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Wartime Baseball on Paper: Servicemen’s World Series Programs and Scorecards
For more than a century, the change of the calendar from September to October has truly signaled the actual arrival of autumn for baseball fans across North America, despite the autumnal equinox occurring more than a week earlier. The World Series looms large over the hearts and minds of fans from coast to coast. The marathon 162-game season race has been run, and as they approach the finish line, the leaders are clearly visible.
“By far, the best moment of my big league career was when I caught the last out at the World Series.”
– Cal Ripken, Jr.
October has historically been the month of the year when heroes of the game have been made. Legends are born during the championship games with stellar on-field performances. Dreams of hitting the game-winning or series-clinching home run or striking out the last batter for the final out exist in the minds of thousands of youths throughout their childhood and remain an unspoken desire for those who transition to a professional baseball career. In recent major league baseball seasons, November has become the month of post-season diamond feats as the expanded playoffs extended play beyond October.
“You never forget the feeling of not getting to the World Series. Yes, it sticks with you.”
– Ryne Sandberg
The World Series has always held the attention of baseball fans whether they have a cheering stake in the game or not. Seeing the two best teams facing each other and wondering who among the most unlikely players will rise to the enormity of the occasion and etch their names in the lore of the Fall Classic with a clutch hit or overcoming a pressure-packed situation by striking out the league’s best slugger with the bases loaded hold even the most casual of baseball fans’ attention. For fans, remembering these moments and engaging in discussion about which of them is the greatest always leads to debate. However, for some, it is not enough to savor them just in memory.
“The best possible thing in baseball is winning the World Series. The second-best thing is losing the World Series.”
– Tommy Lasorda
A trip to the Hall of Fame Museum in Cooperstown, New York is an eye-opening experience for any visitor. For those enamored with the game’s artifacts, a visit can awaken desires to collect game treasures and catapult them into the lifelong and expensive pursuit of building a collection.
Collecting World Series artifacts is cost-prohibitive for average baseball fans. Some of the most expensive objects stem from the participants in the games in the form of uniforms, equipment, and championship awards such as trophies, pendants and rings which can carry price tags of five, six or even seven digits. There are more reasonable items from these games that are within reach of collectors with less available discretionary financial resources.
Baseball programs represent a lower-cost investment alternative to the typical vintage sports collectible. “In many cases, programs cost far less than a trading card of a popular player from the same year,” wrote Sal Barry, “and can give you more enjoyment.[1]”
Harry Chadwick is noted as the man who conceived a system of scorekeeping in the 1860s that paved the way for tracking player performance statistics.[2] His system of notation[3] has stood the test of time and provides sportswriters, team managers and fans with the ability to measure player and team performance. It was not until entrepreneur Harry M. Stevens attended a Columbus (Ohio) Senators baseball game in 1887 that one of the best baseball collectibles was born. Though scorecards were already in use throughout baseball at the time, Stevens recognized a financial opportunity for baseball team owners to sell advertising space on the cards. Stevens’ idea was to purchase the rights from the team to sell the scorecards for the games. For the sum of $500, Stevens struck a deal and set out to sell the advertising space and to get the cards printed. After selling his first block of advertising, Stevens had a 140-percent return on his investment before printing or selling a single scorecard. Stevens began expanding his service to other ballparks around the country.[4] He is responsible for what became one of the most figuratively and literally colorful pieces of baseball history and one of the most affordable and available collectibles.
Though not a typical mainstream collectible, baseball scorecards along with game programs have their own niche among collectors. Contemporary scorecards are printed in a more generic fashion as rosters are far too fluid throughout the season. Printing costs and the waste associated with changing rosters are not fiscally sound. The more generic-oriented cards are more challenging to pinpoint to a specific game if left unscored. However, vintage pieces such as from the 1940s tend to be more easily pinpointed to a specific week of the season, depending on the team that produced the scorecard. World Series pieces, however, are far more desirable due to the nature of the games’ importance, historic nature, and roster specificity.[5]
In addition to condition, there are many factors that can impact or drive the collector value of a World Series scorecard including the age, the specific game, outcome, teams involved, and player heroics as well as if the piece is scored. Many World Series scorecards are easily fetching 4-digit values on the collector market, inching several of these items out of reach for everyday collectors. Depending upon the historical magnitude of the game, collector demand increases, driving the values skyward. For example, “a scorecard of Don Larsen’s perfect game in the World Series on October 8, 1956, is worth more than most other programs,” Jeff Figler wrote in 2018. “The same would hold true with the program of Jackie Robinson’s debut on April 15, 1947.[6]”
Another niche area of scorecard collecting exists in the realm of military or service team baseball. With the flow of the game’s top-tier, youthful talent into the armed forces and onto service baseball teams, scorecards from these games are quite collectible. Unlike major league games where thousands of cards were produced, the smaller venues and one-off games saw far smaller numbers printed, which leads to greater scarcity.
Wartime service game scorecards have created a considerable increase in interest in the last few years that is likely attributable to their affordability combined with the presence of Hall of Fame players including Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Phil Rizzuto, Stan Musial, and Billy Herman, who all served and played on service teams during the war. By 1944, the largest assemblage of the game’s stars was serving in the Hawaiian Islands and playing for teams such as the Aiea Naval Hospital “Hilltoppers,” Pearl Harbor Submarine Base “Dolphins,” Aiea Naval Receiving Barracks “Maroons,” Naval Air Station (NAS) Kaneohe Bay “Klippers,” and the 7th Army Air Force “Flyers.” The major leagues were populated with players beyond their prime, others who were brought up the big leagues before gaining the necessary experience and those who were deemed unfit for military service, resulting in a diminished quality of play on the field; but the island of Oahu was the epicenter for baseball star power.
For those attending wartime games on the islands, preprinted scorecards were available. While these pieces tend to be extremely scarce, collector interest is relatively weak due to the lack of knowledge of the leagues, games, teams, and the players on the rosters. However, there were important games that drew substantial crowds due to the caliber of the players on the rosters and the historic nature of the contests themselves.
For decades, Oahu was a hotbed for baseball with several leagues that included civilian and military clubs operating before the Pearl Harbor attack. In 1942, some former professional players who were serving began to trickle onto the island and onto their respective units’ baseball teams. The following year saw a greater increase leading to one club, the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base Dolphins, dominating other service teams and civilian clubs in the various leagues. By 1944, the Army responded in kind and emptied their West Coast bases of talent to build a super club to take the fight to the Navy with the 7th Army Air Force team based at Hickam Field. With major league talent including Mike McCormick, Walt Judnich, Dario Lodigiani, John “Long Tom” Winsett, Joe Gordon, Red Ruffing and Joe DiMaggio, the club was a force to be reckoned with. In addition to the major league stars, the 7th’s minor leaguers truly propelled the Flyers to the top of the standings. Former San Francisco Seals first baseman Ferris Fain led the field, claiming a league batting crown. Former Seal hurler Al Lien was a dominant force on the mound, with future Yankee backstop Charlie Silvera handling the pitchers from behind the plate.
Unlike the Army, who amassed its talent on the 7th AAF squad, the Navy had their share of stars spread throughout multiple bases. Walt Masterson, Jimmy Gleeson, Al Brancato, Joe Grace, Bob Harris, Rankin Johnson, and Mo Mozzali led the Pearl Harbor Sub Base. Johnny Lucadello, Barney McCosky, and Eddie Pellagrini were at Aiea Receiving Barracks. Tom Ferrick, Johnny Mize, Hugh Casey, and Wes Schulmerich were stationed at NAS Kaneohe; and Vern Olsen, George Dickey, and Pee Wee Reese were at the Aiea Naval Hospital.
By the end of regular season play, the 7th captured the championship hardware, with the already-planned inter-service All-Stars championship looming for September and October. It was billed as the Servicemen’s World Series, a seven-game contest that pitted baseball stars from the Army against those of the Navy and was played solely at military facilities for the benefit of service personnel. Planning for the series began late in the summer and speculation began to swirl about prospective players being dispatched to the islands for the series. Three major league stars serving elsewhere in the Navy – Dom DiMaggio and Phil Rizzuto, both in Melbourne, Australia and Bob Feller, who was serving aboard the battleship USS Alabama – were the favorite contenders for the Series discussed in the local papers. However, by mid-September, only Rizzuto and DiMaggio were en route to Oahu. The operational necessities of the USS Alabama kept Feller out of contention for the Navy team.[7]
The best-of-seven series was set to commence on September 22 at the Navy’s home, Furlong Field, at Pearl Harbor (for Games 1, 5 and 7) and would extend into October with games hosted at Hickam Field (Games 2 and 6), Redlander Field at the Schofield Barracks (Game 3), and Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay (Game 4) to ensure that service personnel throughout the island had opportunities to experience the excitement in person. Prior to the opening game, all the fields underwent some form of expanded seating construction to increase capacity for the expected crowds.
Riding the wave of the 7th AAF’s regular season success in defeating the Oahu Navy clubs, Army leadership built their All-Star roster around 17 players drawn from the Flyers. The remainder of the club consisted of players pulled from other area Army commands including the Schofield Barracks. The Navy, however, pulled out all the stops in loading their lineup. With the arrival of Rizzuto and DiMaggio from Australia, the already stacked Navy All-Stars featured a lengthy list of nearly 40 former major and minor leaguers and semi-pros, outnumbering the Army by 11 players.
Recognizing the need to unify their personnel, the Navy played two warmup games, including an intra-squad tilt, leading up to the opening game of the Series. With three future Hall of Fame enshrinees filling positions on the Navy’s opening day starting lineup, the Navy was hoping to turn the tables on the Army’s dominance. Recognizing the comparatively lopsided Navy advantage, local sportswriters favored the Navy to take the series. “Today is the day of the opening of the Service World Series out at Furlong Field,” Red McQueen wrote in The Honolulu Advertiser. “If for no other reason than to stick out the ol’ neck so that some Army boys can chop it off, we’re going out on the proverbial limb with a call on the outcome of the classic,” McQueen continued. “The Navy in six or less games is our guess. Pitching is 80 to 90 percent of the battle and the Tars have it.”[8]
Further contributing to the Navy’s edge was the absence of one of the Army’s and the game’s greatest stars. Staff Sergeant Joe DiMaggio spent the better part of the 1944 season dealing with ulcers, which limited his availability for the 7th AAF. With the continuation of his health issues, the Yankee Clipper was wholly unavailable for the Servicemen’s World Series.[9]
Navy All-Stars:
| Rate/Rank | # | Player | Position | Former |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Jim Adair | P | Semi-Pro | |
| SM3/c | 26 | Arnie “Red” Anderson | P | Chattanooga (SOUA) |
| TM2/c | 10 | Norman Gene “Pee Wee” Atkinson | C | Semi-Pro |
| 9 | John “Johnny” Berry | RF | U of Oregon/Semi-Pro | |
| EM2/c | 4 | Tom Bishop | SS | Semi-Pro |
| SK2/c | 17 | Albert (Al) Brancato | 3B | Athletics |
| 16 | Jim Carlin | LF | Phillies | |
| Sp(A)1/c | 27 | Hugh Casey | P | Dodgers |
| LT | 28 | Bill Dickey | Mgr. | Yankees |
| Sp(A) 1/c | 15 | George “Skeets” Dickey | C | White Sox |
| CSp(A) | 11 | Dom DiMaggio | CF | Red Sox |
| 31 | Gordon Evans | LF | Charleston (MATL) | |
| Hank Feimster | P | Danville-Schoolfield (BIST) | ||
| Sp(A) 1/c | 18 | Marvin Felderman | C | Cubs |
| Sp(A) 1/c | 31 | Tom Ferrick | P | Indians |
| Sp(A) 1/c | 28 | Joseph “Joe” Grace | RF | Browns |
| Sp(A) 2/c | 29 | Jack Hallett | P | Pirates |
| Sp1/c | 24 | Robert A. “Bob” Harris | P | Athletics |
| PhM3/c | 20 | John “Hubie” Jeandron | 2B | Port Arthur (EVAN) |
| YN1/c | 23 | A. Rankin Johnson | P | Athletics |
| 6 | Dave Liebold | Bat Boy | ||
| CSp (A) | 5 | Johnny Lucadello | 2B | Browns |
| CsP(A) | 26 | Walt Masterson | P | Senators |
| Sp(A) 1/c | 3 | Barney McCosky | CF | Tigers |
| Sp(A) 2/c | 32 | Johnny Mize | 1B | Giants |
| TM1/c | 13 | Maurice “Mo” Mozzali | CF | Semi-Pro |
| Sp(A) 1/c | 30 | Vern Olsen | P | Cubs |
| 21 | Sal Recca | 3B | Norfolk (PIED) | |
| CSp (A) | 34 | Harold “Pee Wee” Reese | SS | Dodgers |
| CSp (A) | 2 | Phil Rizzuto | SS | Yankees |
| 26 | Lynwood “Schoolboy” Rowe | P | Tigers | |
| LT | 30 | Wes Schulmerich | Asst. Mgr. | Twin Falls (PION) |
| 14 | Ken “Ziggy” Sears | C | Yankees | |
| CEM | 19 | Oscar Sessions | P | |
| 29 | Eddie Shokes | 1B | Syracuse (AA) | |
| 1 | Vincent Smith | C | Pirates | |
| 22 | Virgil Trucks | P | Tigers | |
| S1/c | 27 | Johnny Vander Meer | P | Reds |
Army All-Stars:
| Rank | # | Player | Former |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | # | Player | Former |
| Corp. | 13 | Renaldo “Rugger” Ardizoia | Kansas City (AA) |
| Corp. | 10 | James Ashworth | Helena (CSTL) |
| Lt. | 16 | John “Johnny” Beazley | Cardinals |
| Lt. Col | 30 | Joseph D. “Joe” Clarke | Semi-Pro |
| Bill DeCarlo | Minneapolis (AA) | ||
| Corp. | 27 | Carl DeRose | Amsterdam (CAML) |
| Cpl. | 1 | Bob Dillinger | Toledo (AA) |
| S/Sgt. | 4 | Joe DiMaggio | Yankees |
| 11 | Hank Edwards | Indians | |
| 19 | Eddie Erautt | Hollywood (PCL) | |
| S/Sgt. | 7 | Ferris Fain | San Francisco (PCL) |
| Sgt. | 18 | Edward Funk | Federalsburg (ESHL) |
| 15 | Sid Gautreaux | Memphis (SOUA) | |
| Vincent Genegrasso | Semi-Pro | ||
| Pvt. | 28 | Hal Hairston | Homestead Grays |
| Sgt. | 3 | Walter “Wally” Judnich | Browns |
| Corp. | 22 | Cornel George “Kearny” Kohlmeyer | Tyler (ETXL) |
| 12 | Don Lang | Kansas City (AA) | |
| Pfc. | 9 | Will Leonard | Oakland (PCL) |
| Pfc. | 25 | Al Lien | San Francisco (PCL) |
| Sgt. | 2 | Dario Lodigiani | White Sox |
| Corp. | 5 | Myron “Mike” McCormick | Reds |
| 23 | Dick Molberg | Semi-Pro | |
| 21 | Don Schmidt | Semi-Pro | |
| Corp. | 24 | William “Bill” Schmidt | Sacramento (PCL) |
| SSGT | 29 | John Shumbres | |
| Corp. | 8 | Charlie Silvera | Wellsville (PONY) |
| 1st Lt. | 20 | Tom Winsett | Dodgers |
Game 1
Shortly after 8:00 a.m., servicemen began arriving at the Furlong Field gates more than six hours before the 2:30 p.m. game time[10] in eager anticipation for the start of the Series. With all games set to be played on area military installations, the games were Inaccessible to the civilian population; however, Honolulu radio station KGMB was on site to broadcast the game and the entire Series, with rebroadcasts set for distribution to the Armed Forces Radio Service throughout the Pacific Theater of Operations.[11]
Army bats were silenced from the first pitch through the top of the ninth, stymied by Navy hurler Virgil “Fire” Trucks. Though Trucks pitched a four-hit shutout, the Army managed to reach base seven times. In addition to solid Navy fielding stranding five of the opposition’s runners, Trucks fanned six, winning the opening game, 5-0. The Tars touched Don Schmidt for 10 singles while Trucks helped his own cause with a pair of hits, one of them pushing a run across the plate.
