from scoring. Don Padgett came to the plate to face Lochbaum. Making solid contact with a pitch, Padgett’s hard line drive to right field fell in front of Bates, allowing the series-clinching run to score.
Reese’s offensive performance in games two through five was incredible as he batted and slugged .500, scored three runs and drove in a pair. However, factoring his lack of production in games one and seven, his series averages fell to .370. Reese also committed errors in games one and three, contributing to the loss of the latter. Pee Wee’s bat accounted for a little bit of power with a pair of triples and a home run in the series. Despite his overall good performance in the 1943 Norfolk NAS season and the series, the Bluejackets’ loaded roster proved to be too much. Had game four gone the way of the Fliers, it would have been a toss-up decision for the most valuable player between Casey and Reese.
With the Norfolk Navy baseball season coming a close, Pee Wee’s role as a physical fitness instructor led him to take on the role as manager of the Norfolk Naval Air Station basketball team during the winter months. The NAS cagers consisted of former collegiate basketball players and were coached by Lieutenant Jack Curtice, formerly of Texas College, and Lieutenant Walter Nelson of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, New York). Rather than coaching or playing basketball, Reese was responsible for managing the players’ physical conditioning along with taking care of the equipment, uniforms and facilities.
First Class Athletic Specialist Reese’s initial year in the Navy was filled with transitioning from a major leaguer to a wartime, land-based sailor with a fairly rigorous ballplaying schedule in addition to his physical instructor duties. Pee Wee’s days at the Naval Air Station were numbered as the Navy had more in store for the shortstop in 1944.
Continue to Part 2: A Tropical and Baseball Paradise: Reese Lands at the (Aiea Naval) Hospital
A Grand War Story Leads to a Chance at a Career in Baseball
By 1943, many minor league rosters had been raided by the major league clubs as they searched for talent to backfill vacancies as players were called into or volunteered for wartime service in the armed forces. As the major leagues struggled to field competitive teams, the minor leagues that they drew from struggled for their survival. In the lower-level minors such as the C and D classes, teams and leagues either suspended operations or disbanded permanently as players were pulled and the talent pool was greatly diminished due to the priority of service in the armed forces.
It was not uncommon to see a minor league team with players with ages well into their 40s and in some instances it wasn’t out of the question to find a ballplayer over the age of 50. Lefty George, who first saw major league action with the St. Louis Browns in 1911, suiting up with Burt Shotton and Hall of Fame infielder Bobby Wallace and with Nap Lajoie and Shoeless Joe Jackson the following year in Cleveland, pitched 100 innings in 21 games for the 1943 York (Pennsylvania) White Roses of the class “B” Interstate League. At 56 years of age, George was 15 years older than his 41-year-old player-manager, John Griffiths. Joining the near-elderly on the roster was a 43-year-old pitcher, German-born Dutch Schesler, who saw major league action with the Phillies in 1931.
During World War II, newsreels, radio and newspapers were dominated with combat action details and casualty reports. Nineteen forty-two had been a considerably challenging year as the Allies struggled for progress against the Axis forces. Despite the achievements of Lt. Colonel Jimmy Doolittle’s Tokyo raid and victories in the Coral Sea and at Midway, the losses of men were still mounting. Blue star flags were being replaced by gold stars as parents, wives and children learned of their loved ones’ deaths. The American public was hungry for good news and the press certainly helped to deliver it, even within the professional ranks of baseball.
Lieutenant Robert D. Gibson, a 23-year-old former school teacher at St. Louis, Missouri’s Hancock High School, received the Navy’s second-highest valor decoration, the Navy Cross, for his gallantry while attacking and sinking a Japanese submarine in the Southwest Pacific, according to the St. Louis Dispatch, March 30, 1943. Lieutenant Gibson, in letters to his uncle and brother, “told of sinking a Japanese submarine while on a bombing mission.” The article continued, “He wrote that he sighted it while it was surfaced and dived on it, getting one near miss that apparently disabled it to the extent that it could not submerge,” the article continued. “He kept bombing and strafing its decks until it sank.” The story, though interesting and seemingly detailed, differed tremendously from the aerial combat description in Gibson’s Navy Cross citation. Instead of the Japanese submarine, Gibson attacked a well-armed Nachi-class heavy cruiser and several transports scoring direct hits on the cruiser and on a transport as well as shooting down one enemy fighter and striking a second one. One can only hazard a guess that for reasons of operational security, Gibson’s story differed from the actual events.
