Baseball in Wartime Blog

Baseball's Dead of World War II

2011-12-10T14:29:00.001Z

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2011-11-29T11:43:00.001Z

Walter G. "Whitey" Loos

2011-11-08T11:14:00.000Z

Walter G. Loos, Jr., was born in Crafton, a neighborhood located west of downtown Pittsburgh, on December 13, 1916. Known as “Gus” or “Whitey”, Loos was the eldest of four sons born to Walter, Sr., (a law firm office manager) and Margaret Loos.

Loos attended Crafton High School where he and his brother, John (known as “Jock”), lettered in baseball, football and basketball.

Between 1936 and 1938, Loos and Jock spent the summer months playing baseball with the Methodists in the Crafton Church League and Crafton Heights in the Pittsburgh City League. Once a year, the Pittsburgh-based Homestead Grays – Negro National League Eastern Division champions in 1937 and 1938 - would come to Crafton Athletic Field for an exhibition game against the Crafton Church League “All Stars”. On one occasion, while Jock was pitching and Gus was catching, the mighty Josh Gibson hit the longest home run ever seen at Athletic Field. It not only cleared the left field fence (330 feet), but also the parking lot (150 feet) and a twelve foot high fence before landing in Steuben Street - a distance of more than 500 feet. These games were a wonderful time for all. The Grays – with a line-up that included future Hall of Famer Buck Leonard - relied on entertaining these local crowds as a way to help boost their poor Negro league salaries and they really knew how to put on a show. The Grays pitcher would throw a mixture of side arm and underhand, as well as throwing both left and right-handed. And a typical routine was for a ground ball to the third baseman to be relayed to the centerfielder who would still get the runner at first base by several steps. When the pitcher would walk a batter, the Gray’s “team doctor” would visit the mound in his medical smock and administer a liquid remedy.

After graduating from Crafton High School in 1935, Loos won an athletic and academic scholarship to Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh. He played football (end), basketball (center), baseball (catcher) and also ran the 440 yard dash on the track team.

In the 1930s Carnegie Tech was among the top football programs in the country and in his senior year, 1939, Loos was on the squad that played in the Sugar Bowl held at Tulane University’s stadium in New Orleans on January 2, 1939. The Carnegie Tech Tartans (ranked #6) played the Texas Christian University Frogs (ranked #1) and were defeated 15 to 7 before a crowd of 44,308.

Loos also played outstanding basketball with the Tartans his senior year. The highlight of his season probably came on January 17, 1939, against the Penn State Nittany Lions. With four minutes to play the Lions went ahead 31 to 30. Loos then stole the ball, sank a basket after dribbling half the length of the floor and made good a foul shot to help the Tartans win 35 to 33. Loos earned Eastern Intercollegiate Basketeball Conference Honorable Mention for the season.

But it was in baseball that the professional teams were most interested, and after three-and-a-half years at Carnegie Tech, Loos accepted an offer to join the Brooklyn Dodgers’ organization in the spring of 1939. Brooklyn sent the 22-year-old to the Gloversville-Johnstown Glovers of the Class C Canadian-American League. Making his debut on May 30 at Amsterdam's Mohawk Mill Park before the second largest crowd to see a Can-Am game, Loos was used as a pinch hitter in the first game of a double header, cracked a double and scored his team's only run in a 5-1 loss. In the second game he was behind the plate for the Glovers going 2-for-4 with a stolen base. "Loos looked good behind the bat," reported the Gloversville and Johnstown Leader-Republican the following day, "and showed signs of having a strong arm and an accurate peg."

Unfortunately, Loos' time with the Glovers didn't work out, as explained by the Leader-Republican upon his release on June 22. "Loos' departure will be regretted by many for he is a fine fellow, tried hard but wasn't just what the club wanted. Loos had hard luck, too, for he came in as a catcher. He caught just one game as relief to [Mike] Diffley and then Bill Dick and Hal Palmer came along. Loos did not have the experience to compete with either of these boys and manager [Elmer] Yoter tried him at shortstop.

"He was a combination of good and bad, but mostly the latter because he could not bend over for the low ones and hard hoppers and at times his arm, while strong, was inaccurate and he made many errors. To the credit of the big boy, he tried like nobody's business but did not improve.

"Loos might have remained here a while longer . . . but Bill Buckley, manager of Batavia in the [Class D] PONY League, wanted a catcher and wrote asking for Loos."

In 21 games with the Glovers – mostly as a shortstop - Loos batted .243. However, he showed what he could do as a catcher for Batavia. In 66 games he batted .271 for the Clippers and drove in 21 runs. As their first string catcher, he was behind the plate for 62 games and handled 439 chances, committing 15 errors for a .966 fielding percentage, while handling a pitching staff that included future major leaguers Dick Fowler, Joe Cleary and Frank Colman.

Still with Batavia in 1940, Loos batted .290 with 49 RBIs in 76 games, and was sold in August to the Cincinnati Reds together with Stanley Baran for $1,000. Loos briefly returned home to Crafton following the sale and was joined by a hoard of Crafton Church Leaguers at Penn Station to wish him well on his journey to Durham, North Carolina, where he was to report to the Bulls of the Class B Piedmont League. “I’ve watched a lot of ‘em come and go,” Phil Weaver of the Church League told the Pittsburgh Press. “But Loos is one of the few who has the stuff to go up [to the major leagues].

In 12 games with the Bulls, Loos batted .400 (12 for 30) as the team went on to capture the Piedmont League’s playoff championship despite finishing fourth in the regular league standings.

Loos played with the Dayton Ducks of the Class C Middle-Atlantic League at the start of the 1941 season. “The Ducks were in the same League as the Erie Sailors,” recalls his youngest brother, Richard. “Sometime during this summer, Mother and I rode the bus to Erie to see Gus play. I remember three things from this trip. We met Gus at his hotel, the lighting at the game was very poor and Gus’s team lost.”

Loos batted .243 in 44 games with the Ducks, and finished the year with the Columbia Reds of the Class B South Atlantic League, where he hit .298 in 47 games, handling a pitching staff of future major leaguers including Arnold Carter, Hal Erickson and Johnny Kucab, and helping the club win the league championship.

The 24-year-old had made steady progress through the minor league system, and was keeping in shape during the off-season playing basketball with the league-leading Young Republicans in Pittsburgh’s Municipal League when news of Japan’s devastating attack on Pearl Harbor at Hawaii reached the American mainland. Two weeks later, Loos turned his back on professional baseball and enlisted with the Army Air Force.

Training as aircrew, Loos completed navigation training at the Pan American Airways Navigation School, Coral Gables, Florida, southwest of downtown Miami. The navigator's job is to direct a flight from departure to destination and return. He must know the exact position of the airplane at all times by determining geographic positions by means of pilotage (determining the airplane's position by visual reference to the ground), dead reckoning (estimating your position by using course, speed, time and distance traveled), radio (making use of various radio aids to determine position) and celestial navigation (determining position by reference to the stars).

Loos graduated as a second lieutenant and was assigned to the municipal airport in Long Beach, California, where an area on the south side of the runway had been converted into an Army Air Base operated by the 6th Ferrying Group of the Air Transport Command. Loos served with the 9th Ferrying Squadron, delivering various tactical and support aircraft from factories to overseas departure points in the Pacific area. Between July 1942 and June 1944, ferry crews from Long Beach made 1,258 overseas deliveries. In addition, they delivered over 40,000 aircraft to destinations within the United States.

Long Beach AAF

About 3,000 servicemen were stationed at Long Beach Army Air Field. The base was about a ten minute bus ride to Ocean Boulevard and downtown Long Beach. The Douglas Aircraft Company plant, employing thousands of workers, many of them young females, was located on the other side of the runway at Municipal airport.

During this time, Loos played for the formidable 6th Ferrying Group baseball team. Often having gaps in his flight assignments which allowed him to play for days at a time, Loos found himself on a ball team that included Red Ruffing (Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Yankees) as manager and player, Harry Danning (all-star catcher for the New York Giants four consecutive years), Chuck Stevens (first baseman for the St. Louis Browns), Max West (all-star outfielder with the Boston Braves), and Nanny Fernandez (shortstop with the Boston Braves).

The 6th Ferrying Group were a real powerhouse team and Ruffing pitched them to a 4-1 victory over Camp Pendleton for the Southern California service championship on October 11, 1943, defeating fellow future Hall of Famer Ted Lyons.

The 26-year-old also found time for romance. On September 10, 1943, he married 19-year-old Alice Marie Goodwin of Apex, North Carolina.

In January 1944, 1/Lt. Loos was the navigator for 1/Lt. Thomas M. Palmer, who was the ferry pilot of a Consolidated B-24J Liberator bomber that was one of five planes to be delivered to the Eighth Air Force Service Command in the United Kingdom. From Long Beach, California, the planes traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska, then to Presque Isle, Maine. From there they headed south to British Guyana in South America. At approximately 10:00 A.M. on January 16, 1944, they departed from Atkinson Field, near Georgetown in British Guyana, bound for Belem, Brazil, where they would refuel and complete the next leg of the journey to Europe.

Atkinson Field in British Guyana

No contact was made with Loos’ plane after take-off from Atkinson Field.

Once time had elapsed for the fuel reserve to be depleted, a search was made for the missing plane. On January 17, two North American B-25 Mitchells searched the route between Georgetown and Suriname, while the Navy Patrol Squadron at Zandery Field in Suriname, searched as far as Clevelandia in southern Brazil. In addition, all transient planes were briefed to be on the look-out for the missing bomber. The search continued until January 19, when wreckage was spotted by aircraft in a large swamp in an isolated area 37 miles southeast of Atkinson Field. There was evidence from the air of an explosion and fire.

A rescue party reached the wreckage via the Abary River on January 26, but was unable to locate the bodies of the crew. A second investigating party reached the scene on February 12 (almost a month after the crash), and was successful in recovering the bodies of five of the seven airmen, including Lieutenant Loos. The bodies of First Lieutenant Palmer and Second Lieutenant Martin Stern were never found (the others recovered were 1/Lt. Lawrence M. Stanley, Jr., S/Sgt. Earl A. Hoegensen, T/Sgt. Joseph J. Thomy and S/Sgt. Hugh M. Sharpe. 2/Lt. Stern and S/Sgt. Sharpe were not crew members but passengers aboard the plane).

Following an investigation, it was assumed that an explosion had taken place aboard the B-24, causing it to fall from the sky. What caused the explosion will never be known.

A B-24J Liberator. The type 1/Lt Palmer was piloting from

Long Beach AAF with 1/Lt Loos and six others on board

At the Batavia Clippers home-opener on April 30, 1945, Loos, who was posthumously awarded the Air Medal, was remembered in a flag-raising ceremony and moment of silent prayer.

After the war, Loos family were visited by one of his former 6th Ferrying Command baseball teammates. “Nanny Fernandez was playing with the Boston Braves and they were visiting Pittsburgh to play the Pirates,” remembers Richard Loos. “Nanny came to our house for dinner. It was a wonderful gesture on his part and my parents were deeply touched.”

1/Lt. Loos’ body was returned home to Pennsylvania in 1948 and is resting in the family plot, Section A, Lot 43 in the Smithfield East End Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

I am deeply indebted to Richard Loos for help with this biography.

Braves announcer Ernie Johnson was a World War II hero

2011-08-13T11:01:00.000+01:00

Braves announcer Ernie Johnson was a World War II hero

Baseball and the End of World War Two in Europe and Asia

2011-08-12T06:56:00.002+01:00

http://miscbaseball.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/baseball-and-the-end-of-world-war-two-in-europe-and-asia/

The Army and Navy Benefit All-Star Game of 1942

2011-08-12T06:55:00.003+01:00

http://miscbaseball.wordpress.com/2011/07/06/the-army-and-navy-benefit-all-star-game-of-1942/

The Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants Play a Military Fund-Raising Game in 1942

2011-08-12T06:55:00.000+01:00

http://miscbaseball.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/the-brooklyn-dodgers-and-new-york-giants-play-a-military-fund-raising-game-in-1942/

South O boys save WWII plaque - Omaha.com

2011-07-29T17:27:00.000+01:00

South O boys save WWII plaque - Omaha.com

Bob Stephens: Minor League Pitcher and WWII Fighter Ace

2011-06-13T12:53:00.000+01:00

Bob Stephens’ baseball career was interrupted by military service after just one season, but he wasn’t about to let that stop him from reaching for the sky. As a P-51 Mustang pilot, Stephens shot down 13 enemy fighters, attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel before his 24th birthday and served with the Air Force for 18 years. However, the seemingly unstoppable Missourian’s life was tragically cut short on what should have been a routine flight in April 1960.

Robert W. Stephens was born on September 16, 1921 in St. Louis, Missouri. The son of John (a Switch Master with the Missouri Pacific Railroad) and Bertilla Stephens, he grew up on Pernod Avenue in south St. Louis in a small, one-bedroom apartment which meant young Bob had to sleep on the couch. He attended Roosevelt High School where he lettered in baseball and football, and also ran track at Roosevelt. A pitcher and shortstop, he was playing sandlot ball after school and despite hailing from a city that boasted two major league teams at the time, he was signed by the Boston Braves in June 1941 to a contract with the Evansville Bees of the Three-I League.

