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Dizzy Dean Settles Score with Lt. Ted Lyons in Iowa
After hanging up his cleats with his 1941 release from the Chicago Cubs and his Cooperstown destination cemented, the Gashouse Gang pitching legend, Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean traded his position on the mound for one behind the radio microphone.
By 1947, as the Browns’ play-by-play man, ‘Ol Diz was vocalizing his discontent with the pitching of the St. Louis pitchers’ performance during game broadcasts. Sports Illustrated’s Ted O’Leary noted in his September 28, 1964 piece, Short Noisy Return of Dizzy, that his oral frustrations such as, “What’s the matter with that guy? Why don’t he throw that fast one? Dawg gone, I don’t know what this game’s acomin’ to. I swear I could beat nine out of 10 of the guys that call themselves pitchers nowadays,” drew the ire of Browns hurlers’ wives. O’Leary wrote, “They were not too keen on going to the ball park to witness the humiliation of their husbands. Most of the pitchers’ wives began calling both [Browns Owner Bill] DeWitt and Dean on the phone. ‘If that big lug thinks he can do any better than my husband, why doesn’t he get out there and try?’ one wife asked DeWitt.”
St. Louis was firmly entrenched in its familiar low position in the American League standings, inspiring discontented fans to stay at home, leaving Sportsman’s Park with an abundance of empty seats for late season games. Bill DeWitt saw an opportunity to create a little bit of fan interest and perhaps to satisfy the Browns’ wives by calling Dean’s bluff. DeWitt signed Dizzy to a $1 contract on September 17, giving the pitcher a little more than a week to get into shape. As if seeing the beloved Cardinals pitcher wearing a rival Cubs uniform from 1938-41 was not bad enough, fans of the National League St. Louis club saw the 37-year-old suit up for the Browns to face the visiting Chicago White Sox on September 28 for the last game of the season. Dean pitched the first four innings and surrendered three hits and a walk before he was pulled in favor of reliever Glen Moulder, who gave up five runs on five hits and four walks to lose the game.
Sitting and watching in the visitor’s dugout, White Sox second-year manager Ted Lyons may have been recalling that moment he saw Dean first don the Browns’ colors just a few years earlier. Despite what the record books reflect, Dizzy’s four shutout inning performance for the Browns in 1947 was not the first time he suited up for the perennial American League second-division dwellers.
More than two weeks following Mickey Cochrane’s Great Lakes Naval Training Station Bluejackets’ 5-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs, Davenport, Iowa’s Quad-City Times announced on June 25, 1943 that an exhibition game would be played at Davenport’s Municipal Stadium (known today as Modern Woodmen Park), home of the independent league Maroons. Arranged by the Quad-City Athletic Club, the contest was set to bring major league baseball back to the small ballpark situated above the levy on the bank of the Mississippi River, with a big league club facing off against a service team from the Windy City of Chicago. “We had a chance to book several service clubs in here for that night,” club president Jack Lagomarcino told the Quad-City Times. “But when we heard that Teddy Lyons was pitching for the Marines in Chicago, that was all we wanted to know.” Lagomarcino continued, “We got in touch with him and his officers, and they agreed to the game.” Anticipating drawing a large crowd, the ballpark was expanded by 1,500 to accommodate 8,000 fans for what was being billed as “Ted Lyons Night” on July 13.
Theodore Amar Lyons, a stalwart pitcher for 20 seasons with the White Sox, enlisted into the Marine Corps on November 1, 1942. The future Hall of Fame enshrinee applied for the Marine Corps Officers Training program on October 12 and ten days later divested his financial interest in his south side Chicago bowling alley business in preparation for departure. The 41-year-old told reporters that he hoped to pitch every day for the Marines rather than his once-weekly rotation with the Chicago club, according to the October 22 edition of The Times of Streator, Illinois.
