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Photo Bombers: Paired Hickam Team Photo and Signed Ball
After the final out was made in the 11th game of the 1944 Serviceman’s World Series on the Island of Kauai, the landscape of service baseball in Hawaii was drastically reformed for 1945 with respect to the spring and summer teams and leagues. When the season ended ahead of the Serviceman’s World Series, the Army’s 7th AAF team was standing alone atop the mountain of Hawaii Baseball by finishing first in the Central Pacific Area (CPA) League standings, sweeping the Hawaii League’s Cartwright Series and claiming the CPA League’s championship in a best-of-three series by sweeping the Aiea Naval Hospital club.
Following the holiday season, baseball on Oahu was set to recommence without the previous season’s champion. The powerhouse 7th Army Air Force squad, loaded with major league stars, including Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, and Red Ruffing, three Yankees and future members of the Hall of Fame, was dissolved. While Ruffing and DiMaggio were back in the States, the remainder of the team was distributed among other area Army teams.
The 1945 Hickam Field “Bombers” roster, when viewed as a cumulative total over the course of the season, appears as a sizeable aggregation of players. Numbering nearly 65 players in total, the roster was actually in flux with each passing month. The team that finished the season was quite different from the group that began play in the Honolulu League in January. During the middle months of their campaign, an influx of former major leaguers from Army airfield teams on the mainland resulted in the displacement of several players to other league teams. By August, many of the Bombers were starring on civilian rosters in Hawaii due to rule changes restricting service teams from playing in civilian leagues. Despite the season’s impacts due to military leadership decisions, the Hickam squad lived up to pre-season expectations.
Introduced to the public by the Honolulu Advertiser on January 28, the Hickam Bombers squad was built around a core of players from the 1944 7th AAF squad, including standouts Ferris Fain (San Francisco Seals), Dario Lodigiani (Chicago White Sox) and Eddie Funk (Federalsburg). Outfielder and pitcher Izzy Smith, a star semipro player hailing from Sacramento who was wrested from his centerfield position by Joe DiMaggio in June, 1944 and subsequently transferred to the Wheeler nine, was joined by James Hill (catcher), John Andres (outfield) and John Bialowarczuk (second base), thus rounding out the 7th AAF contingent. Former Detroit Tigers rookie Shortstop Billy Hitchcock arrived from Greenville Army Air Base to play third, with Martin “Luau” Pigg taking turns in the outfield with George Sprys.
| Player | Position | Former |
| Joe “Moe” Ambrosio | Batboy | |
| John Andre | OF | Honolulu League |
| John (Murphy) Bialowarczuk | 2B | Perth-Amboy (Semi-Pro) |
| Bill Birch | P | |
| Robert Bodo | 1B | |
| Lefty Brazuski | P | |
| Bill Dillon | Eqp Mgr | |
| Ferris Fain | 1B | San Francisco (PCL) |
| Fartitti | OF | |
| Eddie Funk | P | Federalsburg (ESHL) |
| John Gettle | OF | |
| Roy Grefe | Mgr. | |
| George Haynie | 2B | |
| Lefty Harder | OF | |
| James Hill | C | |
| Billy Hitchcock | 3B | Tigers |
| Dario Lodigiani | SS/Coach | White Sox |
| John Moore | OF | |
| Paul Pancotto | C | Sheboygan (WISL) |
| Melvin “Luau” Pigg | 2B | Pampa (WTNM) |
| John Powers | OF | |
| Bill Salveson | P | |
| Don Schmidt | P | Seton Hall College |
| Alec Shersky | OF | |
| Izzy Smith | P | Semi-Pro |
| George Sprys | OF | Charleston (MATL) |
| Steve Tomko | Trainer | |
| Eddie Wall | P |
The 10-team league included service teams from Tripler General Hospital, Hawaiian Air Depot, Wheeler Airfield, Fort Shafter, and Bellows Field along with an Army Engineer nine and the Eagles, an all-colored ball club. Two area civilian clubs, Kaimuki and Waikiki, were also league participants. Hickam was off to a fast start from the outset of Honolulu League competition with Eddie Funk’s pitching setting the pace in his first appearance of the season for the Bombers. On February 1 against Tripler, the former Federalsburg Athletic turned in a masterpiece by striking out 15 Tripler men on his way to a two-walk no-hitter at home. Six days later against the Kaimukis, Funk surrendered seven hits while fanning 11 in the 13-3 victory. Fain led the Bomber attack by scoring two tallies and driving in four.
By the end of March 25, Hickam was firmly in second place in the Honolulu League standings. Wheeler was out in front with a won-lost record of 19-2 with the Bombers three games behind at 16-5. Fort Shafter (15-5) and Bellows Field (14-7) rounded out the top four clubs. Eddie Funk was carrying an eight-game win streak and Ferris Fain’s .448 batting average was good enough for second place in the league behind the .485 of Kaimuki’s Muramoto. Fain led all batters with 23 RBIs.
While the Honolulu League’s season was underway, the 15-team Central Pacific Base Command (CPBC) All-Army League competition commenced on April 1. Bellows, Wheeler, and Hickam were the premier clubs in the CPBC league and played games between contests in the Honolulu League.
As the Honolulu League season was winding to a close, Hickam trailed Wheeler by three games with three left to play heading into a matchup between the two teams on April 3. Wheeler needed only to beat Hickam to secure the championship. With only 3,500 on hand at Honolulu Stadium, the Wingmen sent Carl DeRose to the mound to quell the Bomber bats; however, it was not to be. DeRose was assaulted by Hickam batters as he surrendered 10 hits and seven runs. His troubles with control made his outing even more troublesome as he issued six free passes. Hickam’s 7-3 advantage did not rest entirely on DeRose’s shoulders when he was pulled after 5-2/3 innings. His defense committed five errors along the way.
Despite plating eight runs in the game, Hickam stranded 16 base runners. Bomber starter Don Schmidt helped himself at the plate with two hits, driving in two runs while scoring one. Trailing 8-3 in the bottom of the ninth, the Wingmen staged a comeback attempt, exiting the game after getting three runs, with the Bombers’ Salveson entering in relief to close out the game. With the 8-6 victory, the Bombers pulled to within two games. The Bombers’ hopes were dashed as Wheeler closed out the season the following day with an easy 4-3 victory over Waikiki, giving the league title to the Wingmen.
The culmination of the three-month season resulted in the Hickam squad coming together as a well-oiled club. Manager Dario Lodigiani’s use of talent in the right situation resulted in a highly competitive Bombers team. Two of his players garnered post-season awards. Billy Hitchcock, who arrived on the island after the season started and missed several early games, claimed prizes of war bonds and fruit bowls for leading the league in runs scored (34) and tying teammate Ferris Fain in RBIs (29). In addition to his shared RBI champion award, Fain also claimed the prize for doubles (10). Eddie Funk, Fain, Lodigiani and Hitchcock were named Honolulu League All-Stars.
The lion’s share of hardware and accolades went to the Wheeler Wingmen along with the league pennant, much to the disappointment of Hickam brass as the Honolulu League championship playoffs, known as the Cronin Series, were set to commence on Wednesday, April 11. The teams that qualified for the Series in addition to Wheeler and Hickam were the Bellows Flyers, Fort Shafter Commandos and Honolulu League All-Stars.
On the opening day of the round-robin play, the Honolulu Advertiser wrote, “Manager Mike McCormick’s Wingmen, who won the Honolulu league pennant with 23 wins against three defeats, will be pressed hard for the Cronin Series championship,” in the article Wingmen, Shafter Open Cronin Series Tonite at Hon. Stadium. In the run up to the close of the regular season, the Bombers were playing their best as they fought to the end. “The most improved team in the circuit during the final stages of league play was Hickam, and Manager Dario Lodigiani’s Bombers are favored in many quarters to beat the other teams to the wire in this series,” the piece said. Despite having pitchers Rugger Ardizoia, who won 12 consecutive games to close out the season, and Carl DeRose, the Wingmen were lacking in starters to carry them to the title.
The Honolulu Advertiser’s predictions appeared to be accurate in the opening game of the series as Shafter dismantled Ardizoia with five hits and three runs in the first three frames on the way to a 5-1 win over the pennant-winning Wingmen. Hours later, news of the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt reached the islands, which compelled organizers to postpone the upcoming weekend games until the following weekdays out of respect for the President.
After the first week of play, Shafter was out in front with a won-lost record of 2-0. Hickam’s 2-1 record, after their series-opening loss to Bellows, placed them a half game behind. Wheeler also fell behind, dropping two games and winning just one. On April 20, fifteen Army baseball stars landed on Oahu. George “Birdie” Tebbetts, Enos “Country” Slaughter, Howie Pollett, George Gill, Stan Rojek, Roy Pitter and John Jensen were among the newly arrived contingent. They reported for duty with Hickam. Unfortunately for several of the seasoned Bomber players, the roster additions translated to reassignments to other teams. Among the transfers, two of the team’s stars, Paolo “Paul” Pancotto (C) and Isadore “Izzy” Smith (OF) were sent to the civilian Wanderers club of the Hawaii League along with Joe Sciurba (2B), Melvin “Luau” Pigg (OF) and James Hill (C).
| Player | Position | Former |
| John “Johnny” Beazley | P | Cardinals |
| Geroge Gill | P | Tigers/Browns |
| Johnny “Swede” Jensen | LF/CF | San Diego (PCL) |
| Roy Pitter | P | Binghamton (EL) |
| Howie Pollet | P | Cardinals |
| Stan Rojek | SS | Dodgers |
| Frank Saul | P | Seton Hall College |
| Enos “Country” Slaughter | CF/LF | Cardinals |
| Geroge “Birdie” Tebbetts | C | Tigers |
As the second week progressed, Hickam pulled into a 5-1 tie with Shafter with the Wingmen behind at 3-3. The Bombers were experiencing a shot in the arm from the new stars. In a Tuesday, April 24 game against Fort Shafter, Enos Slaughter drilled a solo shot deep into the Honolulu stands to put Hickam ahead 2-0. Eddie Funk hurled all nine innings and survived to secure a 2-1 victory.
On April 29, Hickam and Wheeler found their roles reversed from the April 3, do-or-die game between the two clubs. The two teams faced off with the Bombers in the driver’s seat, needing to defeat the Wingmen to secure the series championship. In front of 10,000 fans at the wooden Honolulu Stadium, the Wingmen shelled Bomber pitchers Funk, Don Schmidt, and Bill Salveson for 14 hits while Ardizoia and Albert Olen held Hickam to eight safeties. Hickam was unable to quiet the bats of Wheeler first baseman Chuck Stevens, who crushed a home run to deep right field and singled, and catcher Charlie Silvera, who had three singles and two RBIs. Hickam’s power hitters – Slaughter, Fain, Hitchcock and Lodigiani – were a combined three-for-16 with two runs. Bomber right fielder George Sprys’ three-for-four and two runs scored led Hickam in the 7-4 loss.