Game 2
Shifting venues to the more friendly surroundings of Flood Field at Hickam Army Air Field, the Army sought to even the Series, sending former San Francisco Seal Al Lien to the mound. The Navy countered with Johnny “Double-No-Hit” Vander Meer for the second game. The two clubs matched run for run in the first and fifth innings, leaving the score knotted at two heading into the eighth. Vander Meer held the Army scoreless after the Navy plated the go ahead run in the top of the eighth inning, leaving the Navy with a 3-2 advantage. In the top of the ninth, Dom DiMaggio walked with one out followed by a Reese single and was plated on a rocketed comeback through the box off the bat of Vinnie Smith that Lien deflected. As Gordon fielded the ball, DiMaggio sped around and scored while Smith reached first safely. With two on and one out, Lien was lifted for reliever Eddie Funk, but the Navy bats were still hot.
Manager Bill Dickey sent Ken Sears to bat in Vander Meer’s spot. After Sears flied out, Rizzuto walked. Joe Grace came to the plate with two outs and the bases loaded and promptly dispatched a souvenir to the fans beyond the right field fence for a grand slam. Funk coaxed McCosky to foul out to the catcher to end the inning, but the damage was done. Navy manager Lieutenant Bill Dickey sent Hugh Casey in to lock down the 8-2 victory and put the Navy up two games to none.
Game 3
After taking Sunday, September 24, off, the teams traveled to the Schofield Barracks to face off at Redlander Field. Don Schmidt hoped to silence the Navy’s guns as he took the mound for the Army in the third game, opposed by Tom Ferrick. After setting down Rizzuto, who struck out looking, any confidence Schmidt may have felt soon vanished with Joe Grace’s one-out double. McCosky singled to right field and Grace scored from second. McCosky scored another run on Mize’s single to center before Schmidt got the final two outs of the frame.
In the bottom of the second inning, the Army cut the lead in half on a Judnich home run. Heading to the top of the fourth, the Army saw an unfamiliar sight on the scoreboard, a 3-2 lead. The Army had pulled ahead after two outs in the bottom of the third. Dillinger singled to left field and swiped second base. Mike McCormick singled and drove Dillinger across the plate to tie the game. Edwards reached first on a Lucadello error. McCormick scored on Judnich’s single, leaving the Navy down by a run. The Army’s lead was short-lived due to a series of Army miscues.
Lucadello grounded to third but reached first as first baseman Fain dropped Lodigiani’s throw. Catcher Sid Gautreaux let one of Schmidt’s pitches get by him, allowing Lucadello to advance to second. After DiMaggio whiffed for the first out and Reese walked, Vinnie Smith singled to left field to drive Lucadello home, tying the game, 3-3.
The score remained knotted until the top of the twelfth. With Schmidt still in for the Army, Ken Sears broke the tie with a 360-foot bomb to right field with one out. In the bottom of the frame, Navy reliever Casey, back on the hill for his third inning, looked to be in trouble after Fain singled off second baseman Lucadello’s glove. Casey hunkered down to get Gordon out swinging for the first out. Lodigiani hit into a fielder’s choice, forcing Fain out at second. Pinch hitter Don Lang grounded to short, giving the Navy a 4-3 victory and a three-game lead.
Game 4
The Navy juggernaut was seemingly unstoppable as the Series shifted 20 miles northeast of Pearl Harbor to Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station for the fourth game. The Navy was set on putting the series to bed, though discussions were already underway to play the full seven games for the benefit of the serviceman spectators. The Navy went back to the pitching well to bring Game 1 starter Virgil Trucks to the mound in hopes of a repeat performance. Winsett pinned the Army’s hopes upon Johnny Beazley to keep the Navy off the base paths.
Kaneohe Bay’s ball field was engulfed by more than 10,000 sailors as Trucks took the mound and set down the first three in order, fanning one. In the bottom of the opening frame, Beazley did not have the same luck. Rizzuto hit the Army pitcher for a leadoff single, but Grace seemed to swing the momentum in Beazley’s favor by grounding into a double play. McCosky walked on four straight and reached second on wild pitch. With two down and a runner in scoring position, Beazley pitched to slugger Johnny Mize, who took him deep to straight away center field for a two-run shot.
Leading 4-0 after four innings, Navy loaded the bases with no outs. Beazley was lifted for Eddie Erautt, who walked DiMaggio and Reese to force in two runs. Smith singled and drove in another pair before Trucks struck out and Rizzuto grounded into a double play to end the carnage. Navy was ahead, 8-0, and well on its way to securing the series-clinching game. Trucks had a comfortable lead and was dominating Army hitters, allowing just four hits and on his way to another shutout victory.
Not ready to lay down their arms, Army bats came to life in the top of the sixth. Leading off, Judnich singled to right field. The league batting champion, Fain, strode to the plate and drove Trucks’ offering 340 feet on a line shot over the right field wall. Joe Gordon followed Fain’s lead and powered a line drive over the left field wall and suddenly, the Army was back in the game. Trucks walked Lodigiani and uncorked a wild pitch to Army backstop Gautreaux allowing Dario to move to second. The big catcher was called out on strikes for the first out. Hitting for the pitcher Erautt, Don Lang whiffed for the second out and Trucks appeared to be working out his kinks. Bob Dillinger had other ideas and stroked a single to center field, scoring Lodigiani as the pressure on Trucks began to increase once again. McCormick worked the Navy pitcher for a free pass to load the bases with two outs, ending Trucks outing.
With “Schoolboy” Rowe taking over on the mound, Edwards singled and drove in Dillinger from second base. Rowe walked Judnich, filling the sacks with Army runners. With two outs and five runs already scored, Fain grounded to first for the final out, but the Army had narrowed the gap, trailing 8-5.
The Army manager sent former Homestead Grays hurler Hal Hairston to the mound to hold the Navy bats at bay and he promptly fanned Joe Grace to start the bottom of the sixth. McCosky grounded to short. Gordon mishandled the ball, rushed his throw to Fain at first and threw wide of the bag, allowing the runner to reach second. Mize singled next and drove in McCosky before Hairston worked out of the jam, but Navy now led 9-5.
Rowe set down the Army in order in the top of the seventh, but Hairston was unable to do the same in the bottom half. Reese led off with a single and Smith bunted him to second, then Rowe popped out to first. Rizzuto singled to score Reese, extending the Navy’s lead. In the last two frames, Judnich accounted for the Army’s last hit of the game as the Navy locked up their fourth straight win by a score of 10-5, and the Series crown.
With more than 56,000 service personnel attending the first four games, it was clear to leadership that the Servicemen’s World Series was a resounding success and a considerable morale boost to the troops stationed on Oahu. The decision was made to play the remaining three games on the schedule. Returning to the site of the opening game, Vander Meer was called upon to start for the Navy on Furlong Field’s mound for Game 5.
Game 5
Dickey began to change things with his lineup, insuring other players on the roster saw action in the Series. Rizzuto, who had been manning the hot corner throughout the first four games, was moved to second base, replacing Lucadello, and Al Brancato took over at third, making his initial appearance in the Series.
As Vander Meer continued his dominance over Army batters, the change in the lineup only seemed to improve Navy hitting. Lucadello’s 0-16 bat, now on the bench, was replaced by Brancato, who joined in the Tars’ hit parade. Navy batters touched Lien, Molberg, Hairston and Ardizoia for 12 runs on 10 hits while Vander Meer held Army bats to two runs on five hits. The Army’s defensive woes also continued into the fifth game as they tacked on three to the eleven errors committed over the first four games. The Furlong crowd of 16,000 saw yet another Navy win and the Army fans were left wondering if their boys were entirely outmatched with the 12-2 drubbing.
Game 6
The Series made its return to Hickam’s Flood Field for Game 6 as Winsett sent Don Schmidt back to the mound for his second series start. Former Pittsburgh Pirate hurler Jack Hallett made his rubber-toeing debut for the Navy.
Rizzuto got things going for the Navy in the top of the first as Schmidt could not find the strike zone with his initial four pitches. Gautreaux neutralized the leadoff baserunner when he gunned down “Scooter” as he attempted to steal second. Schmidt walked the next batter but coaxed DiMaggio to whiff and Mize ended the inning with a fly out to center. In the bottom of the inning, the Army took the lead when Dillinger reached on a Pee Wee Reese error. After McCormick’s failed bunt attempt, Dillinger accomplished what Rizzuto could not, swiping second. Hallett walked Edwards and Judnich to load the bases before Fain plated Dillinger on a fielder’s choice. Hallett struck out Gordon to end the inning with the Army out to an early lead.
In the third inning, the Navy finally got to Schmidt for two runs after Rizzuto singled with two outs and then stole second. Joe Grace kept things going, working Schmidt for a free pass. DiMaggio cleared the bases with a drive to right center but was out at third attempting to stretch his double to a triple.
Trailing Navy 2-1 and with two outs in the bottom of the third, Ferris Fain singled off Pee Wee Reese’s glove. Catcher Sears let one of Hallett’s pitches get by, allowing Fain to take second base. Gordon came to the plate with Fain in scoring position and two down, working the count full against Hallett before smashing the next pitch into the left field stands to put Army back on top, 3-2.
In the top of the fourth, left fielder Schoolboy Rowe lined a one-out double and was plated when Sears made amends for his third inning miscue by doubling to the right field corner. Brancato flied out to left field before Reese walked ahead of the pitcher’s spot in the order. Manager Bill Dickey called his own number to pinch hit for Hallett. With Reese and Sears on first and second, and perhaps intimidated by the legendary Yankee catcher at bat, Schmidt was called for a balk, moving the base runners up 90 feet. With both runners in scoring position, Schmidt coaxed Dickey into fouling to the third base side as Dillinger made the out to retire the side, leaving the score locked up at three runs each.
Masterson took over for Hallett, pitching one-hit ball through the sixth inning. In the top of the seventh, Dickey sent Jim Carlin to pinch hit for Masterson and he promptly singled to lead off the inning. After Rizzuto flied out to Gordon, Gautreaux misplayed a Schmidt pitch, allowing Carlin to move to second. Joe Grace singled and Carlin raced around third and broke for home. The relay from Lodigiani to home went to the backstop as Carlin scored and Grace advanced to second. Schmidt limited the damage to one run by working out of the jam.
Trailing 4-3, the Army answered. Tom Ferrick replaced Masterson on the hill and Don Schmidt greeted the relief pitcher with a single. Bob Dillinger bunted, pushing Schmidt to second. McCormick joined the fray and crushed a triple to deep left center, plating Schmidt to tie the game, 4-4.
In the eighth, Rowe singled and was sacrificed to second by new catcher Vinnie Smith. After a Brancato pop fly to short for the second out, Reese grounded to short and Rowe was caught trying to advance to third. Instead of getting the sure out at first, Gordon tossed to Dillinger, but Rowe scampered back to second, beating the throw. Still with two outs, Ferrick lined a single to left center, allowing Rowe to score and Reese to move to third on the throw home. With runners at the corners, Rizzuto executed a perfect bunt base hit that scored Reese, putting the Navy ahead, 6-4.
Army hitters managed a hit in each of the last two frames, but Ferrick and the Navy’s defense shut the Army down to extend their Series win streak to six.
Through the previous six games, the Navy held a 45-16 scoring advantage. Navy hurlers were stingy, allowing just 1.78 runs per game, proving Red McQueen’s pitching assessment and prediction to be correct. Meanwhile, their offense was relentless, averaging five runs per game. For the Army fans filing into the stands for Game 7, the outlook was bleak.
Game 7
For the seventh and final game, the Series moved to Furlong Field on Sunday, October 1, for a third visit to the Navy’s premier ballpark on the Island. Trucks made his third start of the series and was opposed by Carl De Rose. In the top of the first, Trucks set down the Army in order. DeRose retired Rizzuto and Grace, walked DiMaggio, then coaxed Rowe to hit a slow roller in front of the plate and be thrown out by catcher DeCarlo.
In the second frame, Don Lang homered off Trucks to right center with two outs. In the bottom half, Brancato led off with a single. With Brancato breaking for second, Reese lined a single into right field that allowed the leadoff man to reach third. Shokes popped out to second base for the first out. Bill Dickey hit a sharp grounder to Dillinger, who promptly threw home to get Brancato at the plate. Dickey lifted himself for Vinnie Smith and Virgil Trucks came to the plate with runners at first and second and two down. The Navy pitcher doubled down the right field line, scoring Reese. Rizzuto followed with a foul out.
After Army was retired in order in the third, Dom DiMaggio hit a one-out single up the middle. The “Little Professor” swiped second before Rowe whiffed for the second out. Brancato sent a line drive to right field that drove in DiMaggio. DeRose walked Reese, pushing Brancato into scoring position. Shokes singled sharply up the middle, allowing Brancato to score and putting the Navy on top, 3-1. Army players and fans could not help but think, “here we go again,” as the Navy was once again pulling away.
Trucks was unhittable in the fourth and fifth innings and DeRose only allowed one Navy hit in the fifth. In the top of the sixth, DeCarlo reached on a single to open the frame. With one out, Dillinger crushed a two-run bomb deep over the right field corner fence to even the game, 3-3. Trucks kept the Army hitless in the seventh and eighth innings while Bill Schmidt, who relieved DeRose after the sixth, allowed just two hits in the eighth.
The score was tied heading into the ninth. Gordon was set down on strikes by Trucks for the first out. Judnich worked the Navy pitcher for a walk before Fain strode to the plate. The Army first baseman and future American League batting champ promptly cracked the longest home run of the Series, sending a 390-foot bomb to the right center stands and putting his team ahead, 5-3.