Evansville promptly assigned the young right-hander to the Bowling Green Barons of the Class D Kitty League (the nickname given to the K-I-T League, which was short for the Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League). Bowling Green is in south central Kentucky, about 300 miles southeast of St. Louis, and professional baseball had come to the town in 1939 when Vick Smith, Sr. - a local businessman - bought the Lexington (TN) Bees franchise.

At a time when Bowling Green was an isolated community due to poor highway connections, ballgames and the movies were the biggest things in town. The Barons could always expect a good crowd at the Fairgrounds Stadium in Lampkin Park and they didn’t disappoint the fans by finishing second in 1939 and winning the Kitty League pennant in 1940.

When Stephens joined the Barons in June 1941, 40-year-old Ossie Bluege – who had an 18-year major league career as an infielder with the Washington Senators - was the manager and Ossie’s brother, Otto, an infielder with the Reds in the early 1930s, was playing his last season of pro ball as the Barons’ shortstop. The 1941 Barons, with only two players returning from the previous year’s pennant-winning squad, had gotten off to a slow start and were sitting in the league basement. Having dropped 11 of their last 12 games, Ossie was fired as manager in late June, and another former big leaguer, 40-year-old outfielder Mel Simons - who played with the White Sox in the early 1930s – took over as skipper of the club.

Stephens had a steady rookie season with the seventh-placed Barons. He made his first appearance as a relief pitcher against the Fulton (KY) Tigers on June 13 in a 9-1 loss. His first start came on June 26 against the Jackson (TN) Generals and it was an impressive showing; going the distance he shutout the Generals after the first inning allowing eight hits in a 6-3 win. He was the starting pitcher again on July 5 in a 5-4 win over the Union City (TN) Greyhounds and followed that up on July 15 as the starter in a 7-2 win against the Paducah (KY) Indians. The following night – the same night future Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio hit in his record-setting 56th and final consecutive game – Stephens helped the Barons beat Paducah, 6-2, with a relief appearance. During August he helped beat the Owensboro (KY) Oilers and Paducah, while making relief appearances in losses to Jackson, the Mayfield (KY) Browns and the Hopkinsville (KY) Hoppers. He beat Mayfield, 5-4, on September 1 and his final appearance of the season came on September 4 as a reliever in a 13-inning, 10-9, loss to Hopkinsville.

In 23 appearances on the mound he was 5-6 with 43 strikeouts in 127 innings, and his earned run average was a respectable 3.97 (second best on the team).

It looked like the young Missourian had a promising career ahead of him but 1941 was to be his only season in professional baseball. On December 7, 1941, peace in the United States came to an abrupt end as the Japanese launched a devastating surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that sank or damaged 18 warships of the United States Pacific Fleet and claimed over 2,000 lives. Initial word of the attack was broadcast on radios across the mainland about an hour and a half after it began. Unlike previous wars, in which much greater time passed before dispatches from distant battlefields reached home, Americans knew they were at war while the bombs were still falling. The day of instant journalism had arrived and Pearl Harbor, at the time a place few Americans could point to on a map, instantly and lastingly became a household name.

Pearl Harbor sent the nation into a wave of overwhelming patriotism. There was an immediate rush to enlist and Bob Stephens entered military service with the Army Air Corps on February 19, 1942 (the Barons disbanded with the collapse of the Kitty League in June of the same year as the war took its toll on available manpower).

Just 20 years old, Stephens began training as a pilot in March 1942. Primary flight training in a Stearman PT-13B Kaydet biplane commenced on March 31 at Cal-Aero Academy, an independent flying school based at Ontario, California. After completing 60 flying hours he advanced to Basic instruction in June 1942 in the Vultee BT-15 Valiant, including cross-country, instrument and formation flying. Having completed 70 hours flying time he then transferred to Luke Field, near Glendale, Arizona at the end of July 1942 for Advanced instruction. Flying the North American AT-6A Texan, Aviation Cadet Stephens training included flights to Prescott, Yuma, Blythe and Tucson.

On September 29, 1942, about the same time he would have been winding up his second season in professional baseball, Bob Stephens earned his wings and an Army Air Force commission at Luke Field.

Eager to get his hands on a real fighter plane, Stephens began transition training on the Bell P-39D Airacobra in October. One of the principal American fighter airplanes in service at the start of the war, the Airacobra was the first fighter in history with a tricycle undercarriage and the first to have the engine installed in the center fuselage, behind the pilot.

In January 1943, Stephens joined the newly formed 355th Fighter Squadron - with its distinctive “Pugnacious Pup” insignia – at the Tonopah Bombing and Gunnery Range in Nevada. The 355th were assigned to Hayward Army Air Field on the eastern shore of the San Francisco Bay in the following months for further intensive training before relocating to Portland Army Air Base, Oregon, in May 1943, as part of the Northwest defensive setup and on alert for possible attack by the Japanese.

During this time, fate played a very unusual part in bringing Bob Stephens together with local girl, Adele Steinbart. Adele and her best friend, Mary, were working in downtown Portland. Mary was dating a guy who was transferred to a military base in Florida. So, for Easter she sent him a live rabbit. The gentleman in question promptly responded by sending Mary a live three-foot alligator in a long box. When Mary received the alligator she didn’t know what to do with it so she called Adele for help. Adele suggested the alligator could be given to Mary’s sister, who was married with two children, and happened to live about two blocks from the main gate at Portland Army Air Base. When they arrived, the sister refused to have the alligator in the house, so Adele and Mary walked over to the base and called the Officers Club to see if there might be any takers. Adele made the phone call and it was Bob Stephens who answered. He and another officer came out to the gate to meet the girls and the alligator. The two officers had a friend with the nickname “Alhambra Alligator” and they thought it would be great fun to put the alligator in his bed. They took the animal from Adele and Mary, and told them that they would be back at the gate in about 20 minutes. When the officers returned, Adele asked them if they wanted to come over to her parents’ house for some roast beef sandwiches. Over the next few weeks, Adele and Bob began seeing each other and a romance soon blossomed.

During the summer of 1943, the pilots of the 355th had no idea if they and their P-39s were destined to be fighting against the Japanese in the Pacific or the Germans in Europe and North Africa. In October 1943, the squadron departed from Portland by train and made its way across the United States to Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. They were headed for Europe and on October 20, the squadron departed aboard the liner Athlone Castle as part of a large convoy bound for Great Britain. Two weeks later, the Athlone Castle docked at Liverpool in northwest England.

Home for the 355th Fighter Squadron, as part of the 354th Fighter Group, Ninth Air Force, was to be Boxted Airfield (USAAF Station AAF-150), approximately four miles northeast of Colchester, Essex, in eastern England. The airfield had been vacated by the 386th Bomb Group in September and had a main runway 6,000 feet long and two intersecting runways that were 4,200 feet each in length.

Great excitement surrounded the squadron when they learned they would be flying the new Mustang fighter planes. The North American P-51B Mustang was capable of 430 mph at 25,000 feet. Armed with four .50 caliber machine guns mounted in the wings and with a reliable engine and a huge fuel load, it could accompany Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators all the way to Germany and back.

Stephens began transition training on the P-51 on November 9, 1943, and on December 1, he made his first fighter sweep across the English Channel to German-occupied Holland. On December 5, Stephens performed his first bomber escort, accompanying Allied bombers to Paris, France. Over the next few days he escorted bombers to Kiel and Bremen in Germany.

On December 20, Stephens encountered enemy fighters while escorting bombers to Bremen and damaged a Messerschmitt Me 109. On December 31, he shot down his first Me 109 while escorting B-24 Liberators to Bordeaux, France. Upon returning to Boxted, First Lieutenant Stephens had to file an “Encounter Report” to claim the destroyed airplane. “Our squadron, in which I was blue flight leader, was flying at an altitude of 25,000 feet approximately 5,000 feet above the bombers,” his report stated that day. “I noticed a straggler (B-24) being attacked by three (3) Me 109’s. I reported this to my squadron leader and went to the assistance of the straggler. As we dove the bomber was hit and started to spin down, the E/A began to circle the bomber and I picked out my target, joined the circle, closed to about two hundred (200) feet and gave him a three (3) second burst. He went to pieces and I saw smoke coming out of the cockpit, another two (2) second burst and he exploded. He took no evasive action.”

Stephens destroyed another Me 109 on January 11, 1944, and claimed a further five enemy planes during February, including a Messerschmitt Me 110 twin-engine heavy fighter on February 21 and a twin-engine Messerschmitt Me 410 while escorting bombers on February 22. “I saw a straggler being attacked by three Me 410s,” he reported upon his return to base. “Picking out one of the ‘410s as my target, I worked in behind him. He saw me and started a steep spiral down. Following him, I gave him a few short bursts. Observing no strikes, I pulled off him at 12,000 feet. I circled around once more and saw that the same ‘410 was climbing back up towards the box of bombers. I waited for him and got behind him, this time unnoticed. With only one gun firing, I shot several long bursts before I saw strikes on his left engine nacelle. Then the engine blew up and the plane caught fire. I closed in, still firing, and observed more strikes all over the fuselage. Pulling up so as to avoid running into him, I rolled left to see the entire ‘410 engulfed in flames.”

At around this time, he also experienced one of his most life-threatening encounters of the war. After a long engagement with enemy fighters, Stephens’ Mustang had run out of ammunition and a German fighter came after him. “I was watching the Hun’s eyes as we flew side by side and slowly drew near to him until we were wingtip to wingtip,” he told a Stars and Stripes reporter. “Then he pulled up trying to make me get ahead and in line with his guns. I throttled back and then we both peeled off. I had driven him off and then one of my squadron got him.” Records show the German fighter was an Me 110 and it was First Lieutenant Lowell K. Brueland who came to the rescue and shot him down.

On April 1, 1944, Captain Stephens was appointed commander of the 355th Fighter Squadron. He destroyed a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter plane on April 9 and claimed another on April 29 while on a five-hour bomber escort to Berlin.

The 354th Fighter Group left the relative comfort of Boxted and moved further south at the end of the month to provide tactical air support to the imminent invasion of France. Living in tents and flying from the steel matting runway of Lashenden Advanced Landing Ground, near Headcorn, Kent, Captain Stephens claimed his third Fw 190 on May 9. On June 4 he led the squadron on a dive-bombing mission against a railroad junction at Bourges, France. As the Mustangs came off the target they spotted an unusual sight. A Focke-Wulf Fw 56 trainer was performing aerobatics in their full view. Stephens gave the trainer a short burst with his guns which promptly took its landing gear off, and then two other Mustangs attacked the little plane and turned it into a fireball.

On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Stephens was escorting C-47s and their gliders to the Utah Beach area and continued providing support as the Allied forces moved inland over the coming months. On June 14, he got his first flight in the new P-51D Mustang, which, with its distinctive bubble-top canopy, became one of the most iconic fighter planes of the war.

By mid-June, the 355th Fighter Squadron was operating from an airfield known simply as A-2, near Cricqueville in Normandy. Stephens destroyed another Fw 190 on June 17, flying his faithful P-51B, appropriately nicknamed “Killer”, and claimed another for his 10th kill on July 17 during a fighter sweep near Paris.

“My dad really liked to box,” explains his son, Jeff Stephens, “and he participated in this sport, as an amateur while growing up. He lost very few of his boxing matches and usually won by TKOs. The nick-name “Killer” was given to him by a friend of his fathers for his success in the ring. When the time came to name his airplane, my grandfather suggested he name is plane “Killer”, which my father did. After the war, his passion for boxing continued, as he usually had body bags and speed bags hanging up in the garage.”

On July 27, the squadron fully converted to the P-51D and moved to Gael Aerodrome, a former Luftwaffe base in Brittany, in mid-August 1944.

On August 9, Stephens was promoted from captain to major. He celebrated on August 25 by claiming his first kills in a P-51D with two Fw 190s destroyed. On that day, the 355th Fighter Squadron earned a theater record for in-the-air kills for one squadron in a day with 25 enemy planes shot down.

August 28 was to be Stephens' last sortie in Europe after nine months in the combat zone. In his typical style, he destroyed yet another Me 109 bringing his confirmed total to an incredible 13 kills and claiming his position as leading ace of the 355th Fighter Squadron. During his time in Europe, Major Stephens had flown over 233 hours during122 missions.

Stephens returned home to the United States in September 1944. He enjoyed 20 days leave with his family in St. Louis and sent a telegram to Adele in Portland asking her to come to St. Louis to get married. Since leaving Portland for England almost a year earlier, the couple had regularly written to each other. A few days later, Adele and her mother arrived in St. Louis and they were married on October 24.

Still only 23 years old, Stephens attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1945 and was appointed chief of operations of the 1st Tactical Air Division at Esler Field in Alexandria, Louisiana. The 1st Tactical gave air support to ground units in training and participated in air-ground maneuvers up until the surrender of Germany and Japan.