On May 1, an order from the Army’s Pacific Base Command ruled that Army personnel could no longer participate in athletic events deemed unessential to war activities. In addition, Army teams were disallowed from participating in civilian professional leagues against all civilian clubs. The Army’s ruling forced the Honolulu League officials to coordinate with AAF-POA baseball officer Lt. Tom Winsett and Shafter Commandos business manager Vernon Holt to address the situation. With the cancellation of all remaining Cronin Series games, the decision was made to determine the series winner. Due to the standings as of April 30, with Hickam (6-2) leading Ft. Shafter by a half-game (5-2) coupled with the April 30 Bellows-Shafter game being called after three innings, a ruling was needed. With only three innings in the books, the Bellows-Ft. Shafter game could not be considered complete, and the Army’s decree precluded the game from being finished on May 1. The panel was forced to determine that Fort Shafter, with a six-run lead, would not have beaten Bellows, thus leaving Hickam alone at the top of the Cronin Series standings. Hickam was declared the champion.
With the Honolulu League and Cronin Series in the rearview mirror, there was no looking back. Hickam Army Air Field’s base commander, Colonel Malcolm S. Lawton, transferred the Bombers’ reins from manager Sergeant Lodigiani’s hands to those of Captain Birdie Tebbetts. “The 30-year-old receiver is a pepperbox behind the plate, keeping up a continuous line of chatter throughout the game,” the Honolulu Advertiser’s Al Sarles wrote of Tebbetts. Touting Birdie’s five big league seasons behind the plate with the Tigers and his time at the helm of the Waco Army Flying School’s club since 1942, Sarles penned “Tebbetts has a wealth of major league experience to bring to the managerial post,” in Ex-Tiger Catcher Succeeds Lodigiani (May 4, 1945).
The Hickam, Bellows and Wheeler Field clubs found a workable solution to continue competing in the civilian Hawaii League as several players from the three clubs were distributed among the civilian teams to augment rosters that suffered their own losses due to military inductions. With military players on the rosters of the Tigers, Hawaiis, Braves, Athletics and Wanderers, the league could continue.
Hawaii League competition opened for Hickam on May 2 with Tebbetts at the helm. Adding to his already stocked stable of pitchers, the ace of the 1942 World Series, former St. Louis Cardinals hurler Johnny Beazley, was added to the roster. The Hickams were a formidable club and decimated the “civilian teams.” In a May 21 match against the Wanderers, Bomber batters racked up 13 hits as they crushed the team that featured a handful of former Hickam players. Outfielder Enos Slaughter toed the rubber in the ninth inning for his second pitching outing of the season, though he was wild, walking one batter, plunking another and allowing two tallies as no Wanderer batter could touch his offerings. Perhaps showing his opponents a bit of mercy, Tebbetts pulled Lodigiani in favor of team mascot Joe “Moe” Ambrosio at second base in the seventh. Ambrosio went hitless in his lone at-bat.
By June 4, Hickam was in a three-way tie atop the Hawaii League with the other two USAAF teams at the end of the season’s first half. Once again, an Army ruling altered the course of service team play in Hawaiian civilian leagues. It forced Hickam, Bellows and Wheeler to withdraw from the league. As June was drawing to a close, the Hickam squad suffered a bomb blast of their own as most of the team’s stars were pulled for duty in the Western Pacific. Dario Lodigiani, Stan Rojek, Birdie Tebbetts, Howie Pollett, Ferris Fain, John Jensen, Billy Hitchcock, George Gill, Roy Pitter, and John Mazur were all pulled from the roster. The departed Hickam players joined a contingent of USAAF former major and minor leaguers to form a three-team league in the Marianas which played dozens of games on Guam, Tinian, and Saipan through August to entertain the troops.
Hickam continued to compete against service teams throughout the summer despite their withdrawal from the CPBC League after the conclusion of the first round of play on May 20. “In 14 consecutive contests, the Bombers have scored 100 runs, or better than seven per game,” Al Sarles wrote in his Hickam Sports Shorts column in the August 9 edition of the Honolulu Advertiser. “They have collected 144 hits for an average of better than 10 per game.” New manager Johnny Bialowarczuk had his team playing incredible baseball regardless of being outside league competition. “Hickam’s opponents have only been able to collect 45 runs in 14 contests,” Sarles wrote. Salveson and Schmidt had become a solid tandem of starting pitchers. As of August 9, Salveson had won three straight complete games while surrendering just six runs on 22 hits. He had walked five batters during the stretch but fanned 24.
By mid-September, the Bombers’ dominance was noteworthy, though they were not infallible. Wimpy Quinn’s Fleet Marines faced Hickam in a best-of-five series that came down to the final game. Quinn’s and Hal Hirschon’s bats were the bane of Bomber pitching as FMF downed Hickam in a 3-0 series- clinching game on September 15. With barely enough time to lick their wounds, the Bombers played host to former Red Sox slugger Ted Williams’s Marine Fliers the next day. Hickam bats laid waste to the Fliers’ pitching and opened a 10-run lead after the first few innings. Bill Salveson held a comfortable, 10-2 lead when the Fliers’ bats began to chip away at the deficit. The Marines tagged Bomber pitching for 14 hits in the last three innings and tallied three runs in each of the final frames before Saul stemmed the flow and Hickam walked away with a 13-11 victory.
When we acquired a team-signed ball with 26 autographs featuring Enos Slaughter, Birdie Tebbetts, Ferris Fain, and Dario Lodigiani in 2020, the seller listed it as originating from the USAAF Marianas games. However, analysis of the ball’s signatures and comparison with the three Marianas Rosters (58th Bombardment Wing “Wingmen,” 73rd Bombardment Wing “Bombers,” and 313th Bombardment Wing “Flyers”), our research led to investigating Hawaii service team rosters. With the exception of three names, all the players were members of the Hickam Bombers.
Walter Judnich (of the Bellows team). (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
Once it was established that our signed ball was from the Hickam team, the fruitless pursuit of additional artifacts ensued. One of our colleagues, a noted St. Louis Cardinals historian, reached out that year and shared with us (in a social media chat) a team photo that he had in his possession that showed the Bombers posed on their home field. The photo, formerly in the possession of Enos Slaughter, was given to our colleague by his family following the passing of the Cardinal legend. Last month, we executed a trade to bring the Hickam photo into the fold after two years of infrequent discussions.
After further analysis of the 1945 Hickam roster, the identities of the players in the photo and the signatures present on the ball, it is apparent that both were captured during the first half of the Hawaii League season, between May 2 and late June. To some, it may seem inconsequential to locate two significant pieces from the same brief span of time in the context of Hickam’s 1945 season and the personnel churn the team experienced throughout the year.
After the stars were dispatched to the Marianas, the Hickam team, dubbed “Medium Bombers” by the Honolulu Advertiser on July 20, continued to be an impressive squad. With the departure of both Lodigiani and Tebbetts, second baseman Johnny “Murphy” Bialowarczuk was named as the Bomber manager on June 28 despite the questions surrounding the continuation of service team play.
Aside from the major leaguers who signed our ball, including two-time American League batting champion Ferris Fain, four-time All-Star catcher Birdie Tebbetts, and Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter, there are a few signatures from Hickam Bomber players that stand out.
Seton Hall basketball star Frank Saul, who left school after his freshman year to enter the service, joined the Bombers as a pitcher following the conclusion of the Hawaii basketball season in late April. “Pep” Saul remained with the baseball team through September and would return to college in 1946, when he became the school’s first career 1,000-point scorer before joining the National Basketball Association. During his professional career, he won four NBA titles with the Rochester Royals (now the Sacramento Kings) and the Minneapolis Lakers (now in Los Angeles). Saul was inducted into Seton Hall’s hall of fame in 1973.
Baseball connects people in ways that are often overlooked. Saul’s Hickam teammate, pitcher Don Schmidt, was also a Seton Hall alum, with their college careers overlapping. It is unknown whether the two Pirates encountered each other on campus or if they met for the first time on the Hickam roster. In 1944, Schmidt was a member of the 7th AAF juggernaut that included three future members of the Hall of Fame, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, and Red Ruffing. His pitching was good enough to get him named to the Army All-Star team by Tom Winsett. Schmidt pitched two complete games in the Serviceman’s World Series but both resulted in losses (Game 3, 4-3 and Game 6, 6-4). He made relief appearances in Games 1 and 10. In 1949 Schmidt wrote that his ambition in baseball was to “win in the majors” but his career never took him higher than class AAA with Milwaukee of the American Association. Schmidt played seven minor league seasons from 1946 to 1953 before hanging up his spikes.
The University of Tulsa’s first team All-American quarterback, Glenn Dobbs, led his team to a perfect 10-0 1942 season that culminated in a Sun Bowl victory over Texas Tech on January 1, 1943. Dobbs joined Hickam on May 9 and remained with the club through the summer as the starting second baseman. After his discharge, Dobbs played football professionally with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Los Angeles Dons in the All-America Football Conference (AAFC) from 1946 to1949 and the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1951 to 1954. He earned first-team All-Pro honors in 1946 and was a CFL All-Star in 1951. Dobbs was inducted to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame in 1988. He returned to coach his alma mater from 1961 to 1968, leading the team to two first-place finishes and two Bluebonnet Bowl appearances (see: Glenn Dobbs Statue Unveiled At Tulsa University).
During a stint with an unknown professional baseball club, Carteret, New Jersey’s John P. Bialowarczuk wrote that his most interesting experience was hitting a home run off former Washington Senators pitcher Walt Masterson. The 1939 American Legion ball player had stints with the Perth Amboy club of the Metropolitan Semi-Pro league between 1940 to 1942 before joining the Army Air Force. Serving with the 7th Army Air Force in Hawaii for three years, Bialowarczuk shared the diamond with Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon, Pee Wee Reese, Schoolboy Rowe, and Hugh Casey. Manager Tom Winsett took notice of his talent and added him to the Army All-Stars for the Serviceman’s World Series in the fall of 1944.
The non-Hickam Bombers who signed our ball include former Cincinnati outfielder Mike McCormick, who carried a .288 batting average and a .302 on-base percentage in 14 World Series games with the Reds, Boston Braves and Brooklyn; and Walt Judnich, formerly with the Browns. One name we are still researching is “Bill Mosser.” Though we have found a corresponding minor leaguer who served in the armed forces from February, 1944 to May, 1946, we have yet to confirm or rule him out as the player who signed our ball.
| Player | Position | Former |
| Joe “Moe” Ambrosio | Bat Boy | |
| John (Murphy) Bialowarczuk | IF | Perth-Amboy (Semi-Pro) |
| Leonard Burton | P | Houston (TL) |
| Paul Callahan | ||
| Richard “Dick” Cattabiani | LF | |
| Don “Pee Wee” Dwyer | ||
| Ray Edwards | Biz Mgr. | |
| John Geilen | Ath. Dir. | |
| Ralph Jacobson | ||
| Doug Kirby | ||
| Cornel George “Kearny” Kohlmyer | 2B | St. Joseph (MICH) |
| Bill McGurk | ||
| John Moore | OF | |
| Paul Pancotto | C | Sheboygan (WISL) |
| Roy Pitter | P | Binghamton (EL) |
| Al Sarles | Scorer | |
| Frank Saul | P | Seton Hall College |
| Don Schmidt | P | Seton Hall College |
| Joseph “Joe” Sciruba | 2B | Lynchburg (VIRL) |
| Jack Seltronic | ||
| Mac Sherman | Announcer | |
| Izzy Smith | OF | Semi-Pro |
| George Sprys | OF | Charleston (MATL) |
| Tom Tatum | RF | Dodgers |
| Howard Wahl | P |
As we continue to identify each player in the team photo, we are more than pleased to unite these two incredible artifacts within the Chevrons and Diamonds collection.