Schmidt kept the Navy’s bats silenced for the bottom of the frame as Army players and fans had their moment to celebrate.
Navy first baseman Johnny Mize, former St. Louis Cardinals and New York Giants slugger, led all batters in average for the seven-game series, hitting .450; however, Phil Rizzuto captured the top position in hits with 12. [12] The Navy’s 48-21 scoring advantage would lead one to assume that the sailors crushed Army pitching with a multitude of home runs. However, with a total of 10 four-sackers, it was the Army lumber that sent more balls over the fences, with Ferris Fain and Joe Gordon each hitting a pair followed by Dillinger, Judnich and Lang with one apiece. For the Navy, Grace, Sears, and Mize accounted for all three of the Navy’s long balls.[13]
The Series was a monumental success as more than 100,500 troops attended the seven games, boosting morale throughout the island. With barely a moment to celebrate the series victory, Rizzuto and Dom DiMaggio departed Oahu immediately following the conclusion of Game 7. With plenty of service personnel stationed on other Hawaiian islands, plans were established in August by the military leadership to send two service All-Star squads for morale-boosting exhibition baseball to those islands. By late September, the decision was made to dispatch the Service World Series clubs to Maui, Hawaii and Kauai for Army, Navy, and Marine Corps personnel to enjoy high caliber baseball on the outer islands.[14]
Three days after the seventh game, the two service All-Star teams packed up and flew to Maui for a two-game series, played at the Kahului Fairgrounds on October 4th and 5th. On October 6, the teams faced off at Hoolulu Park, Hilo on the island of Hawaii. Nine days later, the final game in the four-game exhibition was played at Kukuiolono Park, Kauai on October 15.
Scorecards
While wartime service game scorecards are largely ignored by collectors, some of the game items do garner interest, with attention being given to the significant players present on the rosters. The Servicemen’s World Series pieces feature a handful of players who would later be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. One name that draws collector interest, Joe DiMaggio, is listed on all seven game programs and scorecards and yet he was on the mainland by September 2, having departed Hawaii indefinitely in late August.[15] Acquiring all seven game pieces is not for the impatient. In more than a dozen years, we have seen only 15-20 total pieces from the entire Oahu series.
There are several factors that contribute to the challenges of locating these game pieces. With each of the games at or near capacity attendance, for every person to have a scorecard would mean that an average of 14,000 pieces were printed per game. In reality, the number for each game was reasonably less than the audience capacity. These estimates, while inexact, are much more scientific than determining the number of surviving copies. In the eight decades that have elapsed since the Series, it is impossible to number the pieces based upon market observation.
“Prior to the construction of concrete and steel stadiums beginning in the 1920s, ballparks often held less than 25,000 fans. Only some bought programs. Fewer saved them. Those who did may have passed them down, but others simply were discarded by family members because some of the earliest programs were actually simple scorecards that made no mention of the magnitude of what was taking place. They weren’t exactly considered keepsakes.[16]”
How many GIs maintained their scorecards after the game? A few of the pieces in our collection appear to have been sent home by the GIs. Of those that made it home, how many endured through home moves, storage failures or being discarded as “old stuff” by surviving children when estates were liquidated?
As of the writing of this article, Chevrons and Diamonds has acquired six of the seven game scorecards. In viewing our collection online, it appears to readers that we possess all seven pieces as we digitally replicated and altered our scored Game 6 piece in order to display a representation for Game 2. Both of the games played at Hickam Field used the same printing for both games (see Service World Series, 1944 – Hawaiian Islands).
All the Furlong Field games share a common design, with the game date being the only variation. The program and scorecard from Game 4 at NAS Kaneohe Bay is one of the most well-done pieces for a wartime service baseball game. Not only does the piece include the rosters, but the headshot photographs of the star players encompass five of the oversized pages. The final addition comes from the Redlander Field-hosted game and is the only one that includes scoring by the original owner.
Our collection also features two of the four pieces originating from the Maui, Hawaii, and Kauai games. Our hunt continues for the remaining pair as well as another Hickam piece to complete the full set.
[1] Berry, Sal; Lehman, Bert, “Sports programs are becoming an alternative for collectors who crave vintage material (https://sportscollectorsdigest.com/news/sports-programs-collectors),” Sports Collectors Daily, February 8, 2019 (accessed October 25, 2022).
[2] Schiff, Andrew, “Harry Chadwick, (https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/henry-chadwick)” Society of American Baseball Research (accessed October 22, 2022).
[3] “Baseball Basics: How to Keep Score (https://www.mlb.com/official-information/basics/score),” MLB.com, (accessed October 25, 2022)
[4] Cieradkowski, Gary, “218. Harry M. Stevens: The Visionary” (http://infinitecardset.blogspot.com/2016/04/218-harry-m-stevens-visionary.html),” The Infinite Baseball Card Set, April 29, 2015 (accessed October 22, 2022).
[5] Cresi, Frank; McMains, Carol, Baseball Programs and Scorecards (https://www.baseball-almanac.com/treasure/autont006.shtml), Baseball Almanac (accessed October 22, 2022).
[6] Figler, Jeff, “Baseball programs and scorecards (bit.ly/3N6WyRm),” Collectors Journal, April 23, 2018 (accessed October 25, 2022).
[7] “Projected Line-ups for the Service World Series,” The Honolulu Advertiser, September 15, 1944: p10.
[8] McQueen, Red, “Hoomalimali,” The Honolulu Advertiser, September 22, 1944: p12.
[9] Ibid.
[10] “Friday Stars the World Series,” Honolulu Star Bulletin, September 21, 1944: p.13
[11] Fowler, Chas., Ensign, “Yesterday’s Highlights,” The Honolulu Advertiser, September 15, 1944: p10.
[12] “Mize Leads Batters in Service World Series,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 2, 1944: p.11.
[13] Bedingfield Gary. “Baseball in Hawaii during World War II,” Baseball in Wartime Publishing 2021.
[14] “Oahu All-Stars to Bring Baseball Headliners,” Hawaii Tribune-Herald, September 30, 1944: p4.
[15] “Late Sports,” Hawaii Tribune-Herald, September 30, 1944: p4.
[16] Mueller, Rich, “Vintage World Series Programs Offer Collector Challenges. (https://www.sportscollectorsdaily.com/hey-get-your-programs-here/),” Sports Collectors Daily, October 24, 2006 (accessed October 25, 2022).
Card Series: 1944 Service World Series – Game 6 Scorecard
Nearly eight decades later, historians and researchers are still discovering artifacts from World War II that are providing details or insights into events, regardless of how well documented they may be. The Service World Series, played in the Hawaiian Islands in the fall of 1944, pitted two teams of former major and minor leaguers from the Army and Navy against each other and featured arguably the best aggregation of baseball talent in the world that year.
Known also as the Servicemen’s World Series or the Army All-Stars versus Navy All-Stars Championship Series, the Service World Series was scheduled as a best-of-seven games matchup for the bragging rights of the best baseball team of the armed forces. Following a competitive season of service baseball in Hawaii in the spring and summer of 1944 that saw a neck-and-neck race between the Aiea Naval Hospital Hilltoppers and the Flyers of the 7th Army Air Force (7th AAF). rumors abounded that Admiral Chester Nimitz wanted to exact some revenge in response to the Army stacking the 7th AAF’s roster and wresting the Central Pacific League crown from the Navy’s front-running Aiea squad.
Drawing personnel predominantly from the McClellan Field (Sacramento) Commanders team that included former major leaguers Walt Judnich, Dario Lodigiani, Jerry Priddy and Mike McCormick along with minor leaguers Ferris Fain, Charlie Silvera, Rugger Ardizoia and Al Lien and later adding New York Yankee stars Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon and Red Ruffing, the 7th AAF team was a powerhouse both on paper and the diamond. After capturing the league title, the Army brass simply added players from other area Army base teams to form their World Series squad.
As the 7th AAF faced Aiea in a three-game championship series, the Navy hoisted players in from as far away as Melbourne, Australia, and from teams throughout the Hawaiian Islands, effectively stacking the deck in their favor in both quality and quantity. The Navy squad featured future Hall of Fame enshrinees Johnny Mize, Pee Wee Reese and Phil Rizzuto along with a bounty of 1940’s major league stars such as Dom DiMaggio, Virgil Trucks, Johnny Vander Meer, Schoolboy Rowe, Barney McCosky and Hugh Casey. They would lead the Navy’s attack on the Army. Ahead of the start of the series, the Army suffered the loss of two key players from the 7th with Joe DiMaggio battling in the summer months and Red Ruffing suffering an injury at the end of the regular season. DiMaggio and Ruffing were sent to the mainland before the first game, further handicapped them against the team being assembled by the Navy.
The Army failed to answer the Navy’s attack and dropped the series in four games to the Navy, being outscored 27-10 in the sweep. The real winners of the series were the uniformed personnel who had tickets to see the games. With 56,500 filling the small venues over the course of the four games, the Army and Navy leadership agreed to extend the series through the scheduled seven games. The Navy claimed games five and six before the Army finally captured a win in the final game. With more than 100,500 fans, the series was a resounding success despite the outcome of the games.
The 1944 Army/Navy All-Star Championship Series in Hawaii
| Date | Score (winner) | Location | Attendance | |
| Friday, September 22, 1944 | Game 1 | 5-0 (Navy) | Furlong Field | 20,000 |
| Saturday, September 23, 1944 | Game 2 | 8-2 (Navy) | Hickam Field | 12,000 |
| Monday, September 25, 1944 | Game 3 | 4-3 (Navy) | Redlander Field | 14,500 |
| Wednesday, September 27, 1944 | Game 4 | 10-5 (Navy) | NAS Kaneohe | 10,000 |
| Thursday, September 28, 1944 | Game 5 | 12-2 (Navy) | Furlong Field | 16,000 |
| Saturday, September 30, 1944 | Game 6 | 6-4 (Navy) | Hickam Field | 12,000 |
| Sunday, October 1, 1944 | Game 7 | 5-3 (Army) | Furlong Field | 16,000 |
Following the close of the series, Dom DiMaggio and Phil Rizzuto were sent back to Australia as the balance of the Navy squad, sans Pee Wee Reese, joined the Army team for subsequent games to be played for troops stationed on the islands of Maui, Hawaii and Kauai. The island tour series, though often considered to be an extension of the Service World Series, was scheduled in early August, 1944. In this second series (or extension of the Service World Series), the Army squad found their stride, winning one and tying another while the Navy picked up two more victories and secured an 8-2-1 record.
- October 4 – Maui (Navy 11-0)
- October 5 – Maui (Army 6-5)
- October 6 – Hoolulu Park, Hilo (Tie, 6-6)
- October 15 – Kukuiolono Park (Navy, 6-5)
Several photographs of the Series games were captured by press and fans alike, with original surviving type-1 examples trickling onto the collector market. Nearly 80 years after the games were played, collectors actively seek ephemera in the form of scorecards and ticket stubs and some pieces occasionally surface from WWII veterans’ estates or their heirs.
Most of the scorecards are simple, bi-folded, single sheet pages mimeograph-printed on basic lightweight paper. Not more than simple roster lists and scoring grids, the known cards are anything but aesthetically pleasing, being completely devoid of artwork, photographs and the typical graphic design elements seen on contemporary major or minor league offerings. The most common of the scorecards to surface on the market are those used for the games hosted at Furlong Field. They feature large block lettering on the front cover, full team rosters on the back and a two-page spread of scoring grids inside the gatefold.
Obtaining scorecards from each game of a major league baseball World Series from the 1940’s would be a daunting task for collectors due to the limited number of surviving examples. However, collectors have an advantage as each scorecard produced for those games is well documented, which is in stark contrast to the Service World Series. At present, the Chevrons and Diamonds Collection is in possession of cards from games four, five and seven and we have seen cards from game one. Regarding cards from the remaining games, we were virtually blind to their designs. With a recent acquisition, the number of remaining unknown scorecards has decreased.
A recent discovery led to an acquisition of the scorecard from the sixth Series game played on Saturday, September 30 at Hickam Field. With 12,000 in attendance, fans saw a game that was tied through eight innings as the Army was holding their own. A first-inning RBI by Ferris Fain, a two-run home run by Joe Gordon and an RBI triple by Mike McCormick tallied four runs and tied the Navy by the bottom of the seventh inning. However, the Navy won on an RBI by pitcher Tom Ferrick, who drove in “Schoolboy” Rowe for the go ahead run, followed by a Rizzuto bunt that scored Pee Wee Reese in the top of the eighth inning. The Army failed to answer in their two remaining frames, leaving the Navy victorious in their sixth consecutive game. The scorecard is scored with the correct 6-4 final tally, but the service member may not have had a good vantage point or was not paying close attention to the game as total hits do not align with the newspaper account. Also out of alignment are the innings and scoring sequence. In addition to the final score, the card also reflects the correct error totals for each team.
This scorecard is mimeograph-printed onto an odd-sized, 9×13-inch, single sheet of lightweight paper with the hand-drawn artwork, basic scoring grid and typed Army roster on the front of the sheet and the Navy’s roster typed on the reverse. This example has some of the typical condition issues that similar pieces exhibit such as creasing, dog-eared corners and brittle areas near the fold lines. The paper has oxidized to a light tan color and the printing shows fading. For the two games hosted at Hickam Field, the Army called the games, “The Little World Series.”
In comparing the scoring against the other games in the series, there is little doubt that our newly acquired scorecard was used for the sixth game despite the insignificant discrepancies. The printed dates on the card (September 23 and 30) combined with the Army roster taking precedence make it clear that this card was used for both games that were hosted at Hickam Field.
With the addition of this Game Six card, the Chevrons and Diamonds Collection now features scorecards from games four, five, six and seven. With this most recent acquisition we can also confirm the design of the scorecard from game two, leaving the design of the card from game three played at the Schofield Barracks’ Redlander Field as the remaining unknown.
From the Pacific to Cooperstown
Note: This is the conclusion of our three-part Pee Wee Reese series. See part one: Surplus Middle Infielder: Pee Wee Reese Flies High in the Navy and part two: A Tropical and Baseball Paradise: Reese Lands at the (Aiea Naval) Hospital
The winter months of 1944-45 provided some of the fiercest fighting of the war for American troops in both the European and Pacific combat theaters. The late October battle of Leyte Gulf paved the way for the coming invasion of the Philippines as General Douglas MacArthur was set to deliver on his promise to the Filipino people and to the Americans taken captive by the Japanese. Early January saw that promise fulfilled as the nearly eight-month campaign to wrest the Japanese occupiers from the islands commenced. As the 1944 calendar flipped to 1945, the Battle of the Bulge in Europe was into its third week, with heavy casualties from the enemy that were exacerbated by the harshest winter in decades.