Stephens had been out of baseball for four years by the end of 1945. As an airman, he had climbed through the ranks at an astonishing rate and chose the military as a post-war career. “Bob has made a great soldier and flyer,” his mother told The Sporting News on June 7, 1945, “but if it hadn’t been for the war, we think he also would have made a fine ball player.”

Stephens went on to serve with the occupation forces in Germany, and in Italy and Turkey; was promoted to Colonel in 1955; commanded the 12th Flying Training Wing at Bergstrom Air Force Base, Texas, in 1956; the 413th Tactical Fighter Wing at George Air Force Base in California in 1958 and the 31st Fighter Wing, also at George AFB, in 1959.

By 1960, he was a father of three children and Director of Inspection for Tactical Air Command, based at TAC Headquarters, Langley Air Force Base, Virginia.

On April 6, 1960, 38-year-old Colonel Stephens was holding an Operational Readiness Inspection on the 474th Tactical Fighter Wing at Cannon Air Force Base in Clovis, New Mexico.

At around 12.15pm, he was seated in a North American F-100F Super Sabre two-seater fighter on the runway at Cannon AFB. "My dad was in the back seat and Lieutenant L.W. Emerson was the pilot,” explains Jeff Stephens. “My dad was doing "a check ride" for the young lieutenant as part of his inspection of the Fighter Base.”

First Lieutenant Lloyd Warren Emerson, a 27-year-old pilot with the 429th Tactical Fighter Squadron, made lift-off as normal but at an altitude of about 300 feet and a speed of 190 miles per hour, the afterburner failed. In an effort to avoid a crash Emerson dropped the heavily loaded external fuel tanks which lightened the jet fighter enough that it stayed in the air. His remaining power, however, was not enough to keep the plane flying. With a group of buildings in his path, Emerson made a sharp left turn causing his wingtip to hit a railroad boxcar, flipping the airplane over and imminent impact with the ground, instantly killing himself and Colonel Stephens.

During 18 years of service, Colonel Stephens had flown more than 3,300 hours and had been awarded the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 21 Oak Leaf Clusters, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with four Bronze Service Stars, World War II Victory Medal, Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp, National Defense Service Medal, Distinguished Unit Citation Emblem with one Oak Leaf Cluster and Air Force Longevity Service Award Ribbon with three Oak Leaf Clusters. In addition, he was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Silver Gilt Star by the French Government.

During the summer of 1961, Robert Stephens’ father asked his nephew, Lester Lurk and his wife Leanna, if they might name their soon-to-be-born child after his late son. “Uncle Jack hesitantly asked us, if we had a boy, would we name him after Robert,” recalls Lester. “We immediately responded with a ‘yes’ as we were flattered with the request. Although we really never knew him personally, we were so proud to use the name because of the courageous life he lived."

Colonel Robert W. Stephens is buried at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.

A full Bob Stephens photo gallery, including gun camera footage, is available at:

http://www.baseballinwartime.com/player_biographies/stephens_robert.htm

A few words from his son, Jeff Stephens:

"For those of you who grew up in a military family, you know first-hand what it was like not having a parent home on a regular basis, relocating every 12 to 18 months, and not knowing when, or if, your father would return home. Making the United States military a career is a “calling” which not all Americans are capable of because of the required sacrifices. I hope that each of you who read this bio, along with other military bios, will stand up with me and salute those serving and pray for those who have fallen. My Dad was a great guy, as I am sure your father was also. Over the years we have missed him terribly.

"I can speak for the entire family in thanking that Gary for providing us with information we never knew about my Dad, once he left home after high school and started playing minor league baseball. For Gary’s efforts we sincerely thank him for his research in putting this biographical information together."

Sources of information:

354th Fighter Group by William N. Hess, Osprey Publishing (Oxford, 2002)
Pugnacious Pups: 355th Fighter Squadron Log by 1/Lt. Donald F. Snow
Stars and Stripes newspaper 1944/1945
Clovis News Journal (1960)
The Sporting News (1944/1945)
Kentucky New Era (1941)
Park City Daily News (2004)
Robert W. Stephens log book (March 31, 1942 to September 5, 1944)
http://www.354thpmfg.com - 354th Pioneer Mustang Fighter Group
http://354thfightergroup.homestead.com - Pioneer Mustang Group
Family members of Robert W. Stephens

Thank you to Jeff Stephens for his time, generosity and support in helping to compile this biography about his father.

If you served with Robert Stephens, or a family member did, his son, Jeff, would be very pleased to hear from you. You can send an email to me at gary@baseballinwartime.com and I will glady pass it along to Jeff.

Ultimate Sacrifice Baseball Card Set: Grant and Keller

2011-04-16T21:06:00.000+01:00

A few days ago I wrote about the Ultimate Sacrifice Baseball Card set I'm developing. In that blog entry I gave you a taster of the card fronts. The next step in the production is to production the reverse sides of the cards. Here are the first two.

Ultimate Sacrifice Baseball Card Set

2011-04-14T12:51:00.000+01:00

Of the 142 players who lost their lives during World War II, I doubt any of them ever appeared on a baseball card. This got me thinking about how nice it would be to create cards for each of them and I have to admit I have taken my inspiration from Gary Cieradkowski's wonderful Infinite Baseball Card Set.

So, here are the first 30 cards I have produced, each of which will soon be appearing on the relevant player's Baseball in Wartime page.

Jim Donovan: 142nd Minor Leaguer Killed in WWII

2011-04-11T12:17:00.000+01:00

James J. Donovan, Jr., was born in South Boston, Massachusetts in 1916. The son of James and Katherine Donovan, young Jim attended the English High School in Boston where he excelled as an athlete.

In 1938, he signed as a second baseman with the Rome Colonels of the Class C Canadian-American League, making an immediate impression on manager Bill Buckley during spring training. When opening day came around, Donovan was Buckley's starting second baseman. He singled against the Amsterdam Rugmakers on May 16 but was hitless in his other appearances and was released by Buckley as the Colonels flirted with the basement position.

Aged 22, Donovan enrolled at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois in the winter of 1939. He was a sensation on the freshman football team and left Millikin after one semester to pursue a career as a halfback in professional football. Over the next couple of years he played pro football with the independent St. Louis Gunners, the Boston Shamrocks and the Boston Irish-Americans, while working at the Fore River Shipyard during the off-season.

On June 19, 1942, Donovan, aged 26, enlisted with the Army. He attained the rank of sergeant with an infantry regiment while stationed at Fort Meade, Maryland, then attended Officer Candidate School at Fort McClellan, Alabama, and Fort Benning, Georgia. He graduated as a second lieutenant on January 22, 1943 and volunteered for paratrooper service.

On June 23, 1943, 2/Lt. James Donovan was killed in a parachute training jump at Fort Benning. A Requiem Mass was held at Gate of Heaven Church in Boston on June 28, 1943. He was survived by his parents (his father was aide to Fire Commissioner William A. Reilly at the time) and sibblings Edward, John, Paul, Robert, Rosemary and Mrs. Betty Trayers.

Two of Donovan's teammates on the 1938 Rome Colonels also lost their lives during World War II. George Gamble, an outfielder who became a fighter pilot, was killed in Indo-China in December 1944. Frank Janik, also an outfielder who served as an infantryman, was killed at Okinawa in April 1945.

Baseball in Wartime Newsletter: Special Edition

2011-04-05T14:07:00.000+01:00

The latest edition of the Baseball in Wartime Newsletter features biographies on 14 minor league players who lost their lives while serving with the military in World War II

Download Your Copy For Free!

Alan Grant: My Trip to Visit His Grave

2011-03-30T21:36:00.000+01:00

Of the 141 former professional players who died in military service during WWII, two are buried here in Britain. Don Stewart is buried right here in Glasgow, Scotland. The other, Alan Grant, is buried in Cambridge, England. Last weekend I visited his grave for the first time.

It's a six-and-a-half hour trip from Glasgow to Cambridge; just short of 400 miles, and on the way there I wondered when was the last time anybody had visited Alan Grant's resting place? The American Military Cemetery in Cambridge receives a great many visitors every day. People travel from miles just to pay their respects to men who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country. But most likely they come to visit the cemetery as a whole rather than a particular person.

I also thought about how long it had been since Alan was anywhere near a baseball glove. He played only one season of professional baseball before entering military service and as a bombardier with a busy bomber crew I doubt he had much time for baseball. Did he even get to have a friendly game of catch every now and then? I guess we'll never know. Anyway, I decided to take a ballglove with me and pretty soon I found myself sitting before his marker stone talking about baseball. He was a pitcher and I was a catcher so we had a lot to discuss!

God Bless you, Alan.

1st. Lt. Alan S. Grant's grave at Cambridge American Cemetery in England

The view over part of the American Military Cemetery at Cambridge, England

Alan S. Grant grew up just a couple of miles from Wrigley Field. He attended Lake View High School in Chicago where he excelled as a pitcher and enrolled at the University of Illinois in the fall of 1937. The stocky young hurler with the permanent smile on his face hurled for the varsity team for three years, playing alongside future major leaguers Hoot Evers and Boyd Bartley. In 1941, his senior year, Grant was team captain and opened Illinois’ spring training tour by keeping Louisiana State University hitless for the first five innings of a 7–2 win on March 31. To open the Big Ten campaign on April 11, he was beaten by Indiana, 2–1, despite allowing only three hits, but defeated Wisconsin, 5–0, the following week, prompting Wisconsin coach Art Mansfield to say that Grant, “had as fine control as any college pitcher he had seen in some time.”

Grant’s 3–2 victory over Michigan on May 9 was the highlight of his season. He held the Wolverines to four singles in handing them their first defeat of the year. In his last outing of the campaign on May 16, Grant beat Ohio State, 8–3, allowing the Buckeyes six hits. His five wins for the year tied him for first place among Big Ten pitchers.

Grant graduated from Illinois’ college of liberal arts in June 1941, and signed with the Chicago Cubs’ organization, being assigned to their Class D South Atlantic League team at Macon. When the Macon Peaches set out on their new team bus for Greenville, South Carolina, on June 18, 1941, Grant was on board to begin his only summer of professional baseball. The Peaches were managed by Milt Stock, who had a 13-year National League career as an infielder; Grant’s teammates included Frank Marino, a 5-foot-9 righthander who finished the year with a 19–1 record, and shortstop Eddie Stanky, who would join the Cubs in 1943 and remain in the major leagues until 1953. Grant made just nine appearances during the season for an 0–1 record but the Peaches were never out of contention for the Sally League title and finished in first place with a 90–50 record. They beat Columbus in four games to clinch the first round of the playoffs, then lost to the Columbia Reds in the final playoff round. On September 16, game three of the playoffs against Columbia, Grant appeared in his last professional game, making a relief appearance in the Peaches 8–2 loss.

On January 24, 1942, Grant married his college sweetheart, Mary Lois Daum, and three days later he entered military service with the Army Air Force, beginning training as an aviation cadet at Grider Field, Pine Bluff, Arkansas. At Kelly Field, near San Antonio, Texas, on November 5, 1942, he earned his bombardier’s silver wings and a commission as a second lieutenant. He was then assigned to San Angelo Army Air Field, Texas, as an instructor. Being a bombardier was a complex job. He needed not only math skills that approached those of the navigator in addition to an understanding of complex laws of physics, but also motor skills more delicate than those required of the pilot. Grant needed to master complex principles of physics and mathematics, including the laws of falling bodies and of motion, and concepts of air resistance and air
movement.

Grant was later assigned to the 19th Bomb Group at Pyote Army Air Field, Texas, where he was involved in training bombardiers to use the Norden bombsight fitted in the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses—the four-engine bomber being used by the Eighth Air Force in Europe. Perhaps his time with B-17s gave Grant a desire for combat because he put in a request for overseas duty and in October 1943 he was assigned to the 334th Bomb Squadron, 95th Bomb Group in England. Based at Horham Airfield in Suffolk, the 95th Bomb Group, attached to the Eighth Air Force, flew daytime bombing missions to hit targets in France and Germany. Flying in extreme conditions, crews had to endure excessive cold temperatures and constant use of oxygen, while suffering the ever-present danger of anti-aircraft fire and enemy fighter planes. Grant was lead bombardier for the 334th Bomb Squadron, and he had to be confident and resourceful, taking responsibility for the success of missions as all planes dropped their bombs on the word of the lead bombardier, not from each bombardier in each plane.

Three months after arriving in England, Grant had completed his 25-mission tour of duty and was ready to go home to his wife, who was employed in the University of Illinois Alumni Association office. On December 29, 1943, Grant was one of 20 airmen who boarded a B-17 for the first leg of their journey home. It was just after one o’clock in the afternoon and the skies were clear although it was bitter cold. First Lieutenant Alden R. Witt was at the controls that morning, warming up the four Wright Cyclone engines. Witt was a highly experienced pilot with almost 400 hours on the B-17. This ferrying flight would be a piece of cake and would take a little under two hours to cover the 300 miles to Woodvale, a Royal Air Force station near Southport. Witt would fly west from Horham to northern Wales, out over the Irish Sea then north to Woodvale.

