Gary Bedingfield’s Baseball Volume 4, Issue 28 in Wartime Baseball January 2010 www.baseballinwartime.com [email protected] www.baseballinwartime.com in Wartime baseballinwartime.blogspot.com Baseball in Wartime Presents the Baseball WWII Timeline Gary Bedingfield, editor of the Baseball in Wartime website, e-newsletter and Happy New Year to you all! blog, and author of Baseball’s Dead of World War II, was interviewed by Joe Boesch on WGGB 1240AM SportsRadio New York on January 10. I know this newsletter is a little late but I hope you will find the wait has been worthwhile. For some time I’ve been working on a baseball/World War II timeline and I’m pleased to be able to present the finished results in this issue. The timeline covers the years 1939 to 1945 and includes all major events in pro baseball, service baseball and the war. Compiling the timeline has been extremely useful to me in piecing everything together—I hope it helps you too! Gary Bedingfield You can listen to the 30-minute interview at the Baseball in Wartime blog Glasgow, Scotland baseballinwartime.blogspot.com/2010/01/gary-bedingfield-on-new-york-baseball.html January 2010 [email protected] NAS Kaneohe Bay Klippers 1945 Baseball’s Dead of World War II A Roster of Professional Players Who Died in Service by Gary Bedingfield Now Available! Order your copy from amazon.com. Barnes and Noble, McFarland Ebbets Field Flannels is the finest manufacturer of vintage historically- inspired athletic clothing. www.ebbets.com Volume 4, Issue 28 Baseball in Wartime Newsletter Page 2 WWII Baseball Timeline 1939 to 1941 The Italian government ends its neutrality and league player to enlist following the 1939 declares war on France and Britain. announcement of the draft when he joins the Army. September 1 June 14 November 18 Germany invades Poland. Germans enter Paris. First 30,000 selectees are called into military September 3 June 17 service. Most major league baseball players Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, India Hugh Bedient Jr, son of the former major are safe from draft. Joe DiMaggio has draft and South Africa declare war on Germany. league pitcher, Hugh Bedient, who pitched a number 5,342. handful of games with the Evansville Bees of September 10 November 25 the Three-I League, is killed while serving with Canada declares war on Germany. the Army Air Corps when two twin-engined Bill Embick, outfielder with the Harrisburg bombers collide above a residential area of Senators of the Interstate League, is the first October 8 Queens, New York. minor league player to be drafted. Yankees clinch the World Series in four June 22 December 12 games against the Reds. France surrenders to Germany. Billy Southworth Jr, Toronto November 4 Maple Leafs’ outfielder and son July 9 In response to the growing turmoil in Europe of the Cardinals’ manager, Billy and Asia, U.S. Congress passes the Neutrality The National League defeats the American Southworth, enlists in the Army Act. League, 4-0, in the All-Star game at Air Corps. Sportsman’s Park. November 12 July 31 Dom DiMaggio, the youngest of the three DiMaggio brothers, is acquired for $40,000 The PONY League's James Gaynor is the first by the Boston Red Sox from the San umpire from organized baseball to enter 1941 Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. military service in WWII. Gaynor will become a March captain based at 5th Army Corps December 7 Headquarters, Camp Beauregard, Louisiana. Tom Ananicz, a pitcher with the Kansas City Lou Gehrig, who played his Blues of the American Association, declares August 23 last game for the Yankees on himself a conscientious objector and is April 30, 1939, and was First German air raids on London, England. classified Class 4-A. He will work in a diagnosed with amyotrophic munitions factory should war be declared. September 16 lateral sclerosis (ALS) on June March 6 19, is elected unanimously to The Burke-Wadsworth bill - known as The the Baseball Hall of Fame. Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, Saginaw of the Michigan State League is the and more commonly referred to as The Draft - first team to lose a director in the draft as 1940 is passed by the Congress of the United Burrows Marley reports for duty with the Army States, becoming the first peacetime at Fort Custer, Michigan. February conscription in American history. The Act March 8 requires those men between the ages of 21 French White, shortstop with Anniston of the and 35 to register with local draft boards for Hugh Mulcahy of the Phillies is drafted by the Southeastern League and former baseball 12 months of military service. Army and becomes the first major league captain at the University of Chicago, enlists regular in military service. and begins training as a flying cadet at the September 24 Naval Reserve Training Station at Glenview, March 11 Jimmie Foxx hit his career 500th Illinois. home