On the home front, both the Army and Navy were dealing with a public relations mess following the Army’s early release of a prominent professional athlete. “The discharge of a well-known professional football player for physical disability,” Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal, was quoted in Chattanooga Daily Times (February 28, 1945) sports columnist Wirt Gammon’s Just Between Us Fans column, “followed immediately by successful participation by that individual in professional games, is obviously subjected to widespread [public] disapproval.” Speculation among sportswriters was that the unnamed professional athlete who was released from service was the 1942 Heisman Trophy winner and former University of Georgia halfback Frank Sinkwich, who was medically discharged due to pes planus or “flat feet.”
Following the Army and Navy’s very public Service World Series baseball spectacle in Hawaii that was covered in every newspaper from coast to coast, public perspective may have become less than favorable as casualties continued to mount and citizens were growing fatigued from strict rationing. Athletes may have appeared to them to not be lacking in necessities.
The Hawaiian Islands were nearly overrun with professional ballplayers serving in uniform, with more players arriving throughout the fall and winter months. Talk of assembling teams and taking a multi-team contingent of all-star caliber players on tour to the Western Pacific to entertain troops started ramping up and rumors began to circulate among the athletes. It wasn’t long before the scuttlebutt, a Navy term for gossip, became reality. According to author Harrington E. Crissey, Jr. in his 1984 book Athletes Away, there was a (then) unverified rumor that he was made aware of years later. “The players heard a story to the effect that when former pro tennis player Bobby Riggs had gotten on the short wave radio one night in Pearl to announce the [baseball] tour to the servicemen in the area, “ Crissey wrote, “the broadcast happened to be picked up on Guam, where Admiral Nimitz, as Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, had recently moved his headquarters.” According to the story, Nimitz was unaware of the planned tour and was less than thrilled with Riggs’ radio broadcast. “That’s O.K.,” he supposedly said. “Send those athletes out here, and when they get through with their tour, we’ll put them to work with picks and shovels.”
Multiple stories cycled among the players regarding the genesis of the Pacific tour. In an undated letter written by Pee Wee Reese many years later, he responded to a memorabilia collector’s inquiry surrounding a game-used bat that had been autographed and inscribed with details of the Pacific tour. The collector asked of Reese, “How did so many well-known players come together on a little island in the Pacific?” On Louisville Slugger letterhead, Reese responded, “They got too many in Honolulu and Admiral Nimitz decided to get rid of a few. They selected two teams (baseball) – two fighters – Georgie Abrams and Fred Apostoli – tennis player Bobby Riggs. We more or less just barnstormed all through the Pacific.”
| Player | Position | Former |
| Buddy Blattner | 2B | Cardinals |
| Mace Brown | P | Red Sox |
| Mike Budnick | LF | Seattle (PCL) |
| Elbie Fletcher | 1B | Pirates |
| Joseph “Joe” Grace | RF | Browns |
| Johnny Lucadello | 2B | Browns |
| Merrill “Pinky” May | 3B | Phillies |
| Barney McCosky | CF | Tigers |
| Harold “Pee Wee” Reese | SS | Dodgers |
| Johnny Rigney | P | White Sox |
| Cornelius “Connie” Ryan | 3B | Braves |
| Vincent Smith | C | Pirates |
| Jim Trexler | P | Indianapolis (AA) |
| Hal White | P | Tigers |
The 28 men chosen for the tour played a warm-up game in early February that saw the Navy face off against a roster of Army stars. The Navy rotated their players through the order, ensuring that each one saw action. Virgil Trucks started the game and Hal White finished it. Pee Wee played the entire game at short. Despite dropping the contest, the outcome was less of a concern as the Navy wanted to get the players tuned up. The Army fielded a squad that resembled the 1944 Service World Series team and they defeated the Navy, 4-2. Days later, with the 28 players divided into two rosters for a split squad contest, the Third Fleet faced the Fifth Fleet for one last tune-up before heading to the Western Pacific. Pee Wee’s Third Fleet nine blanked their opponents, 2-0.
| Player | Position | Former |
| Albert (Al) Brancato | SS | Athletics |
| George “Skeets” Dickey | C | White Sox |
| Del Ennis | LF | Trenton (ISLG) |
| Tom Ferrick | P | Indians |
| Al Glossop | SS | Dodgers |
| Benny Huffman | LF | San Antonio (TL) |
| Bob Klinger | P | Pirates |
| Frank Marino | P | Tulsa (TL) |
| Glenn “Red” McQuillen | CF | Browns |
| Johnny Mize | 1B | Giants |
| Virgil Trucks | P | Tigers |
| Johnny Vander Meer | P | Reds |
| Mickey Vernon | RF | Senators |
| Gene Woodling | CF | Indians |
From Hawaii, the two twin-engine U.S. Marine Corps C-46 Curtiss Commandos flew southwest to tiny Johnston Atoll, which served as a seaplane and patrol base during the war. The island was far too small to provide enough space for a baseball diamond amid the 6,000-foot runway, buildings and fuel and freshwater storage, which meant that the personnel stationed there were not able to witness a game. After refueling, the two aircraft departed for the Marshall Islands, where the Third and Fifth Fleet teams provided entertainment to the contingent of Seabees and other personnel stationed there who were suffering from boredom. “You get so you repeat conversations. Jokes get so old they creak,” Constructionman 3/c Joseph C. Ashlock wrote in a letter to his parents. With the arrival of the Navy ballplayers, there was excitement. “There were several major league baseball players, including Johnny Mize, Pee Wee Reese, Johnny Vander Meer and Barney McCosky,” wrote the young CB in his letter, published in the March 15, 1945 edition of the Spokane Chronicle. “I might have lived a lifetime in the States and never seen half of these fellows,” Ashlock continued. “But here we were together on a backyard island in the Pacific,” he concluded.
In addition to three days of baseball, the men on the island with Ashlock were treated to a three-round exhibition bout between Fred Apostoli and Georgie Abrams as well as to “lightning-fast” table tennis matches featuring Bobby Riggs against former teen national ping pong champion Buddy Blattner.
From island to island, the teams followed similar entertainment agendas for troops on the tiny atolls of Majuro, Kwajalein and Roi in the Marshall Islands and to Anguar in the western Caroline Islands. Though it had only been a few months since the cessation of the 73-day battle at “Bloody” Peleliu, the tour made stops on that island along with Ulithi in the Carolines. Unlike games in the major league palaces, those played on the islands were intimate. The men of the Third and Fifth Fleet teams were sailors who happened to be ballplayers. Unlike the massive barrier that sets contemporary ballplayers in a protective bubble on a towering pedestal, the men on the tours were immersed in the crowds of servicemen, joining them in the chow halls and around the bases after the scheduled events. Signing autographs was normal and one can imagine that countless signatures were captured by sailors to be sent home to family and friends.
Petty Officer 1/c H. K. Emmons and his brother-in-law, William H. Bowes, sent home a game program that was autographed by former Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer, according to Walt Hanson’s Sportsfolio column in the March 15, 1945 edition of the Long Branch, New Jersey’s Daily Record.
The Third and Fifth Fleet teams entertained thousands of troops throughout the Mariana islands including Tinian, Saipan and Guam, from which the B-29 Superfortresses conducted raids on the Japanese homeland. Seabees stationed on each location carved out ballfields in the coral for the teams to play on. With the majority of the athletes being graduates of the athletic Instructor schools that were the brainchild of the “fighting Marine,” Gene Tunney, the former heavyweight champion boxer-turned Navy Commander joined the men on a few of the tour stops, raving about his players. “About the hottest player right now is Johnny Mize, the old Giant,” the boxer stated. “I dare say he would lift any second division big league team at least two notches in the standings. He is hitting home runs which travel about a mile and never get much higher off the ground than a trolley wire,” Tunney professed. Without fail, Tunney shined a spotlight on the former Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop, “I hasten to add, too, that Pee Wee Reese is at the very top of his form,” said the still very fit 47-year-old pugilist. “He scampers like a rabbit, has lost none of his bounce and still covers a world of ground.” Dan Parker relayed this quote in his March 29, 1945 column in the Camden, New Jersey Courier Post, from a report submitted by Bob Sylvester, who was embedded with the players on the tour.
The ballplayers were loose and playing well together despite the demanding schedule. As is normal for most GIs stationed in far-off locations, spontaneity combined with a lack of foresight of consequences can lead to rather humorous if not dangerous situations. While riding between Saipan and Tinian in a landing craft, returning from a ballgame, “Elbie Fletcher, smoking a cigar, offered to jump overboard for $25,” reported Bob Sylvester. “It was quickly raised. In he (Fletcher) went, after first giving the coxswain $5 to come back and pick him up. As the coxswain came alongside,” Sylvester continued, “Pee Wee Reese, who had contributed some of the $25, leaned over the side and tried to keep Elbie’s head under water by poking at him with an old mop.” Sylvester concluded the tale, “Fletcher was immediately hauled aboard with the (soggy) cigar butt still in his kisser.”
Though the Americans held control over the islands and hostilities had effectively ended, not all of the Japanese soldiers were neutralized when the ballplayers were present. Sylvester reported that some of the enemy combatants, themselves baseball fans and keen on American major leaguers, were keeping a watchful eye on the American activities and would sneak up close enough to watch the ball games.
“After a few more exhibitions as a group, the troupe will be broken up and its members assigned to various Mariana Islands for athletic drills and to supervise rehabilitation training in the hospitals,” reported the Kenosha News on March 27, 1945 in Sports Stars Go Overseas to Play for Service Men.
Nearly two dozen games were played on the tour and true to Nimitz’ word, rather than being sent back to the U.S. or Hawaii, the men were put to work. In the aforementioned Reese letter, Pee Wee said, “When we finished, they broke us up (and) sent us everywhere. I ended up on Guam. I guess you could say we were suppose (sic) to entertain the troops. They seemed to enjoy it.”
Here, the Navy 3rd and 5th Fleet baseball teams pose with her (most-likely on Tinian) with Pee Wee Reese and Johnny Mize in their uniforms along with other baseball players.
Fourth Row: Crewman, Mace Brown, Crewman, Crewman, Crewman, Vinnie Smith, Johnny Mize, crewman, crewman, Tom Ferrick, George Dickey, Mike Budnick. Crewman, Crewman. Third Row: Crewman, Freddie Apostoli, Georgie Abrams, Red McQuillen, Mickey Vernon, Johnny Rigney, Barney McCoskey, Buddy Blattner, Johnny Vander Meer, Crewman. Second Row: Crewman, Johnny Lucadello, Bobby Riggs, Connie Ryan, Jim Trexler, Pee Wee Reese, Vrigil Trucks, Del Ennis, Bob Klinger, Al Glossop. Front row: Flight crew, Miller (Umpire in black uniform), Bennie Huffman, Gene Woodling, Frank Marino, Hal White, Al Brancato, Merrill May. Note: Due to the crop of the photo, some players are not shown (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
With as many as 10,000 troops surrounding makeshift ballfields, the stars not only put on highly competitive exhibitions but also took the time to interact with sailors, marines and soldiers before and after the games. “I saw Pee Wee Reese, Vander Meer and others on an island out here recently,” OAM 1/c David P. Charles wrote in his letter to the Greenville (South Carolina) News, published on May 15, 1945. “The ballpark is a little rough but it serves the purpose.” GIs wrote letters to many hometown newspapers, relaying details about the tours or encounters with players as thousands of them were positively impacted by the players’ presence.
At the end of the tour, Chief Athletic Specialist Reese was sent to Guam, where he was quickly put to work by former Notre Dame tailback and 1943 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Lt. Angelo Bertelli as a physical fitness instructor and a coach of the Third Marine Division’s All-Star baseball team. The Paducah (Kentucky) Sun-Democrat reported on May 16, 1945 that Pee was ineligible to play on the Marine All-Star team.
In early May, the Third Marine All-Stars held a “spring” training of sorts in 100-degree temperatures on the island, with Bertelli having been assigned there following fierce fighting on Iwo Jima. Down more than 20 pounds from his playing weight at Notre Dame, Bertelli was not only leading the team with Pee Wee as an assistant but he was also playing in the field. Ineligible to play alongside Lt. Bertelli, who was playing third base, Pee Wee was itching for some game action. “I had hoped I’d be able to get into a lineup now and then,” the Dodgers infielder lamented to Marine combat correspondent Sgt. Bill Ross (published in the May 24 edition of the New York Daily News). “I’ve played just occasionally in the past year and I’d like to get into the game with a fast bunch of boys like this Third Division outfit,” Reese remarked.
Though he relayed no details of the game, Marine 1st Lt. C. E. Williamson sent a note that was published in the May 24, 1945 Nevada State Journal regarding the somewhat incomplete line-ups for a game between the Third Marine Division All-Star team and a Navy All-Star team. In this game, rather than being posted at his normal third base coaching position, Chief Petty Officer Pee Wee Reese opposed the Third Marine team from the shortstop spot in a line-up that included Connie Ryan, RF; Red McQuillen, CF; Del Ennis, 3B; Johnny Vander Meer, 1B-P; Virgil Trucks, LF-P; George Dickey, C; Tom Ferrick, P; and Hal White, UT.
One of Reese and Bertelli’s Third Marine team members, Pfc. Stanley Bazan, a former catcher in the St. Louis Browns organization, was wounded in combat on Iwo Jima while serving as a machine gunner in the 21st Marine Regiment. An enemy round penetrated his right shoulder and after two months of healing, his coaches were skeptical of his ability to play behind the plate. The East Chicago native found approval from Reese after demonstrating his prowess both behind and at the plate. “The Browns have a good prospect in Bazan,” Reese was quoted in The Times of Munster, Indiana. “He handles a pitcher well, has a strong, accurate arm and hits all sorts of pitching.” Bazan was under contract with the Toledo Mud Hens in 1943 when he enlisted into the Marines. Rather than returning to professional baseball and despite Reese’s assessment, Bazan signed with the semi-pro “Autos” of the Michigan State League in 1946.
| Name | Position | Former |
| Stanley Bazan | C | Pensacola (SEAL) |
| Edmond J. “Ed” Beaumier | P | Trois-Rivieres (CAML) |
| Angelo Bertelli | MGR | Notre Dame University |
| Gene Bledsoe | 1B | Mississipi State U. |
| Ray Congdon | OF | Sudbury (ISLG) |
| Harold “Hal” Connors | SS | Roanoke (PIED) |
| “Fats” Day | P/OF | |
| Andy Gibson | 3B | Allentown (ISLG) |
| Lou Grienier | 2B | Semi-Pro |
| Lenz | 1B | Semi-Pro |
| Maschmann | 1B | Browns Farmhand |
| Ted Patterson | SS | Southern Association |
| Harold “Pee Wee” Reese | MGR | Dodgers |
| Robert J. Schang | CF | Monroe (CSTL) |
Bazan’s teammate, Corporal Edmund J. Beaumier of Maine, a veteran of campaigns at both Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima and a former left-handed pitcher in the Indians organization, was wounded in action on Guadalcanal, taking a hit to his pitching arm. Fully recovered from his wound, the 23-year-old Beaumier was striking out the competition with relative ease. Beaumier returned to his professional career after the war, making it as high as class “A” in the minor leagues in 1949, when he stepped away from the game.