Just before take-off, Corporal Andrew Mullavey came running over to the plane. He had just obtained permission to fly home and barely made it before Witt taxied the bomber to the runway.

The first part of the flight was uneventful but as they approached Wales the weather deteriorated. Heavy clouds, icy conditions and thick fog cut visibility down to 100 yards and Witt relied on his navigator to track their location. Estimating they had reached the coast, the navigator instructed Witt to begin his decent. In fact, they were still four miles from the coast, and as the plane emerged out of the fog at around 2:45 P.M., Cwm Dyserth Mountain appeared before them. The collision was violent. Two loud explosions were heard and the bomber crashed in a valley just 25 miles from its destination. All 21 aboard the plane perished in the burning wreck.

Evan Jones was walking along a nearby road at the time of the crash. Because of the dense fog he was unable to see the plane but heard the mighty roar of its engines and the deafening explosions. “[I] went across a field to the plane which was afire,” he said at the time. “Here I was joined by another man and the two of us tried to render assistance but
it was impossible to do anything.”

It was seven days before Mary Lois, at the family home in Champaign, Illinois, received the devastating news of her husband’s death. His loss sent shockwaves through the community and, in particular, among his friends and the faculty at the university.

“You get to know these fellows pretty well in four years of baseball,” Walter Roettger, his coach at Illinois, told a reporter shortly after receiving news of the ballplayer’s death.

“They don’t come any better than Al. I don’t know when anything has hit me so hard. News like that drives this whole war home to you.”

Alan Grant was buried at Cambridge Military Cemetery in England. On January 30, 1944, memorial services were held at Lake View Presbyterian Church in Chicago — the same church where he and Mary Lois had married two years before.

Bill Hosie: Canadian Ballplayer Killed in World war II

2011-03-30T20:47:00.000+01:00

Over the past ten years or so, I have scoured countless newspapers from the 1930s looking for references to ballplayers who were killed while serving with the armed forces during World War II.

In addition to the 141 former professional players that I’ve uncovered I have found reference to hundreds of semi-pro, college and high school players who paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Some of these I have included on the Baseball in Wartime website although, in all honesty, there are far too many for me to attempt to compile biographies for.

Nevertheless, there are some who catch my eye for a variety of reasons and one such ballplayer was Bill Hosie. Never heard of him? Well, if you grew up in Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada during the 1930s you might have because he was a hotshot semi-pro infielder on the local diamonds. That alone would have been enough for me to include Hosie on the Baseball in Wartime website if I could gather some biographical data, but there was something about him that was far more interesting to me. Bill Hosie was born in Glasgow, Scotland – the city I have called home for the past seven years.

Hosie’s family left Scotland when he was very young, but to find a link with baseball and Glasgow is a rarity and I was determined to find out more about this ballplayer who was born just six miles from where I live.

So, this has been somewhat of a self-indulgent journey, uncovering details about the life of a young Canadian who gave his life for King and country. I salute you, Bill.

William Hosie was born in Govanhill, Glasgow in Scotland in 1912. His father, Alex Hosie, was a tramcar conductor in the city and a champion piper. The year William was born his father was invited to Medicine Hat in Alberta, Canada, to join the Medicine Hat Kiltie Band – a bagpipe and drum ensemble.

Medicine Hat, known as the Gas City because of its large natural gas fields, is in south-eastern Alberta and about 175 miles south-east of Calgary. The Medicine Hat Kiltie Band became well-known throughout Canada and the United States until many of the band members signed up with the Canadian Army at the start of the First World War. Seeing service in Europe with the 17th Canadian Seaforth Highlanders, Alex Hosie finished the war with the rank of Pipe Major. None of the other members of the Kiltie Band survived the war.

While his father worked as a janitor at Elm Street School and performed as pipe major in Medicine Hat’s Canadian Legion band, Bill Hosie was earning a reputation as a fine baseball player. Professional baseball had been played in Medicine Hat during the early part of the 20th Century until the outbreak of World War I, with the Medicine Hat Hatters being a mainstay of the Class D Western Canada League. When William Hosie was playing baseball during the 1930s, the professional game was a distant memory but southern Alberta still operated a top-class semi-pro circuit with games often played before crowds of up to 4,000.

By 1934, Bill Hosie was the shortstop with the Medicine Hat Royals, who played at Athletic Park on Riverside, helping them clinch the Senior Alberta baseball championship that season. “Bill Hosie, Medicine Hat’s slugging home run leader,” noted the Calgary Daily Herald after one of his regular offensive outbursts in May 1934, “added further laurels to his credit here Sunday afternoon and evening by slamming three home runs, one three-base hit, two doubles and several singles in a doubleheader exhibition tilt [against] the Lethbridge Cubs.”

Also that month the Daily Herald reported that Hosie “was the big hitter of the afternoon” in a game against the Lethbridge Galt Miners sending “sizzling drives in every direction, and in the fourth inning turned in a beautiful homer.”

Hosie joined the Three Hills team later that season but returned to Medicine Hat in 1935 and helped the Royals clinch the Southern Alberta Semi-Pro League championship in 1936. The Royals became the Monarchs in 1937 and underwent a further name change in 1939 when they became the Tigers. But 1939 was to be Hosie’s last summer of baseball in Medicine Hat. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, launching Hitler’s tyrannical reign of terror and thrusting Europe into war. Days later, Canada – a British Commonwealth country - declared war on Germany and that same month 27-year-old Bill Hosie travelled to Calgary where he enlisted in the Canadian Army with the Calgary Highlanders rather than wait to be inducted.

Throughout the summer of 1940, the Highlanders trained in Shilo - a remote training base in Manitoba – where inter-unit ballgames dominated off-duty life. In late August, Corporal Hosie and the Calgary Highlanders set sail for Britain aboard the SS Pasteur and arrived at Gourock in Scotland on September 4, 1940. It was probably the first time he had been in Scotland since shortly after his birth and the train that took them to their new home at Guillemont Barracks, near Farnborough, England, would have passed through his birth city of Glasgow.

The Highlanders assisted with the coastal defence of England and trained in preparation for combat in Europe. During this time, Hosie captained the Highlanders baseball team.

Calgary Highlanders baseball team in England, September 1941

On August 19, 1942, Hosie took part in the ill-fated Dieppe Raid. As part of a 22-man mortar platoon – the only members of the Calgary Highlanders assigned to the raid – Corporal Hosie was aboard landing craft tank (LCT) 6 as it approached the German-held beach. Pieces of shrapnel began clanging against the craft and pretty soon the engine-room burst into flames. Although the crew managed to put out the fire, when they were 70 yards from the beach the wheelhouse took a direct hit that killed the helmsman. LCT 6 limped to the beach and finally touched down on the shale; the gates creaked open, the ramp fell and before them was Red Beach with dozens of dead and wounded Canadian soldiers strewn across the stones. Amid merciless gunfire and total chaos the LCT unloaded a bulldozer and two tanks that were promptly immobilized. With little hope of being able to set up their mortars on the beach, Hosie and his fellow Calgary Highlanders did not disembark and remained with the LCT as it returned to the sea. Several times the LCT went back to the beach – the mortar team still aboard – as they attempted to rescue troops.

The Dieppe Raid was an unmitigated disaster. A total of 3,623 of the 6,086 men who made it ashore were either killed, wounded, or captured and no major objectives were achieved.

Hosie remained in England with the Calgary Highlanders as they continued to train in preparation for the assault on mainland Europe that would come almost two years after the Dieppe debacle.

On July 6, 1944, one month after the Normandy landings, the Calgary Highlanders landed in France. In Operation Spring, they were part of the Battle of Verrières Ridge, along with the Black Watch, in which the regiment took heavy casualties.

Corporal Hosie, aged 32, was killed in action in France on August 1, 1944, during the Battle for Caen – one of 36 Highlanders who lost their lives that day. He was originally reported as missing in action; his family were notified of his tragic death at the end of the month. Hosie was survived by his wife (Cleo) and two children, his parents (Alex and Lizzie), three sisters (Bessie, Reta and Ella) and a brother (Alfred).

Bill Hosie, husband, father, ballplayer and battlefield veteran, is buried at the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery in Calvados, France.

Thanks to Sheila Drummond, Head of Reference Services at Medicine Hat Public Library and Tanya Field, Archives Clerk at Esplanade Arts and Heritage Center for help with this biography.

Bob Nieman: 141st Former Pro Killed in WWII

2011-03-22T21:34:00.001Z

Every time I discover another minor leaguer that was killed while serving with the military during WWII I believe it's the last. Just two days ago I posted an article about Jim Robertson who played 21 games with the Salem Senators of the Western International League in 1941. Jim was killed following a night-time bombing mission against Japanese forces in the Pacific in April 1944.

The same year that Jim Robertson was breaking into the ranks of professional baseball, so was a young man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Bob Nieman, the 141st addition to the list of professional players killed during WWII, was signed by the Akron Yankees around the same time that Jim Robertson scrawled on his Salem contract. Nieman entered service a month ahead of Robertson and lived an additional four months before - like Robertson - losing his life in a plane crash.

Here is the story of Bob Nieman.

Robert F. Nieman was born in 1919 in the Northside district of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The son of Lawrence and Mary Nieman, and a graduate of Oliver High School, he played semi-pro baseball with the Bellevue club of the Allegheny County League from 1935 to 1940 (Bellevue were league champions in 1940).

In 1941, Bellevue joined the Greater Pittsburgh League and was counting on the contributions of their hard-hitting, 180-pound shortstop, Bob Nieman, but professional baseball had their eyes on the 22-year-old. In April 1941, Nieman signed with the Akron Yankees, a New York Yankees farm team in the Class C Middle-Atlantic League.

The Akron club was strong, with a line-up that featured future major leaguers Gus Niarhos, Joe Buzas, Monk Dubiel, Joe Lutz, Joe Murray and Ed Sauer. Whether Nieman would have been able to hold his own against these players we will never know because on May 15, military service beckoned before he had an opportunity to play a game.

Nieman spent 11 months in England with the U.S. Army’s Medical Corps before returning to the United States in July 1943 to enter service with the Army Air Force. He was assigned to the 421st Base Unit at Muroc Army Air Field in southern California, for combat flight training as an aerial gunner.

At around 9pm on Wednesday, August 23, 1944, Corporal Nieman was aboard a Consolidated B-24D Liberator bomber that lifted off the runway at Muroc to give both its pilots some instrument flying time and to practice dropping bombs. Piloted by Lieutenant John L. Graves, and co-pilot Flight Officer James L. Redd, the B-24D flew without incident for the first couple of hours, but around 10.55pm the crew had problems with number three engine and were forced to shut it down. This, however, didn’t stop it from catching fire and Lt. Graves gave the order to abandon ship. A short time later there was an enormous explosion and the flame-engulfed right wing of the bomber was ripped off.

As the bomber spiralled to the ground, and amid unimaginable terror, the crew struggled to escape. Of the ten airmen onboard that night, five remained trapped in the falling wreckage, and died upon impact with the desert below.

Bob Nieman, along with Lt. Graves, Flight Officer Clifton C. Watts, Cpl. Bernard D. Fogel and Pfc. James W. Flitcroft all lost their lives that night.

Bob Nieman’s body was returned to Pittsburgh, where a Requiem High Mass was held at St. Cyril of Alexandria Church on September 1, 1944.

Thanks to Ray Nemec for confirming that Bob Nieman had signed with Akron in 1941. Some of the information relating to the crash of the B-24D was obtained from Don R. Jordan’s website at www.donrjordan.com

You can read about all 141 professional players who lost their lives during World War II at www.baseballinwartime.com

Jim Robertson: 140th Former Pro Killed in WWII

2011-03-20T15:33:00.000Z

Jim Robertson was an outstanding college athlete who had just begun his professional career in baseball when military service called during the summer of 1942. He is the 140th former pro ballplayer to have been killed during the war.

James G. Robertson was born in Albany, Oregon about 30 miles south of Salem. He attended Albany High School where, as a catcher, he led the baseball team to three consecutive championships and was named to the county all-star team each year. He was also an all-star basketball player; a league high scorer his senior year and recipient of the school’s outstanding all-around athlete award.

Beginning in 1938, Robertson continued his high profile athletic pursuits at Willamette University in Salem. Under the guidance of coach Roy “Spec” Keene (Oregon Sports Hall of Fame inductee 1982), Robertson was the Bearcats’ starting catcher for four years. In 1940 he caught every inning of the team’s 22 games as they clinched the Northwest Conference championship for the first time since 1931. Among his teammates at Willamette were pitchers Bill Hanauska and Earl Toolson, and infielders Clint Cameron and Lee Shinn, who all went on to play minor league ball.

Robertson finished his collegiate catching days in the spring of 1941 and played summer ball for the Silverton Red Sox of the Oregon State League – the same team Boston Red Sox infielder Johnny Pesky had played for two years earlier (many of the Silverton Red Sox players worked for the Silver Falls Timber Company which was owned by Boston Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey). The Red Sox were state semi-pro champions that year and clinched the league title in September with a 14-5 win over Medford. The Silverton line-up of 1941 featured Willamette teammates Toolson and Shinn, future PCL outfielder Bill Carney and big leaguer Dick Whitman.