Lyons trained at Quantico, Virginia, completing his training and being commissioned as a second lieutenant. While undergoing his Marine Corps instruction, he joined former Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Ike Pearson on the Quantico nine.
After detaching from his training school commands, Lyons was assigned duty at the Naval Air Technical Training Center, Marine Aviation Detachment at the Navy Pier in Chicago, where he assumed duties as the athletics officer in charge of combat conditioning and physical training. By early June, Lyons was with the Navy Pier Aero-Macs baseball team, whose roster was an aggregation of Navy and Marine Corps players. On June 2, the Aero-Macs faced the East Chicago Sox, a semipro club, and Lyons was added to the lineup for duties on the mound. Unfortunately, the results of the game are unknown. With the Navy Pier command’s primary role as a training center, the baseball team roster was in constant flux. By the end of June, the positions were filled entirely with Marines.
Taking the reins of the Navy Pier Marines team, Lt. Lyons prepared the players to face their scheduled opponent, the St. Louis Browns. Unlike Cochrane’s major and minor league star-studded Bluejackets roster, Lyons’ 21 “leatherneck” players were true amateurs, pulled together from four separate Marine Corps training squadrons. Staff Sergeant James G. Hallet, the shortstop, served as the detachment’s acting first sergeant. For weeks leading up to the game, the team prepared to face seasoned professionals. Aside from perfecting their defense and base running acumen, Lyons had to prepare the men to face major league pitching, which the former White Sox ace provided healthy doses of in practice. However, the Marines were in for quite a surprise when the Browns announced their starting pitcher four days ahead of the game.
“Dizzy is not signing a contract, and by no means is it to be construed that he is joining the Browns except to face his old friend, Ted Lyons,” manager Sewell told reporters. “Dean is not returning to organized baseball except for the one night,” The Dispatch (Moline, Illinois) reported on Friday, July 9. In 1943, Dean was reportedly earning $10,000 to broadcast both Browns and Cardinals games in St. Louis and was two years removed from pitching for the Cubs. “You bet your boots I’ll pitch for the Browns next Tuesday night,” Dean stated. “Ted Lyons made the crack once that he could beat me in my best days. I’ll show him in Davenport that my best days are not over. I guarantee you that I will strike out that old man once,” the former Cardinals great boasted.
Newspapers touted the event for several days leading up to the day of the game. Despite all the press and the expanded seating, slightly more than half of the seats were filled. Both veteran pitchers were slated to hurl the first three frames.
Navy Pier Marines:
| Rank | Player | Pos. |
| Pvt. | Grover C. Boldt | 2B |
| Corp. | Somes J. Dagle | LF |
| S.Sgt. | James G. Hallet | SS |
| Corp. | James L. Coldiron | CF |
| Pvt. | Charles F. Wallraff | C |
| Pvt. | Lee F. Houser | 3B |
| Sgt. | Frank L. Klein | RF |
| Pfc. | Kenneth Callewaert | 1B |
| Capt. | Theodore “Ted” Lyons | P/Mgr. |
| Corp. | Samuel E. House | P |
Before the game started, the two teams engaged in field events that included 100-yard dash races, a long-distance throwing competition and throwing for accuracy. It was all business when the Browns took the field for the top of the first inning and Dizzy strode to the mound. For several weeks, Dean had worked on strength training and other conditioning, ensuring that his arm was in peak form. Marine second baseman Boldt and left fielder Dagle were retired for the first two outs but SSGT Hallet doubled off Dean. He was gunned down by right fielder Al Zarilla as he attempted to stretch the safety to a triple. Lyons retired the side in the bottom of the frame, with both teams coming up empty. The Browns struck first in the bottom of the second inning following Zarilla’s single. Marines catcher Wallraff muffed a pitch, allowing Zarilla to reach second on the passed ball while a throwing error by shortstop Hallet moved the runner to third. Joe Schultz singled to drive Zarilla home. The Marines countered in the top of the third, with successive hits by Callewaert and Dagle evening the score, 1-1. Dean’s night was done, his having surrendered five hits and striking out one. Archie McKain took over for Dean to pitch the middle three innings.