The ballfields on Guam were rudimentary, with simplistic features such as backstops and dirt or coral playing surfaces. Venues such as Gab Gab and Geiger Fields were quite literally carved into the landscape by Seabees using heavy equipment. In the high temperatures and humidity, the sunlight would heat the ground which, in turn, reflected the heat upwards to make play fairly miserable. When Pee Wee Reese wrote home about the conditions, his wife, Dorothy, dispatched a rather heavy care package that took a mere three months to reach her sailor husband on Guam. Inside the box, Pee Wee found 20 pounds of Kentucky blue grass seed. “Pee Wee planted it immediately,” the Louisville Courier-Journal reported on July 25, 1945. “He waters it daily and has it protected with several ‘Keep off the grass’ signs.”
While baseball was being played on the island, the 20th Air Force was pressing the fight on the Japanese home islands with incessant daytime bombing missions originating from Guam, Saipan and Tinian. For several months, the 20th also dropped more than 63 million leaflets warning the citizens of Japan of the continued raids. With many of the population pouring out of the cities that were potential targets, one of the objectives of the leaflet campaign, Japanese officials ordered the arrest of citizens in possession of the documents. On the morning of August 6, Colonel Paul Tibbetts guided his B-29, Enola Gay, airborne from Tinian. A few hours later, the first bomb, “Little Boy,” was released over Hiroshima. Three days later, the second bomb, “Fat Man,” was dropped over Nagasaki from the bomb bay of Bock’s Car, another 20th Air Force B-29, piloted by Major Charles Sweeney. Following the second bombing, the Emperor announced the unconditional surrender of Japan on August 15 and eighteen days later the formal instrument was signed aboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
With the end of hostilities, the operations on Guam changed from supporting bombing missions to dropping supplies to the POW camps spread throughout Japan and Japanese-held territories. With the continued operations and with players yet to begin rotating home, baseball continued in the Pacific. Back in Brooklyn, there was already talk of Reese’s job being up for grabs in ‘46 as the Dodgers had players such as Stan Rojek, Bob Ramazzotti, Tommy Brown and Eddie Basinski, whom some speculated could contend for his position. In addition to the prospects in the pipeline, Brooklyn had infielders including young Alex Campanis, Gene Mauch and Boyd Bartley in the service besides Reese. Still serving and coaching the Third Marines on Guam, Pee Wee was far removed from the personnel happenings and rumors in Brooklyn.
Having previously been declared ineligible to play for the Third Marine Division All-Stars, Pee Wee Reese was turned loose to suit up for the team that he had been coaching since the end of the Third and Fifth Fleet Pacific Tour. In his September 27, 1945 Globe-Gazette (Mason City, Iowa) Spotlight Sports column, Roger Rosenblum reported that Reese’s impact on the team was immediate. Not only was Reese the team’s leading hitter, he was “chiefly responsible for the 26 triumphs in 30 games the Stars have registered,” wrote Rosenblum. “Pee Wee is hitting above the .400 mark.”
In the office of the Brooklyn Dodgers, club President Branch Rickey hosted a WWII veteran and former Army officer, Jack Roosevelt Robinson. A 26-year-old infielder who played the 1945 season with the Kansas City Monarchs, Robinson publicly signed a minor league contract that was previously negotiated in August. With the Monarchs, Robinson had appeared in 33 games at shortstop, Pee Wee Reese’s natural position, and one at first base. The Dodgers were taking a significant step forward that was about to change the face of minor and major league baseball as well as the Dodgers’ future roster and Reese had yet to learn of what awaited him.
With his duties on Guam completed, Reese, along with Tom Ferrick and other service members, boarded the Bayfield Class attack transport ship, USS Cecil (APA-96), bound for the U.S. mainland. With more than 1200 sailors, Seabees and Marines aboard, there were many idle-handed passengers and one of the ship’s officers took notice. As was customary at the time, finding busy work for the passengers was put upon the two athletic specialist chief petty officers, Ferrick and Reese. They were told to round up men for a working party, which neither of them desired to do. Reese, instructed to round up men as Ferrick was told to wait by a hatch, ditched and hid from the officer. Ferrick soon followed, later explaining to the officer (who discovered him missing) that he had gone to investigate what became of Reese. The two ballplayers had no desire to make enemies among the men, who simply wanted to return home and put the war behind them.
In Roger Kahn’s August 19, 1992 Los Angeles Times article (He Didn’t Speculate in Color), the author detailed a conversation during the homeward bound transit that Reese had with a petty officer. Reese was informed of what was happening in Brooklyn and came to terms quickly with the notion that Branch Rickey was building a team to emerge from a survival-mode operation and truly contend as the club did in 1941 and ’42. He accepted the situation for what it was and attempted to step into Robinson’s shoes in order to see the situation from the newcomer’s perspective. “I don’t know this Robinson,” Reese told himself, “but I can imagine how he feels. I mean if they said to me, ‘Reese, you have to go over and play in the colored guys’ league,’ how would I feel? Scared. The only white. But I’m a good shortstop and that’s what I’d want ‘em to see. Not my color. Just that I can play the game.”
After the Cecil docked in a California port in early November, Reese disembarked and was back on U.S. soil for the first time in nearly two years. By November 13, Pee Wee was discharged and home with his wife and daughter. In a widely circulated newspaper photo, Reese is seen sitting at his wife’s bureau, still wearing his dress blue uniform and exchanging his chief petty officer’s cap for a familiar royal blue ball cap as his wife Dorothy can’t contain her joyful approval.
Reese returned to the Dodgers’ camp for the first time in three years while not too far away, Jackie Robinson was drawing the attention of the press as he arrived at spring training for the Dodgers’ class “AA” club, the Montreal Royals. Following a championship season in Montreal, Robinson was promoted to Brooklyn and would make his debut at first base with Pee Wee playing nearby at shortstop. In a season that culminated with the Dodgers returning to the World Series for the first time since 1941, Pee Wee Reese’s naval service during World War II was behind him as he built upon his Hall of Fame career. It would take winning four more National League pennants before he and the Dodgers captured the franchise’s first world championship in 1955. Reese would make one last trip to the World Series the following season and then make the move with the team to Los Angeles and play in just 59 games in his final season in 1958.
After 16 major league seasons and three years spent in the Navy, the majority of voting sportswriters did not consider Reese as a lock for the Hall of Fame and the election results during Pee Wee’s eligibility run demonstrated that. Needing to be named on 75-percent or more ballots, Pee Wee Reese’s best showing was in 1976, his second to last year on the ballot, when he received 47.9 percent.
| Year | Votes | Percent | Change |
| 1964 | 73 | 36.3 | – |
| 1966 | 95 | 31.5 | -4.80 |
| 1967 | 89 | 30.5 | -1.00 |
| 1968 | 81 | 28.6 | .1.9 |
| 1969 | 89 | 26.2 | -2.40 |
| 1970 | 97 | 32.3 | 6.10 |
| 1971 | 127 | 35.3 | 3.00 |
| 1972 | 129 | 32.6 | -2.70 |
| 1973 | 126 | 33.4 | 0.60 |
| 1974 | 141 | 38.6 | 5.40 |
| 1975 | 154 | 42.5 | 3.90 |
| 1976 | 186 | 47.9 | 5.40 |
| 1977 | 163 | 42.6 | -5.30 |
Pee Wee Reese was elected to the Hall of Fame by his peers in the Veterans Committee and inducted in 1984.
Author’s Note: We wish to extend our gratitude to Harrington E. Crissey, Jr. who, in addition to providing several photographs from his personal collection has been invaluable for his friendship and many conversations and the mountains of research he provided for this series and many others.
Surplus Middle Infielder: Pee Wee Reese Flies High in the Navy
Note: This is part one of a three-part series. See part two: A Tropical and Baseball Paradise: Reese Lands at the (Aiea Naval) Hospital and part three: From the Pacific to Cooperstown
Seven weeks after the Japanese signed the instrument of surrender aboard the battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay before a throng of sailors and Marines surrounding the starboard deck beside turret number two, a breakthrough took place nearly 7,000 miles away in Brooklyn, New York as two men signed a contract that spelled the end of major league baseball’s impenetrable color barrier. As Kansas City Monarch second baseman and former Army Second Lieutenant Jackie Robinson and Brooklyn Dodger general manager Branch Rickey signed the player contract that would send the former for seasoning in the Dodgers’ farm system at Montreal, a former Dodger middle infielder was made aware of the ground-breaking circumstance while aboard transport from Guam back to the States.
Roger Kahn, famed author of the 1972 romanticized historical narrative of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s, The Boys of Summer, wrote in an August 19 1992 Los Angeles Times article (He Didn’t Speculate in Color), “Pee Wee Reese was riding a ship back from Guam when he heard the wrenching news that Branch Rickey had hired a black.” Kahn continued, “Reese had lost three seasons, half of an average major league career, to the United States Navy and he was impatient to get on with what was left when a petty officer said, ‘It’s on the shortwave. His name’s Jackie Robinson. A colored guy to play on your team.’”
Harold Henry “Pee Wee” Reese was the diminutive middle infielder on Brooklyn’s team of giants that secured the only World Series Championship for the Dodgers and for their long-fatalistic fans in the borough. At 5-foot-10 and weighing 160 pounds, Reese’s nickname suited him, though his leadership both on the field and in the Dodger clubhouse proved that he was a bigger man than most. Despite leading his team to seven National League pennants, including the 1955 World Series crown, securing 10 All-Star selections and being ranked among baseball’s top 20 defensive shortstops, Reese’s 1984 election to the Hall of Fame was the result of a vote of his peers (the Veterans Committee) as the baseball writers had given the Dodgers’ long-time captain the collective cold shoulder.
With one season of professional baseball under his belt with the American Association’s Louisville Colonels, 20-year-old Reese was displaying his abilities as a solid major league prospect. On September 8, 1938, in an effort to emulate the talent development successes of St. Louis Cardinal general manager Branch Rickey, Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey purchased Reese’s team as he set upon constructing his own farm system. Some rumors persist that one of the Sox owner’s targets was the talented shortstop. Red Sox player-manager Joe Cronin was anchored in his shortstop position and was thereby in control of Reese’s future in the organization. “The deal (for Louisville) takes in all real estate, including an up-to-date stadium, the club’s franchise, and all players,” reported the Tampa Bay Times (Boston Red Sox Buy Louisville For Farm Chain – September 9, 1938). “’One of the bigger assets, (Red Sox general manager) Eddie Collins said, ‘would be shortstop Harold (Pee Wee) Reese, for whom several major league clubs have already offered $40,000.’”
Perhaps the only person in baseball who didn’t recognize Pee Wee’s potential or had no intention of relinquishing his playing position, Cronin traded Reese midway through the 1939 season to Brooklyn for $35,000 cash and three players to be named at a later date (one of which was pitcher Red Evans). The deal with Brooklyn stipulated that Reese would finish the season with Louisville before reporting to the Dodgers.
After two solid seasons on the Colonels’ roster, Reese arrived at the Dodgers’ 1940 spring training camp staring at a similar situation that he faced with the Red Sox. His manager, Leo “The Lip” Durocher, had been the team’s starting shortstop in 1938 and ’39. After seeing Reese’s fielding abilities, Durocher relegated himself to managing from the bench and playing occasionally in either middle infield position as needed. In Reese’s 84 games that season (shortened by an injury), he batted .272, walked 45 times and struck out 42 times. On defense, he gloved a .960 fielding percentage with just 18 errors in 446 chances. Reese found his home with the Dodgers, who finished in second place, twelve games behind the Cincinnati Reds, who defeated the Tigers in that season’s Fall Classic.
Things were looking up for Reese and the Dodgers in 1941 as Durocher’s squad of homegrown and veteran talent truly meshed as a team. Pee Wee played in 151 games at shortstop for his first full season in Dodger blue. Despite his drops in batting and fielding average, he had developed into an on-field leader with the club at only 22 years of age. Despite his league-leading 47 errors, he was still an asset to the team as they captured their first National League pennant since 1920. Unfortunately, in the World Series the Dodgers ran into the hot New York Yankees led by Joe DiMaggio, who won the 1941 American League Most Valuable Player award.
Pee Wee Reese played in all five games of the 1941 World Series, managing four hits in 20 plate appearances. The Dodger hitters were outmatched by Yankee pitching as they were limited to 11 runs on 29 hits (only one home run). Game four of the Series was heartbreaking as Brooklyn was in the driver’s seat, leading the Yankees, 4-3, heading into the top of the ninth inning at Ebbets Field. Durocher stuck with reliever Hugh Casey, who had entered the game in the fifth inning, spelling Johnny Allen. Casey had been effective through the eighth inning, holding the Yankees scoreless. After coaxing consecutive groundouts by Johnny Sturm and Red Rolfe, Casey faced Tommy Henrich. Casey pitched the Yankee right fielder to a full count. With two outs and the bases empty, the burly pitcher uncorked a “jaw-dropping curveball” that badly fooled Henrich, who swung and missed, but the ball got away from catcher Mickey Owen. Though there is some debate as to the scorer’s decision to levy a passed ball on Owen, some experts offer that Casey’s pitch was wild. Regardless of the blame, Henrich reached first despite striking out and Casey fell apart as centerfielder DiMaggio singled and leftfielder Charlie Keller doubled, scoring both base runners. Casey walked catcher Bill Dickey who scored along with Keller on second baseman Joe Gordon’s double. Shortstop Phil Rizzuto walked and Casey faced pitcher Johnny Murphy, who grounded to Pee Wee Reese for the final out in the top half of the inning.
Trailing 7-4, Pee Wee Reese came to the plate, 0-4 for the day, stepping in to face Yankee reliever Johnny Murphy. Durocher, who years later said of Reese, “The best leadoff hitter in the National League, and if there is a better one in the American League I never heard of him,” watched the future Hall of Fame shortstop foul out to the catcher. Murphy coaxed both rightfielder Dixie Walker and centerfielder Pete Reiser into infield groundouts to end the game and send the Dodgers into a 3-1 Series deficit.
Game five saw Yankees pitcher Tiny Bonham limit Brooklyn to one run on four hits. Whit Wyatt’s second World Series appearance was respectable as he surrendered three runs on six hits. Pee Wee was hitless once again and erred on a sharp ground ball from the bat of Dickey. After three empty trips to the plate, Durocher lifted Reese for pinch hitter Jimmy Wasdell, who made the final out of the Series.
Pee Wee Reese’s 1942 season performance showed that he was back on track and that the troubles of the 1941 season were in his rearview mirror. Reese’s batting average was elevated 26 points and his on-base percentage jumped by 39. Reese’s fielding improved as his errors were cut to 35 from his 1941 league-leading 47. With his improvements, Reese was awarded with his first All-Star selection. Following the end of his season, Reese returned to Kentucky and began working in a defense job. For major league baseball, 1942 saw the exodus of several players into the armed forces and the writing was on the wall for the Dodgers and for Reese. The Dodgers farm system was already taking hits as four of the organization’s prospective shortstops were already serving in uniform, leaving general manager Branch Rickey to negotiate Leo Durocher’s 1943 contract to include a provision for playing time.