Robertson completed his basketball competition at Willamette in the winter – where he was named to the Northwest Conference all-star team - and signed with the Salem Senators of the Class B Western International League in February 1942. One of his first games for the Senators was against his alma mater on April 23 at George E. Waters Park – home of both the Senators and Bearcats. In a close fought contest it was Robertson’s infield dribbler that scored the only run of the game in the bottom of the ninth.

Playing for first year manager Charlie Petersen, Robertson held his own behind the plate and with the bat for the Senators. He had a three hit game against the Spokane Indians in May and was batting .250 in 21 games when military service beckoned in June.

Jim Robertson served with the Marine Corps and trained as a pilot, joining VMB-413 – the Marine Corps’ first medium bomber squadron. With 1st Lieutenant Jim Robertson as pilot and squadron athletic officer, VMB-413 deployed to Hawaii in January 1944. The squadron flew North American PBJ-1s; the U.S. Navy’s equivalent of the famous B-25 twin-engine Mitchell bomber, and the flight echelon flew to the island of Espiritu Santo, part of the New Hebrides, at the end of the month. Following a brief training period, the squadron then moved northward to Stirling Island (part of the Treasury Islands) from where it flew night-time missions against Japanese forces at Rabaul and neighboring islands.

Shortly before midnight on April 20, 1944, Robertson, with the squadron’s executive officer Major Douglas E. Keeler at the controls of the PBJ-1D, was returning from a mission over the Japanese stronghold of Kavieng on the island of New Ireland. The bomber had been damaged by Japanese anti-aircraft fire and was attempting a landing in heavy rain at the Allied airstrip on Green Island when it overshot the runway and crashed into the lagoon killing all on board. In addition to Jim Robertson and Major Keeler, other crew members were Second Lieutenant Charles F. Leidberg from Chicago; Staff Sergeant Gilbert V. Enck of Portland, Oregon; Sergeant Aaron S. Johnson Jr. of Pluckemin, New Jersey; and Sergeant Robert C. Hubbell of Philadelphia.

“’Robbie,’ as he was affectionately known by friends and athletic foes alike, was . . . one of Willamette’s best baseball players,” recalled the Willamette Collegian newspaper upon news of his tragic death.

Willamette University Bearcats baseball team (Robertson is front row, first left. Cameron is back row, fourth from left. Toolson is back row, fifth from left. Hanauska is back row, fourth from right. Coach Spec Keene is back row, far right)

Willamette University Bearcats baseball team (Robertson is front row, second left)

Coach Keene instructs his Willamette University players (Robertson is in the middle with dark jersey, white socks and wearing a catcher's mitt)

Jim Robertson with the Willamette University Bearcats

Jim Robertson with the Willamette University Bearcats in 1940

Jim Robertson at Willamette University in 1941

A North American PBJ-1D of VMB-413

Thank you to Rose Marie Walter, Archivist at Willamette University for help with this article. Information was also obtained from the VMB-413 website at www.vmb413.com.

Aubrey Stewart - African-American Pitcher Killed in WWII

2011-03-08T23:43:00.001Z

Aubrey Stewart was a semi-pro pitcher with the Piedmont Colored Giants who volunteered for military service in 1942 and became a victim of a WWII atrocity.

James A. "Aubrey" Stewart was born in Piedmont, West Virginia in 1906, the son of James and Emma Stewart. His father was the first black employee at the local Westvaco Paper Mill and following high school Aubrey also went to work at the mill. For more than two decades he also pitched semi-pro baseball with the Piedmont Colored Giants, an all-black team that played against other local sides including the Moorefield Black Sox, Frostburg Colored Federals and Cumberland Hurricanes.

In 1942, despite being 36 years old, Stewart volunteered for military service. He was inducted by the U.S. Army in December and trained with the 333rd Field Artillery Battalion - an all-black outfit - at Camp Gruber, Oklahoma. In January 1944, the Battalion left for Europe and landed at Utah Beach, Normandy on June 29.

By December, the Battalion was in the Ardennes area of Belgium and faced the full brunt of the German offensive that was launched on December 16 and was soon to be labelled the Battle of the Bulge.

Cut off from Allied forces on the second day of the battle, Stewart and ten other men from the Battalion walked 10 miles in deep snow and freezing conditions before reaching the apparent safety of a farmhouse in the tiny hamlet of Wereth. The farmhouse was owned by the mayor of Wereth, Mathias Langer, who gladly took them in and fed them.

But someone in town, a Nazi sympathizer - tipped off the nearby German forces. An hour later a four-man SS patrol pulled up and the 11 black Americans were marched into a cow pasture where they were executed. For two months, the body of 37-year-old Aubrey Stewart and his comrades lay in the snow until villagers directed a unit of the U.S. 99th Infantry Division to the site. Army autopsies later showed signs of torture with broken bones and bayonet wounds inflicted upon the American soldiers. Years later, they became known as the Wereth 11.

In May 2004, a memorial was dedicated to the Wereth 11 on the site where the massacre took place and a sign now stands in Piedmont, West Virginia, honoring Aubrey Stewart.

James Aubrey Stewart is buried at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium.

Thanks to Jeremy Collins at the National World War II Museum for bringing this story to my attention.

139 Ballplayers Died in Service in World War II

2011-03-04T16:11:00.000Z

Names such as Bob Feller and Ted Williams instantly spring to mind when we think of dedication to service during the war years, but little is heard of the minor league players who also served. While the majority of big leaguers enjoyed an almost normal existence (albeit for $21 a month service pay) playing baseball for service teams as morale-building entertainment for military personnel, many lesser-known major league and minor league players were fighting for their country in Europe, the Pacific and Asia. And on the battlefields of these far off lands many left behind their hopes and dreams of playing in the major leagues.

To most sports fans, these players’ names remain as unfamiliar as their careers remain incomplete - bush leaguers who failed to make it to “The Show.” Nevertheless, their ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty should never be forgotten, as the brief careers of these athletic heroes are and always will be an integral part of the history of the national pastime.

Whilst Elmer Gedeon and Harry O’Neill might be familiar names as the two major league players who lost their lives in military service during World War II, a staggering 137 former minor leaguers died. Among them were batting champs, 20-game winners and MVPs.

You will find the names and home towns of these players listed below and their individual biographies appear at the Baseball in Wartime website as well as in my book “Baseball’s Dead of World War II” published by McFarland. Have I included every professional baseball player who died during World War II? Probably not. There is no definitive list to go by. Organized baseball appears to have been unable to keep track of their military serving alumni, but this is certainly the most extensive list you will find.

So, how can we continue to remember these ballplaying heroes. Over the years I have worked closely with Minor League Baseball in the hope of finding a way to permanently honor these men. Until something suitable is found why don't you leave a comment here; a message of gratitude for the sacrifice these men made for their country and for the freedom of future generations. I will ensure all these comments are included in a memorial section on the Baseball in Wartime website. Thank you.

Name and Hometown

Jerry M. Angelich, Wilmington, CA
Herman A. Bauer, East St. Louis, IL
Fred W. Beal, Cherryville, NC
Constantine G. "Gus" Bebas, Wilmette, IL
Hugh P. Bedient, Jr.,Falconer, NY
Leonard E. "Link" Berry, Bowman, SC
Keith F. Bissonnette, St. Paul, MN
W. Davis "Buddy" Blewster, Anniston, AL
Joseph S. Boren, Carterville, IL
Charles W. "Chuck" Bowers, Marion, OH
Forrest V. "Lefty" Brewer, Jacksonville, FL
Edward A. Brock, Detroit, MI
Murrill J. Brown, Huntington Beach, CA
Eldred H. "Whitey" Burch, Mount Croghan, SC
George W. Chandler, Jr., Dallas, TX
Floyd E. Christiansen, Chicago, IL
Frank J. Ciaffone, Brooklyn, NY
Ordway H. "Hal" Cisgen, Lorain, OH
Clarence W. Clayton, Middletown, OH
Lester O. "Les" Clotiaux, Nederland, TX
Eugene L. Dellinger, Jr., Bahama, NC
Howard W. DeMartini, Northvale, NJ
Harold B. "Hal" Dobson, Denver, CO
Norman J. Duncan, Mayville, MI
Louis E. Elko, Streator, IL
Charles "Chatty" Etherton, Jr.,Carbondale, IL
Charles H. "Herb" Fash, East St. Louis, IL
Frank Faudem, Detroit, MI
John H. Fessler*, Pine Grove, PA
Ernest B. Ford, Jr., Watertown, MA
Troy L. Furr, Concord, NC
Gene Gabrych, Winona, MN
George Gamble, Rochester, NY
Robert W. Gary, Jr., Beaumont, TX
Elmer J. Gedeon, Cleveland, OH
Conrad W. "Connie" Graff, New Orleans, LA
Alan S. Grant, Champaign, IL
James M. Grilk, Sacramento, CA
Robert J. Gruss, Lakewood, OH
Frank C. Haggerty, Rockville Centre, NY
William F. "Bill" Hansen, Chicago, IL
William J. "Billy" Hebert, Stockton, CA
Manuel P. "Nay" Hernandez, San Diego, CA
Robert K. Hershey, Penn Hills, PA
Roswell G. Higginbotham, Jamison, TX
Ernest J. Holbrook, Hermosa Beach, CA
Robert D. Holmes, Troy, MO
Gordon E. Houston, San Antonio, TX
Ernest Hrovatic (Hrovatich), Highlandtown, OH
Harry N. Imhoff, Jr., Baltimore, MD
Frank D. Janik, Buffalo, NY
Ardys B. "Art" Keller, Lincoln, NE
Stanley P. Klores, Milwaukee, WI
Carlyle J. "Curly" Kopp, Buffalo Center, IA
Harry B. Ladner, Jr., Philadelphia, PA
Walter E. Lake, Richmond, IN
Harlan D. Larsen, Milwaukee, WI
Felix A. Little, Catawba, NC
Walter G, "Whitey" Loos, Jr., Crafton Heights, PA
Andrew J. "Jack" Lummus, Jr., Ennis, TX
Theodore C. "Ted" Maillet, Livermore Falls, ME
Dom P. Malchiodi, Chester, CT
William A. Marzalek, Emsworth, PA
Henry "Marty" Martinez, Mount View, CA
John W. "Duck" McKee, Atlanta, GA
Paul V. A. Mellblom, Edison, NJ
George A. Meyer, Elk River, MN
Louis I. Miller, Bucoda, WA
Joseph T. Moceri, Detroit, MI
John T. "Jack" Moller, Mount Vernon, NY
Walt Navie (Walter J. Nawiesniak), Chicago, IL
Jack A. Nealy, Langdale, AL
Edward S. Neusel, St. Louis, MO
William F. "Bill" Niemeyer, Crescent Springs, KY
Henry S. "Hank" Nowak, Buffalo, NY
Harry M. O'Neill, Darby, PA
Joseph M. Palatas, Cuyahoga County, OH
Jack H. Patterson, Zanesville, OH
Metro Persoskie, Iselin, PA
Charles R. Pescod, Dumas, AR
John J. "Joe" Pinder, Jr., McKees Rock, PA
Henry R. "Bob" Price, Portland, OR
Luster Pruett, Vandalia, IL
Ernest R. Raimondi, Oakland, CA
John J. Regan, Chicago, IL
Charles J. "Pete" Rehkamp, Covington, KY
Joseph W. Rodgers, Reedsville, PA
Milton "Rosey" Rosenstein, Ellenville, NY
Herman P. Rush, Long Beach, CA
Michael L. Sambolich, Wegley, PA
Glenn F. Sanford, Clare, MI
William A. "Bill" Sarver, Kansas City, MO
Walter J. Schmisseur, Jr., Belleville, IL
Robert C. "Bob" Schmukal, Buffalo, NY
Edward N. Schohl, Chicago, IL
Franklin C. Schulz, Clarkson, NE
Carl H. "Kappy" Scott, Transfer, PA
Marcello L. "Major" Serventi, Oakland, CA
Donald R. Shelton, Webster City, IA
Harold H. Sherman, Bonne Terre, MO
Jack C. Siens Huntington, WV
Arthur H. "Art" Sinclair, Haddonfield, NJ
John M. "Mason" Smith, Fort Smith, AR
Norman K. Smith, Carnegie, GA
Marshall M. Sneed, Piggott, AR
Rodney L. Sooter, Laurel, WA
William B. "Billy" Southworth Jr., Sunbury, OH
Earl V. "Lefty" Springer, Hagerstown, MD
Gene Stack (Eugene F. Stachowiak), Saginaw, MI
Donald A. Stewart, Vancouver, BC, Canada
James E. Stewart, Hazlehurst, GA
Alvin "Bus" Stiewe, Sandusky, OH
Sylvester H. "Syl" Sturges, New York, NY
Fredric W. Swift, Norristown, PA
Johnny P. Taylor, Dallas, TX
Steve L. Tonsick, Granite City, IL
James Trimble III, Chevy Chase, MD
Edgar W. Tuttle, Maiden, NC
Wirt B. "Beecher" Twitchell, Jr., Phoenix, AZ
Lou Vann (Luigi G. Varanese), Fall River, MA
Joseph Vecchio, Utica, NY
Armando J. "Pete" Viselli, Ansonia, CT
Arthur C. Vivian, Jr., Plainfield, NJ
Elmer J. Wachtler, Omaha, NE
Leo M.H. Walker, Gulfport, MS
Roman E. "Chipper" Wantuck, Chicago, IL
James J. Whitfield, Graham, NC
Richard L. "Dick" Williams, Grand Rapids, MI
Lester R. Wirkkala, Sebeka, MN
Stanford G. Wolfson, Universal City, MO
Thomas J. Woodruff, St. Louis, MO
Alan Wray (Alan W. Lightner), Stockton, CA
Elmere P. "Elmer" Wright, Bedford, VA
Frederick J. Yeske, Canton, CT
Marion P. "Spud" Young, Madison, WI
Peter J. Zarrilla, New Castle, PA
Lamar A. "Dutch" Zimmerman, Pine Grove, PA
John J. Zulberti, Solvay, NY
George C. Zwilling, Cincinnati, OH

Hall of Famer Duke Snider Dies

2011-02-27T20:52:00.000Z

I had the pleasure of meeting Duke Snider and his wife Beverly, in London back in 1980. I was 17 years old at the time; playing baseball with one of Britain’s most successful baseball teams, and had written to Duke asking him for hitting tips. A couple of months later the phone rang at our house and my mother answered. She said, “Gary, somebody named Duke Snider is on the phone for you.” Not for one minute did I believe her. It had to be one of my friends messing around.