Related Chevrons and Diamonds Articles:
- Service World Series, 1944 – Hawaiian Islands
- The Wartime Flight of a Cardinal: Sgt. Enos Slaughter
- George “Birdie” Tebbetts: From Waco to Tinian
- Signature Search: The 1945 Hickam Bombers
- The Navy’s Little Colonel: Chief Athletic Specialist Harold “Pee Wee” Reese
- Red Ruffing, an Airman’s Ace
- More Than Seven Decades in the Game From North Beach Sandlots to the Coral Fields of Guam, Saipan and Tinian
The Wartime Flight of a Cardinal: Sgt. Enos Slaughter
An interesting personality from the Golden Age of the game, Enos Bradsher Slaughter, better known as “Country,” despite his zeal and energy in how he played the game, is forever linked to a controversial August 20, 1947 spiking incident that occurred during Jackie Robinson’s breakout year with the Brooklyn Dodgers. “Country” Slaughter, a North Carolina farm boy, played the game with vigor and had a reputation for playing the game as though it could be his last. He seemingly never held back on any play on the field, including running full speed to first base during a routine infield out. Regardless of his on-field play and the sportswriters’ arguments surrounding his encounter with Robinson, our research uncovered other interesting and potentially controversial aspects of the Hall of Fame Cardinal rightfielder’s wartime service.
Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985, Enos Slaughter was a gracious and very popular participant during autograph signing sessions at collectors’ card shows. Slaughter’s signed items are quite plentiful and readily available within the collector market. For many years after his August, 2002 passing, prices for Slaughter’s signature were relatively stable. In the last half-decade, collector demand has driven prices of his autograph upward, elevating values of other Slaughter memorabilia as a result. Until the Chevrons and Diamonds Collection received a group of personal photographs from the estate of former St. Louis Browns first baseman and WWII USAAF veteran Chuck Stevens that featured several major leaguers who were serving in the Army Air Forces during World War II, including Enos Slaughter, we had not paid significant attention to the former Cardinal player and his wartime service.
The arrival of Stevens’ photos provided us with a unique perspective into World War II Army Air Forces baseball that has not been seen publicly, specifically a glimpse of the USAAF’s August 1945 Marianas tournament. By the time of his participation with George “Birdie” Tebbetts’ 58th Bombardment Wing “Wingmen,” Slaughter had been serving for nearly three years in the Army Air Forces. He had departed just days after helping the Cardinals capture the World Series crown from the Yankees in early October, 1942.
On a day in which a combined sortie of British and U.S. 8th Air Force heavy bombers conducted a raid on Nazi-held Rotterdam, Netherlands, Enos Slaughter’s Cardinals, in the midst of chipping away Brooklyn’s 4.5-game lead in the National League, were about to close out a four-game series with the Dodgers at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis after having taken the first three games. Slaughter, who had been notified of his impending September selective service call-up, paid a visit to a St. Louis Army recruiter’s office to volunteer as an aviation cadet with the condition that he would report at the conclusion of the 1942 season. More than 18,600 fans were on hand for the early Thursday afternoon (August 27, 1942) start that saw Brooklyn’s Curt Davis take the mound against Max Lanier. The heart of the Cardinals’ lineup accounted for the bulk of St. Louis’ offense, including “Country’s” one-for-four performance, driving in Jimmy Brown for their only run of the game. Perhaps the news of Slaughter’s enlistment gave the Cardinal batsmen a dose of reality concerning the war’s impact on the game, or it was simply Brooklyn’s day in their 4-1 win.
As the Yankees faced stiff competition from the Cardinals during the Fall Classic in early October, Marines on Guadalcanal were in the midst of a series of engagements with Japanese forces along the Matanikau River. The Cardinals dispatched the Yankees in five games, with the deciding game being played at Yankee Stadium on October 5. Two days later, Slaughter, who had hit .263 with a home run, scored three runs and drove in two runs in the Series, awaited his call to report for duty.
Enos Slaughter would not report for aviation cadet training until March 13, 1943, following his marriage to the former Josephine Begonia of Chicago, Illinois in February. Slaughter’s arrival in San Antonio was met with nominal fanfare and was carried in the nation’s newspapers. “I’ve never done much flying, except on a few trips to All-Star games,” the Red Bird outfielder told the St. Louis Star in mid-March, “but I know I am going to like flying. They tell me the studies are hard, but I am going to do the best job I can – and hope I make it, for I’d like to be in there flying, along with young Captain Billy Southworth (the son of his Cardinals manager).” Enos reported to the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center (SAACC) carrying 10 extra pounds. “I am sure that the Army will see that gets trimmed off,” the Raleigh News and Observer reported on March 28, “If this war stretches out so long I’ll be too old to get back in uniform, I will feel that I have done something for baseball in preserving it so other mill hands, farm boys, coal miners or fellow from any other walk of life may know the thrill of stepping up to the plate in a World Series,” Slaughter said.
In researching Slaughter’s military service, we found that the issue of the former outfielder’s color blindness is often reported and discussed regarding the reason for the his disqualification from Army flight training. While most biography readers would accept Enos’ condition and subsequent change in his military service as a simple fact, it raised concerns about factual reporting either at that time or in subsequent commentaries. Perhaps decades of elapsed time diminished the details, along with any measure of exception taken with the facts. It wasn’t until we discovered a Friday, April 9, 1943 column in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (“Down the Middle” by Dick Williamson) that our concerns were validated.
When Slaughter was accepted into the Army’s flight training program at the time of his enlistment on August 27, 1942, he most certainly would have been subjected to a physical examination by an Army medical officer to ensure that he was fit for Army duty and that he met the basic health requirements to be accepted as an aviation cadet. If that did not happen in August of 1942, surely it had to have taken place when he reported for duty on March 13, 1943. How could Slaughter’s color blindness have gone undiscovered until he was in flight training? The question was one that we couldn’t get past.
In the Richmond Times-Dispatch piece, Williamson wrote that Slaughter had been “grounded” at the San Antonio Army Air Force Preflight School (Group IV). The piece reminded readers that “in August last year, Slaughter was being called by his Roxboro, North Carolina draft board for immediate induction. But meanwhile he applied for aviation cadet training and took a screening mental and physical examination in St. Louis.” Columnist Williamson wrote, “At this [August, 1942] test, Slaughter was found to be color blind, a defect that ordinarily eliminates an aviation cadet applicant.” The three-paragraph article seemed to prove that our instincts were correct.
Questions surrounding Slaughter’s enlistment lingered. If he failed to qualify for aviation cadet training, how was he permitted to proceed with the program and stave off his immediate induction? The second paragraph in the Times-Dispatch posed a more specific question along with a supposition. “For some reason, the St. Louis examining board waived Slaughter’s color blindness and accepted him as a future aviation cadet (could it have been because the Cards were in a neck-and-neck race with the Dodgers for the pennant?).” In calling attention to the St. Louis draft board’s decision, the article also illuminated another important fact; the actions of Slaughter and his St. Louis board helped the ballplayer avoid his hometown board (in Roxboro, North Carolina) and their potentially less-than baseball-friendly posture. Whatever arrangement was made between the draft board and Slaughter, the end result was that Enos was allowed to continue playing baseball through the end of the 1942 season and then await his call-up to aviation training.
Unfortunately, Enos Slaughter is not alive today to provide context or to dispute the details published by Dick Williamson. Providing a measure of perspective, in the countless newspaper articles that we found that discussed Slaughter’s color blindness disqualification, Williamson’s piece is the only one to mention the alleged waiver. A modicum of doubt arises in the last paragraph of Williamson’s segment about Slaughter. “Slaughter knew he was color blind and realized all the time he would be eliminated from further cadet training,” Williamson wrote. “When he did take the exam and was found color blind he was given ‘GDO’ (Ground Duty Only).” Williamson qualified his statement: “This information comes to me from a serviceman who talked with Slaughter at the San Antonio school before the baseball star underwent the tough physical exam there.” While hearsay doesn’t typically hold up in the legal realm, the information provided by Williamson’s unnamed source should be considered only with a few grains of salt.
According to Slaughter’s Baseball Hall of Fame profile, the former Cardinal was offered the opportunity to train as a bombardier when his color blindness “discovery” resulted in his dismissal from flight training. “I said if I couldn’t be the one flying the plane, I’d just as soon not be flying. So I became physical education instructor in charge of about 200 troops,” Slaughter told Frederick Turner, author of When the Boys Came Back: Baseball and 1946. Slaughter remained at the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center and was assigned to the 509th Base Headquarters Squadron. The Cardinals slugger was also tapped by the manager, 2nd Lt. Del Wilber ( a former Cardinals minor leaguer), to play on the base’s ball club and compete against local Texas service and semi-professional teams.
With the 1943 San Antonio Service League’s 63-game season underway, Slaughter was on an offensive tear. By the end of May, he was hitting .535 as he faced opponents such as the Randolph Field “Ramblers” (including David “Boo” Ferriss, Bibb Falk and a handful of minor leaguers), the “War Workers,” the Brooks Field “Ganders” and teams from Camp Normoyle Ordnance Depot, Stinson Army Air Field, Kelly Field and Hondo Navigation School.
In mid-June, Slaughter was granted a furlough to participate in the 1942 World Series champion’s ring ceremonies in St. Louis. Joined on the field at Sportsman’s Park to collect their rings were fellow service members Frank Crespi and Johnny Beazley. Terry Moore, serving in the Army Air Forces and stationed in the Panama Canal Zone, was represented at the ceremony by his mother. Immediately following the festivities in St. Louis, Slaughter was flown back to San Antonio in time for his service team’s game against Brooks Field.
In early July, the SAACC team participated in the annual Houston semipro baseball, 14-team tournament that included squads from several Houston-area military bases. The tournament favorite was the Waco Army Flying School, piloted by former Detroit Tigers backstop George “Birdie” Tebbetts. The club included former major leaguers Sid Hudson, “Hoot” Evers, “Buster” Mills and Bruce Campbell. The Waco squad dominated the tournament as the SAACC Warhawks failed to secure a spot in the finals. Waco defeated the Bayton Oilers to claim the tournament victory. In August, Private Slaughter was promoted to Private First Class.
| Player | Position |
|---|---|
| Dave Coble | C |
| Steve Colosky | P |
| Ed Cooper | |
| Jim Cox | |
| John Ducos | |
| Don Finfrock | 2B |
| Dave Garland | |
| Siegel Grove | |
| Tex Hendrix | Bat boy |
| Chester Hill | Spc. Svcs. Officer |
| Eddie Houser | |
| Leo Johnson | |
| Woody Johnson | P |
| Marty Lackowitz | Trainer |
| Frank O’Neil | |
| Dave Pluss | RF |
| Fred Scheske | OF |
| Enos “Country” Slaughter | OF |
| Bill Smith | P |
| Del Wilber | IF/Mgr |
Always on the hunt for baseball militaria, we were quite surprised when we sourced two vintage photos, from two different sellers, of the San Antonio Army Aviation Cadet Center team featuring Enos Slaughter in his team flannels. Both type-1 images originated from the SAACC public relations office and were so stamped on the backs. These photos appeared to be taken around the same time (June, 1943). The first SAACC Warhawk photo showed a group of players flanking an Army Air Forces officer (Lt. Col. Chester Hill, the Special Services Officer) and called attention to the group of men as being former professional baseball players. The second photo from Slaughter’s 1943 season showed him posed while holding his bat. In addition to capturing Slaughter during his time in San Antonio, both photos provided fantastic details of the SAACC uniform.