Originally classified in 1942 as 3-A due to being the sole provider for his wife, mother and sister, his six-month deferment time was about to expire, prompting the Dodgers shortstop to seek approval from his local Louisville, Kentucky draft board to enlist in the Navy. Beating the enlistment deadline by mere hours, Reese joined the Navy on Saturday, January 30, 1943, and by the following Monday was on his way to Norfolk, Virginia, to begin his naval training at the Tunney School for physical education instructors. Thus, the Dodgers prepared for spring training without their star shortstop. Brooklyn replaced Reese with a platoon of players (Red Barkley, Boyd Bartley and Al Glossop, along with Durocher) and by splitting Arky Vaughn’s 136 games between third base and “the hole.” As Durocher and Rickey dealt with the loss of Pee Wee and 17 other veteran players who were serving, Reese commenced his six weeks of training at the Naval Training Station.
New York Daily News sports columnist Hy Turkin, in his Ted’s Still Batty! column of February 4, 1943, pondered the possibility of Reese being assigned to the Naval shipyard in Brooklyn where he (and recent Navy enlistee Hugh Casey) would join fellow Dodger pitcher Lieutenant Larry French. “This brings up the question in some minds,” Turkin wrote, “whether they couldn’t drop in on nearby Ebbets Field, Sunday afternoons, to spend their days off performing in Dodger livery.” A similar situation had arisen weeks before in which French petitioned Navy leadership for the opportunity to pitch for Brooklyn in the hopes of claiming the three wins he needed to reach the 200-victory career milestone. Despite keeping in shape by pitching for the local semi-professional club, the Brooklyn Bushwicks, during his off time, his request was denied by Rear Admiral W. B. Young, who was seeking to avoid setting a precedent with professional ballplayers on active duty. Major league baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis established criteria that aligned with Admiral Young’s decision regarding the National Defense List (NDL). “Any player accepted into any branch of the armed services shall be automatically placed onto the NDL and shall not count in the player limits of his club until removed from such national defense service list.” Landis’ ruling ensured that LT French and any other player would not be allowed to play for any professional team during the war.
Within days of Reese’s arrival in Norfolk, the press began to address the Naval Training Station’s already successful baseball team that had had a high-quality roster for the 1942 season and, despite the transfer losses of a handful of veterans, had only improved with a new crop of enlistees over the course of the winter. The Naval Training Station’s Bluejacket roster already included a young star at the shortstop position in Phil Rizzuto, who had been at Norfolk since early October following the Yankees’ World Series loss to the Cardinals. The NTS Bluejackets were stacked with talent at every position. Aside from Rizzuto, the field included Dom DiMaggio (Red Sox), Benny McCoy (Athletics), Jim Gleeson (Reds) and Don Padgett (Cardinals) all with major league experience. The squad included up-and-comers like Eddie Robinson and Jack Conway (both with appearances with the Indians), “Hooks” Devaurs (Oakland, Pacific Coast League), Jim Carlin (Phillies) and Vinnie Smith (Pirates). The pitching staff was anchored by Fred Hutchinson (Tigers), Walt Masterson (Senators), Tom Earley (Braves) and Charlie Wagner (Red Sox), making the team formidable for the upcoming season. Reese, who arrived with Dodger teammate and pitcher Hugh Casey, only compounded manager Gary Bodie’s challenge to find room for the stars.
Whitney Martin of Troy, New York’s The Times Record wrote in his Wednesday, April 7, 1943 editorial “It Appears Cox Should Have Bid for Norfolk Club,” “It really is quite remarkable how all these players, tossed into the whirlpool of war, come to rest at Norfolk.” The assemblage of players was truly impressive and compared favorably with the scouting and front office efforts of any major league club. Whitney continued, “Or maybe the Norfolk club has some pretty good scouts on the road and is signing the men before they complete their major league schooling.” Bodie did have such a person in his employ. Former Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch assistant sports editor Harry Postove, according to his March 12, 1999 obituary (Southeastern Virginia Jewish News), “played a prominent role in bringing together top major league players to form teams at the Naval Base” during the four years he served in the Navy during World War II. Not only was the former sports editor notable in his pre-war profession, he leveraged his Navy baseball scouting experience into a major-league scouting career for five decades.
Facetiously, Whitney Martin’s column chastised William Cox for purchasing the perennial second division-dwelling Philadelphia National League baseball club when he should have made a push to acquire the all-star-laden Bluejackets. “It looks like Cox was a little hasty in buying the Phillies – in hopes of building them up,” Martin commented. Making further light of the progress of Norfolk talent acquisition, Whitney Martin concluded, “We’ll have to get Commissioner Landis to look into this. Do you suppose he could declare them all free agents if he found anything wrong?”
At the time of Pee Wee Reese’s arrival in Norfolk, Signalman Chief Gary Bodie was serving as the manager of the Norfolk Naval Training Station’s baseball club. Bodie, a veteran ballplayer in his own right, had already spent a career serving in the Navy and had begun to manage the ballclub in 1934. He had retired from the service in the late 1930s. With war looming on the horizon and in need of experienced veterans, the Navy recalled Bodie to active service in 1940 and he once again took the helm of the baseball team. In 1941, the Bluejackets posted a 66-10 record, having competed against area civilian and service teams. Despite his club’s pre-war dominance, his wartime teams would prove to be even more dominant with the influx of top talent.
In 1942, the Navy baseball pipeline was feeding two teams with talent from the professional ranks. Soon after Lieutenant Commander Gene Tunney, the former heavyweight boxer, established the Navy’s physical fitness program, he facilitated former Detroit Tigers catcher and manager Gordon “Mickey” Cochrane’s entry into the Navy and assigned him to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station to head up the fitness program at the base and to assume the command of the baseball team, the “Bluejackets.” As Cochrane began to lure Selective Service-eligible ballplayers into the Navy, he was able to select players that he wanted in order to field a competitive team. In Norfolk, Chief Bodie lacked Cochrane’s professional baseball connections; however, players who attended Navy boot camp at Norfolk found their way into the Norfolk NTS fold. One of the men who aided Bodie in spotting baseball talent that arrived at Norfolk was Harry Postove, the aforementioned former sports editor for the local newspaper, the Norfolk Ledger-Dispatch. An early-war enlistee himself, Postove had been at the Norfolk Training Station since joining the Navy on January 26, 1942. Connecting with the Norfolk team’s manager must have been easy to do since Postove was familiar with the Training Station’s “Bluejackets” and their 66-10 record from the previous season. Bodie’s and Postove’s paths had no doubt crossed in 1941.
With Postove’s experience and connections, he sourced players from the ranks of the newly-enlisted and more than likely was able to attract talent into the naval service and influence the Navy’s leadership to have them assigned to Norfolk. “During his four years in the service, he played a prominent role in bringing together top major league talent to form teams at the Naval Base and Air Station,” Postove’s 1999 obituary stated.
“Every day new players show up,” said Gary Bodie, “There are so many that I don’t have time to ask them their names – just where they played ball.” – The News Leader (Staunton, Virginia) March 26, 1942
With an abundance of star players on his roster, Bodie was force to make roster decisions as talent continued to pour into the Training Station. With shortstop Rizzuto already in the fold and the pitching rotation fairly solidified, Bodie dispatched his excess players to his crosstown counterpart, Chief Athletic Specialist Homer Peel, manager of the neighboring Naval Air Station Flier nine. Peel was a 21-year professional ballplayer who had spent his last two major league seasons (1933-34) with the New York Giants, with whom he won a World Series championship. Peel, staring at a Yankee-like opponent, gladly accepted Bodie’s “cast-off” players in Reese and Casey. Also arriving from NTS were Al Evans and Crash Davis, both former major leaguers. During his playing days, Peel, as was noted by the Associated Press writer Robert Moore in a May 12, 1943 article, held the distinction of being the only major leaguer to hit into three triple plays.
| Name | Position | Former |
| Alexander | (unknown) | (unknown) |
| Hubert “Buddy” Bates | OF | Atlanta (SAL) |
| Bob Carpenter | P | Semi-Pro |
| Hugh Casey | P | Dodgers |
| Fred “Ripper” Collins | OF | Kansas City (AA) |
| Jim Colman | OF | College |
| Bennie Cunningham | 3B/UT | Mooresville (NCSL) |
| Lawrence “Crash” Davis | 2B | Athletics |
| Paul Dunlap | OF | Hartford (EL) |
| Al Evans | C | Senators |
| Murray “Red” Franklin | 3B | Tigers |
| Chet Hajduk | OF/1B | White Sox |
| Ralph “Bruz” Hamner | P | Shreveport (TL) |
| Bubber Hart | OF | Suffolk (Richmond, VA semi-pro) |
| Claude Hepler | P | Guilford College |
| Bill “Lefty” Holland | P | Semi-Pro |
| Dale Jones | P | Phillies |
| Mark Kilmer | P | Evansville (IIIL) |
| Emile Lochbaum | P | Atlanta (SOUA) |
| James Lowdermilk | P | Centerville (ESHL) |
| Homer Peel | OF/MGR | Oklahoma City (TL) |
| Sal Recca | C/LF | Norfolk (PIED) |
| Harold “Pee Wee” Reese | SS/2B | Dodgers |
| Jack Robinson | P | Binghamton (EL) |
| Jim Ruark | C | Sanford (BIST) |
| Eddie Shokes | 1B | Syracuse (AA) |
| Al Shrick | P | Sedalia Merchants (MO semi-pro) |
| Harvey “Hub” Walker | OF | Minneapolis (AA) |
| Webb | PH | (unknown) |
| Charley Whelchel | P | Durham (PIED) |
| Eddie Wodzicki | 3B/UT | Portsmout (PIED) |
Reese stood out as a man among boys on a Fliers’ squad that was predominantly stocked with former minor league and amateur talent. His Dodger teammate, Hugh Casey, was immediately thrust into the forefront of the pitching staff. For their manager, there was sense of irony at the notion of two prominent Brooklyn stablemates now working for a former New York rival. The irony was not lost on reporters who questioned Peel on the situation (Strange Baseball World? Ex-Giant Harboring Two Former Dodgers –in Navy | The News Leader, Staunton, Virginia – Friday, April 30, 1943). “Of course, the Giants and the Dodgers have always been great rivals, but the feud has really reached the boiling point since I left New York.” Peel commented. “Boy oh boy, if Bill Terry or Mel Ott could see me now,” the Air Station manager chuckled to reporters. “Sure, they’d probably say it was a crime, all right – me, an old New York Giant outfielder, harboring a couple of Brooklyn Dodgers,” remarked Peel. “How does it feel? Great! It doesn’t seem so strange to me!” Homer Peel knew that he had a gem in the middle of the infield. “Reese is a great shortstop,” said the manager, “one of the best!” Peel drew crosstown comparisons to the ex-Yankee at the same position. “He and Phil Rizzuto, who plays shortstop for the neighboring Norfolk Naval Training Station, are about equal,” he said. “Rizzuto may be a little better hitter, but Reese is pounding the ball at a .357 clip for us right now.”
The 1943 season ultimately proved to be quite competitive for the Air Station club despite their dropping their first two exhibition games to the visiting Washington Senators, 5-4, on April 4 and a 10-4 rout on April 5. Led offensively by Gerry Priddy, the Senators captured three of four games during their visit to both Norfolk teams. Led by Pee Wee Reese’s solid defense and small-ball play, the NAS Norfolk nine then took flight, winning five consecutive games against the University of Richmond and two area Piedmont League clubs, the Norfolk Tars and Portsmouth Cubs. Despite the five consecutive wins, the Fliers dropped 11 of their first 22 games. Contributing to their woes was the loss of two key players. Chet Hadjuk who was leading the offense with a .407 batting average, was transferred while pitching ace Ralph Hamner was laid up for 30 days with a case of the mumps.
Throughout the season, the Air Station faced competition from the Eastern Service League, local area colleges and universities and the vaunted Navy Pre-Flight “Cloudbusters” at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, that featured a star-studded roster including former major leaguers Johnny Sain, Buddy Hassett, Buddy Gremp, Joe Coleman, Johnny Pesky and Ted Williams. However, a built-in home rivalry with the cross-base Training Station Bluejackets meant that the two teams would meet 43 times during the season.
Facing major league teams in exhibition games was part of World War II service team baseball and both Norfolk clubs, having played host to the Washington Senators to start the 1943 season, sought to entertain other big league clubs as the season progressed. The April 26 matchup between the two Norfolk clubs drew a capacity crowd (5,000) which purchased nearly $100,000 in war bonds and were rewarded by Hugh Casey’s 4-0 no-hit gem.
The Bluejackets and Fliers put on a show for the 3,000 fans in recognition of Independence Day with a day-night doubleheader. In the first game, Pee Wee Reese sparked the Fliers’ attack with a grand slam and a triple, helping starter Hugh Casey to secure the 11-7 victory. The abbreviated nightcap saw Hank Feimster hold the Fliers to one run on six hits as the Bluejackets plated two in support. Between the two games, the players of both teams staged an athletic competition that included timed baserunning and other sprinting events. While Hooks Devaurs and Dom DiMaggio tied for the best time around the bases at 14.9 seconds, Pee Wee captured the 60-yard dash crown with a 7.5-second time.
The Training Station scheduled a contest to host Boston for a single-game exhibition following the Red Sox’ five-game series in Washington. Pee Wee Reese joined Hugh Casey for a short trip to Brooklyn for a few days’ leave. During their stay, the two visited with Dodger president Branch Rickey and manager Leo Durocher in an attempt to sway the National League club to visit Norfolk for a game with the Fliers. “My commanding officer told me not to go back to Norfolk unless I got the Brooklyn club to go down there later on for an exhibition game,” Casey told the Brooklyn Eagle in early July. “Incidentally, that’s one game I want to pitch.”
Most of the games played by the Air Station team served as vehicles for fund raising. On Sunday, July 25, the Fliers visited Newport News to face a city league team of all-stars at Builders Park for the sole purpose of selling war bonds to build the Essex class aircraft carrier, USS Shangri-La (CV-38). The ship was named in response to President Roosevelt’s reply to a reporter’s question about the point of origin of the Doolittle Raid aircraft.
Pee Wee’s on-field actions garnered plenty of newspaper ink as he led the team with his glove, bat and base-running. Surprisingly, he toed the rubber on occasion as a competent relief pitcher.
The Training Station team was a powerhouse that had a 92-8-2 record in 1942 and a 68-22-1 log in 1943. The caliber of the competition had increased dramatically in 1943. Facing Pee Wee Reese’s near-evenly matched Naval Air Station left Bodie’s men with only a six-win advantage in the 43-game season series (one game finished in an 11-inning 1-1 tie). Had it not been for the Air Station, the Bluejackets would have had only three losses on the year. The Fliers took 18 games from the Training Station and 11 of their 24 losses were by only one run (five of them in extra innings). Despite the record, Navy leadership decided that the teams and the fans needed a championship series to settle any debates as to which team was better.