“Hello, this is Duke Snider, is that Gary?” said the voice at the other end when I picked up the phone. I couldn’t believe it. It really was Duke Snider. He and Beverly were in London on vacation and wanted to meet with me to talk about baseball and hitting techniques. I jumped at the opportunity and met with them the following day. Beverly and Duke were wonderful. They bought me lunch and Duke talked about hitting and his days with the Dodgers. He also signed a photo for me, although the only pen available was his wife’s pink Sharpie!

At the end of our meeting, Duke said that if I could ever get over to Montreal he would arrange a trial for me with the Expos. I made it to the States the following year (visiting New Hampshire, Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts, where I met George Brett, Hal McRae and Ron Luciano) but I never did make it to Canada. Thanks, Duke, for taking time out of your vacation to indulge this British baseball enthusiast.

Edwin D "Duke" Snider was born on September 19, 1926, in Los Angeles, California. “My Dad started to call me Duke when I was just five years old,” he told The Sporting News on July 27, 1949. “But he never did tell me why. I guess it was just one of those things that stick.”

Snider was a gifted all-around athlete. At Enterprise Junior High School, which he entered in 1937, he was a pitcher on the softball team and helped them win the league championship three straight years. The team failed to win when he was in eleventh grade, however. Three of the teams best hitters were Japanese boys and when the war started they were sent to internment camps in the Midwest.

In the fall of 1942 he entered Compton High School and played tailback on the football team. The following spring he pitched a 6-0 no-hitter against Beverly Hills in his initial prep league appearance, and led the Compton Tarbabes to a second place finish in the Bay League and runner-up honors in the Pasadena Southern California baseball tournament, batting .411.

In June 1943, Snider’s baseball coach at Compton, Bill Schleibaum, wrote to Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers informing him of the baseball talent under his supervision. “During the past ten years, I have been directly connected with coaching,” Schleibaum wrote, “and it is my belief that Duke Snider is one of the finest baseball prospects that I have ever seen.”

The Dodgers were hot on his tail and while playing summer baseball with the Montebello Merchants, he was invited to a tryout camp at Long Beach in September by Brooklyn scout Tom Downey. The Dodgers were keen to sign the youngster but had to wait until his graduation the following February. “Scouts from the Cardinals and Reds also had talked to me,” Snider told The Sporting News on November 19, 1952, “and I didn’t make up my mind until Downey came to my house a few days after I graduated.”

Snider accompanied the Dodgers to their Bear Mountain training camp in New York. “During our stay at Bear Mountain we played the Army varsity team a couple of times,” he recalled. “I replaced Dixie Walker in the fourth inning one day and hit a homer over Glenn Davis’ head.”

Snider was 17 years old when he reported to the Montreal Royals of the International League in April 1944. He made just a couple of appearances with the Royals and played the remainder of the season with the Newport News Dodgers in the Piedmont League. Snider got off to a great start at Newport and was hitting .342 in his first 19 games. He was later hit on the elbow by a pitched ball and finished the season with a .295, which was still fourth best in the league.

He returned home to California after the season, turned 18 on September 19, and reported to the pre-induction center in the Watts section of Los Angeles for his military physical on October 19.

"They checked us just enough to make sure we were warm and upright," he explained in his autobiography The Duke of Flatbush, "and a guy handed me some papers I didn't want to know about and screamed 'NAVY!' in my face at the top of his lungs. I was headed for he high seas. I wondered why they took me if they thought I was deaf."

Snider served as a fireman, third class on the submarine tender USS Sperry at Guam. Snider used to win bets against other sailors and servicemen by throwing a baseball the length of submarines that arrived at Guam, that's about 300 feet. "I'd throw the ball the length of their sub, my crewmates would win $300 or so, and I'd pick up my guarantee - $50," he recalls.

“We played lots of baseball and basketball on Guam. Pee Wee Reese was stationed there, too, but I never bumped into him.” Snider moonlighted for the 2nd Marine Division team while on Guam as well as playing for the USS Sperry team.

In between playing baseball, Snider's main duty on the USS Sperry was dishwashing detail. "There was a porthole behind the sink and any time we came across a chipped glass or dish that wouldn't come clean in less than a second we fired the sucker into the Pacific Ocean."

Snider felt he had a very comfortable and safe war while his father - also serving with the Navy - was involved in many of the island invasions in the Pacific. "There was one close call when it looked as if I was going to find myself in combat after all," he explains in The Duke of Flatbush. "I was on watch duty on the number one 5-inch gun when we sighted an unidentified shop ahead. The command came down from the bridge to load the gun with a star shell that would be fired if the ship did not respond to our signal requesting identification.

"No World Series moment ever scared me as much. I was no authority on loading or firing shells. All I had been told in our drills was that you press this lever, a shell comes up, you put it in and press another lever, and the shell goes 'Boom!' I pressed the first lever, the shell came up, and I put it into the loading chamber. I was actually shaking while waiting for the command to fire. Two ships might start firing at each other in the middle of the Pacific Ocean as a small part of World War II, and I was going to be the one to start the firing.

"Seconds before the command to fire would have come, the other ship identified itself as friendly. I needed an immediate change of underwear."

Snider was later stationed at Long Beach Army Air Base in California, and while playing for the base team Babe Herman offered him $13,000 to sign with the Pirates, but Snider had his Brooklyn commitment to fulfill.

After 19 months of military service Snider returned to the Dodgers’ organization in June 1946 and played for the Fort Worth Cats of the Texas League. He played 68 games and got off to a slow start but made Branch Rickey sit up and take notice when he hit a home run that cleared the clock in center field at Fort Worth, 430 feet from home plate. Snider began 1947 with Brooklyn but was sent to the St Paul Saints of the American Association on July 4, where he batted .316 with 12 home runs in 66 games and got a late-season recall to Brooklyn. He started 1948 with Montreal and after batting .327 with 17 home runs he was called up to Brooklyn mid-season, appearing in 53 games and batting .244.

The following season The Duke of Flatbush was in the starting line-up for good. He hit .292 that year with 23 home runs, raising that figure to 31 in 1950 along with 107 RBIs.

The fleet-footed, left-handed swinging power-hitter patrolled centerfield for the Dodgers for the next 12 seasons. In an 18-year major league career that ended in 1964, Snider batted .295 with 407 home runs and 1,333 RBIs in 2,143 games, was an eight-time all-star and appeared in six World Series.

Duke Snider scouted for the Dodgers and Padres and managed in the minor leagues before becoming a popular play-by-play announcer for the Montreal Expos from 1973 to 1986. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.

Duke Snider, who passed away on February 27, 2011, lived in Fallbrook, California, where he continued to root for the Dodgers.

Visit Duke Snider's page on the Baseball in Wartime website

Baseball Happenings: Bill Deck, Negro League pitcher dies at 95

2011-02-25T18:33:00.000Z

Baseball Happenings: Bill Deck, Negro League pitcher dies at 95: "Bill Deck - 1939 Bill Deck, former pitcher for the Philadelphia Stars of the Negro Leagues died Tuesday February 22, 2011 at Jefferson Hos..."

John ‘Jack’ F. Crook

2011-02-25T18:31:00.000Z

John ‘Jack’ F. Crook

Gene Dellinger: 138th Former Pro Dead in WWII

2011-02-23T22:26:00.000Z

Eugene L. "Gene" Dellinger was born on June 30, 1926 in the small town of Bahama, North Carolina, about 14 miles north of Durham. Dellinger loved baseball and played the game every opportunity he had while growing up.

"Eugene and I grew up in Bahama, and we lived within 150 yards of each other," recalls his boyhood friend Alton P. Mangum. "We played together from the time we could walk. We were both in the Boy Scouts, and we hiked and camped with our Scout troop, and we were as close as brothers.

"When Eugene was about 10 years old, his daddy helped him in changing his swing from the right side to the left. He had a very natural swing left handed, and he reminded me of Ted Williams in the way he snapped his wrist when he swung at a ball.

"We both played baseball at every opportunity as we grew up. If we weren’t playing in a game, we were throwing the ball to each other. His dad had broad shoulders, and Eugene took after him."

Dellinger played shortstop in high school; Mangum played first base, and the two of them regularly attended ballgames at Durham Athletic Park, home of the Durham Bulls who were a Brooklyn Dodgers farm club at the time.

"When the Bulls held a tryout day, Eugene attended," says Mangum. "After displaying his baseball skills, they talked to him and signed him after he graduated from high school."

Joining the club in 1943, and playing for former St. Louis Cardinals infielder Bruno Betzel and alongside future Brooklynites Gene Hermanski, Rex Barney and Gene Mauch, Dellinger appeared in 10 games as an outfielder and batted .293 before being assigned to the Olean Oilers of the Class D PONY League. At Olean, Dellinger played for former Pirates second baseman Jake Pitler and had Ralph Branca and future American League infielder Billy DeMars as teammates. In 80 games (46 in the outfield, 14 at first base and 13 at shortstop), the 17-year-old batted .257 with 35 RBIs and led the team with 300 at-bats, 77 hits and 14 doubles.

In 1944, he advanced to the Montreal Royals of the Class AA International League - one level below the majors - and appeared in an exhibition game against the Brooklyn Dodgers on July 11.

"After the game," recalls Mangum, "Leo Durocher went to Eugene and talked with him, and Eugene told him it looked like he was going to be drafted in the Army. Leo told him if he went into the Army to call him after the war and that he wanted him with the Dodgers."

Playing again for Bruno Betzel, Dellinger batted .185 in 28 games for the Royals and was assigned to the Newport News Dodgers of the Class B Piedmont League where he was reunited with another former manager, Jake Pitler. Playing first base, third base and the outfield, Dellinger batted .304 in 85 games and drove in 56, while his teammate, future Hall of Famer Duke Snider drove in 50 runs and batted .294.

In November 1944, Dellinger was drafted by the Buffalo Bisons of the American Association but he would never get to play a game for them because he entered military service with the Army the same month.

Dellinger, who attained the rank of sergeant, spent much of his military service playing baseball; first in the United States and later in France. It was while traveling with his Army team in Belgium that tragedy struck. "The ball team was riding in the back of an Army truck when it struck a train," remembers Mangum. "He was burned badly and was transferred to the Veterans hospital in Tuscaloosa, Alabama."
Dellinger survived a few months before succumbing to his injuries on January 31, 1946. He was 21 years old.

Eugene Dellinger's body was returned to Bahama, North Carolina. He now rests at the Mount Bethel United Methodist Church Cemetery in Bahama.

Alton Mangum will never forget his childhood friend: "Eugene was a great athlete – playing baseball, basketball and football. He was extremely well liked, and his death was certainly a shock to our small community."

Thanks to Alton P. Mangum and Toni Garrett, Secretary at Mt. Bethel UMC for their assistance with this biography.

Link to Gene Dellinger's biography on the Baseball in Wartime website

Remembering Gaston County baseball great, businessman | businessman, county, gaston - Gaston Gazette

2011-02-19T12:38:00.000Z

Remembering Gaston County baseball great, businessman | businessman, county, gaston - Gaston Gazette

Whitey Burch

2011-02-12T14:00:00.000Z

Whitey Burch was a promising young infielder applying his trade in the North Carolina farm leagues. His life would end in tragedy just seven months after entering military service.