In the bottom of the third frame the knotted score did not last as the Browns moved ahead by a run, only to have the Marines tie the game in the top of the fourth as McKain allowed the final leatherneck score. Lyons finished the bottom of the fourth with the game tied at two runs apiece. The former White Sox pitcher allowed two runs while striking out three Browns.
Corporal Samuel E. House hurled the last five frames but allowed the Browns to tally four runs. He struck out nine Browns, walking three. The Browns secured the 6-2 win, aided by Fritz Ostermueller’s brilliant pitching. Ostermueller struck out seven of the nine Marines he faced during innings 7, 8 and 9. In the weeks following the game and with the completion of their aviation training, most of the Marine players were detached and transferred to their wartime assignments. By August, Lt. Lyons was assigned to duty at Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, California.
This copy of the game’s scorecard is a recent arrival to the Chevrons and Diamonds Collection, donated by a baseball historian, colleague and friend. From the front cover to the back, the program consists of 12 pages, with the majority of the content being dedicated to advertising support. In addition to the team scoring grid pages, separate pages include the team rosters (view the complete scorecard).
With just 4,500 fans at the game, our scorecard is certainly a scarce piece. With only the first few frames of each team’s grids scored, it appears that the original owner was in attendance solely for the spectacle of the two pitching greats squaring off. The lineups on our scorecard differ from the actual game record due to the last-minute changes submitted by each team’s manager after the pieces were printed.
Navy Pier Marines reserve players:
| Rank | Player | Pos. |
| Pfc. | John J. Adamcik | |
| Sgt. | John A. Bercich | |
| Pfc. | Trifko Culibrk | 1B |
| Pvt. | Nick Fasso | |
| Pfc. | Harold Kendall | |
| Pfc. | Charles J. Misko | |
| Pfc. | Elmer W. Mory | |
| Pfc. | Robert E. Rudewick | |
| Sgt. | Dallas R. Stahr | |
| Pvt. | John Steiger | |
| Pvt. | Everett R. Sumpter |
The booklet-sized, 9-inch by 6-inch piece is in excellent condition with very minor wear showing on the pages. The staples, though rusting slightly, are solid and the pages are held firmly in place. The real treasure in this piece lies within the roster of Lyons’ team, which has enabled us to shed light upon an aggregation of regular Marines who, while serving their country, stood in the batter’s box against one the game’s pitching legends.
In researching the Marines players in pursuit of professional baseball experience, only Private Everett Sumpter, shown on our scorecard as “Simpter,” played organized ball, He didn’t play until 1947, when he was with the Lamesa Lobos of the class C West Texas-New Mexico League. Following his duty as the non-commissioned officer in charge of drill and instruction as part of Headquarters Squadron, Marine Aviation Detachment, Sergeant Dallas R. Stahr was decorated with the Distinguished Flying Cross medal in the Pacific Theater. The balance of the squad, while not as highly decorated as Sergeant Stahl, served throughout the war, with a few continuing to retirement from the Marine Corps.
A Passion for the Troops: Joe E. Brown’s All Pacific Recreation Fund
It is rather odd and perhaps, a little bit disjointed to author a piece that is technically a precursor or an actual “part I” of a two-part story after researching, writing and publishing the succeeding or part II. few weeks ago, we delved into one of the rarer wartime service-team baseball game programs that one can collect: a substantial scorebook from the 1944 All Recreation Fund game that pitted the Service All-Stars versus both the Pacific Coast League’s (PCL) Los Angeles Angels and the Hollywood Stars (see: Service All-Stars Raising Funds on the Diamond for their Comrades in the Trenches).
“Hopefully, we can source the 1943 All Pacific Recreation Fund program to round out the collection and to properly document the games and the participants.”