The following year, LT Gibson was assigned to the Naval Aviation School at Corpus Christi and found his way onto the Naval Air Auxiliary Station Waldron Field baseball team along with former Philadelphia Athletics outfielder and fellow instructor Sam Chapman (see: A Lifetime Collection of Images: Star Baseball Player, Sam Chapman, the Tiburon Terror and Wartime Naval Aviator Part I and Part II).
LT Gibson’s story of naval aviation heroism was not the only one to reach the nation’s newspapers during the war. While conducting an unrelated search, we stumbled upon another naval aviator whose wartime actions were simply awe-inspiring. Appearing on the front pages of newspapers from coast to coast, the story of Lieutenant Junior Grade Donald Lynn Patrick’s heroism was the sort of account that would cause Hollywood screenwriters to openly weep. The published account that appeared in the Friday, May 21, 1943 edition of The York Dispatch, titled “War Hero on Pitching Staff of York Club”, not only spotlighted Patrick’s aerial achievements but detailed his harrowing ordeal of survival when his ship, the carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), was in her death throes as she sank following a Japanese attack. There was hunger for good news amid the disaster which befell a capital warship. The story was certainly uplifting and one that reporters no doubt were nearly starving to hear. “He tells it as though it was something anybody could do every day,” the article stated. “It seems that a bomb explosion had spilled gasoline over the flight deck. There was a fire and about 250 men were trapped below,” the paper detailed. “If they were to escape with their lives, Patrick and a Lieutenant Patterson did the trick. It was that easy.” Staunton, Virginia’s The News Leader published on June 1, 1943 that Patrick, “had rushed down to the stricken ship’s fourth deck and released a hatch locked from the outside.” The trapped sailors, “were loading bombs” at the time. Patrick’s heroism saved the lives of 250 men as the USS Wasp was aflame and sinking on September 15 in the Coral Sea. Patrick’s home at sea, the vessel from and upon which he flew his Curtiss dive bomber, had been blasted by three torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-19 under the command of Commander Takakazu Kinashi.
A week after the ordeal, Patrick awoke to find himself in a hospital in Sydney, Australia, with no recollection of the circumstances that took him from the ship and brought him to his bed, nor was he aware of what led to the disabling head wound that led to his discharge. In his hospital bed, “he learned that the torpedo had hit the ship’s ammunition magazine. He was only 60 feet away from the explosion that blew him against a gun turret.” The York Dispatch article states that he sustained a skull fracture when the back of his head impacted the gun turret. Through speculation and supposition, Patrick believed that he had either been thrown into the sea by shipmates or had somehow managed to semi-consciously crawl over the side to escape the sinking carrier. Despite learning the details of how he sustained his head wound, he had no recollection from that point forward.
After LT(jg) Patrick spent a month recovering in Sydney, he was transported back to the States and was given his discharge from the Navy. Word of Patrick’s heroic actions reached the commander-in-chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz, who met the 23-year-old aviator in San Diego in December, 1942 to present him with his well-deserved Navy Cross Medal as the wounded veteran was in the process of being discharged.
Patrick was born on November 13, 1920 in Cedarville, a small town on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The Patrick family, according to the York Dispatch, relocated to Detroit, where Donald graduated from Southeast High School. He excelled in basketball, track and baseball and following graduation, he carried his athletic talents to the next level at the University of Detroit.
Apparently, Patrick’s diamond prowess caught the attention of Detroit Tigers general manager Jack Zeller, who, according the York Dispatch, contacted the young college graduate. Patrick was, “overjoyed when Jack Zellers (sic) of the Tigers told him he could report to spring training camp ‘for a look.’” However, fate disrupted Patrick’s baseball plans just weeks later. Answering his nation’s call, the college graduate enlisted into the U. S. Navy thirteen days following the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.
Fate would thrust Patrick into some of the most challenging events of World War II. “Thirteen days after he finished his training,” the York Dispatch reported, “he was in Russia, having helped convoy some ships there. Outside of seeing a few subs, there was little excitement in the Atlantic.” Patrick’s lack of excitement in the Atlantic was decidedly surpassed once the Wasp transferred to the Pacific theater of operations.
As with LT Robert Gibson’s aerial combat, LT(jg) Patrick carried the fight to the enemy as he, like millions of Americans, sought retribution for the Pearl Harbor attack. Despite his comments regarding the lack of excitement, Patrick, according to several news sources, was credited with sinking a submarine during the Atlantic crossing in mid-January of 1942. Patrick told the Daily Press of Escanaba, Michigan, “If I could throw like I once dropped bombs or fired a machine gun, I’d be rolling right along in this game.” He made this comment as his professional baseball career was getting started (Hero of Wasp Tries Baseball: Donald Patrick Pitching for York Team in Class C League, June 1, 1943).