Eldred “Whitey” Burch was living in Mount Croghan, South Carolina, when he signed with the Thomasville Tommies of the Class D North Carolina State League in 1939. The 5-foot-8 middle-infielder batted .215 with nine RBIs in 35 games. In 1940, he remained in the North Carolina State League and split the season as a second baseman with the Lexington Indians and the league champion Kannapolis Towelers, batting a vastly improved .291 with 39 RBIs in 76 games.

After two seasons, Burch’s minor league career was put on hold when he entered military service on April 16, 1941, and he served with the 530th Signal Corps of the U.S. Army Air Force at Drew Field, Tampa, Florida. On Saturday afternoon, November 29, 1941, while on maneuvers in the Carolinas, Private Burch was driving an Army truck on the Morrow Mountain State Park Road near Albemarle, about a mile from the intersection with the Badin highway, when the truck overturned. Burch, just 23 years old, was crushed by the steering wheel and died at the scene. Two other soldiers, Corporal Everett L. Jobe and Private Guadalupe Villarreal were injured and taken to Stanley General Hospital in Albemarle.

Whitey Burch, who is buried at the Elizabeth Baptist Church Cemetery in Mount Croghan, is one of only three former professional baseball players to die in service before the United States had entered WWII.

More Details on Walt Navie's Suicide

2011-02-12T11:49:00.000Z

Walter Navie was a 20-game winner in the minors and headed for a career with the White Sox. But four years of military service ended in tragic circumstances. I have recently uncovered more details on the circumstances surrounding Navie's death.

Using his real last name of Nawiesniak, Walt Navie, a 17-year-old left-handed pitcher from Harrison Technical High School, Chicago, Illinois, signed with the Rock Island Islanders of the Class A Western League in 1935. In his professional debut for the Islanders against the Davenport Blue Sox, he survived seven innings without allowing a hit, but so did the opposing pitcher. In the eighth inning his control wobbled, he allowed three hits and was beaten, 2–1. It was to be the highlight of an otherwise forgettable trial in which he finished with an 0–5 won-loss record in 10 appearances before getting his release. Later in the year he caught on with the Greenville Buckshots of the Class C East Dixie League, pitching in eight games for a 2–4 record. The following year, in between working for the International Harvester Company, he made four appearances with the Crookston Pirates of the Class D Northern League for an 0–2 record, and also compiled a 2–4 record in the Class D Alabama-Florida League with the Panama City Papermakers and the Enterprise Browns.

In 1937, he returned to minor league baseball under the abbreviated name of Walt Navie, and made five appearances with the Newton-Coroner Twins of the Class D North Carolina State League. It was in 1938, at the age of 20, that Navie finally got into the swing of things. Signing with the Chicago White Sox organization he was assigned to the Rayne Rice Birds of the Class D Evangeline League where he led the pitching staff with a 16–11 won-loss record in 33 appearances. He was back with the Rice Birds in 1939 for a career-best 20–11 record, a 2.27 ERA and a league-leading 223 strikeouts. On August 5, Navie played in the Evangeline League All-Star game at Lake Charles, Louisiana, and then made four late-season appearances for the Shreveport Sports of the Class A1 Texas League.

He began the 1940 season with the Marshall Tigers of the Class C East Texas League, and was 7–2 in 13 appearances when he rejoined Shreveport for the remainder of the year. Navie was 2–4 with the Sports and earned a spot on the White Sox spring training roster for 1941. On March 6, he made a relief appearance for the major league team in an exhibition game against the Hollywood Stars, hurling two scoreless innings in Chicago’s 8–0 win. On March 29, he made another relief appearance, this time against the San Diego Padres, pitching five scoreless innings after Orval Grove allowed three runs in the Padres 3–1 win. Despite these performances, and since the White Sox had a steady starting rotation of Ted Lyons, Thornton Lee, Eddie Smith and Johnny Rigney, Navie was optioned to Shreveport the next day where he appeared in 23 games during the regular season for a disappointing 4–8 record and 4.13 ERA.

Navie was carried on Chicago’s National Defense Service List when he entered military service with the Army on February 21, 1942. As Private First Class Nawiesniak, he served in the Pacific with the military police at Guadalcanal where he suffered from recurring attacks of malaria.

In October 1945, with the war over, the 28-year-old was stationed at El Paso, Texas, where he had gotten married in the spring. On Friday, October 5, 1945, Nawiesniak was on duty at the Union Depot Railway Station before returning to the Hotel Oasis at 711 North Oregon Street, where he was living with his wife, Maxine.

Although fellow MPs said he had been in good spirits recently, Walt and Maxine had been having marital problems. Walt had threatened to kill himself several times and Maxine had filed for divorce the previous day. At around 1 pm, Maxine left the hotel to go shopping and when she returned at 5 pm she found her husband lying on the floor in a pool of blood; a .45 caliber Army revolver beneath his dead body.

On October 10, Justice of the Peace Charles Windberg, Jr., returned a verdict of suicide. Nawiensniak had shot himself through the left side of his head at around 2pm. He had left two notes.

One note said:

"Dearest Darling Mommie: I've waited for one and a half hours and I have to go to work now - Please call me at Main 6478 or I'll call you. Daddy. P. S. I love you."

The other note said:

"Dearest Darling Mommie: Dear, I'm sorry you're not home. I really wanted to talk to you for the last time. Goodbye Mommie, I love you always. Daddy."

Harry Grabiner, the Chicago White Sox general manager, said he was "very sorry to hear" of Nawiesniak's death. He described the soldier as "a fine young man, a very promising pitcher."

Murrill Brown

2011-02-10T14:00:00.001Z

Murrill J. Brown grew up in Huntington Beach, California, and starred as a pitcher and outfielder at Wilson High School in Long Beach, and with the Samuel Thomas Post 326 American Legion junior team in North Long Beach. He was signed by the Sacramento Solons of the Class AA Pacific Coast League in 1942, and joined the Pocatello Cardinals of the Class C Pioneer League, where he pitched and played the outfield. On May 28, he threw a 6–0 three-hitter against Boise, and was batting .333 by July. However, his bat cooled off as the season progressed and he finished with a .222 average having played 35 games in the outfield. On the mound he made 21 appearances for a 5–9 record and 4.54 ERA. The Cardinals finished the year with a 72–46 record for first place and clinched the Pioneer League title in the best-of-seven series against Boise, with Brown scoring the deciding run in a 3–2 triumph in the seventh game.

Brown was called into military service at the end of the season and joined the Navy. He earned trained as a pilot at NAAS Waldron in Texas, where he also played baseball, and earned his wings at Corpus Christi Naval Air Station, Texas. He was assigned to active duty as a Navy flyer at Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida. In September 1944, Ensign Brown was killed when his plane crashed on an operational flight out of Jacksonville.

[I'd be very pleased to hear from you if you can supply information and an exact date relating to Murrill's plane crash info@baseballinwartime.com]

Ed Brock

2011-02-09T14:00:00.000Z

Edward A. Brock was an infielder from Detroit, Michigan, and was playing semipro baseball in the city when he signed with the St. Louis Cardinals in late 1939. He joined the Albany Cardinals of the Class D Georgia-Florida League at the start of the 1940 season and batted .360 in 10 games, prompting an early move to the Duluth Dukes of the Class D Northern League. He was soon on the move again and spent the bulk of the season with the Fostoria Red Birds of the Class D Ohio State League, where he batted .295 with 37 RBIs in 58 games.

Brock did not return to Organized Baseball after 1940, but returned to Detroit to play semi-pro ball. During that time the Cardinals assigned him to Decatur of the Three-I League and then Lynchburg of the Piedmont League but he did not report to either team.

Brock served with the Navy in the Pacific during the war as a machinist’s mate third class. On March 3, 1945, he was reported missing in action. It was later confirmed he had been killed on February 26, 1945. He was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Charles "Chuck" Bowers

2011-02-08T14:00:00.001Z

Charles W. “Chuck” Bowers attended Harding High School in Marion, Ohio, where he was a three-sport star. In his senior year — 1942 — Bowers’ hitting and defensive skills as a shortstop guided the Harding High School Presidents to the Ohio state tournament where they eventually lost at the semi-final stage to McClain High School of Greenfield. But to get to that stage, Bowers made a rare appearance as a pitcher, holding Libbey High School of Toledo to just one hit over seven innings in a 10–1 win. In football, he helped Harding to the undisputed North Central Ohio (NCO) conference championship in 1941, as the Presidents were the only Class A team to boast an unscored-against record. And in basketball he was a member of the Presidents 1941-1942 squad which finished behind Columbus South and Newark in the Class A district tournament. A loss to Ashland in the final game of the season cost them an undisputed NCO title. Bowers also starred for the Marion American Legion junior baseball team in 1940, which competed in the Ohio state championships.

Bowers first attracted the attention of professional baseball scouts during his junior year at Harding but was advised to complete high school education. His one-hit pitching performance brought the scouts hurrying back to Marion and he clinched a professional tryout following graduation in 1942. Frank Rickey, brother of the illustrious Branch Rickey, signed the 18-year-old and he was sent to the Johnson City Cardinals of the Class D Appalachian League. “Charles Bowers, former Harding High School athletic satellite,” announced the Marion Star in August 1942, “is roaring to rapid baseball success. Various high school coaches who have watched Bowers develop into a star performer, predict a bright for the 19-year-old youth. Likewise, Johnson City officials laud him as a great diamond prospect.”

Bowers was the fourth Marion youth to be given a trial with a pro team during the early summer of 1942. Owen Creasap, John Edington and Joe Roseberry were soon back home and playing with the Marion Hawks in the Ohio State semi-pro loop, but Bowers got off to a sensational start. Playing second base, he had a 10-game hitting streak in July and a batting average that was flirting with the .300 mark in August. He cooled off during the latter part of the season, however, and finished with a .246 average along with 29 RBIs in 67 games, still good enough to receive honorable mention on the 1942 Appalachian League all-star team.

Bowers’ future as a professional baseball player looked bright, but military service intervened when he was inducted at Columbus, Ohio, on February 13, 1943. He was assigned to the U.S. Army's 128th Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin, and played for the post baseball team throughout the summer months. His .325 batting average was one of the highest on the team and he was awarded a gold baseball trophy for his good sportsmanship. In November 1943, the company moved to Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and Bowers attended Ordnance Parts Clerical School at the Rossford Ordnance Depot in Toledo, Ohio. He played basketball for the company team at Camp Campbell and helped them to an 8–1 record.

The 128th Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company left for Europe on February 11, 1944, and arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 11 days later. He was one of the leading scorers on the basketball team overseas, and when spring rolled around he was playing second base on the softball team. The company left Northern Ireland for England in May 1944, and was stationed in a strip of woods at Northleach near Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. The company was kept busy taking classes on gas warfare, hiking, drilling and waterproofing vehicles in preparation for deployment to mainland Europe. Despite the heavy workload, there was still time for visits to Cheltenham, London, Oxford, Bristol and Stratford-upon-Avon (home of William Shakespeare) and the company entered a softball team in the 6th Cavalry Group league. They finished with a 15–2 record.

On July 11, the company moved 100 miles to the Southampton marshalling area and boarded LST266 (Landing Ship, Tank) on July 13, sailing for France and arriving at Omaha Beach in the intense darkness of the following evening. They soon entered the combat zone with a forward Ordnance Battalion in support of the Third Army, and the main job as they advanced into the Cherbourg Peninsula was welding hedgerow cutters for tanks. The company advanced through the Brittany Peninsula, stopping at Saint-Malo, Brest, Saint-Nazaire and Lorient, with whole towns and villages turning out to greet the liberating American troops with flowers and fruit cascading from every window and door. Even in France, the company made the most of opportunities to play ball and a handful of softball games were played against any opponents they could find.

By October 1944, the 128th Ordnance was in Luxembourg recovering wrecked vehicles from the front line. The Germans launched their offensive in the Ardennes on December 16, and the company moved to Belgium, where the weather was bitter cold and work was hindered by heavy snowstorms. In March 1945, the company crossed the Roer River, and set up camp in Odenkirchen, Germany, repairing vehicles needed to cross the Rhine. At the same time, the softball team set about finding competition and won a few games before suffering two defeats at the hands of the 503rd Ordnance Heavy Maintenance Tank Company. On April 14 - just three weeks before the German surrender - they moved to Biere, close to the Elbe River, and the next day T/5 Bowers and T/5 Casimer Jablonski drove a truck to the nearby ordnance depot to pick up supplies for maintenance work. They never returned and were reported missing.

A few days later word was received by the company that Bowers had been killed and Jablonski had been badly wounded and captured. Bowers had been driving one of three vehicles that set out that day for the depot and, somehow, they took a wrong turn and drove into an ambush near Aschersleben, Germany. Bowers was killed before the trucks could get out of the area.

“It is with a heavy heart,” wrote his commanding officer, Captain George E. Lien, in a letter to Bower’s mother, “that I write as his commanding officer to you in the loss of your son and to us in the loss of a friend and fellow soldier beloved and true.