The 1943 best-of-seven game Navy “Little” World Series was scheduled to be held from September 12-20 at McClure Field, the home park of both teams. Neither team dominated the series as each game was a close contest. Casey got the start for opening tilt and faced “Broadway” Charlie Wagner. Both hurlers would complete all nine innings with Wagner giving up three runs on seven hits while Casey kept the Training Station off the scoreboard and secured the victory.
After the second game, it was clear that series would be tight as the Training Center evened things up. Fans attending game two on September 13 witnessed an old-fashioned pitching-duel between Emil Lochbaum of NAS and Max Wilson of NTS that ended with 1-0 NTS shutout. The Training Station nine started to get things rolling in the third game in as many days. The Bluejacket’s Hank Feimster and the fliers’ Bruz Hamner were both touched up in the middle innings after being stingy in the first three. However, the Bluejackets tallied three runs in the fourth and another in the sixth while the Fliers only managed two in the fifth. Both starters were lifted. Dale Jones took over for Hamner and Frank Marino spelled Feimster as the game finished with a 4-2 Training Station advantage.
Hugh Casey started game four on September 15 against the Bluejackets’ Tom Earley and the two dueled into the late innings. Neither team scored until the tenth frame when the Fliers plated five runs including a two-run blast by Pee Wee Reese. In the home half of the frame, the Training Station mounted a comeback that stalled two runs shy. Lochbaum took over for Casey to close out the game and seal Casey’s second victory as the series was tied at two games apiece.
Following two off days, the Series picked up with game five on Saturday, September 18, with the Fliers’ Lochbaum facing off against NTS’ Max Wilson. Both pitchers were evenly matched as neither allowed their opponents to score through the first four innings. The Bluejackets drew first blood as they tallied a run in the top of the fifth inning with Eddie Robinson’s lone base hit, but the Fliers were able to even the score in the bottom of the sixth, thanks in part to one of Reese’s two hits in the game. The game remained knotted through nine innings with both pitchers going the distance. In the top of the tenth frame, Lochbaum was showing signs of tiring as the Training Station loaded the bases. Helping his own cause, Wilson singled off Lochbaum and drove in the go ahead run. In the home-half of the tenth, Lochbaum was lifted for pinch hitter Sal Recca but the Fliers were unable to answer. Wilson secured the victory as the Training Station earned the 2-1 win and was one victory away from clinching the Series.
Hugh Casey started game six on September 20 and held the NTS nine to one run as he faced former Red Sox hurler Charlie Wagner. Hugh went the distance as he tallied his third win of the series in a game that was scoreless until the Bluejackets half of the fifth inning when the only NTS run was scored when McCoy, Robinson and Cross all singled. The Fliers responded in the sixth inning. Bubber Hart doubled off Wagner and was driven home when Hub Walker singled. Pee Wee singled and pushed Walker to third. When Franklin doubled, Walker scored and Reese wound up on third base. Chief Bodie replaced Wagner with Fred Hutchinson and then called for Al Evans to be intentionally walked to load the bases. Hutch was unable to get Buddy Bates out and lost him with another walk to force in Reese. Hutchinson was able to get off the hook by coaxing Ed Wodzicki into an infield groundout. In the eighth frame, Hutch surrendered a solo home run to Evans while Casey was perfect in the last four innings as he didn’t allow another Bluejacket baserunner. With the 4-1 win, the series was tied with the deciding game remaining.
After inclement weather postponed the final game, it was played two days later on September 22.
The series was played before capacity crowds that included the addition of 1,000 temporary seats on the first base side of the park. With the exception of the final game that had been delayed, all of the seats were full with only 3,500 in attendance at the finale. With three victories in the series, Casey was on the mound to capture his fourth victory. His performance had been spectacular and there was no reason to doubt his abilities. Through five innings, Casey was up to the task as he held the Bluejackets scoreless with just two hits. Max Wilson was equally impressive for NTS, having held the Fliers scoreless. In the NAS half of the sixth, seeking to spark the offense, Casey was lifted for a pinch hitter. Unfortunately, nothing came of the offensive change. Lochbaum took the mound in the bottom of the sixth, continuing where Casey left off, pitching three more scoreless innings and allowing just one hit. With the game still scoreless in the bottom of the ninth, Fred Hutchinson, who had been playing right field, lined a base hit over Fliers’ second baseman Franklin and was promptly replaced by speedy pinch-runner Hooks Devaurs. DiMaggio sacrificed Devaurs to second with a bunt, leaving the Bluejackets with two outs to drive the run home. Benny McCoy sent a deep fly to right field, allowing Devaurs to move 90-feet away from scoring. Don Padgett came to the plate to face Lochbaum. Making solid contact with a pitch, Padgett’s hard line drive to right field fell in front of Bates, allowing the series-clinching run to score.
Reese’s offensive performance in games two through five was incredible as he batted and slugged .500, scored three runs and drove in a pair. However, factoring his lack of production in games one and seven, his series averages fell to .370. Reese also committed errors in games one and three, contributing to the loss of the latter. Pee Wee’s bat accounted for a little bit of power with a pair of triples and a home run in the series. Despite his overall good performance in the 1943 Norfolk NAS season and the series, the Bluejackets’ loaded roster proved to be too much. Had game four gone the way of the Fliers, it would have been a toss-up decision for the most valuable player between Casey and Reese.
With the Norfolk Navy baseball season coming a close, Pee Wee’s role as a physical fitness instructor led him to take on the role as manager of the Norfolk Naval Air Station basketball team during the winter months. The NAS cagers consisted of former collegiate basketball players and were coached by Lieutenant Jack Curtice, formerly of Texas College, and Lieutenant Walter Nelson of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, New York). Rather than coaching or playing basketball, Reese was responsible for managing the players’ physical conditioning along with taking care of the equipment, uniforms and facilities.
First Class Athletic Specialist Reese’s initial year in the Navy was filled with transitioning from a major leaguer to a wartime, land-based sailor with a fairly rigorous ballplaying schedule in addition to his physical instructor duties. Pee Wee’s days at the Naval Air Station were numbered as the Navy had more in store for the shortstop in 1944.
Continue to Part 2: A Tropical and Baseball Paradise: Reese Lands at the (Aiea Naval) Hospital
Airman Red Ruffing: A GI Pitcher
With Charles “Red” Ruffing’s 29-month U.S. Army Air Forces career, beginning with his induction on December 29, 1942, the extensive press coverage documenting every week’s activities could fill dozens of pages to chronical his tenure in uniform. Contrary to what can be unearthed for most ballplayers, the level of detail is simply astounding. Pitching in the major leagues for 19 seasons is certainly enough to garner press attention. In a span of a decade, the Yankees claimed the American League pennant seven times allowing Ruffing to accumulate a 7-3 World Series pitching record and capture six World Series titles. As if his record was not enough to garner an inordinate amount of press attention, having the U.S. Army Air Forces assign him to an air base in close proximity to Hollywood thrust Ruffing beneath the news media’s veritable microscope.
Capitalizing on the situation, Army brass ensured reporters and photographers would chronicle his activities for recruitment and morale-boosting opportunities, resulting in increased vintage photograph availability for collectors 75 years later. Our assessment of the Chevrons and Diamonds vintage photograph library and the discovery of several images of Ruffing prompted several weeks of research into the pitcher’s Army Air Force career. In our first segment, Charles “Red” Ruffing: Pitching for Victory, our exploration of Ruffing followed him from the last game of the 1942 World Series through the end of 1943 as he completed his first year in the U.S. Army Air Forces.
With the 1943 season effectively complete, the Sixth competed in winter baseball that included a number of exhibitions. The scoring in this game at San Bernardino’s Perris Hill Park resembled an October football game; 19-7 in the airmen’s favor (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection). 
Though the Sixth was “just” a team of airmen stationed at the Long Beach Air Base, the roster was more of an all-star team than their San Bernardino opponents (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection). 
The All-Stars featured two former big leaguers in Don Lang (Reds) and Walter Ripley (Red Sox) and was otherwise predominated with minor league and amateur talent (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection). 
Red Ruffing is prominently featured on the back cover of the October 24, 1943 all-star game program (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
A year removed from his entry into the Army and with a California Service Championship to his Sixth Ferrying Group team’s credit, the pitcher was doing what he could t to boost the morale of his comrades-in-arms and baseball fans by providing a much-needed distraction from the rigors on the home front. While his team’s baseball schedule paled in comparison to a major league 154-game season, his duties outside of the foul lines kept him more active than he was with the Yankees. Aside from the victories, service league championships and the individual accolades covered in newsprint, there was significant financial impact delivered to the dozens of charities receiving money from the fundraisers associated with nearly all the Ferrying Group’s games.
As major and minor league players enjoyed their offseason lives, baseball in the California Service Leagues was up and running in late January. Ruffing was set to continue at the helm of the club as they began workouts for the upcoming 1944 campaign. A Long Beach Press-Telegram sports columnist wrote (January 26, 1944), “The club again figured to be one of the strongest service nines in the country.” Early fundraising planning was already underway by the first week of February, with the Hollywood Stars set to host the Sixth in their preseason opener at Gilmore Field to benefit the Kiwanis Club’s fund to assist children with disabilities.
Ruffing’s expanding waistline continued to draw the attention of sportswriters. Columnist Russ Newland, taking a jab at the pitcher’s non-baseball activities, wrote in his February 11, 1944 Western Sports Slant piece, “Ruffing tips the scales at 232 pounds but his arm is better than ever.” Foreshadowing the upcoming 1944 season, Newland wrote, “Charley Ruffing, the New York Yankees pitcher in the service, thinks both major leagues will be much slower on account of older men and green material,” speaking to the condition of the players on rosters in the American and National Leagues.
Scheduling for the season continued as the Ferry Group inked a date to visit Minter Field Air Base (Bakersfield) to take on the installation’s team. With the Seattle Rainiers holding spring training in town, a tune-up with the Pacific Northwest club was booked to coincide with that game. However, Southern California athletic planners experienced a brief scare when the USAAF senior leadership ordered all of the baseball teams to be disbanded and personnel reassigned on March 11. With the Kiwanis fundraiser game just days away, the Hollywood Stars were left scrambling to find a suitable last-minute opponent. The order was rescinded on the following day and schedules resumed as planned.
Seattle’s first exhibition game of the year was held in Bakersfield on Sunday, March 19, 1944 and saw the Rainiers dominated by Ferrying Group pitchers, 7-1, as Ruffing hurled the first three frames. Seattle’s lone bright moments came in the form of a single run off the former Yankee and turning a triple play. Otherwise, the Sixth roughed up Seattle’s pitching for ten hits. Al Olsen also toed the rubber for the Ferrying Group for six innings in relief, surrendering eight hits to Seattle while allowing only one runner to cross the plate. On Tuesday, March 20, the Port Hueneme Seabees visited Long Beach and Ruffing’s Ferrying Group was less than hospitable to their guests, treating them to a 5-3 defeat.
Traveling to Gilmore Field one week later, the Sixth Ferrying Group took down another of the Coast League’s franchises. This time the Hollywood Stars were the victim, with Ruffing and Pitter pitching to the “Twinks.” The Ferrying men pounded out 19 hits and plated 16 runs while being stingy towards the bats of their hosts, limiting Hollywood to just four runs, three of them charged to Pitter. Ruffing pitched five innings and allowed one run on six hits in front of 8,000 faithful fans. The exhibition game was a charity fund-raiser in support of the Kiwanis Club’s Crippled Children’s Fund.
Facing their third Pacific Coast League opponent in the exhibition season, the Sixth visited the spring training facilities of the Los Angeles Angels, capturing yet another victory, 7-5. With the win over Los Angeles, Long Beach Press-Telegram sportswriter Frank T. Blair wrote in his column, Frank-ly Speaking, “Sixth Ferry nine cuffed three Coast League clubs – Seattle, Angels and Hollywood – in spring exhibition games.” Blair added. “Red Ruffing’s outfit might be the strongest service team in the country,” Blair concluded by pointing out the strong pitching of Al Olsen, Roy Pitter, Hub Kittle and Bill Werbowski behind Ruffing as the principal reason for the team’s early season dominance. The Sixth seemed bent on backing up Blair’s assertion by shutting out the Angels, 7-0, their fourth win over the Coast League and second against Los Angeles. Roy Pitter went the distance for the Sixth, allowing just five hits while striking out 12 as Ruffing played the game in right field.
Since June of 1943, much speculation had been swirling around Red Ruffing’s continued service in the Air Forces. As he approached his 39th birthday, it appeared that he could opt to end his service because his age was over the limit. In early April, the veteran pitcher recognized the positive impact that his ball playing was having on both morale boosting and fund-raising, so he chose to serve, according to sports columnist Russ Newland.
Facing the Fifth Marine Division nine from Camp Pendleton on April 12, Ruffing’s start was abbreviated after surrendering a run in each of the first two innings. Replaced by Werbowski, Red shifted to right field in the third with the Sixth in possession of a 3-2 lead. The Sixth added two more runs in the top of the fifth inning but was matched by their opponents in the bottom half. Trailing 5-4 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, the Fifth Marines blew the game open by scoring four runs and taking the lead. In the eighth inning, Ruffing’s men scored a run, leaving the score 8-6 until the Marines tacked on the game’s final tally. The Ferrying Group was outhit 16-7 and committed two defensive miscues. Two days later, Johnny Berardino’s Terminal Island Naval Air Station nine handed the Sixth another loss. The losses appeared to be mounting as Ruffing surrendered three runs in the bottom of the first inning to the San Diego Naval Training Station squad. The Ferrying Group failed to score in the 7-0 shutout loss on April 16.
On April 28, the Sixth were on their way to repeating Ruffing’s 1943 no-hitter with two outs in the ninth inning behind Roy Pitter’s arm. Ruffing’s men might have had an easier go against the Santa Ana Air Base (SAAAB) team this time around with Joe DiMaggio being absent from the roster. The star Yankee had been pulled from the Santa Ana team for deployment to the South Pacific to serve in a morale building capacity, according to the San Bernardino County Sun. Perhaps demoralized by the loss of their offensive star, the SAAAB club was shut out, 11-0.
Coinciding with Ruffing’s 39th birthday, the venerable pitcher was promoted to the rank of sergeant and faced Fort MacArthur’s Battery B club on May 3.
The disbanding of the McClellan Field Commanders combined with the departure of Joe DiMaggio was under the direction of Army leadership, a direct response to the Navy scattering some of its top baseball talent among several Hawaii commands and their corresponding ball clubs. As Ruffing’s Sixth Ferrying Group was dominating the 1943 California service baseball, the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base “Dolphins” were doing the same with the competition. Baseball in the Hawaiian Territory was a high-profile activity, with the Island of Oahu being crowded with several service, amateur and semi-pro leagues, all of them highly competitive at their respective levels. Seeking to turn the tide in the islands, the Army gathered talent, taking nearly the entire roster of players from one of their top teams, the McClellan Field nine. Adding a power-hitting exclamation mark to this veritable all-star roster, the Yankee Clipper was snatched from Southern California in order to form an entirely new club based at Hickam Field, the 7th Army Air Force (7th AAF) Fliers, to bring about an end to the Navy dominance on the island. For the time being, the Army left the Sixth Ferrying Group nearly untouched as only Jerry Priddy was shipped to Hawaii from the Long Beach squad.