By the spring of 1943, now a civilian, Donald Patrick was working towards his major league career goal in the minor leagues. Still suffering from the effects of his war wounds, the young hero was hopeful that he could parlay his dive bomber training into becoming an effective pitcher. He was working to eliminate his wildness on the pitching mound. While in the seat of a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, Patrick’s aerial effectiveness was noteworthy. According to Wilmington, Delaware’s The News Journal, LT(jg) Donald Patrick was “credited with shooting down three Zeros” while fighting in the Pacific. During another mission, when faced with five-to-one odds, Patrick recalled seeing “the Japs machine-gun American fliers who had to bail out,” prompting him to take evasive action. “He scrammed out of there (the cluster of five enemy aircraft),” the York Dispatch relayed. “The Yanks will take them on in twos and threes but not in the half-dozens. Anyway, he was short of gas and ammunition,” in his heavy dive-bomber.
When recalling service memories, most veterans refer to the moments that bring a smile. Donald Patrick relayed his story of connecting with his cousin at Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, “on the day the Marines took it from the Nips.” The York Dispatch continued, “The planes from the carrier had gone out for several hours to soften up the enemy. Later, some of them landed on the field, and who should he run into but his cousin” who had enlisted with him the previous December.
LTjg Patrick’s wartime service was nothing short of incredible and it was clear that this man was, by all accounts, a war hero deserving of recognition. His exploits in battle defied the odds as he rose to meet the challenges of each circumstance he faced. After his discharge from the Navy and following additional recovery time, Patrick recalled the spring training invitation from the Tigers’ general manager, Jack Zeller, and hoped to pick up where he left off before the war. Patrick spent several weeks at Bosse Field in Evansville, Indiana, working out with the Tigers club. Clearly in need of seasoning, the Tigers shipped him off to the Buffalo Bisons of the class “AA” International League, according the York Dispatch.
After finding a listing for a vintage type-1 photograph of Patrick that was captured in May of 1943, showing the pitcher posed in his York White Roses pinstriped flannels, we secured the item and launched into our investigation of his story by first checking Baseball Reference. Patrick’s profile, though absent many personal details, showed the pitcher with the club. His record, though brief, was what one would expect for a player beginning his baseball career with more than a year away from the game and dealing with the residual effects of being wounded and his ship sinking beneath him. Appearing in 13 innings in four games, Patrick’s win-loss record was 1-2 with one complete game. He had six strikeouts but his wildness was apparent with seven walks. He surrendered 18 hits and 14 runs, showing that he had a lot of work ahead of him if he wanted to advance through the professional ranks. Something didn’t quite add up regarding his progression from the Detroit spring training camp to landing at York. Turning to the Sporting News Baseball Player Contract Cards Collection, we were able to validate some aspects of his reported career.
The York Dispatch article states Patrick was shipped to Detroit’s AA-minor league club in Buffalo but there is no record that reflects this transaction. Instead, his contract card shows him with the Detroit Tigers class “B” affiliate Hagerstown Owls of the Interstate League, but he never entered a game before he was released in May. Shortly after his release, the York club, a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate, signed the pitcher. After his limited appearances with the White Roses, he was once again released in June. Patrick’s last chance in the game was with the Hornell Maples, the Pirates’ class “D” affiliate in the Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York League. Without taking the mound for Hornell, Patrick was released shortly after being assigned to the club, bringing an end to his very brief professional baseball career.
With no further baseball details to chase down, we turned to Patrick’s naval career, seeking details of his heroism. Our trail began to hit dead ends immediately as we sought the citation for the Navy Cross medal. Searching the most comprehensive database of U.S. Armed Forces valor medals, we were unable to locate any records pertaining to Patrick’s Navy Cross medal. In addition, we searched the Defense Department’s published list of WWII Navy Cross medal recipients and had the same result. Turning to Ancestry’s enormous databases, we were able to secure more details surrounding Patrick’s service but were left with even more questions.
Reviewing artifacts such as the Veterans Administration’s Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) file, researchers are able to obtain verified service data that includes the dates of service along with dates of birth and death. The files are created in response to the beneficiary’s reporting of death to the VA. Other valuable information is obtained through Selective Service Registration (draft) cards, enlistment records (for Army veterans) and muster sheets (Navy and Marine Corps). Ancestry has made incredible strides in digitizing hundreds of millions of these public records, though they are still quite incomplete due to the sheer enormity of the project.
