AMERICAN LEGION NEWS SERVICE National Headquarters Washington Office P
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
355 AMERICAN LEGION NEWS SERVICE National Headquarters Washington Office P. O. Box 1055, Indianapolis 6, Ind. 1608 K St., N. W., Washington. D. C. Phone MEIrose 5-841 I Phone EXecutive 3-4814 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/V57 LEGION NEWS IN A NUT SHELL Twenty-eight graduates of American Legion junior baseball, divided equally be- tween both teams, were included on the playing rosters of the New York Yankees and the Milwaukee Braves in the 1957 World Series. The American Legion "Junior Baseball Player of the Year," Fred Fox, third base- man on the national championship team of Bentley Post 50, Cincinnati, has earned an athletic scholarship to help meet his expenses at the University of Cincinnati. "Let's give the people all the facts of arms reduction and find out if they really want a cut in overall military strength, "urges The American Legion's "Air Review." A thousand copies of "Saved by the Bell," l6-page, full-color presentation of The American Legion story in popular comic book format, will be delivered anywhere in the U. S. for $22. The week of October 7 to 13, 1957, marked The American Legion's 10th annual participation in "National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week." Mrs. Verna Grimm, who built The American Legion's national library and archives Into one of the nation's principal repositories of wartime documents and veteran in- formation, retired as head librarian Sept. 30, after 3^ years with the National Headquarters in Indianapolis. A new distinctive emblem is now available for issue to certified American Legion blood donors. Life membership card No. 1 in The American Legion Press Association has been issued to long-time association Secretary-Treasurer Jack R. C. Cann. The American Legion is best expressed in the community service work of its many posts, and the rehabilitation of disabled war veterans is an important aspect of community service, the Legion's National Executive Committee has asserted. 356 AMERICAN LEGION NEWS SERVICE National Headquarters Washington Office P. O. Box 1055, Indianapolis 6, Ind. 1608 K St., N. W.. Washington, D. C. :EA8Ebne MEIrose 5-841 I Phone Executive iwW57 NEW YORK, N. Y. (ALNS) The top spectacle of organized baseball received several major assists from its American Legion junior prototype as play began at the opening of the 1957 World Series in Yankee Stadium on Oct. 2. Before a capacity crowd of 70,000 and a TV-radio audience of more than 60 million, Fred Fox of Cincinnati, Ohio picked as The American Legion junior baseball player of the year," started the whole show by throwing out the first ball to Yankee catcher, Yogi Berra. With Fox were the members of The American Legion cham- pion baseball team of 1957, sponsored by Bentley Post 50 of Cincinnati. They were guests of The American Legion at the first two world series tilts. In addition to the junior baseball stars in the stands, the diamond was studded with graduates of Legion baseball. Fourteen players on the Yankee roster and an equal number of Milwaukee Braves took the first step up the ladder of diamond fame via The American Legion junior circuit. They are, for the Yankees, Hank Bauer, Yogi Berra, Andy Carey, Alva Circotte, Gerald Coleman, Joe Collins, Art Ditmar, Darrell Johnson, Don Larsen, Jerry Lumpe, Gil McDougald, Bob Richardson, Bill Skowron and Tom Sturdivant. Ex-Legion ball hustlers with the Braves were Lew Burdette, Gene Conley, Del Crandall, Ernest Johnson, Dave Jolly, Vernal Jones, John Logan, Ed Mathews, Andy Pafko, William Phillips, Del Rice, Melvin Roach, Warren Spahn and Frank Torre. Bentley Post's championship team won the right to wear the 1957 American Legion junior baseball crown at the Legion's national finals in Billings, Montana, early in September. The team was flown to New York by Trans World Airlines on Oct. 1. ATLANTIC CITY, N. J.---(ALNS)---Jack R.C C^nn, spark plug and long-time secretary-treasurer of The American Legion Press Association, was the recipient of ALPA's gold life-membership card No. 1, at the annual meeting of the Legion editors in Atlantic City during the 39th National Convention. 