Just days following our article regarding the 1944 program published, the 1943 program and scorebook arrived to our door sending this author over the top with elation. Now, two of our most sought-after programs from domestic service team baseball programs moved off of our want list.
The fine print on the cover differentiates this book from the 1944 program.
While the roster for the 1944 Service All Stars feature featured some well-known names from the professional ranks, garnering modest attention from the press, the caliber of talent that took the field in the inaugural charity baseball game in 1943 was quite exceptional. Featuring three future Cooperstown enshrinees, the Service All Stars posed a considerable challenge for the PCL hosts, at least on paper.
1943 All Pacific Recreation Fund Game – Service All-Stars:
| Name | Pos | Command Location | Club Affiliation |
| Rinaldo Ardizoia | P | Army Air Forces, McClellan Field, Sacramento, California | New York Yankees |
| Harry Danning | C | 6th Ferrying Group, Long Beach, California | New York Giants |
| Joseph DiMaggio | OF | Army Air Forces, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, California | New York Yankees |
| Bud Doleshall | P | U.S. Army, Ft. MacArthur, San Pedro, California | Sacramento Senators |
| A. R. Edwards | C | Army Ordnance, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, California | St. Louis Browns |
| Aubrey Epps | C | U.S. Marine Corps, Camp Pendleton, Camp Pendleton, California | Knoxville Smokies |
| Froilan “Nanny” Fernandez | IF | 6th Ferrying Group, Long Beach, California | Boston Braves |
| Stanley Goletz | P | Army Air Force, Williams Field, Chandler, Arizona | Chicago White Sox |
| Hal Hirshon | OF | U.S. Marine Corps, Camp Pendleton, Camp Pendleton, California | Detroit Tigers |
| Myril Hoag | OF | Army Air Forces, Mather Field, Sacramento, California | Chicago White Sox |
| Walter Judnich | OF | Army Air Forces, McClellan Field, Sacramento, California | St. Louis Browns |
| Hubert Kittle | P | 6th Ferrying Group, Sacramento, California | Oakland Oaks |
| Art Lilly | IF | 6th Ferrying Group, Long Beach, California | Hollywood Stars |
| Dario Lodigiani | IF | Army Air Forces, McClellan Field, Sacramento, California | Chicago White Sox |
| Theo “Ted” Lyons | P | U.S. Marine Corps, Camp Pendleton, camp Pendleton, California | Chicago White Sox |
| Joseph Marty | OF | Army Air Force, Hamilton Field, Novato, Novato, California | Philadelphia Phillies |
| Myron McCormick | OF | Army Air Forces, McClellan Field, Sacramento, California | Cincinnati Reds |
| John Pesky | IF | U.S. Navy, Atlanta Naval Air Station, Atlanta, Georgia | Boston Red Sox |
| Jack Price | IF | Army Ordnance, Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, California | Nashville Vols |
| Charles “Red” Ruffing | P | 6th Ferrying Group, Sacramento, California | New York Yankees |
| Charles “Chuck” Stevens | IF | 6th Ferrying Group, Long Beach, California | St. Louis Browns |
| Louis Stringer | IF | Army Air Force, Williams Field, Chandler, Arizona | Chicago Cubs |
| Max West | OF | 6th Ferrying Group, Long Beach, California | Boston Braves |
As was seen in the following year’s game, the 1943 event drew a capacity crowd to witness the type of charity game that had become somewhat of a commonplace occurrence around the country with games staged between professional and military teams. This particular event was directly responsible for purchasing more than $25,000 in sporting equipment that was shipped throughout the Pacific combat theater to Army and Navy personnel. Inspired by his early USO-like tours to both entertain and encourage the troops during his early-WWII travels to the South Pacific, comedian Joe E. Brown was following through on his promise to the men he visited. The All Pacific Recreation fund was established and the Service All-Stars game versus the Los Angeles Angels and Hollywood Stars was his flagship event.