Throughout the month of May, the Sixth had their way with the service and industrial league clubs of Southern California. In June, the winning continued for the Ferrying Group squad. A return to Gilmore Field for an exhibition contest against the Hollywood Stars resulted in the 24th consecutive win for Ruffing’s men. Outhit 12-4, the Stars succumbed to the pitching tandem of Ruffing and Pitter, 7-1.
Johnny Berardino’s Terminal Island Naval Air Station brought about an end to the Sixth’s win streak with a tight 2-1 victory on June 25. The loss to Terminal Island was followed with a 6-3 beating at the hands of the San Diego Naval Training Station nine. However, they kept their streak against the Pacific Coast League alive by blanking the San Diego Padres, with Ruffing lasting six innings and striking out 11 before giving way to Al Olsen, who preserved the 2-hit, 6-0 shutout.
On July 6, the Sixth Ferrying Group, likely frustrated by a succession of defeats at the hands of the Terminal Island Naval Air Station, exacted revenge with a 15-0 blowout. Berardino’s club suffered its worst loss of the season as Chuck Stevens led the barrage with a home run and two singles and Nanny Fernandez legged out a pair of triples among the 18 hits tallied by the Sixth. The win left the season series with Terminal Island tilted in the Ferrying Group’s favor, four games to two.
While the Red Ruffing and the Sixth were seemingly on their way to repeating their 1943 success with another championship, the writing was on the wall as rumors began to circulate that the Army leadership in Hawaii wanted to increase its advantage by bringing Ruffing to Oahu and adding him to the 7th AAF roster. Days later, the rumors were confirmed as the big right-handed pitcher was whisked away from Long Beach and sent to Hickam Field. Within a week, Ruffing joined his 1942 Yankees teammates, Joe DiMaggio, Joe Gordon and Jerry Priddy, on the 7th AAF roster, donning his new uniform for the first time on July 30.
Ruffing joined a team that was already leading or close to the lead in their leagues. In the Hawaii League, the 7th’s 19-4 record had them out in front of the Pearl Harbor Sub Base (17-7) by 3.5 games. Trailing the Aiea Naval Hospital by one game In the Central Pacific Area (CPA) League, the 7th was 8-4 and tied with the Naval Air Station Kaneohe Bay “Klippers.” To add insult to injury, the day after suffering a loss at the hands of the 7th AAF, the Pearl Harbor Sub Base squad, along with every other opposing team, had to contend with the early reports of yet another USAAF pitching ace that was set to join Ruffing and company. The 1942 World Series pitching hero Johnny Beazley was, according to Don Watson of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin (August 2), soon to land on Oahu and further bolster the dominant club.
Making his first pitching appearance since arriving on Oahu, Ruffing took the mound for the Hickam Bombers for a three-inning tune-up, having been farmed out by the 7th AAF’s manager, former Brooklyn Dodger “Long” Tom Winsett. Due to their well-stocked roster, it wasn’t uncommon for some of the 7th’s players to appear in games for teams within other leagues. During his three innings, Ruffing surrendered a lone-base hit. Ruffing had been scheduled to take the mound on August 6 for the 7th AAF in their game against the Hawaiis but was suffering from a severe cold. It wasn’t until the Fliers faced the Aiea Naval Hospital Hilltoppers on August 11 at Isenberg Field on the island of Kauai that Ruffing made his first start for his new club.
With more than 10,000 in attendance, Ruffing pitched a 5-hit complete game, a 6-1 victory over the Aiea Naval Hospital team that featured former Brooklyn Dodgers shortstop, Harold “Pee Wee” Reese. The victory put the 7th AAF out in front of Aiea in the CPA League standings. Aside from Ruffing’s pitching prowess, his bat accounted for two of his team’s 11 hits, driving in two runs against the Navy’s Hank Feimster and Vern Olsen. Scheduled to make his next appearance on August 20, Ruffing was scratched from the lineup as he was dealing with a knee injury.
In his August 20 Hoomalimali column in the Honolulu Advertiser, Red McQueen relayed a portion of a United Press syndicated editorial by Jack Cuddy regarding a proposed tournament that would determine the best of the best service teams of 1944. Cuddy’s suggested pitting the Parris Island Marines against Fort Campbell’s 20th Armored Division “Armor Raiders” against each other in a five game series, the winner of which would earn the right to face the Great Lakes NTC “Bluejackets” for the overall championship. McQueen argued that the tournament should also include the 7th AAF. Coincidently and already in play were the final arrangements for what was being billed as the Army-Navy championship. The Navy announced that Lieutenant Bill Dickey as of August 20, was already en route to Oahu to take the helm of the All-Star roster that was being assembled to face the Army squad.
The Aiea Hospital Hilltoppers defeated the 7th with Vern Olsen’s masterful 8-hit shutout performance. Though he was on the roster, Ruffing did not make an appearance (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection). 
Ruffing was in Hawaii for a very brief tenure and only appeared in a few games. This August 25, 1944 scorecard is from the 7th’s game against the Aiea Naval Hospital Hilltoppers. The Navy club featured Chief Petty Officer Harold “Pee Wee” Reese, Vern Olsen, George “Skeets” Dickey and Hank Feimster (Chevrons and Diamonds Collection).
Ruffing’s knee injury kept him out of any games for the remainder of August and into September. Despite a late charge in the CPA League standings by the streaking Pearl Harbor Submarine Base Dolphins, the 7th AAF secured the league crown. Over in the Hawaii League, in Ruffing’s second start the 7th, carrying a 25-game winning streak, faced off against the Athletics for a Sunday afternoon game on August 3. For six strong innings in front of more than 8,000 Honolulu Stadium spectators, Ruffing’s knee was not a factor as he held the Athletics to three singles in the 5-1 victory, striking out four and without issuing a single walk. Ruffing’s work helped net the team their second league championship of the season.
On the eve of the CPA League Championship Series, Ruffing was slated to take the mound on Friday, August 8, in the opening game of the three-game showdown against the Aiea Navy Hilltoppers. Red’s knee injury flared up once more and kept him out of the game. Unfortunately, Ruffing never pitched again in Hawaii, despite being slated for a few more games. The recently arrived Johnny Beazley effectively replaced Red, who was shipped back to the States within days. “Count Red Ruffing out of the Service World Series, “wrote Red McQueen in his September 15 column. “The former Yankee mound ace has returned to the Mainland. A knee injury sustained in the ’42 World Series, aggravated shortly after his arrival here, made pitching a painful assignment to Big Red.” The loss of Ruffing was costly as the Army was swept by the Navy in the first four games of the series.
“An outstanding exhibition baseball game is brewing for Recreation Park here Sunday, October 1,” the Long Beach Press-Telegram reported on September 21. “The Sixth Ferrying Group, with Corporal (sic) “Red” Ruffing back in harness following a brief duty in Hawaii, will take on the reinforced U.S. Naval Dry Docks outfit. It seemed that a few days’ rest and a flight back to the States aided in Ruffing’s knee injury recovery. In addition to Ruffing’s return to the Sixth, Jerry Priddy was back with the Long Beach team.
The remainder of the 1944 California service baseball season for the Sixth Ferrying Group was dotted with exhibition games, including October matchups with Vince DiMaggio’s Major League All-Stars and the Kansas City Royals, a Negro League team that featured Willie Simms, Bonny Surrell, Ray Dandridge, Lloyd “Pepper” Bassett, “Wild Bill” Wright, Sam Bankhead and Willie Wells. In early November at Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field, the Sixth faced the Birmingham Black Barons, winners of the 1944 Negro League Championship, as the baseball season and the year wound to a quiet close for Ruffing.
Spring in Southern California comes early, which meant that the Sixth Ferrying Group opened up training at the end of January to get the roster in shape. As the team was working out, the early exhibition season planning was commencing. As was done in previous seasons, the Pacific Coast League teams sought to gain experience by facing big league caliber talent. The Sacramento Solons scheduled a March 18 contest with the Ferrying Group. However, before the season got started, the entire roster of the Sixth was shipped out apart from catcher Harry Danning and Ruffing.
The dissolution of the team left a hole in Southern California baseball. It left many teams and fund-raising event planners scrambling to fill the void. From the Coast League teams to the Kiwanis Crippled Children’s fund, the absence of the Sixth was very apparent. The major league all-star caliber talent and name recognition were no longer available to draw the fans to the events as in previous years.
As spring progressed, so did the war effort. Germany was all but finished and the Japanese were defending the last vestiges of their empire. American forces captured Iwo Jima, leaving the USAAF long range heavy bombers with unfettered access to the Japanese homeland from airfields on Tinian and Saipan.
In early April, rumors began to circulate from New York that Ruffing would soon be discharged. Red downplayed them. Yankee manager Joe McCarthy’s response was that the pitcher would, “be welcome with open arms even if he is 40 years old.” Regardless of Ruffing’s efforts to quell the talk, his discharge was impending as the Army transferred the pitcher to Camp Lee, Virginia, by May 1. By June 1, Ruffing had been transferred to Fort Dix, New Jersey, and was being processed out at the post’s 1262nd Service Command Separation Center. The Metropolitan Pasadena Star-News reported that Ruffing, 20-pounds overweight, had stated that he had no immediate plans for the future and had not pitched in a game since September 1944, when he injured his knee. The paper reported that the knee injury was sustained, “when he twisted his knee as a result of hooking a shoe cleat in the {pitching) mound rubber.” His discharge was finalized on June 5.
After unwinding for a few days, Ruffing visited the Yankees for a workout. On June 23, the Yankees announced that they reached an agreement with Ruffing and signed the former ace to a $20,000 contract, matching his 1942 season’s salary. Though he immediately joined the club for their June 26-July 8 western road trip (St. Louis, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit), he was not slated to pitch.
Donning pinstripes for the first time since October 5, 1942, Red Ruffing stood tall on the hill at Yankee Stadium in front of a small crowd of 9,752 as he faced the Athletics. This time the team was from Philadelphia rather than Honolulu. The left sleeve of Red’s battery mate, catcher Aaron Robinson, himself a 2-year wartime veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard, mirrored the pitcher’s as they were both adorned with a large emblem indicating the two had been discharged from the armed forces (see: WWII Veterans Honored on the Diamond: Ruptured Duck Patches for Baseball Uniforms).
Ruffing pitched six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits in his return. The game was very much in hand with a 7-0 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth frame as Red led off the inning, facing Philadelphia’s Lou Knerr. One baseball’s best power-hitting pitchers of all time stroked a deep line drive to right-center, legging out a triple for his first hit of the season. Second baseman Mike Milosevich followed the pitcher with a single that allowed Red to score. Perhaps gassed from his six innings on the mound or from his triple, combined with the extra weight he was carrying, Ruffing left the game in the top of the seventh after walking the A’s Bobby Estalella followed by an RBI single off the bat of Buddy Rosar. Ruffing was replaced by Al Gettel, who finished the game. Ruffing started 11 games for the Yankees and finished with an impressive 7-3 record and a 2.89 earned run average. With the roster missing the majority of the Yankee stars, New York finished in fourth place.
The following season, Ruffing appeared in eight games as a situational starting pitcher and was quite effective with an ERA of 1.77 and a 5-1 record. Ruffing’s season ended abruptly on June 29 in a loss to the Athletics. In the top of the fourth inning after inducing Irv Hall to fly out, George McQuinn powered a home run to deep right field, giving the As a 1-0 advantage. Red got Sam Chapman to pop out in foul territory for the second out of the inning but Buddy Rosar doubled to left-center. For the final out of the inning, Hank Majeski lined a shot that struck Red’s right kneecap. Ruffing picked up the carom and threw to first to get Majeski for the final out of the inning but the damage was done. The Yankees were scoreless after the bottom of the fourth and Red returned to the mound for the top of the fifth. Red gave up a one-out single to Tuck Stainback before retiring the side. Set to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning, Red was lifted for a pinch hitter, ending his day.
The line drive off his knee left him heavily bruised and kept Ruffing out of the lineup for the remainder of the season. With Charles “Red” Ruffing’s 29-month U.S. Army Air Forces career, beginning with his induction on December 29, 1942, the extensive press coverage documenting every week’s activities could fill dozens of pages to chronical his tenure in uniform. Contrary to what can be unearthed for most ballplayers, the level of detail is simply astounding. Pitching in the major leagues for 19 seasons is certainly enough to garner press attention. In a span of a decade, the Yankees claimed the American League pennant seven times allowing Ruffing to accumulate a 7-3 World Series pitching record and capture six World Series titles. As if his record was not enough to garner an inordinate amount of press attention, having the U.S. Army Air Forces assign him to an air base in close proximity to Hollywood thrust Ruffing beneath the news media’s veritable microscope.
After another knee injury to his 41-year-old body, the Yankees cut him loose in September. The White Sox gave the big right-hander one last shot for the 1947 season. His record served as an indication that his career was over. Ruffing turned 42 on the eve of his first game for Chicago, resulting in an 8-7 loss to the Athletics. Red pitched his last major league game against his first team, the Red Sox, on September 15, 1947, taking a 7-5 loss. He finished the season with a 4-5 record and an ERA of 6.11.
The impact of Ruffing’s wartime service is immeasurable. He helped to win the war on the high seas, in the skies and on far-off battlefields. It is far too easy and dismissive to relegate his time in uniform to escaping combat by merely playing baseball. Despite being drafted (rather than volunteering), Ruffing embraced the opportunity through baseball to provide his comrades with a break from combat training or the difficulties in recovering from life-altering scars on the battlefield. Baseball, whether through watching a game or an interaction with a notable player such as Ruffing, provided a sense of normalcy to thousands of troops, who viewed Ruffing as a role model, and a true hero.
See also:
- A Lifetime Collection of Images: Star Baseball Player Sam Chapman, the Tiburon Terror and Wartime Naval Aviator: Part 1 | Part 2
- Sub-Hunting: Uncovering the Pearl Harbor Sub Base Nine
- Seeing Stars Through the Clouds: 1943-44 Navy Team Autographed Baseball
- Keeping Score of Major Leaguers Serving in the Pacific
- A Full Career Behind the Plate with Just Six Major League At-Bats
- Johnny “Big Jawn” Mize, WWII Service and His Elusive Signature
- Klipper Day: Marking the End of a Season
- Signature Search: The 1945 Hickam Bombers
- George “Birdie” Tebbetts: From Waco to Tinian
All of the photos published in this article are the part of the Chevrons and Diamonds Collection and may not be used without written permission.
Chevrons and Diamonds 