357 AMERICAN LEGION NEWS SERVICE National Headquarters Washington Office P. O. Box 1055, Indianapolis 6, Ind. 1608 K St., N. W.. Washington, D. C. Phone MEIrose 5-841 I Phone EXecutive 3-4814 FOR RELEASE ON OR AFTER OCTOBER 1, 1957 10/U/57 CINCINNATI, Ohio---(ALNS)---Frederick Fox, third baseman of Robert E. Bently Post 50's championship American Legion Junior Baseball team here for 1957, is being called the "Cinderella boy of baseball" by his rollovers in the Queen City. Instead of a fairy god mother, the pint-sized (5 feet 8, 155 pounds) slug- ger owes his rise to the pinnacle of American Legion Junior Baseball to personal determination plus a lot of help from his team mates and from Bentley Coach Joe Hawk and Athletic Officer Pete Outcalt. Fred couldn't make the Legion team in 1956 and spent most of the spring warming the bench of his Western Hills High School club. But with the realization that 1957 was to be his last year of junior baseball and that third sack was open, he told his father early last summer that he "was going to put everything I have into the game and see if I can't make something out of it." The rest is a matter of record. His booming .Ul2 batting average in regional, sectional and final tourneys sparked the Bentley team to the 1957 American Legion junior baseball championship and won for him the Hillerich and Bradsby Batting Trophy. Then, at the national playoff in Billings, Montana, early in September, Fred was named The American Legion Junior Baseball player of the year. His name will be inscribed among the all-time greats of the junior game at Baseball's Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, N. Y. But, his small size and his lack of an impressive high school athletic record still plagued him even after these honors. Colleges which he contacted seem- ed to be fresh out of athletic scholarships, at least they were until Hawk and Outcalt began putting out feelers. At the University of Cincinnati, Glen Sample, freshman football coach who had played Legion ball on Bentley's 19^7 junior championship team, helped Hawk bring Fox's plight to the attention of the head baseball coach, Ed Jucker. As a result, Fred is enrolled as a freshman at UC and, after paying for his first quarter, will receive a scholarship and a campus job to help meet expenses. Pete Outcalt says that Fred's selection as "the most valuable player" only echoes what his own team mates think of him, and his Cincinnati fans are expecting the "Cinderella boy" to write new chapters of baseball history when he takes to the UC diamond next spring. 358 AMERICAN LEGION NEWS SERVICE National Headquarters Washington Office P. O. Box 1055, Indianapolis 6, Ind. 1608 K St.. N. W.. Washington. D. C. ft $£2? > Phone MEIrose 5-8411 Phone Executive 3-4814 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/4/57 WASHINGTON, D. C. (ALNS) Referring to recent additional cuts in the nation's military and civil service manpower ordered by outgoing Defense Secretary Wilson, the October issue of The American Legion's "Air Review" asks, "Do the American people truly want reductions in our overall military strength?" "The time has come for The American people to be told the full significance of the reductions," the Legion publication states, "and American Legion Posts can help to make the facts known. When the people are given all the facts, we can see whether further cuts are 'what people seem to want.'" WASHINGTON, D. C.---(ALNS)---Following recommendations made by The American Legion, the Departments of Defense and Labor have jointly initiated a program of job protection for reservists and national guardsmen who leave their jobs to participate in active duty training. Congress recently enacted legislation to insure job pro- tection in these cases. INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (ALNS) Mrs. Verna Grimm, known to thousands of visitors to The American Legion National Headquarters, retired Sept. 30 after 3h years of service with The American Legion as librarian. Mrs. Grimm joined the National Headquarters staff in May 1923, coming to Indianapolis from Centralia, Wash. Under her supervision, the Legion's library and archives grew into one of the nation's principal repositories of veteran in- formation and wartime documents. The Legion's collection of World War I and II posters is probably the most complete in the country. Bound volumes of unit histories, post and department publications, and now out-of-print books on military and veteran affairs have turned the Legion library into a veritable treasure house for research workers. Mrs. Grimm is now making her home in Hammond, Ind. Thomas V. Hull, who has been Mrs. Grimm's assistant, has been named librarian, effective October 1. Hull is a member of Hochstedler Post 318 of The American Legion, at Westfield, Ind., his home community. He came to The American Legion headquarters after seven years experience in the Indianapolis Public Library. He received an M-A. degree in library science from the University of Kentucky this year. AMERICAN LEGION NEWS SERVICE National Headquarters Washington Office P. O. Box 1055, Indianapolis 6, Ind. 1608 K St., N. W., Washington, D. C. Phone MEIrose 5-8411 Phone EXecutive 3-4814 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 10/U/57 INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (ALNS) A new and distinctive American Legion blood donor emblem is now available for issue to qualified Legionnaires upon certification of eligibility by Legion posts .