As the 1943 season progressed, one of the most significant war bond fundraising events was taking shape. Raising funds in support of the war effort was an effort that involved all Americans. Not only were citizens called upon to ration resources (food, clothing and fuel), but recycling was an all-hands effort that some folks suggest has not yet been replicated despite modern-day municipal and commercial programs. Investing in the future of the nation involved financial investment in the purchase of bonds (very similar to contemporary U.S. Treasury savings bonds) that provided the purchaser with a return on his/her investment when the bond reached maturity. The August 26, 1943 War Bond Jubilee was a significant effort. Its goal was to sell millions of dollars of war bonds that people would purchase at an event held at the Polo Grounds in New York.
Aside from the more than two hours of musical and comedic performances from orchestras, dance bands and radio, stage and film stars (such as Cab Calloway, Ethel Merman, James Cagney and Milton Berle), the main attraction was a game that pitted stars from the three New York major league clubs (Dodgers, Giants and Yankees) against the U.S. Army’s New Cumberland (Pennsylvania) Reception team, which was augmented with service all-stars that included (future Hall of Fame enshrinees in bold) Captains Hank Greenberg (1B) and Sid Hudson (P), Lieutenants Johnny Beazley (P), Billy Hitchcock (SS) and Birdie Tebbetts (C) and Private First Class Enos Slaughter (RF). Also filling out the Cumberland roster were Elmer Valo (RF), Ducky Detweiler (1B), Danny Murtaugh (2B), Hal Marnie (2B), Pat Mullin (CF), Bill Peterman (C), Lynn Myers (SS), Bobby Rhawn (3B), Chuck Harig (LF) and Shargey (PH).
Before the All-Star game, fans were treated to perhaps the most memorable old-timers game in the history of baseball, dubbed the “Tableau of Yesterday.” Present at the game (three of which are noted in bold) were 12 living members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, including the 1936 inaugural induction class. The exhibition showcased Babe Ruth‘s last-ever at bat, when he faced off against 55-year-old Washington Senators Hall of Fame pitcher Walter “Big Train” Johnson, for a batting display, with the other legends fielding their traditional positions and Bill Klem calling balls and strikes.
“With Ruth (48 years old) at bat, George Sisler (50) was at first base, Eddie Collins (59) at second, bow-legged Honus Wagner (69) at short, Tris Speaker (55) in centerfield and Connie Mack (83) waving a scoreboard. Their ranks were filled out by other famous players of a bygone era – Roger Bresnahan (64) catching, Frank Frisch (44) at third base, Duffy Lewis (53) in left field and Jack “Red” Murray (59) in right.” – Associated Press, Friday August 27, 1943
The event raised more than 800 million dollars (in purchased War Bonds) and the nearly 40,000 fans were treated to Babe Ruth’s last ever home run blast. “It didn’t matter that in fielding some of the Babe’s ‘practice shots’ Murray fell down, Speaker was practically decapitated and Collins was all but carried into right field by a line drive,” wrote the Associated Press’ Sid Feder. “The folks had a look at ‘em, and the Babe finally parked one. That was the icing on the cake.”
Never mind that there was still a ballgame to be played following the old timers’ exhibition. Filling out the New York All-Stars’ roster were: Dick Bartell and Frankie Crosetti at short, Billy Jurges, Joe Gordon, Billy Herman and Mickey Witek at second base, Billy Johnson at third, Arky Vaughan, Charlie Keller, and Joe “Ducky” Medwick in left field, Buster Maynard and Augie Galan in center, Dixie Walker and Paul Waner in right, Nick Etten and Galan at first and Ernie Lombardi, Bill Dickey and Mickey Owen behind the plate. Manager Casey Stengel‘s pitching staff consisted of Curt Davis, Van Lingle Mungo, Ace Adams, Spud Chandler, Carl Hubbell, Tiny Bonham, Tommy Byrne and Ed Head (the nine future Hall of Fame enshrines shown in bold).
Though billed as the featured event, the game between the All-Stars and the Army team was overshadowed despite the star power on both rosters. The Camp Cumberland squad, managed by Captain Hank Gowdy, eked out 14 hits against the New York stars; however, they managed to plate only two runners. The Cumberland pitchers limited the Stars to nine hits, but the Gotham batsmen tallied five runs to claim the victory. Private Slaughter batted 1-for-3 and scored one of the Cumberland runs in the loss. The fans and the nation were the real winners in this hallmark event because of the money raised for the war effort and the historically entertaining day. In retrospect, those in attendance witnessed an unprecedented Hall of Fame event, with 21 members participating in the game and seven being part of the festivities but not playing.
Returning to San Antonio following the War Bond game, Enos Slaughter, promoted to the rank of sergeant, was “apologetic” for hitting just .498 (in 75 games) in his first season with the SAACC Warhawks. The team secured the Texas Army League championship. As Sgt. Slaughter continued his work at the air base leading physical fitness instruction, he was part of the U.S. Army Air Forces training film, Survival of the Fittest.
Slaughter’s enlistment controversy resurfaced a year after he reported for duty with a brief two-paragraph article (published on Thursday, March 2, 1944) discussing the details surrounding his induction and subsequent exit from the aviation cadet program. “He (Slaughter) washed out,” Stan Anderson of the Logan, Utah paper Student Life wrote, “because he answered a psychologist’s question as to why he joined the Air Corps with a remark to the effect that getting into the Air Corps Reserve was his only means of staving off the Army long enough to play in that year’s World Series.” Anderson’s piece continued, “Very candid boy, apparently. But poor attitude, the offended Army Air Corps representative decided at once.”
In 1944 Slaughter’s San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center Warhawk club again claimed both the best record in the Texas service league’s 55 –game jaunt and the championship in the season-ending playoffs. Sergeant Slaughter slipped from his 1943 batting average, dropping to a miniscule .414 and finishing behind Randolph Field’s David “Boo” Ferriss’ .417. Enos captured the league crown for hits (82), doubles (22), total bases (153) and runs (64) and tied his manager, Del Wilber, for the league lead in home runs (13). Slaughter was no slouch on the base paths as he swiped 16 and finished tied for second.
As his former teammates were preparing for the first game of the all-St. Louis World Series between the Cardinals and the Browns, Sgt. Slaughter was not only in town but joined the “Redbirds” on the field during pre-game warm-ups. Slaughter’s presence must have aided the Cardinals as they set down the Browns to claim the championship in six games.
By February of 1945, U.S. forces were pushing the Imperial Japanese forces from their island strongholds in the Western Pacific. On February 16, the bloodiest battle of the Pacific on Iwo Jima commenced with a pre-invasion shore bombardment from the naval forces. Three days later, Marines began landing on the black, volcanic, sandy shores of the island. Fighting would last until nearly the end of the following month. Despite the victory in wresting control of the island from the Japanese, U.S. forces suffered extensive casualties, numbering more than 26,000, 6,821 of them killed.
As was happening with Birdie Tebbetts’ Waco squad, Army brass detached two key players from the Cadet Center team months before the start of the 1945 season. Sgt. Enos Slaughter and Private Howie Pollet were granted a furlough as they transferred to Kearns Army Air Field near Salt Lake City, Utah. Joining Slaughter and Pollet at Kearns were Tex Hughson, Sid Hudson, Clarence “Hooks” Iott, “Chubby” Dean, George Gill, Sam West, Johnny Sturm, Lew Riggs, Stan Rojek, Nanny Fernandez, Chuck Stevens, Taft Wright and Bobby Adams. They all awaited further transfer.
Staff Sergeant Bruce Bohle wrote his employer, the St. Louis Star and Times, to tell them of his encounter with the ballplayers soon after their arrival at Kearns. “Imagine my surprise on entering the dining hall,” Bohle opened his letter, “to find the dishwashing chores handled by two former members of the Cardinals. They were Enos Slaughter and Howard Pollet.” Bohle continued, “These ball players rate ace-high with the boys at Kearns. They receive the same training and handle the same duties as all of us,” Bohle commented, “Slaughter and Pollet were in fine form while working with the dishwashing brigade. That’ll give you a laugh!”
As reported in the (Thursday, March 8) Salt Lake Telegram, the gathering of players was “a manager’s dream,” wrote the unnamed author. “That’s the AAF overseas replacement depot, Kearns, these days.” The article boasted Kearns as having a “who’s on first and what’s the pitcher’s name” situation at the air base with the drawback being that the players wouldn’t be playing nor would they be around when baseball season opened.
All of the Kearns Air Base assemblage of ballplayers (except for Lott and West) were soon transferred to Oahu and distributed among Bellows Field, Wheeler Field and Hickam Field, with each assigned to the corresponding baseball teams. Slaughter, Pollet and Rojek ended up with the Hickam Air Field “Bombers” at Pearl Harbor.
The Monday, April 23 edition of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported the arrival of Slaughter at Hickam Field along with Howie Pollet and Captain Birdie Tebbetts, “to perform military duties with the army air forces.” The Star-Bulletin continued, “Seven major and minor league ball players in all have come in to date, including three pitchers, two outfielders, two infielders and a catcher,” calling the additions to the Hickam baseball team, a “septuple shot in the arm.” Joining the trio were John Jensen (San Diego Padres), Roy Pitter (Yankees) and George Gill (Tigers and Browns). With the Honolulu League season underway since late January, Hickam had already seen the additions of Ferris Fain (San Francisco Seals) and Dario Lodigiani (White Sox), both of whom had played for the 7th AAF team in 1944 in Hawaii, and Bill Hitchcock (Tigers), who had played on the McClellan Field (Sacramento) team.
| Rank | Player | Position | Former Team (Pre-War) |
|---|---|---|---|
| John J.”Moe” Ambrosia | Bat Boy/2B | Unknown | |
| John (Murphy) Bialowarczuk | 3B/P/MGR | Semi-Pro | |
| Leonard Burton | P | Tallahassee (GAFL) | |
| Glenn Dobbs | Tulsa U./Chicago Cardinals (NFL) | ||
| S/Sgt. | Ferris Fain | 1B | San Francisco (PCL) |
| Eddie Funk | P | San Diego (PCL) | |
| Cpl. | George Gill | P | Browns/Tigers |
| Capt. | Billy Hitchcock | 3B | Tigers |
| Cpl. | Johnny Jensen | LF/CF | San Diego (PCL) |
| George Colonel “Kearnie” Kohlmyer | 2B | Tyler (EXTL) | |
| Sgt. | Dario Lodigiani | 2B | White Sox |
| Johnny Mazur | C | Semi-Pro | |
| Roy Pitter | P | NYY Property | |
| Pfc. | Howie Pollet | P | Cardinals |
| Sgt. | Stan Rojek | SS | Dodgers |
| Bill Salveson | P | Semi-Pro | |
| Frank Saul | P | Semi-Pro | |
| Don Schmidt | P | Semi-Pro | |
| Sgt. | Enos “Country” Slaughter | CF/LF | Cardinals |
| George Sprys | RF | Appleton (WISL) | |
| Tom Tatum | RF | Dodgers | |
| Capt. | George “Birdie” Tebbetts | C | Tigers |
Slaughter’s impact on the Hickam “Bombers” squad was immediate as he batted in the clean-up spot. During an April 24 matchup against the Fort Shafter Commanders in front of 4,000 at Honolulu Stadium in the Cronin Series, Slaughter walked and scored in the fourth inning and stroked a home run in the seventh to put Hickam ahead, 2-1. Enos used his defensive prowess to rob Earl Kuper of extra bases as he made a brilliant play on a 350-foot line drive in the fifth inning. In his second game, he plated three with a home run to beat the Honolulu All-Stars (a civilian team) in the Cronin Series.
