GITMO and Battleship Baseball History

Though extremely scarce by comparison to items from the professional game, by far, the most prevalent baseball militaria that surfaces for sale in auctions and private sales originates from the World War II (1942-1945) era. My collection, while somewhat sizable and broad, it is still a relatively small grouping of artifacts ranging from uniforms and equipment to photographs and ephemera. During the course of a year, one might come across a handful of uniforms from the second world war and perhaps a few dozen vintage photographs. Besides actual issued-baseballs, the pieces that are truly hard to find, let alone land, are scorecards, scorebooks and programs.

Since I acquired my very first military baseball program/scorecard several years ago, I have been on the hunt for these treasured pieces of history. The information contained within the pages of each piece have provided significant research boosts for many of the articles published on this site. Though there are often inaccuracies within the printed details, misspellings and interesting variations of players’ names and personal data, the information found within the rosters, dates of games and even the names of the officials are significant in terms of verification – especially in determining signatures on autographed items. As much as I try to bring acquire one of these pieces, I do get outbid or I may miss a listing. Even though I have missed out, I have been diligent in capturing the photographs of the pieces that got away so that I can preserve the data for future research (see: Library of Military Baseball Scorecards, Score-books and Game Programs).

USS Maryland prior to her post-Pearl Harbor modernization (image source: WorldWarPhotos.org).

One of my uncles whose twin brother was a three-war veteran (WWI, WWII and the Korean War) decided to serve his adopted country (he immigrated to the US with his parents and brother from Newfoundland a few years after the turn of the 20th Century) and join the fight. The Great War was in its fourth year and the United States had only been involved for a few months when my uncle enlisted into the United States Navy – his rating was a musician. Rather than serving on a shore command, he was assigned to a sea-going unit and the only ships at that time that carried a band were battleships. Though the War was raging in Europe, my uncle never saw the Atlantic as his ship, the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) was based out of Long Beach, CA serving in the Pacific. After the way, he was assigned to the commissioning crew of the USS Tennessee (BB-43) serving for a few years before transferring to the USS California (BB-44), the sister ship to the Tennessee. When the 1920s were winding down, so was my uncle’s career having contracted pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) while on active duty. A few years after his medical separation, TB would take his young life.

USS California as she appeared in the 1930s transiting the Panama Canal (image source: visitpearlharbor.org).

Since I began researching his career (I obtained a copy of his service records after a nearly three-year wait), I sought anything that I could find from any of the three ships that he served aboard. Being that all three of these vessels were present and heavily damaged during the December 7, 1941 attack, militaria that originate from the ships is heavily sought-after. In the recent weeks, I was astounded to see a listing for a baseball program for a March 20, 1930 baseball game that was played between my uncle’s last ship (about a year after he was discharged), USS California and another Pearl Harbor survivor, the USS Maryland (BB-46) and that there were (seemingly) no other folks interested in it. The program indicated the game between the two battleship baseball teams was part of a battle fleet tournament and was an elimination round. The condition, other than some discoloration due to aging and being handled, was in great shape. Also noticeable in the auction listing photographs was a strip of glue residue on the back cover running the length of the fold at the center. The glue seems to indicate that the program had been mounted – perhaps to a page of a scrapbook.

After completing some due diligence, I submitted a best offer price to the seller and hoped for the best. Within minutes, I received notification that my offer was accepted and I promptly paid for the program and awaited its arrival. Within a few days, the parcel arrived and, aside from a partial scorecard from a WWI-era West Point versus Annapolis game, this addition is a departure from my usual military baseball ephemera collection. As the auction photos showed, the condition of the program is fantastic.

Held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, this game between teams from the Maryland and California was played on March 20, 1930 (source: eBay image).

The three-color printing was done on paper stock that is very similar to newsprint. Fortunately, the program was stored away from exposure to direct sunlight and air (the two elements that possess the most destructive force on paper) which protected the paper from yellow and becoming brittle.

Inside the fold of the program are printed with state fight songs. What is baffling is that besides the Maryland’s song, the program also has the title, “On Wisconsin” printed over another Maryland fight song (source: eBay Image).

Live batting practice is held on the starboard quarter of the battleship, USS Tennessee (BB-43) in the late 1920s to early 1930s.

This programs is a single sheet of paper with a fold at the center of the long end. The full dimensions of the sheet are roughly ten-by-seven inches. The content is clearly favoring the USS Maryland which seems to indicate that it was produced for the crew of that ship. It is possible however, that this is a page from a more complete program that included the same information for both the Maryland and the California. Since the game was part of an elimination tournament held at the naval base in Cuba, the mis-printed “On Wisconsin” title could indicate the nature of the repeated production process of the programs. These are merely guessess that could be proven or dispelled should similar pieces surface in the future.

Baseball has been such an integral part of the armed forces since the inception of the game. It isn’t hard to imagine sailors finding creative methods and employing ingenuity to develop, maintain and enhance their ball-playing skills while aboard ship in anticipation of such a competition. While shoreside teams have easy access to fields and facilities to conduct full-scale practices, the shipboard teams are typically restricted while out to sea. However, when I discovered a vintage photograph from the late 1920s-30s, taken aboard the USS Tennessee (BB-43) listed for sale, I couldn’t let it pass me by. The image certain sheds a light on the handicap that shipboard teams faced when fielding a baseball team against shore-command teams. Besides helping to tell the story of the game for Navy ball teams, the photograph gives me a bit of a connection to my uncle’s ship.