Our searches within Ancestry yielded Patrick’s draft card, BIRLS file muster sheet and a link to his Findagrave.com memorial page. The memorial page included a photograph of Patrick along with one of his VA-provided grave marker and his obituary text. Analyzing each piece of information and overlaying them with historic timelines, we started to see inconsistencies with Patrick’s published newspaper accounts. Also inconsistent with the historic timelines and the official records was Patrick’s obituary narrative. In our efforts for due diligence and the desire to validate Patrick’s story, we laid out a timeline of the available facts.
When investigating a veteran’s service, one of the first pieces that we review is the draft card as it typically precedes his entry into the armed forces. Our veteran’s draft card was dated September 16, 1942 and signed by both the registrar and 21-year-old Patrick in Mackinac, Michigan. Donald Lynn Patrick was born on November 13, 1920 in Cedarville, Michigan. At the time of his draft registration, he filled in “unemployed” for his employer’s name and address and wrote that he resided in Cedarville at that time.
Navy muster sheets provide details such as unit assignments, service number, rating and rank, dates of reporting, disciplinary actions, training assignments, promotion, dates of entry into the Navy, dates of reporting to the command and dates of transfer. Muster sheets were used as an administrative accounting for each person assigned to the unit. Only four muster sheets that reveal Patrick’s naval career are presently digitized and indexed. The January 14, 1942 sheet from USS Wasp (CV-7) confirmed a few of our subject’s published accounts. Donald Lynn Patrick, service number 622-19-69, enlisted in the U.S. Navy on December 15, 1941 in Detroit, Michigan. He was received onboard the USS Wasp on January 11, 1942 from U.S. Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois, and was listed as an Apprentice Seaman, V2 (V2 indicated that he was assigned to the Navy’s aviation branch). According to the January 31, 1942 USS Wasp muster sheet, Apprentice Seaman Patrick was reassigned to Scouting Squadron 72 (VS-72 was a Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator patrol squadron aboard the Wasp) on January 16, 1942. According to the Navy, Donald Patrick not only was not a commissioned officer, he was also not an aviator.
The information contained within the muster sheets may prompt readers to counter the facts with the idea that he could have received an acting assignment or “battlefield commission” that promoted him. While that is certainly a possibility, Patrick’s timeline does not accommodate another aspect of his story, which is the absence of the required 18 months of flight training.
This scan of the USS Wasp’s muster sheet from 14 January 1942 shows Patrick’s date and place of entry into the Navy, his service number where he attended basic training, is rating and rate and the date he reported aboard the ship (source: Ancestry.com). 
On January 31, 1942, the USS Wasp muster sheet reflects Apprentice Seaman Patrick’s transfer to Scouting Squadron 72 (CS-72) which was assigned to the carrier (source: Ancestry.com).
Patrick’s VA BIRLS file confirms his date of entry (12/15/1941) and shows that he was discharged on August 31, 1942, which reflects a duration of 8 months, 17 days or a mere 260 days. When we factor in that he was in Mackinac, Michigan, on September 16 (17 days after being released from the Navy) to sign his draft card, we have two official records that cast significant doubt on the newspaper account.
The front of Donald Lynn Patrick’s draft card shows him as unemployed (source: Ancestry.com) 
Note the date of Donald L. Patrick’s draft registration – the date that he signed the card – September 16, 1942, was one day after the USS Wasp sank near the Solomon Islands (source: Ancestry.com).
According to the national newspaper accounts, Lt(jg) Patrick was aboard the Wasp for its North Atlantic convoy service. According to the muster sheets, Patrick was aboard in January and was assigned to Scouting-72 but that is the extent of the facts that we have available. However, what we do know is that the Wasp served in the Atlantic Fleet and participated in two Malta convoys that delivered British Spitfires to the region. As the Battle of the Coral Sea was taking place in the Pacific, the Wasp was headed to Norfolk. With news of the loss of the carrier USS Lexington and the heavy damage sustained by USS Yorktown, the Pacific Fleet was in need of more airpower and another carrier. Wasp was hastily refit and dispatched to the Pacific, departing Norfolk on June 6 as the Battle of Midway was taking place in the Pacific Theater.
By early July, USS Wasp was headed for the Solomon Islands in company with the carriers Saratoga and Enterprise. After arriving in the South Pacific area in the vicinity of Guadalcanal and following several pre-invasion exercises. Wasp aircraft participated in the pre-invasion bombardment of Guadalcanal on the morning of August 7, 1942, ahead of the First Marine Division’s landings.