Baseball wasn’t the only game for Slaughter at Hickam. The slugger was joined by Tebbetts, Frank Saul, George Gill and Roy Pitter to play in the CPBC softball tournament as part of the Hickam Bombers squad. They took down the AP&SC team, 7-1, on May 2 for their fifth win in the brackets.
The baseball season continued for the Hickam squad as they continued to rack up wins, defeating the Maui All-Stars and Maui Marines. They held each team scoreless while Slaughter drove seven runs (combined) and was awarded a $50 war bond for the most RBIs in the H.C. & S. Co. Athletic Association Series held at New Baldwin Field on the island of Maui.
By May 17, Hickam remained unbeaten in league play and Slaughter continued his offensive and defensive onslaught. The bats of Hickam’s Rojek, Fain, Jensen, Hitchcock, Tebbetts and Kearny Kohlmyer combined with Enos Slaughter’s output earned them the nickname, “Murderous Row” by the Honolulu Advertiser.
Slaughter was tapped by his Hickam manager Birdie Tebbetts, along with 11 other former professional players, to participate in a baseball clinic held for more than 1,000 youths at Honolulu Stadium. It was the first of its kind in Honolulu. The players taught the kids skills for batting, pitching, sliding, base stealing and pickoff plays.
As the season progressed, Hickam faced off against the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base Dolphins on May 25 in what was a pure offensive showdown. One would think that after being staked to a 12-0 lead after the third inning, the game was well in hand for the Bombers, especially after tallying nine runs in the second inning alone. Tebbetts lifted himself and Slaughter, who had suffered an injury, a strained hamstring, while running hard to first base in the second inning. with the large lead, but the Dolphins proceeded to work their way back against the impending rout. Ken Sears’ two home runs in addition to round-trippers by “Schoolboy” Rowe, John Jeandron, Charlie Gilbert, Bob McCorkle and Don Meyers drew the Dolphins to within a run but they ultimately fell short, 18-17.
With Slaughter’s injury and faltering pitching, Hickam suffered their first loss of the season to the Wingmen of Wheeler Air Base, 7-2, on May 26. Hickam’s offense came roaring back to life against the Honolulu Tigers in an 11-4 attack with Kohlmyer subbing for Slaughter in right field.
As May turned to June, the Hickam Bombers remained atop the Hawaii League standings in a three-way tie for first place with the teams from Wheeler Field and Bellows Field, each with a single loss. On June 9th, the Bombers received their second loss of the season at the hands of the Aiea Naval Hospital at Ceres Field, home of the “Hilltoppers.” Led by Sal Recca (a double and three singles) and Johnny Berardino (a triple and a double), the Hilltoppers’ bats got to Gill, who surrendered five runs. The Bombers were without the services of Slaughter, Tom Tatum and Dario Lodigiani.
In early June, the former Yankee catcher, Navy Lieutenant Bill Dickey, drafted plans to hold an All-Star game at Furlong Field on June 24 that would resemble the mid-summer classic between the stars of the National and American leagues. This game would feature players stationed throughout Hawaii and assembled in league teams, regardless of their current branches of service.
The American Leaguers were set to be managed by Birdie Tebbetts and feature Tex Hughson, Ted Lyons, Bob Harris, Walt Masterson, Bill Dickey, Rollie Hemsley, Joe Gordon, Johnny Pesky, Walt Judnich and Fred Hutchinson. The roster of the Nationals was to include Ray Lamanno, Gil Brack, Don Lang, Lou Riggs, Stan Rojek, Nanny Fernandez, Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, Max West, Mike McCormick and Schoolboy Rowe, with Billy Herman managing.
Earlier this year, we located a 1940s Wilson Official League baseball that was covered with signatures from former major and minor-league ballplayers. Each player appeared to sign the ball using the same pen and included the year (“1945”) inscribed beneath one of the autographs. Included with the baseball was a PSA/DNA certificate of authenticity, validating the signatures as genuine. Due to the names of the players who signed the ball, we determined that the group of men were part of the 1945 Hickam Bombers (see: Signature Search: The 1945 Hickam Bombers). Perhaps the most prominent of the signatures is that of Enos Slaughter.
On June 16, LT. Col Edgar B. Stansbury, chief of AAFPOA Special Services, announced that the Army Air Forces would play their last baseball game in Hawaii on the following day, bringing about an end to the season and the planned All Star game. According to the June 17, 1945 Honolulu Advertiser, there was no reason provided by the colonel who “asserted it would be impossible to hold a major league All-Star Game” due to the mandate. The Navy leadership made a similar announcement regarding their players. Slaughter and the rest of the pro ballplayers appeared in their final Hickam Bombers game that afternoon as they took on the Bellows Field Flyers, claiming their final win, 2-0, on a Dario Lodigiani two-run single in the ninth inning.
Hickam attempted to rebuild the team, refilling the positions vacated by the former professionals with Air Forces personnel in order to salvage their season, with the first game scheduled for June 29. Meanwhile, Slaughter prepared for what lay ahead. On June 25, the Associated Press published an article (Big Name Athletes Move to Outlying Islands) by reporter Murlin Spencer. “Baseball stars who have made Oahu one of the greatest islands for baseball fans are moving to outlying islands so that GIs on the outer fringes can see them, too.” Slaughter was listed among many stars that were departing.
On July 9, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported the arrival of Slaughter and the contingent of USAAF players on the island of Guam. The piece mentioned that decisions had yet to be made regarding how the men would be divided into teams. AAFPOA athletic officer Captain Billy Hitchcock, who was in charge of the contingent of players, spoke of issues surrounding the condition of the ball fields and facilities available to use for games. He also named the managers for the three teams that the group would be divided into. “Birdie Tebbetts of the Hickam Bombers, Buster Mills of the Bellows Flyers and Mike McCormick of the Wheeler Wingmen,” Hitchcock said, “probably will be managing these teams.”
| Player | Position | Former |
|---|---|---|
| Bob “Bobby” Adams | 2B | Syracuse (IL) |
| Al “Chubby” Dean | P | Indians |
| Tom Gabrielli | C | Pirates |
| George Gill | P | Tigers/Browns |
| Joe Gordon | SS | Yankees |
| Billy Hitchcock | 3B | Tigers |
| Edwin “Ed” Kowalski | P | Appleton (WISL) |
| Al Lang | LF | Reds |
| Don Lang | OF | Kansas City (AA) |
| Pete Layden | OF | collegiate player |
| Arthur “Art” Lilly | IF | Hollywood (PCL) |
| Joe Marty | OF | Phillies |
| Roy Pitter | P | Yankees |
| Howie Pollet | P | Cardinals |
| Enos “Country” Slaughter | OF | Cardinals |
| Chuck Stevens | 1B | Browns |
| Johnny Sturm | 1B | Yankees |
| George “Birdie” Tebbetts | C/Mgr | Tigers |
| Vic Wertz | CF | Tigers |
Hitchcock formed the teams (under the command of the U.S. Army Strategic Air Forces or USASTAF) and created a round-robin format of competition to provide an entertaining tournament that would be played on Guam, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. The team assignments seemed to correspond with the roster configurations previously seen in Hawaii with Wheeler, Bellows and Hickam; but there were some exceptions. Tebbetts’ roster appeared to have been given a slight advantage by landing two outstanding hitters in Slaughter and former Yankee infielder Joe Gordon (both of whom would end up enshrined in Cooperstown). The tournament commenced with the inaugural game between Tebbetts’ 58th Bombardment Wing “Wingmen” and Buster Mills’ 73rd Bombardment Wing “Bombers” on July 27.
The USASTAF tournament games were not the only baseball competition that the men faced. In some instances, the players would see action with pick-up games that would often include highly-skilled regular GIs filling in some of the roster positions. Staff Sergeant Ed Ruder, a war correspondent stationed in the Marianas, wrote of a pickup game that featured several former Cardinals and Browns players. His piece, “Cardinal and Brown Players Hold St. Louis Day in Pacific,” spotlighted a game between Army and Marine Corps clubs, each augmented by former players from the two St. Louis teams. The Marines squad featured Bill Barnes, Vernal “Nippy” Jones, and Ray Yochim of the Cardinals and Harry Hatch, former Browns farmhand. The Army team included (from the 58th Wingmen) former Cardinals Slaughter, Pollet and former Browns Gill and Kearny Kohlmyer. Also representing the St. Louis area was batboy John. J. “Moe” Ambrosia, formerly of the Hickam Bombers. The Marines got the better of the Army that day on the back of Yochim’s pitching as he outdueled Pollet, 7-6.
Slaughter’s .351 batting average was among the leaders in the USASTAF tournament, trailing Stan Rojek (.358), Bill Leonard (.355) and Johnny Jensen (.353) when the competition wound to a close. In total, 27 games were played just within the USASTAF round robin league before more than 180,000 GI fans.
Sergeant Slaughter’s overseas service came to an abrupt close when he, along with Captain George R. Tebbetts, Corporal Max West, Corporal Joe Gordon, and 1st Lt. Colonel “Buster” Mills, 1st Lt. Stanley Goletz, Corporals Bobby Adams, Edward Chandler, Froilan Fernandez, John Jensen, Don Lang, Arthur Lilly, Albert Olsen, Herman Reich, Charles Stevens, Rinaldo Ardizoia, Carl De Rose, Wilfred Leonard, Alfred W. Lien, Roy Pitter, Charles Silvera and John Mazur; S/SGT Ferris Fain, Sgts. Walter Judnich, Dario Lodigiani, Joseph Marty, William Schmidt, Sam Rojek and Sid Hudson; Pfc. Robert Dillinger, Chester Kehn, Edwin Kowalski, Nick Popovich, Thomas Cabrielli, Sid Hudson, Howard Pollet and Alfred Dean arrived in Long Beach, California as they disembarked from the USS Cecil (APA-96).
Days later, controversy surrounding Slaughter brewed once again when the news reached troops still stationed overseas and awaiting their orders to return home. “It now seems that the function of some big name baseball, football and other athletic stars is, perhaps unwittingly,” a Stars and Stripes editorial conveyed, “to help lower the morale of overseas servicemen.” Letters to the paper from GIs caused a dustup over the accelerated return and subsequent discharges for the baseball players, and Slaughter’s name was one of ten specifically called out.