It was a pleasant surprise to add this piece of Navy baseball history to my growing collection while giving me a touchpoint for my family’s naval heritage.

 

Establishing an Online Military Baseball Scorecard Archive

This well-weathered scorecard from the USASTAF (United States Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific) game played by Major League Baseball Stars has seen better days. On the cover is written in pencil, “Names of players Inside. Games played on Guam during August and Sept. 1945.”

Keeping up with an authoring and publishing schedule for two historical artifacts sites (which includes researching) as a husband, father, home-owner and while working full-time (in an unrelated career-field) is, at a minimum, a challenge for me. I will be the first to admit that I am not exactly writing material that is of value to a broad audience (quite to the contrary, there are so few people actually interested in this area of history) and one cannot characterize this material at the same spectrum of “literature” as dime-store novels. However, I trudge along, if only for myself with the knowledge that I have created a body of work from which to build and draw upon to further my interest and passion as well as to maintain an easily-accessible resource to share with colleagues.

These Air Force Teams were loaded with the stars of professional baseball from both the major and minor leagues.

Major league utility outfielder, Buster Mills (formerly of the Cardinals, Dodgers, Red Sox, Browns, Yankees and Indians) led the US Air Force “Wingmen” team.

Loaded with talent from both the majors and minor leagues, the “Flyers” were lead by Captain George “Birdie” Tebbetts, star catcher (formerly) of the Detroit Tigers.

Joe “Flash” Gordon, popular Yankee second baseman crosses home plate after a long right field home run. Umpire Vince Smith, Pirate Cather watches while Don Lang, Boston Red Sox, prepares to bat.

I recently published my fiftieth article on this site (yesterday, I published my 125th article on The Veteran’s Collection) which, for me is odd to ponder as I do not consider myself to be a writer.  I digress. In reviewing the various articles that I have written, I start to realize that there is some imbalance regarding the topics that I have covered. I also have taken note of how difficult it can be to find certain articles (especially as I try to cross-reference or simply recall details about an artifact to be used to analyze another).

Most of my collection of baseball and military artifacts are carefully stored away from light (and sight) in order to protect them from decay and degradation as they age. The downside of their inaccessibility becomes readily apparent when the need arises to revisit an artifact for research leading or that I discover that I failed to properly photo-document for an article that I also failed to write. This article is the culmination of these points in that within the process of researching a recent acquisition for an upcoming Chevrons and Diamonds.org article, I realized that I was lacking some coverage pertaining to my growing collection of scorecards and programs from military baseball games.

Lacking coverage, photography or any sort of research notes, this rough-cndition, two-color score card is from the USAAF General Depot #5 All Star Classic game played on Memorial Day, May 30, 1945.

A few months ago, I arrived at a realization that I had a need for comparative analysis of military jerseys (or uniforms in general) and trying to conduct such research across a sporadic span of articles was entirely ineffective. Not having a vehicle to create a study of details and features of each garment left me in struggling (nearly guessing) in the absence of documentation (both written and photographic) for each item that I own or have discovered but not acquired. I was prompted to create a section on this site to serve as place to capture all of the jerseys that I have encountered to provide myself and others with a reference library and so the Archive of Military Baseball Uniforms was born. My present circumstances in seeking details regarding my growing archive of scorecards and programs have led me to repeat these steps once again.

The rosters of the USAAF General Depot #5 All Star Classic | Memorial Day 1945 lack the names of known professional ball players as with my other scorecards.

A note from the commanding officer regarding the General Depot #5 games.

In the coming weeks, I will be creating another archive to showcase military baseball game programs, scorecards, roster sheets and scorebooks. In this area, I will provide images and scans of the documents and shining light onto the various details surrounding each in order to provide a source of research for folks seeking information on games and players. Tying together published articles to specific paper document will also provide context (photographs, details, game narrative or other artifacts from specific games) serving to tell a more complete story.

While searching for (and finding) the only European Theater (ETO) scorecard that I own, my recollection of another scorecard that might be useful in cross-referencing (I mistakenly thought it too was from the ETO) but quickly learned that I never researched, documented or photographed it (once I retrieved the actual piece from storage). The three that I had written about included only two that were from World War II (one is from a WWI-era Army versus Navy game) and the other three were of scorecards that I do not own (denoted below with an asterisk (*):

• Authenticating a Military Championship Baseball
  • Third Army Championship Series, Nuremberg Stadium, September 1944
• Settling the Score Between the Army and Navy, Hawaii 1944
  • October 1944 Army vs Navy All-Stars Championship Series – Hickam Army Air Force Base at Furlong Field
• Keeping Score of Major Leaguers Serving in the Pacific
  • Navy versus Major League All-Stars: Weaver Field, Submarine Base, April 19, 1944*
  • Army All-stars versus Navy All-stars: Hoolulu Park, Hilo, Hi, Friday October 6, 1944*
  • Navy vs Army All-Stars| Fourth game in the Central Pacific Championship Series*
• Introducing “My” Inaugural Class of the “Military Baseball Hall of Fame”
  • 1917 Army-Navy baseball game

In revisiting the above articles, it is very apparent that the creation of the scorecard archive will be invaluable for future reference and can serve to meet research needs. It may also help to prevent me from purchasing duplicate scorecards should subsequent versions surface as in my pursuit to establishing a substantial library of these scarce documents.

View the Library of Military Baseball Scorecards, Score-books and Game Programs now.