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- An all-star team of professionals who happen to be serving in the armed forces during World War II.
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- Ted Lyons, Red Ruffing and Harry Danning headline page two of the Service All-Stars photos.
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- Service all-stars including Joe Marty and Joe DiMaggio.
With a capacity of less than 13,000 fans, Gilmore Field’s turnstiles clicked a total of 21,742 times for the 1943 game with not a single pass being given (not even to the press). Leading off on defense for the top-half of the first inning, the Los Angeles Angels took the field as the 6th Ferrying Group’s first baseman, Chuck Stevens (who went two-for-three) leading off with a triple. Stevens, a local native (from Long Beach) who had previously played in the St. Louis Brown’s organization. In the previous year, Stevens played for the Toledo Mud Hens who took down Mickey Cochrane’s Great Lakes Bluejackets, a veritable team of professional all-stars serving in the U.S. Navy. Nanny Fernandez (0-for 3) followed Stevens in the order with Wally Judnich (Stevens’ 1941 Browns teammate) batting third (also hitless in the game). Batting cleanup was former Pacific Coast Leaguer (and New York Yankee), Joe DiMaggio who accounted for much of the Service All-Star’s offensive power (4-for-4 with two home runs).
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- Braven Dyer discusses the need to support the troops.
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- A narrative of Joe DiMaggio by John B. Old.
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- Though it is hard to tell Al Wolf from Braven Byer apart, Wolf shines a light on Red Ruffing.
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- Edward W. Cochrane touched upon General Douglas MacArthur.
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- Page two of the MacArthur piece by Edward W. Cochrane.
The Service All-Stars collected a total of 13 hits and racked up eight runs while only allowing the Angles and Hollywood to manage six hits (including the two solo home runs by Hollywood’s Babe Herman and Los Angeles’ Rip Russell) to the Coast League team’s two runs.
Similar to the 1944 game program, the 1943 issue is more book-like than what was common during the 1940s. The half-magazine sized booklet is constructed of a high-quality, heavy paper stock with a semi-gloss finish. The cover art (used for both the ’43 and ’44 games) is two-color-printed (red and blue) with the interior pages all monochromatic blue.
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- Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Angels 1943 rosters as of August 21, 1943.
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- The 1943 Los Angeles Angels.
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- The 1943 Hollywood Stars team photo.
Aside from the plethora of sponsors pages and advertisements, the content throughout the book is superior to that of any other program (that we have seen) from service team baseball during World War II. The rosters and team photos are clear and the players depicted are easily discernible (including with the Los Angeles and Hollywood team photos). The team rosters are very complete (despite some obvious errors – Navy Ensign Johnny Pesky is listed as serving in the U.S. Army) offering great details about the service players’ 1943 duty stations.
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- One of two illustrations by Walt Disney depicts a forlorn soldier holding a makeshift bat.
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- Walt Disney provided a second drawing that depicts the Angles and Stars teaming against the Service All Stars.
In addition to completing the All Pacific Recreation Fund game program collection, what makes the 1943 program even more special is that this copy came from the estate of one of the players who factored considerably in the game. Though it isn’t the first piece to arrive into the Chevrons and Diamonds collection from the life-long baseball man, Chuck Stevens, it is certainly one of the most cherished pieces (there will be upcoming articles regarding the Chuck Stevens pieces of which we are honored to now be caretakers of).
Our time has been considerably consumed by several activities (in addition to family and work priorities) and there are several future articles forthcoming surrounding additional service team scorecards as well as a considerable effort to update the Library of Military Baseball Scorecards, Score-books and Game Programs with these two All Pacific Recreation All Stars game programs along with an incredible array of Great Lakes items (stay tuned!).