With Patrick’s BIRLS record reflecting his August 31 discharge date, he would have been detached from the ship with enough time to have been transported back to the United States as service separations did not happen overseas in a combat theater. Two weeks after Donald Lynn Patrick was discharged from the Navy, the USS Wasp was torpedoed and sank, making impossible the heroic actions for which he was alleged to have been recognized with the Navy’s second highest medal for valor.
The only way to validate Patrick’s service claims is to obtain his Official Military Personnel File (OPMF) from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC); however, such a request will take 2.5-5 years to fulfill due to the 12-month virus shutdown and the 25-percent skeleton staff. With a backlog of requests that was nearly 24 months heading into the closure, the additional request submissions have piled on multiple years of waiting time. Unfortunately, we are left to interpret the available data and speculate as to the incongruence between Patrick’s narrative and the publicly available records.
Also up for speculation is the reason that he was released by the York White Roses and the Hornell Maples. His York manager, John “Bunny” Griffiths, said that Patrick was as “cool as a cucumber” while on the mound. In a game against the Lancaster Red Roses, Patrick was “a bit unsteady in the first (inning), allowing two runs,” the York Dispatch disclosed. “As the game continued, Patrick “settled down and did not permit another score until the ninth.” For a team that was in need of talent and that rostered a 56-year-old pitcher, Lefty George, cutting loose a young, developing hurler seemed to make no sense. Why was Patrick abruptly released? We were unable to source any details to answer our questions.
We concede that obituaries are often inaccurate as grieving family members struggle to write a brief narrative and often mistakes and inaccuracies are included. In Patrick’s obit, he was listed as playing for the Detroit Tigers from 1939 to 1940 when he enlisted into the Navy and sadly, this information is quite a stretch from the facts. No mention was made of serving as an officer, naval aviator or of heroics and decorations, which is more in line with our research findings. His grave marker merely indicates that he served in the Navy during World War II.
We can only speculate as to reasons why Donald Lynn Patrick was reported by the media to be a hero. Rather than speculating too deeply on the circumstances that led to the widespread distribution of the grossly inaccurate story, instead we remain focused upon the discoverable facts. At a time when Patrick was working to gain a foothold with his baseball career, the outcome of the war was still in doubt. After seven long months, enemy resistance on Guadalcanal ceased. Japanese air and naval forces were routed in the early March Battle of the Bismarck Sea and Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto’s aircraft was intercepted and shot down on April 18, 1943, killing the perpetrator of the Pearl Harbor attack. Hungry for a scoop, writers at the York Dispatch may have embellished the veteran’s story as Patrick worked out for his new team.
Though eight months had passed since the ship was lost, perhaps in discussing with the press that he had served on the Wasp, the (fantastic) story began to take flight. It could be that the narrative evolved from Patrick being assigned to Scouting Squadron 72 and developed into something that was beyond his control. While seeking to focus on building his baseball career, Patrick was ill prepared in managing his interactions with the media and could not gain control to steer the story back towards reality. It would have been regrettable if Donald Patrick had knowingly perpetrated the false narrative as it would have brought about a rapid end to his professional baseball career.
It is very common for veterans not to dwell on the past, especially in reflecting upon service during wartime. For children of World War II veterans, questioning their fathers about their time in uniform is often met with conspicuous silence if not evasion as the men seldom reflect upon such difficult subject matter, especially not in the presence of their families. Donald Patrick was no different. Patrick’s son Robert Patrick of Cedarville, Michigan, told us during a recent phone call that his father did not speak about his naval service at all. Donald merely mentioned that he played baseball for the Tigers but without any specificity. The only detail that Robert could recall his father discussing was that following his discharge from the Navy, he mentioned that he was eligible to collect a disability benefit. When Donald discussed the disability payment with his father, Curtis Patrick, “his father asked him if he needed it,” Robert recounted during our brief conversation. Robert continued, “But years later, he did need the disability (benefit) and got it.”
With wartime enlistments lasting the duration of the war, separations ahead of that time were typically due to medical disability or poor conduct. In light of the absence of official documentation to address the question of the characterization of his separation, we can only surmise that Donald Lynn Patrick received a wartime discharge from the Navy as the result of a physical injury that he sustained while serving. Patrick did recover enough to make a brief attempt to pursue a career in baseball for parts of May and June of 1943.
With a subsequent request to the NPRC, we hope to give this veteran his due as well as to focus more attention on researching Patrick’s brief baseball career as records become available in the future.
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