Sgt. Slaughter transferred from Camp Anza (Riverside, California) to Fort Sheridan, Illinois and was granted a 58-day furlough following his arrival; but he was ordered to report to San Antonio on January 1, 1946. “I am hoping to get out in time for spring training,” Slaughter told W. Vernon Tietjen of the St. Louis Star and Times, “but I don’t know. Latest is that you need 55 points, and I am still in the 40s.” Nearly four weeks later, on January 25, Slaughter was discharged from the Army Air Forces 24 days before reporting to St. Petersburg, Florida for the Cardinals’ spring training.
Despite the questions and controversy surrounding Slaughter’s entrance into the air cadet program and his color blindness disqualification, his positive impact and morale boosting while playing baseball for his comrades in arms was felt for more than two years. The artifacts in the Chevrons and Diamonds collection that reflect Sergeant Enos Slaughter’s service were fantastic additions over the last few years and will always be treasured. We are delighted to share them with our audiences.
See also:
- The ‘Strike’ Against Jackie Robinson: Truth or Myth? – by Warren Corbett, Society for American Baseball Research, Spring 2017 Baseball Research Journal
- The Jackie Robinson spiking incident, paragraph 23 of Enos Slaughter – by Joseph Wancho, Society for American Baseball Research,
George “Birdie” Tebbetts: From Waco to Tinian
In the waning days of July, 1945, the baseball competition on two islands of the Northern Marianas was heating up. Teams on Saipan and Tinian had been in the Western Pacific for a short time as part of the Army’s plan to provide the men, who were bringing the fight to the Japanese home islands, relief from the heavily-taxing operational pace. With the caliber of both players and on-field play drew significant crowds despite the presence of some of the game’s best players actively serving as airmen beyond the foul lines.
Sunday, July 29, 1945 – Tinian Island. Former St. Louis Browns’s first baseman, Chuck Stevens, now playing for the 58th Bombardment Wing’s “Wingmen” is at bat. Chevrons and Diamonds Collection
Former Red Sox pitcher, Cecil “Tex” Hughson stationed on Saipan after a few seasons playing for the Waco Army Flying School Wolves team, wrote an August 2, 1945 letter to Joe Cronin, his Boston manager, providing and update as to the baseball activities, “We were divided into three teams.” Hughson wrote,” and the other two teams are on Tinian now, but one is to go to Guam as soon as they have accommodations for them there.” Joining Hughson on the Saipan squad was Sid Hudson (Senators), Mike McCormick (Reds) Taft Wright and Dario Lodigiani (both of the White Sox), recently shipped from Hawaii. The three teams that largely consisted of major leaguers were the 58th Bombing Wing “Wingmen,” 73rd Bombing Wing “Bombers” and 313th Bombing Wing “Flyers.”
The 58th Wing’s roster featured several major leaguers (including two future Cooperstown enshrinees) augmented by a handful of minor leaguers and at least one service member without professional baseball experience. The 58th’s manager, Captain George R. “Birdie” Tebbets who also served as the team’s catcher, spent the 1943 and 1944 seasons in the same capacity with the Waco Army Flying School (at Rich Field Army Air Base) where he led that team to a record of 88-16 competing largely against service and semi-professional ballclubs. In that span of time, the WAFS Wolves captured both the Texas State Semi-Pro and Houston Service League championships in consecutive seasons.
A flight of B-29 heavy bombers from the 73rd Bombing Wing (500th Bomb Group/881st Bomb Squadron) on a mission over Japan. The aircraft in the center of this photo was named, “Sna pe Fort” (pronounced “snappy fort”). Chevrons and Diamonds Collection
Aside from playing baseball, these men could be found working as ground crew, maintainers, armorers or in other support capacities including instructing and leading in physical fitness training. Flights of B-29 heavy bombers would depart for General Curtis LeMay’s low-altitude bombing missions on enemy targets on the Japanese home islands, often returning with heavy damage and crew casualties sustained by Japanese anti-aircraft fire and fighters. All too often, the damage (to some aircraft) was so severe that attempted landings produced deadly results with fiery runway crashes or ditching in the waters near shore. The men on the ground, including former major and minor league ballplayers now serving and playing on these rosters, rushed to the scenes to extinguish fires and extract the wounded and dead. In the hours following these duties, the games would go on to divert attention from the carnage in order to help flight crews to maintain readiness in order to continue with subsequent missions, despite the losses. Life on the Northern Marianas was dangerous business.
Tibbets and Tebbetts; the careers of two men with similar-sounding names, followed vastly different paths, intersected on a tiny island in the western Pacific roughly 1,500 miles south of Tokyo. Though confirmation has not been found, it is possible, if not unreasonable to consider that the two U.S. Army Air Forces officers met in the summer of 1945 on the either of the two inhabited Northern Marianas group. Paul Tibbets, a fixture on the islands since his B-29 squadron arrived on Tinian in late May of 1945, was part of the command structure and, if he was a baseball fan as most American young men were, would have taken an interest in the arrival of the some of the game’s biggest stars who were serving in the Army Air Forces.
On August 17, 1942, Captain Paul Warfield Tibbets Jr., recently named as the commanding officer of the 340th Bombardment Squadron of the 97th Bombardment Group (flying the B-17D “Flying Fortress”) climbed into the left seat of the heavy bomber Butcher Shop as he prepared to lead the first American daylight heavy bomber mission, a shallow-penetration raid against a marshaling yard in the German Occupied town of Rouen, France, the first of his 25 combat missions while flying as part of the famous Eighth Air Force.
Five days later, on August 22, 1942, 29-year-old George R. “Birdie” Tebbetts reported for training in the United States Army Air Forces. The philosophy major and 1934 graduate of Providence College was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army Air Forces as he began training at Rich Field in Waco, Texas. By spring of 1943, Tebbets, nicknamed “Birdie” as a child by an aunt who thought his (then) distinctive voice resembled the sound of chirping birds, assumed the management of the air base’s baseball team, the Waco Army Flying School “Wolves.” Lt. Tebbetts, drawing from new cadets and airmen, assembled a squad that consisted of former professional ballplayers who were either assigned to the Rich Field base or were aviation cadets, training in the base’s flight school. During an early-May break between games, Tebbetts and a fellow Air Forces lieutenant took an Army plane from Waco to Lambert Field (St. Louis) to take in the St. Louis Browns game against the visiting Boston Red Sox. Lt. Tebbetts met with Boston manager Joe Cronin on the field and briefly enjoyed the feel of the game by catching during the Red Sox batting practice session before the start of the game.
1943 Waco Army Flying School Wolves
| Rank | Player | Pos | Former |
| Sgt. | Jake Berger | SS | Utica |
| Cpl. | Bob Birchfield | 1B | Opelousas/Port Arthur |
| Cpl. | Bruce Campbell | RF | Tigers/Senators |
| Leroy Conrad | |||
| Ernest Dougherty | |||
| Pfc. | Jack English | OF | Semi-Pro |
| Cpl. | Walter “Hoot” Evers | CF | Tigers |
| Cpl. | Sid Hudson | P | Senators |
| Pfc. | Alfred Kasparek | P | Semi-Pro |
| Pvt. | Michael Mandjack | P | Carthage |
| 2nd Lt. | Colonel “Buster” Mills | LF | Indians |
| Ernie “Lefty” Nelson | P | ||
| Pvt. | Herb Nordquist | P | Toledo |
| Pvt. | Mike Popovich | C | Amateur |
| Pvt. | Nick Popovich | P | Waterloo |
| Bob Sherman | |||
| Sgt. | Lester Stephens | P | Texarkana |
| Pvt. | John “Nippy” Stewart | SS | New Iberia |
| Pvt. | Bob Stone | 3B | Semi-Pro |
| 2nd Lt. | Birdie Tebbetts | C | Tigers |
| Cpl. | Gilbert Turner | OF | Pensacola |
Heading into May, Tebbetts’ Waco team was on a roll winning six straight game, demonstrating their formidability among the area service and semi-professional baseball leagues. During the six-game streak, the Waco Wolves prey included the Blackland Army Air Field Flying School, an Austin semi-pro squad as well as college teams from Texas A&M and the University of Texas. Tebbetts’ Wolves dropped a three-game weekend series, splitting the Sunday, May 23rd double-header in front of a crowd of 5,000 with the Naval Air Technical Training Center “Skyjackets,” Norman, Oklahoma. The Skyjackets took the Saturday evening’s 10-inning duel 4-3. Waco defeated Norman in the early Sunday game 5-2 followed by the Naval Air team’s 4-3 victory to secure the series win. Tebbetts’ Wolves would return the favor in spades just a short time later, taking three from the Skyjackets to take the season series lead, four games to two.
Birdie Tebbetts flanked by two of his Waco Army Flying School teammates, Colonel “Buster” Mills (left) and Sid Hudson (right). Chevrons and Diamonds Collection.
The WAFS Wolves played their way into and won the Houston Post tournament as they defeated the Bayton Oilers on July 19 in the finals. The victory propelled the Wolves into the Texas Semi-Pro Championship Series in Waco, Texas which they secured. In early August, Waco’s bats were silenced and their pitching was overpowered by the Texas Service League All-Stars, 7-0 in front of a capacity crowd of 5,000 at Tech Field in San Antonio. The All-Stars pitcher, David “Boo” Ferriss yielded a hit to Tebbetts but was otherwise dominant over the Waco batters for the final three-innings. The All-Stars’ Enos Slaughter led his team to victory, knocking a pair of hits and putting on a defensive clinic in the field.
Second Lieutenant Tebbetts played in 65 of Waco’s games, catching for a mixture of major and minor league pitchers. Birdie’s ace of the staff, Sid Hudson, was 17-1 for the WAFS team. Hudson, not respecting of Army ranks on the diamond, would often shake off his catching manager’s signs. “This monkey gave me the most beautiful double-cross the other day that I have ever seen.” He regaled to the Sporting News, “I signaled for a curve ball and he threw a helluva fastball that hit me between the eyes so hard it knocked me down!”
On September 5, while facing Fort Worth Army Airfield, Nick Popovich pitched a four-hit, 5-1 performance to secure their ninth consecutive and 49th victory of the season. Closing out the 1943 season, Tebbett’s Waco Wolves secured the Houston Post (service league) and area semi-pro championships for the 1943 season. With his first year serving the Army Air Forces, George R. “Birdie” Tebbetts was promoted to First Lieutenant.