Now Pitching for Mickey Cochrane’s Bluejackets of Great Lakes…
Collecting original baseball militaria vintage photographs can be very rewarding, especially when the subjects in the images are of major leaguers (past or future). My collection has grown over the years to not only include ballplayers who reach the highest level of the game but also play their way into Cooperstown while having given away a portion of their career to the armed forces when their nation needed them at the most critical time in history.
In the early months of 1942, the mood of the people of the United States was a myriad of emotions ranging from outrage and anger, fear, great sorrow and loss and of unity. Suffering the tragic loss of thousands of armed forces personnel and a handful of citizens at Pearl Harbor and in the surrounding bases on the Island of Oahu and news of the battles raging on the Bataan Peninsula combined with the surrender of American military forces on Guam and Wake Island, Americans at home had every reason to be concerned about what was taking place and how it would impact the future of our nation. It seemed as though the world was falling under a dark cloud of evil both in the Pacific and across Europe as both German and Japanese militaries were laying waste to every nation they invaded and every military force that attempted to oppose them.
Historians have experience a measure of success in documenting and communicating about the impacts on the game of baseball within hours of the news of the Pearl Harbor attacks reaching the mainland of the United States. For most baseball fans, the knowledge of the quick responses by stars of the game such as Cleveland Indians’ ace pitcher, Bob Feller (enlisted into the U.S. Navy on December 8, 1941) and Hank Greenberg (who made his return to the Army on February 1, 1942, having been discharged two days before the Pearl Harbor attack). Besides these two stars of the game heading off to fight, most players from the major and minor leagues did not rush to join en masse, but rather waited to learn what was going to happen with baseball and the military draft. The two most significant stars of the game in the 1941 season, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams had no intentions of rushing into the fight as both reported to spring training for the 1942 season though each player would face criticism for avoiding service (Ted Williams was skewered for his III-A deferment status regardless of being his mother’s sole provider) and ultimately succumb to the vocal disappointment and enlist, joining the throng of young Americans entering the ranks in the waning months of 1942 and early 1943.
Major and minor league baseball experienced an outflow of personnel that reached a critical mass by the middle of the 1944 season that forced many lower level leagues to shutdown operations. Those players who could not serve in the armed forces moved to the higher level leagues to fill their vacated positions. Though the game helped to sustain many Americans by providing them with an escape from rationing, scrap drives and working in the war effort, the quality of play was nothing close to what was seen when the greats of the game was at its pinnacle in 1941 with DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak and William’s .406 season.
On May 17, 1942, White Sox starter Johnny Rigney pitched his last game before departing for basic training a few miles north of Chicago at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station. Facing the Washington Senators that day, the Oak Park, Illinois native tossed a three-hit, complete game (he surrendered a double to Bobby Estalella and a single each to Bob Repass and Mike Chartak), in the 4-3 win in front of 16,229 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. While the White Sox roster still was still full with most of their star players on that mid-May day, they were already 13-2 and 11.5 games out of contention. Rigney, one of the bright spots on the pitching staff since his arrival to the big league club in 1937. By the time of his induction, he had a 56-56 record with an era of 3.63 and was 3-3, having appeared in seven games in ’42.
After completion of Navy basic training, Johnny Rigney (no relation to fellow ballplayer and Navy man, Bill Rigney) was recruited by the manager of the Great Lakes Bluejackets, Mickey Cochrane to pitch for the service team that he managed for 1942. Cochrane, a former American League star catcher for Philadelphia and Detroit, following his enlistment into the Navy and assignment to Great Lakes as an athletics director took on the management of the baseball team and quickly began reaching out to draft-eligible major leaguers to encourage them to join up and to get them assigned to fill roster spots on the Bluejackets squad. Rigney followed several big leaguers to the Navy and joined Cochrane’s team which already consisted of Sam Harshaney (St. Louis Browns), Benny McCoy (Detroit Tigers/Philadelphia Athletics), Russell Meers (Chicago Cubs), Donald Padgett (St. Louis Cardinals), Frank Pytlak (Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox), James Reninger (Philadelphia Athletics), Joe Grace (St. Louis Browns), Chet Hajduk (Chicago White Sox) and Johnny Lucadello (St. Louis Browns).
