Military Baseball Research Resources
Collecting and researching military baseball artifacts is a considerable challenge due to the scarcity of the pieces in contrast to the incredible volumes of professional equipment that has been available for decades. Chevrons and Diamonds (C&D) was created to be a reliable resource providing documented and sourced research and sharing it with fellow collectors and interested historians. Below is an ever-increasing gathering of resources that are used by C&D on a routine basis. As more are discovered and vetted, they will be added, here.
Uniforms and Equipment References:
- Bats & Gloves:
- Uniforms, Jerseys and Caps:
-
- Archive of Military Baseball Uniforms and Jerseys – Dedicated to preserving an online archive detailing baseball uniforms from the military game.
- Vintage Baseball Uniforms Reference
- Baseball Uniform Tags Archive
-
- Ephemera
Sites Discussing Baseball in the Armed Forces:
Recommended Books:
- WWI
- WWII
- Baseball in World War II Europe (by Gary Bedingfield)
- Baseball’s Dead of World War II: A Roster of Professional Players Who Died in Service (by Gary Bedingfield)
- For the Good of the Country: World War II Baseball in the Major and Minor Leagues (by David Finoli)
- The Game Must Go On: Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray, and the Great Days of Baseball on the Home Front in WWII (by John Klima)
- Playing for Their Nation: Baseball and the American Military during World War II (by Steven R. Bullock)
- The Victory Season: The End of World War II and the Birth of Baseball’s Golden Age (by Robert Weintraub)
- When Baseball Went to War (by Todd Anton, Bill Nowlin, Gary Bedingfield)
- Teams, Players, Places and Personalities
- Baseball in Hawai’i (by Jim Vitti)
- Honolulu Stadium: Where Hawaii Played (by Arthur Suehiro)
- Barbed Wire Baseball: How One Man Brought Hope to the Japanese Internment Camps of WWII
- The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II (by Anne R. Keene)
- The Nats and the Grays: How Baseball in the Nation’s Capital Survived WWII and Changed the Game Forever (by David E. Hubler )
- The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg (by Nicholas Dawidoff)
- Ted Williams At War (by Bill Nowlin)
Articles, Columns and Baseball Sites:
Forums and Collector’s Groups:
Fraud, Fakes and Corruption
- Hauls of Shame – fraud and corruption in the baseball collectibles and auction industries.
- A Negative Original: Vintage Photo Fraud – discerning vintage photographs from fakes and reproductions.
- “Skimming” Your Way to Overpaying for Militaria – Introduction to faked vintage military baseballs.
- Is My WWII Baseball Real? – separating genuine military baseballs from fakes.
- These eBay Pitch-men are Tossing Spitballs at Unsuspecting Collectors – known fraudsters and their wares.
- Vintage Military Baseball Fakery: Straight Deception or a Picker’s Ignorance? – Faked USMC WWII baseball listed on eBay