run. President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act April 16 which allows the United States to supply the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Bob Feller pitches a 1-0 opening day no- France and other Allied nations with vast hitter against the Chicago White Sox. amounts of war material for, in the case of September 27 May 10 Britain, military bases in Newfoundland, Germany, Italy and Japan sign a tripartite Bermuda, and the British West Indies. Germany invades France, Belgium, treaty. Luxembourg and the Netherlands March 13 October 8 May 26 Don Stewart, Western International League The Cincinnati Reds clinch the World Series in umpire, is killed in a German bombing raid on Britain evacuates 300,000 surrounded seven games against the Tigers. Scotland while serving with the Canadian British and French troops from Dunkirk, Army’s Calgary Highlanders. France. October 30 May 7 June 10 Fred Price, first baseman with Clinton of the Three-I League becomes the first minor Tigers’ outfielder Hank Greenberg reports for Volume 4, Issue 28 Baseball in Wartime Newsletter Page 3 WWII Baseball Timeline 1941 to 1942 duty at 6.30am with the Army at Fort Custer, victory over the Charlotte, North Carolina Japan invades the Philippines. Michigan. team. Indians’ Bob Feller enlists with the U.S. Navy. May 15 October 6 He is sworn in at a Chicago courthouse by Lieutenant-Commander Gene Tunney. Joe DiMaggio starts his 56-game The New York Yankees clinch the World hitting streak. Series with a 3-1 win at Ebbets Field against December 11 the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game Five. The German and Italian governments, bound November by their Axis treaties, declare war on the United States in support of the Japanese. The National and American Leagues list the June 2 following 14 major league players as being on December 12 Lou Gehrig dies in New York, aged 37. the National Defense List: Gene Stack, White Pete Viselli, a shortstop with Landis of the Sox; Al White, Browns; Hank Greenberg and June 20 North Carolina State League in 1939, Bob Uhle, Tigers; Lefty Brewer, Elmer Gedeon becomes the first former professional United States Army Air Corps becomes United and Lou Thuman, Senators; Pat Cooper, ballplayer to lose his life fighting the States Army Air Force. Athletics; Mickey Harris and Lawrence Powell, Japanese when his twin-engined bomber fails Red Sox; Tom Gorman, Giants; Hugh Mulcahy, to return from a reconnaissance mission at June 22 Phillies; Oadis Swigart and J Addis Copple, Luzon Germany launches a surprise invasion of the Pirates. December 19 Soviet Union - Operation Barbarossa. November 25 The Selective Service and Training Act is July 8 Cleveland Indians shortstop Lou Boudreau is amended, extending the term of service to named as the new team manager. At 24 The American League defeats the National the duration of the war and six months, and years of age, Boudreau becomes the League, 7-5, in the All-Star game in Detroit. requiring the registration of all men eighteen youngest player to manage a team in the to sixty-four years of age. July 13 20th century. W. G. Bramham, president of the National November 27 Association, announces the appointment of a 1942 The Sporting News publishes the National Defense Service Committee, designed to By the start of 1942, at least six former Defense List for the first time, listing 286 lend any possible assistance to minor league minor league players have lost their lives in professional baseball players in the armed players now serving in the armed forces. “We military service including Spokane’s Marcel services. want all our players who have entered the “Major” Serventi and Lexington’s Eldred ranks, to know that we are interested in their December 5 “Whitey” Burch. welfare,” said Bramham. “This committee is ready to help them in contacting friends or Sergeant Hank Greenberg is January 5 relatives, offering counsel or handling other discharged from Army after Bob Feller reports to Norfolk Naval Training problems which the boys are unable to look Congress releases men aged Station, Virginia. after themselves … We urge any of them who 28 years and older from are in need of such help to communicate service. January 8 with the committee member nearest their Ted Williams passes his first base.” Tom Fairweather, president of the physical examination by the Three-I League and Western Association is military. named chairman of the Defense Service December 7 Committee. Japanese carrier aircraft launch a surprise July 17 January 14 attack on the US Pacific Fleet, anchored at The longest hitting streak in baseball history Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Japanese forces Kenesaw Mountain Landis writes to ends at 56 when the Cleveland Indians hold simultaneously conduct attacks on US President Roosevelt to ask what baseball Joe DiMaggio hitless.