This type-1 photograph has a printed caption affixed to the back that reads: “July 3, 1942 – Johnny Rigney, who until his induction into the Navy a short time ago, was a leading White Sox hurler, got a watch from his former teammates when he appeared at Comiskey Park last night with the Great Lakes naval training station team against Chanute Field. He may hurl against All-Stars at Cleveland Tuesday. Left to right are Dario Lodigiani, Mule Haas, Ted Lyons, Rigney, Thornton Lee and Orval Grove.”
Billed by many baseball historians as the greatest team of WWII, the Great Lakes squads were dominant among all of the service teams. The 1942 squad was considered the weakest among the war years squads, finishing the year with a 52-10-1 record (a whopping .800 winning percentage) which included a 17-game winning streak and not suffering any losses to opposing military teams. Where the ’42 Bluejackets struggled was in exhibition games (fundraising events for Navy Relief and other service member needs) against major league clubs posting a 4-6 record in the 10 games they played that year. Former White Sox hurler was considered the ace of Cochrane’s staff and taking the mound against the most difficult and formidable opponents. Coach Cochrane would also tag Rigney for service in a fund-raising game played between the 1942 American League All-Stars and the Service All-Stars at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium on July 7, 1942 (the American League squad defeated the service team, 5-0 after Bob Feller’s abysmal pitching performance, surrendering three runs before being relieved by Rigney in the 2nd Inning).
One of the type-1 press photographs in my collection depicts Johnny Rigney visiting his former White Sox teammates at Comiskey Park on July 3, 1942. The image is a high-contrast photograph that is in fantastic condition. One of the more interesting aspects of this print, aside from some minimal surface damage due to the seven decades of aging and decay, is the presence of editing marks made directly onto the surface. Most discernible on the print are the handmade enhancements to Rigney’s uniform in order to distinguish his dress blues from the surrounding features. Other edits on the image surround the upper left portion behind the three players’ heads, extending to the center around Rigney’s dixie cup hat. It is very likely that the wall behind the players was covered with distracting elements taking the focus away from what was happening with the personalities within the main framed area.
A large percentage of the vintage images in my baseball militaria photograph archive depict game action or show players on the field in various manners. However this photo captures an interlude away from the field of play between Rigney and fellow White Sox personalities. Besides Rigney, two of the White Sox players shown in the image would soon be serving: third baseman Dario Lodigiani would enlist into the U.S. Army Air Forces and would eventually be assigned the 7th AAF team in Hawaii along with his fellow San Francisco Bay Area and Pacific Coast League (PCL) alumnus Joe DiMaggio and Ferris Fain; Ted Lyons, the (then) 20 year veteran that had pitched himself into eligibility for Cooperstown enshrinement, joined the U.S. Marine Corps at the youthful age of 42.
The two other White Sox shown in the vintage photo are Rigney’s fellow pitchers Orval Grove and “Lefty” Lee, neither of whom would serve in the armed forces and George “Mule” Haas, the 12-year veteran outfielder (with the Pirates, Athletics and White Sox from 1925-38) who was part of manager Jimmy Dykes‘ coaching staff from 1940 to ’46.
The photo itself is a large, non-standard size (8.25 x 7 -inches), silver-gelatin print that is borderless. It is possible that the newspaper photo editor (who prepped the image for publication) trimmed the borders off as part of the editing process. One element of this image that adds to the interest is that the White Sox players are wearing their (home) white uniforms with red and blue trim marking the first season in which “White Sox” appeared in script lettering across the chest and the only use of such a design until 1987.
Photos of professional ballplayers in their armed forces uniforms (whether their flannels or military) are getting increasingly difficult to find but I keep scouring my sources to further build my archive.
Chevrons and Diamonds 