1944 Waco Army Flying School Wolves
| Rank | Player | Pos | Former |
| Red Barkley | SS | Dodgers | |
| Red Barteson | |||
| Lou Batterson | 3B | ||
| Ernest Dougherty | |||
| Pfc. | Jack English | OF | Semi-Pro |
| Cpl. | Walter “Hoot” Evers | CF | Tigers |
| Cpl. | Sid Hudson | P | Senators |
| Pfc. | Alfred Kasparek | P | Semi-Pro |
| Walter Lanfranconi | Cubs | ||
| Pvt. | Michael Mandjack | P | Carthage |
| L.D. Meyer | |||
| 2nd Lt. | Colonel “Buster” Mills | LF | Indians |
| Ernie “Lefty” Nelson | P | Stockton | |
| Pvt. | Herb Nordquist | P | Toledo |
| Pat Padgett | 2B | ||
| Pat Patterson | 2B | ||
| Pvt. | Mike Popovich | C | Amateur |
| Pvt. | Nick Popovich | P | Waterloo |
| Frank Schneider | P | ||
| Sgt. | Lester Stephens | P | Texarkana |
| Pvt. | Bob Stone | 3B | Semi-Pro |
| 1st Lt. | Birdie Tebbetts | C | Tigers |
| Cpl. | Gilbert Turner | OF | Pensacola |
| Lou Wannamacher | IF |
In the Waco Army Flying School’s 1944 baseball season, the Wolves picked up where they left off in 1943. By July, the Wolves were streaking through their competition, winning their 11th of 12 games as pitcher Herb Nordquist stymied the South Coast All-Stars in a 4-0 shutout. Three of Waco’s four runs were knocked in by “Hoot” Evers as he stroked two singles and a double. Evers accounted for the fourth run, scoring from first on a Gil Turner single. Prior to the game start of the game, Birdie Tebbetts sustained a broken toe while warming up a Waco pitcher. This injury kept him sidelined for both Waco and his regular Army duties (which kept him from deploying overseas). The Wolves suffered another blow to their roster as Lt. Buster Mills was transferred to serve as a physical training officer at Aloe Army Airfield in Victoria, Texas following his tenth-inning walk-off homerun against the Karlen Brothers team (in Dallas, Texas) on June 30th which at that time, was the Wolves’ fourteenth consecutive win.
Though they continued to win, Tebbetts’ club suffered yet another loss as his pitching ace, Corporal Sid Hudson, former Washington Senator, was suffering severe soreness to his pitching arm. When reports (that Hudson would never pitch again) reached his owner, Clark Griffith the news was unsettling considering that when the war was over, his staff anchor (40-47, 4.13 ERA, 276 Ks) would not be returning. However, Hudson would deny the injury’s severity mentioned in the early-July-1944 report stating that his arm “never felt better,” despite his considerable reduction in innings pitched for the Wolves (limited to a total of 24 by the end of July).
The hits to the Wolves’ roster were apparent as Waco lost its fourth consecutive in the last week of July at the hands of the Fort Worth Army Air Field nine, 4-0. In the ninth inning, the Wolves left the bases loaded as Fort Worth’s Lefty Fries set down Gil Turner and Hoot Evers to secure the last two outs in relief of Andy Minshew. On July 30th, Sid Hudson made a triumphant return to Waco’s lineup in the Texas Semi-Pro tournament finals, securing the win over the 12th Armored Division when he went the distance, striking out 12 in the 1-0 victory.
For the August 20-September 4, 1944 Houston Post semi-pro tournament, the competition was stacking up in order to put for the best chance to take down the Waco Wolves and the Orange Boosters squad was assembled for that purpose. The Boosters were constructed of teams from the Orange Levingston Shipyards and Orange Consolidated Shipyards squads and augmented with players borrowed from Houston-area Army camp clubs. The Boosters were managed by Steve Mancuso (older brother of Gus and Frank) and featured pitcher Kirby Higbe (Camp Livingston, Louisiana), George Gill (Lake Charles, Louisiana Army Air Base), Wally Hebert, Les Fleming, Dixie Parsons and Steve Carter. The Orange Boosters’ attempts were for naught as the Waco club dispatched them on their way to the tournament’s title game against Fort Worth Army Airfield. Tebbett’s nine required all nine innings to secure their second consecutive championship overcoming a 6-5 deficit in the final frame with a two-run rally.
On August 20, the Waco squad rolled into San Antonio to face the Baytown Oilers but the much anticipated pitching match-up that would have seen Tex Hughson against Sid Hudson however heavy rains thwarted the contest until August 24. Hughson was ready to go for the Oilers but Tebbetts sent in Walter LaFranconi rather than his ace and his decision proved to be correct. While Waco roughed up Tex for 13 safeties, LaFranconi pitched a three-hit gem, securing the 6-1 victory.
Despite dropping a tournament 3-2 game to Camp Hulen (who took third place in the contest behind second place Baytown) in ten innings, the Wolves locked up their second consecutive Houston Post semi-professional title by defeating two of the area’s best pitchers in Baytown’s Hughson and Howie Pollet of Camp Hulen. Lt. “Buster” Mills locked up the tournament’s outstanding player award due to his strong defense and sure-hitting.
After the close of the 1944 season, the Waco squad saw the first of its post-championship departures as Nick Popovich was reassigned to Enid Army Flying School in Enid, Oklahoma. More changes were made to the roster ahead of Waco’s 1945 including the addition of Vernon Gilchrist from the Canal Zone team, and the loss of Corporal Bob Stone, whose play in the Houston Post semi-pro tournament earned him all-tournament honors in both 1943 and ’44. Ahead of Waco’s spring training, Tebbetts earned his second Army promotion donning his captain’s bars in late January, 1945 as he coached the base’s basketball team (former Detroit Tigers’ outfielder “Hoot” Evers starred on the team) to a league-leading 17-1 record.
As Captain Tebbetts and the Wolves were gearing up and training for the 1945 baseball season, the Waco squad was hit hard with their most detrimental roster changes since 1943. With a record of 22-1, pitching ace Sid Hudson received word that he was being transferred for overseas duty. Tebbetts wouldn’t have to concern himself with Hudson’s departure as the Wolves manager and part-time catcher departed with Hudson in mid-March.
Tebbetts’ tenure as the Waco manager was an unbridled success as he led the team to an 88-16 record with championships in both the Texas state semi-pro and Houston Post tournaments in back-to-back seasons.
Birdie arrived in Honolulu and was assigned to Hickam Field, assuming command of the “Bombers” baseball club, competing against other service teams on Oahu. At his disposal were former major leaguer pitchers such as Howie Pollet and Johnny Beazley who he was very familiar while managing against their respective clubs in the previous seasons. Third Baseman Bob Dillinger, a sure-hitting infielder in the Browns’ farm system carried a .305 average in his 1942 season at Toledo, his last professional assignment before joining the Army. Tebbetts’ Bombers roster was bolstered by the 1944 batting champ (of the Hawaii Leagues), former San Francisco Seals first baseman Ferris Fain.
Early in the Hawaiian season, nearly 1,000 local area youths ranging in ages 8-18 were the beneficiaries of Army Special Services fund-raising efforts (with much of the financial resources coming from Service Team games throughout the war years) that resulted in a large-scale baseball clinic that was led by Birdie Tebbetts. Birdie captured the attention of the future stars stating, “One purpose we are here is to show you what you need to become a ball player.” Birdie solicited help from other former professionals such as Billy Hitchcock, Stan Rojek, Dario Lodigiani, Johnny Sturm, Max West, Walter Judnich, Tex Hughson, Chubby Dean, Enos “Country” Slaughter along with members of his Hickam squad, Howie Pollet, Bob Dillinger and Ferris Fain.
In early July, Tebbetts was named to manage the American League All-Stars team consisting of Tex Hughson, Ted Lyons, Bob Harris, Walt Masterson, Bill Dickey, Rollie Hemsley, Joe Gordon, Johnny Pesky, Walt Judnich and Fred Hutchinson. The National League service all-stars squad, led by Billy Herman featured Ray Lamanno, Gil Brack, Don Lang, Lew Riggs, Stan Rojack, Nanny Fernandez, Stan Musial, Enos Slaughter, Max West, Mick McCormick and Schoolboy Rowe. In just a few short weeks, the leadership of the USAAF, on the heels of the Navy’s successful morale-boosting baseball tour of the Pacific, assembled 48 former professional ballplayers and deployed them to the Marianas in an effort to provide the massive build-up of troops pouring onto the islands (as part of the massive strategic air bases being constructed) with a morale-boosting outlet.
Saipan, 1945: the 58th Bombardment Wing “Wingmen” pose before a game.
Back row (left to right): Hitchcock (Maj. Billy), Gill (George), Tebbetts (Birdie), Wertz (Vic), Lilly (Art), Kowalski (Ed), Marty (Joe), Layden (Pete)
Front row: Lang (Don), Slaughter (Enos), Stevens (Chuck), Pollet (Howie), Pitter (Roy), Burton, Gordon (Joe). Chevrons and Diamonds Collection
Upon arrival to Tinian, the group of 48 players was divided into three teams that were aligned with the subordinate commands that were part of Twentieth Air Force under the United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific (USASTAF). The men were divided into three teams, each of which was assigned to a parent 20th Air Force Bombardment Wing. The 313th “Flyers” squad (part of the XXI Bomber Command), led by Lew Riggs, was based on Tinian’s North Field. Grouped beneath the XX Bomber Command (at Saipan’s Isley Field) were the 73rd Wing “Bombers” captained by Buster Mills and Birdie Tebbetts’ 58th “Wingmen” who were based at Tinian’s West Field.
1945 58th Bombardment Wing “Wingmen”
| Player | Position | Former Club |
| Art Lilly | IF | Hollywood (PCL) |
| Bobby Adams | 2B | Syracuse (IL) |
| Chuck Stevens | 1B | Browns |
| Don Lang | OF | Kansas City (AA) |
| Enos Slaughter | OF | Cardinals |
| Joe Gordon | SS | Yankees |
| Birdie Tebbetts | C/Mgr | Tigers |
| Joe Marty | OF | Phillies |
| Billy Hitchcock | 3B | Tigers |
| Howie Pollet | P | Cardinals |
| Chubby Dean | P | Indians |
| George Gill | P | Tigers/Browns |
| Ed Kowalski | P | Appleton (WISL) |
| Pete Layden | OF | None |
| Johnny Sturm | 1B | Yankees |
| Al Lang | LF | Reds |
| Tom Gabrielli | C | Pirates |
| Roy Pitter | P | Yankees |
| Vic Wertz | CF | Tigers |
The USASTAF based on Saipan and Tinian consisted of the 20th and 21st Bomber Commands with three bombardment wings the 58th and 73rd (in the 20th) and the 313th (in the 21st). Each wing was comprised of multiple bombardment groups (40th, 444th, 462nd and 468th in the 58th; the 497th, 498th, 499th and 500th in the 73rd; 6th, 9th, 504th, 505th, 509th and 383rd in the 313th) with roughly four bombardment squadrons in each group. For these two bomber commands, there were approximately 30,000 men, not to mention the additional Army, Navy and Marine Corps personnel also stationed on the islands. Each of the baseball teams represented more than 10,000 Air Forces personnel when they took the field.
“The extent of sports participation by servicemen in the Marianas is indicated by figures for one island which could appear almost fantastic.
Captain J.S. McEntee, manager of “Sporting News,” weekly mimeographed paper published at the base, reports that the island has 65 baseball diamonds, 125 softball diamonds, 42 boxing arenas, 75 lighted basketball courts, 20 tennis courts, 3oo horseshoe pitching courts and 12 major size swimming beaches. For each of the baseball and softball diamonds are lighted. There are ten island baseball leagues.” – The Sporting News, June 28, 1945
The USAAF Marianas baseball competition was held in a three-team round-robin fashion with the tournament commencing on July 27, 1945 with Tebbetts’ 58th Wingmen taking on Buster Mills’ 73rd. The 1944 Hawaiian League batting champ from the 7th AAF team, Ferris Fain secured the win for Tebbetts’ former Waco Wolves teammate’s new club, the 73rd Bombers by driving in the game-winning solo-homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning.
73rd Bombardment Wing “Bombers”
| Player | Position |
| Stan Rojek | SS |
| Ferris Fain | 1B |
| Bob Dillinger | 3B |
| Taft Wright | OF |
| Mike McCormick | OF |
| Buster Mills | OF/Mgr |
| Charlie Silvera | C |
| Dario Lodigiani | IF |
| Tex Hughson | P |
| Sid Hudson | P |
| Frank Kahn | P |
| Bill Schmidt | P |
| Al Lein | P |
| Johnny Mazur | C |
| Bill Dudley | Utility |
| Ralph Lamson | IF |
As the tournament continued, the operational pace of the B-29 missions over Japan with the low-level bombing runs continued. It wasn’t uncommon for a game to be played while the aircraft were away on a mission. The ballgame offered a few hours of relief from the tension and stress as the men on the ground awaited the return of squadron aircraft during their 15+hour missions, hopeful of all planes returning safely. However, hours after the final out of a game as the very heavy bombers were returning, ground personnel would count the number of plane and hope that those that did make it back could safely land, despite any damage received by enemy fighter aircraft or ground-fire. The landings were anything but guaranteed as some B-29s sustained damage that caused them to overshoot runways (ditching into the sea), crash, or erupt into flames due to damaged, smoldering engines.
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- 58th “Wingman” 3B Don Lang stands by as 313th “Flyers” manager and third baseman Lew Riggs trots towards home. Chevrons and Diamonds Collection.
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- Another from Chuck Stevens personal collection shows some of the 58th Wingmen rising early for their day ahead. Steven’s captioned this image for his wife’s benefit, “Isn’t this a great picture? It was taken here in the tent – that’s George Gill and Tom Gabrielli in the back – Enos Slaughter and Ed Kowalski with me (in the center) – it was taken kinda early in the morning so that so that might have something to do with the way we look. Sad bunch of sacks – Great bunch of Soldiers.” Chevrons and Diamonds Collection
For the ballplayers, their duties didn’t solely consist of playing games. Some of the men, such as Max West, served as ground crews facing dangerous and troubling situations when the aircraft returned from missions. “I saw some horrific crashes … and we on the ground crew would have to go in and, in all honesty, mop up the human carnage,“ stated West*. “One time I went in to help, we pulled out this pilot. I do not remember his name,” west continued, “but he had just flown all of us to Saipan for a ball game a few days before. We pulled him out and got him on a stretcher. He was burned pretty badly, and all I saw were his eyes. They were so white and he looked right at me, his lips kind of smiled and he just died. His face just went blank.”
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- Shot up by enemy aircraft and flak, many of the B-29s, though they made it back to the islands, their crews remained in danger. Max West and many other ball players that also served as ground support crew, dealt with the realities of war as they responded to emergencies and casualties. Chevrons and Diamonds Collection B-29 s/n 42-24608, Tail Code: T (Square) 3 – burns on Isley Field
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- Fortunately, the entire crew walked away from this failed landing of the 497th Bomb Group’s “Irish Lassie.” Chevrons and Diamonds Collection.
The games on the islands were always competitive and the players went all out to win the games for their fans. Regardless of where the team played, the excitement and reception given to the players by the troops watching, made it like, “Playing before,” according to 73rd Wing “Bomber” infielder Stan Rojek, “80,000 in Yankee Stadium. We gave everything we had.” Rojek, speaking Cy Kritzer, reporter for The Sporting News, “There was no loafing or protecting yourself. Not before those crowds,” Rojek stated in a December 6, 1945 article.
When they arrived on Tinian and Saipain, the ball players had to set up their quarters much like these tents that served as the 873rd Squadron’s mess area on Saipan. Chevrons and Diamonds Collection
Tex Hughson, commenting about the ballplayers’ activities and duties in the Marianas, wrote (in his August 2, 1945 letter to Cronin), “They plan to have a Navy team on each of the three islands and to start what will be termed the Marianas League,” stated the former Red Sox pitcher. Tex continued, “We have been busy building our own tents to live in and our own park to play in. The ball park certainly is no beauty, but will answer the purpose. Of course, there is no grass and the seats for ‘customers’ are made exclusively of bomb crates, of which we have plenty here.” As the games continued throughout the Northern Marianas, so did efforts to bring about an end to the nearly four-year-long and horrific war with Japan.
On August 5, 1945, USAAF Colonel Paul Tibbets christened his Boeing B-29 ship “Enola Gay” (after his mother). Just hours later, on August 6, at 02:45, the Enola Gay’s wheels left the Tinian Tarmac as Colonel Paul Tibbets began to turn the ship towards Japan. Colonel Tibbets could have fielded a baseball team with the 12 men manning the high-altitude heavy bomber on its mission to deliver the first atomic weapon to be used on an enemy target (Hiroshima, Japan). As Colonel Tibbets guided the flight of seven aircraft north towards Japan, one can imagine that thoughts of baseball were far from the minds of the crewmen. When the Enola Gay touched down on Tinian, General Car Spaatz presented Colonel Tibbets with the Army’s second highest decoration, the Distinguished Service Cross. Three days later, the Enola Gay joined the second atomic bombing mission as six B-29s departed Tinian northward to the Japanese islands. On this September 9 mission led by the B-29 named “Bockscar,” Nagasaki became the second target (the city of Kokura was the primary target of the mission but was obscured by smoke and clouds necessitating a shift to the secondary target city), but this time, Colonel Tibbets remained behind, having participated in the final planning while on the island of Guam.
This program from the USASTAF baseball tour was apparently used for the games as they were played on Guam. The teams are incorrectly listed as the “Flyers” and “Wingmen” but the rosters show the teams as the 58th Wingmen (with Tebbetts managing) and the 73rd “Bombers” with Buster Mills managing (see the full program).
Six days after Nagasaki was bombed, on August 15, the unconditional surrender of Japan was announced by Emperor Hirohito bring the war to a close, however the USAAF games continued in the Marianas, the Bonin Islands (Iwo Jima) and Micronesia (Guam), boosting morale of the troops in the Western Pacific. The formal Instrument of Surrender was signed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. The armed forces’ mission transitioned from combat operations to occupation and assisting in the region’s stabilization and the commencement of reconstruction. However the attention of most, if not all of the troops turned to going home to their families, jobs and peace.
Taking breaks from the Marianas league’s round-robin tournament play between the 58th, 73rd and 313th clubs, the teams took the games “on the road” to Iwo Jima as summer was giving way to autumn with a series starting on Thursday, September 20. Captain Tebbetts’ 58th Wingmen had struggled in the Marianas (Buster Mills’ 73rd edged out Riggs’ 313th) however redeemed themselves on Iwo by dominating their opponents, despite some defensive miscues by Birdie.
313th Bombardment Wing “Flyers”
| Player | Position | Former Club |
| Max West | CF | Braves |
| Johnny Sturm | 1B | Yankees |
| Nanny Fernandez | SS | Braves |
| Walter Judnich | RF | Browns |
| Stan Goletz | P | White Sox |
| Bob Adams | 2B | Syracuse |
| Bill Leonard | CF | |
| Bull Storie | CF | |
| Rugger Ardizoia | P | Kansas City |
| Carl DeRose | P | Amsterdam |
| Al Olsen | P | San Diego |
| Don Looser | P | |
| Lew Riggs | 3B/Mgr | Dodgers |
| Johnny Jensen | LF | San Diego |
| Eddie Chandler | P | Pocatello |
More than 180,000 witnessed the 27 games that were presented by the USASTAF on the four Western Pacific Islands (Saipan, Tinian, Iwo Jima and Guam). The airmen, along with members of the other branches of the armed forces, witnessed competitive baseball played by some of the best from the major and minor leagues with the games in the Western Pacific. Within a few weeks of the Japanese surrender, Tebbetts and most the members of the 58th, 73rd and 313th teams were returned to the continental U.S.
Birdie was with the Red Sox from 1947 through 1950 and an All-Star in 1948 and ’49. This photo was autographed for an unknown ballplayer. Chevrons and Diamonds Collection.
Birdie Tebbetts returned to the major leagues, signing a new contract (in late February 1946) with his old team (though he wasn’t fully released from the Army until March 28), the Detroit Tigers. Tebbetts’ playing time with the Tigers was limited to just 87 games in the 1946 season as he struggled at the plate. The following year, the Tigers management, seeking to turn their fortunes with a fresh, veteran face behind the plate, sent Birdie Tebbetts to Boston on May 21, 1947 in exchange for catcher Hal Wagner who played in the 1946 World Series. The change was good for Tebbetts as turned things around for the remainder of the ‘47 season, continuing into two consecutive All-Star seasons for the Red Sox in 1948 and ‘49.
After his playing career ended, Tebbetts’ drew upon his wartime management success when he accepted Cleveland’s offer to manage their Class AA Indianapolis Indians in 1953. His winning record in the American Association coupled with his management of the Indians youth as well as those on loan from Cincinnati (who didn’t have a AA minor league affiliate) helped to pave the way to managing in the major leagues with the Redlegs. Tebbetts managed in the big leagues for more than 10 seasons with Cincinnati, Milwaukee and Cleveland from 1954 through 1966 and spent 1967 piloting the Marion (Virginia) Mets of the Appalachian League. Birdie continued working in baseball as a major league scout through 1992 having spent nearly 60 years in the game.
Colonel Paul Tibbets’ career continued to flourish after the war as he attained the rank of brigadier general, commanded the 6th Air Division (at MacDill Air Force Base). General Tibbets served as the deputy director for both operations and the National Military Command System on the Joint Chiefs of Staff before retiring from the Air Force. in 1966. Tibbets continued to be honored for his role in ushering in the end of the war.
Author’s Note: The mission of Chevrons and Diamonds of using artifacts to bring the personal stories of the game and the people who played it while serving in the armed forces is one that we don’t take lightly. The impetus of writing this story of Tebbetts centered on a handful of vintage Type-1 photographs that captured the catcher during his time in the Army Air Forces that were obtained from the estate of Tebbetts’ 58th Wingman first baseman teammate, Chuck Stevens who played on the St. Louis Browns club in 1941, ‘46 and ‘48. Stevens had an 18-year professional career, mostly in the minor leagues but spent some of his best years serving and playing baseball in the U.S. Army Air Forces (1943-45) and will be the subject of an upcoming article. The other Tebbetts photos include a Type-1 press photo from his one of his two seasons managing and playing for the Waco Army Flying School team and an autographed photo from his years with the Red Sox.
All of the B-29-related photos are part of our vintage image collection and originated from an unnamed U.S. Army Air Forces veteran’s photo-scrapbook. Based upon the the photographs and other ephemera present within the album, it appears that the veteran was assigned to the 873rd Bomb Squadron, 49th Bombardment Wing in the 73rd Bombardment Wing on Saipan.
Chevrons and Diamonds 