"Three of his best friends and I," continued Captain Lien, "saw him again before he was sent to be buried in the American Army Cemetery at Margraten, near Mastricht, Holland. A Protestant Chaplain was in charge of the burial services."

Captain Lien went on to describe that Bowers "was clean in word, thought and deed and the friend of all. In everything he did, just as in every game he starred as a great athlete, he played the game."

In conclusion, his moving letter stated, "It is impossible to say anything that will relieve your sadness in this hour, but he will always be with us as a symbol of the good that he as a man attained."

Chuck Bowers, one of only four members of the 128th Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company to lose their lives as a result of enemy action during WWII, remains buried at what is now called the Netherlands American Cemetery.

Leonard "Link" Berry

2011-02-07T14:00:00.001Z

Leonard E. “Link” Berry, son of Mr. and Mrs. C.M. Berry, was from Bowman, South Carolina. Link and his brothers Wilbur "Wib" and Harold "Huck", were local semi-pro ballplayers and Link signed with the Macon Peaches of the Class B South Atlantic League in 1937. The Peaches sent him to the New Bern Bears of the Class D Coastal Plain League and he had three wins and three losses in 18 appearances. In 1938, the Bears were league champions, and Berry led the pitching staff with 31 appearances for a 12–4 record. The following year, the Bears slipped to fifth place despite Berry’s 18–8 record and 3.06 ERA.

During the winter of 1939-1940, Berry played winter ball in Panama with Balboa Heights in the Canal Zone League, before starting his fourth season at New Bern. Yet again, he was the mainstay of the pitching staff and posted a 17–8 record and 3.08 ERA, despite the club’s sixth-place finish. Berry had won 50 games against just 23 losses over four seasons and was sold to the Charleston Rebels of the South Atlantic League at the end of the season. Moving up to Class B, Berry had a 12–14 record with the Rebels in 1941. Only Irv Stein (who pitched for the Athletics in 1932) and Mack Stewart (who would pitch for the Cubs in 1944) won more games for the Rebels.

A promising career was interrupted when military service called on April 8, 1942. Berry was inducted into the Army at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and joined Company B, 264th Infantry Regiment of the 66th “Black Panther” Infantry Division at Camp Blanding, Florida. The division moved to Camp Joseph T. Robinson in Arkansas, then took specialized training, including small-unit infantry-tank tactics at Camp Rucker, Alabama.

He married Emma Mae Thompson on October 4, 1943, but the young couple did not have much time together. The division was soon headed for New York to prepare for overseas deployment.

The three regiments of the 66th Infantry Division sailed from New York Harbor on November 15, 1944, aboard the Army transport George Washington and the Navy transport George O. Squier. They disembarked in England on November 26, and were billeted in barracks and towns in the vicinity of Dorchester in the southwest part of the country. The time in England was spent further preparing for combat with vigorous lastminute training.

On Christmas Eve 1944, Sergeant Berry was among 2,235 troops of the 262nd and 264th Regiments of the division who boarded the SS Leopoldville—a Belgian passenger ship converted into a transport—that left England bound for the port of Cherbourg in France. In the overcrowded and uncomfortable conditions, men were doing their best to relax after an evening meal. Many were curled up in hammocks or using tables as improvised beds. Just five miles from France, the Leopoldville was spotted in the darkness by German U-boat U-486. At 5:55 P.M., undetected by the escorting destroyers, Oberleutnant Gerhard Meyer, commander of U-486, launched torpedoes from his submarine at the Leopoldville. One of the torpedoes hit the ship on the starboard side and ripped a gaping hole below the water line. Bitter cold seawater poured into the troop compartments causing chaos and panic, but it was soon announced that the ship was not sinking and no effort was made to abandon ship. Then, at some time after 8:00 P.M., two large explosions were heard from the bowels of the vessel and she immediately began to descend into the water.

Confused and distressed, men jumped into the rough sea and struggled to stay afloat against the weight of their equipment. Approximately 515 troops went down with the ship. Another 248 died from injuries, drowning or hypothermia (Staff-Sergeant Howard DeMartini, a minor league pitcher, was also aboard the Leopoldville and lost his life. Harvey Riebe, who had caught 11 games for the Detroit Tigers in 1942, spent 45 minutes in the icy water before being fished out by an English rescue boat).

Berry was among those lost that evening. After the torpedo struck, he remained in his compartment and assisted in evacuating the wounded. He then descended into the hold of the ship to aid other men who were trapped. It was the last time he was seen alive.

The sinking of the Leopoldville resulted in the worst loss an American infantry division suffered from a U-boat attack during the war. Allied authorities, afraid of what the news would do for morale, buried the case. News that Berry was missing was received by his family in January 1945, but the circumstances remained a secret for many years. His mother, Metta Berry, who passed away in 1976, never learned how her son died, and documents about the incident remained classified until 1996.

Leonard "Link" Berry is buried at Bowman Cemetery. On November 21, 2004, a memorial service in honor of the 15 South Carolina soldiers that died on the Leopoldville was held at the Bowman Southern Methodist Church. The service concluded with the placing of a wreath on Berry's grave.

Berry’s name can be found engraved on the Leopoldville Disaster Monument that was dedicated on November 7, 1997, at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia.

"Uncle Link's baseball legacy lives on within the Berry family," says Rhonda Berry, the wife of his nephew who was born four years after his death and is named for him. "My husband was a good high school player (pitcher) and our own son, Rhett Berry, is now playing Junior College baseball with the desire to continue playing as far as his talent will take him. Uncle Link is Rhett's "touch stone" and when he learned of his playing and his sacrifice for his country, he has inscribed Uncle Link's initials in every baseball cap he has worn since he started playing high school ball."

Hugh Bedient, Jr

2011-02-06T14:00:00.001Z

In 1908, Hugh Bedient (father of Hugh P. Bedient, Jr.) struck out 42 batters in a 23-inning semi-pro game in Falconer, New York. This unparalled iron-man feat attracted the attention of professional scouts and he signed with the Boston Red Sox organization in 1910. In his rookie season at Fenway Park in 1912, Bedient won 20 games against just nine losses and remained in the major leagues until developing a sore arm following the 1915 season.

Bedient was pitching for the aptly named Toledo Iron Men of the American Association, when his son, Hugh, Jr., was born in 1916. A tall, hard-throwing right-hander, Hugh Bedient, Jr., starred in baseball and basketball at Falconer High School, New York, pitching five no-hitters before graduating in 1933. He then enrolled at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, and attracted much attention from baseball scouts after he transferred to the University of Alabama. Bedient had three wins without a defeat for the Crimson Tide freshmen in 1935, and became the varsity team’s most dominant pitcher over the next three seasons. During the summer months, he also pitched in the Dixie Amateur League as he eyed a career in the professional game.

Following graduation in June 1938, Bedient signed with the Boston Braves and joined the Evansville Bees of the Class B Three-I League in July. On July 6, he made his professional debut against the Clinton Owls at Evansville’s Bosse Field, allowing just four hits and one run before being relieved by Charlie Frye in the eighth. He also contributed a single and a double to his first professional win. But it was to be a short-lived career. Bedient made just two further unsuccessful appearances for the Bees before injuries brought his playing career to an end.

In late 1939, the 23-year-old turned his back on any hopes of making a return to baseball and enlisted with the Army Air Corps; the decision was possibly influenced by the University of Alabama’s extremely popular aeronautical engineering department. He first attended elementary flying school at Randolph Field, Texas, and then earned a commission as a second lieutenant at Kelly Field, Texas. On May 4, 1940, Bedient married Jimmy Lee Malone of Anniston, Alabama at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and shortly afterwards was assigned to the Air Defense Command at Mitchel Field, Long Island, New York.

On Sunday, June 16, 1940, Bedient sent his parents a telegram stating that he was spending the day with his wife at Great Neck. At around 9:00 A.M. on Monday, June 17, two twin-engined Douglas B-18 Bolo bombers, escorted by two fighter planes, left Mitchel Field on a routine training flight. The two bombers carried a crew of 11, including Second Lieutenant Bedient. Just 15 miles from Mitchel Field, above the densely populated area of Bellerose Manor on the eastern edge of Queens, New York, the two bombers were executing a maneuver at 2,500 feet. One plane had to pass under the other and there was not enough clearance. The two planes collided and crashed in flames. One landed within a block of a school and the second smashed into a one-story residence that instantly went up in flames. All 11 crewmen — two of whom unsuccessfully attempted to escape by parachute — perished in the wreckage.

F.W. Watkins, whose home was within 50 yards of the scene of the crash, was sitting in his living room when the planes came down. "I ran outside immediately, and two houses directly across the street, which were hit by wreckage, were already blazing fiercely. It seemed only a few minutes before rescue squads arrived and the bodies were being dragged from the wreckage. At short intervals there were explosions which sounded as though small bombs were going off."

The loss of life on the ground was miraculously low. The only civilian fatality was 35-year-old Emily Kraft, who suffered severe burns when her home was set on fire. She died at the Queens General Hospital the following day.

Funeral services were held for Hugh P. Bedient, Jr., at Falconer Funeral Home and at Levant Cemetery in Poland, New York. members of the Henry Mosher post, American Legion of Falconer, formed the guard of honor, while Reverand Harold L. Knappenberger officiated at the funeral home and Reverand R.W. Neathery was the graveside chaplain.

Gus Bebas - Ballplayer and World War II Hero

2011-02-05T22:58:00.001Z

Constantine G. “Gus” Bebas was one of six children (four sisters and a brother) growing up in a modest house on the east side of Wilmette, a predominantly wealthy, lakefront suburb of Chicago. His parents, George and Angeline, were Greek immigrants who were fiercely proud of their country of birth and equally proud of their new home.

Bebas was an industrious and independent young man. During the Depression, while still at school, he set up his own business and sold fruit and vegetables to help the family. He was educated at Wilmette public schools and graduated from New Trier High School in nearby Winnetka, where he was a star outfielder on the baseball team for three years. He enrolled at Northwestern University School of Engineering at Evanston, Illinois, in September 1934, and pitched for the varsity team between 1936 and 1938. “Gus was always worried about the condition of his right arm,” recalled George Lymper, captain of the 1938 team. “He always massaged it the night before he was to pitch and slept with two pillows under his arm.” While at Northwestern, Bebas served in the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps as a platoon leader. He received his commission as an ensign in May 1938.

Bebas graduated from Northwestern in June 1939, with a B.S. degree in commerce. For two weeks, starting June 16, Ensign Bebas trained with the Naval Reserve on board the newly built heavy cruiser USS Wichita at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. Upon his return to Illinois he accepted an offer from the Chicago White Sox to play minor league baseball.

He joined the Hickory Rebels of the newly formed Class D Tar Heel League, but pitched just a handful of games before abandoning hopes of an athletic career and took a job with the Hoover Company in Evansville. During the winter, Bebas had given serious thought to becoming a navy aviator and on January 22, 1940, he resigned his commission in the Naval Reserve, enlisting as a seaman second class the following day. He took flight training at the Naval Reserve Aviation Base at Glenview, a suburb of Chicago, and was appointed an aviation cadet on February 19, 1941. The following day, he reported for training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, the hub of the Navy’s air training activities at the time. The summer of 1941 also provided Bebas an opportunity to pitch for the Pensacola Navy baseball team.

On August 4, 1941, Bebas was assigned to Naval Air Station Miami for advanced carrier training and he was appointed a naval aviator on September 5. On September 26, 1941, he was promoted to the rank of ensign and returned home to Wilmette for a brief visit with family and friends. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Ensign Bebas was serving with the Advanced Carrier Training Group, Atlantic Fleet.

On December 23, he reported to Bombing Squadron 8 (VB-8) at Norfolk, Virginia, part of the USS Hornet (CV-8) Air Group. At that time VB-8 was equipped with the twoseat Curtiss SBC-3 Helldiver, a biplane dive-bomber that had been in service with the Navy since 1938. On March 4, 1942, the Hornet set sail from Norfolk for the West Coast via the Panama Canal with VB-8’s new airplanes—Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless divebombers.

The Hornet arrived at Alameda, California, on March 20, and with her own planes on the hangar deck, she loaded 16 Army Air Force North American B-25 Mitchell bombers on the flight deck, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle. On April 2, the Hornet departed Alameda and, for the first time, the crew was informed of the Army flyers’ mission: a daring bombing raid on Japan. The Doolittle Raid of April 18, 1942, was the first air raid by the United States to hit mainland Japan. All 16 bombers were lost and 11 crewmen were either killed or captured. But although the military significance of the raid was minimal, it proved to be a substantial morale booster for the American people.

With the B-25 bombers airborne and bound for Japan, the Hornet steamed at full speed for Pearl Harbor, and remained there until April 30, when she departed to assist the USS Yorktown and USS Lexington at the Battle of the Coral Sea. The battle ended before the Hornet reached the scene and she returned to Hawaii on May 26, and sailed two days later to stop the anticipated Japanese assault on Midway Atoll. On the morning of June 4, 1942, Bebas engaged in his first combat mission as the Hornet launched all available airplanes to search for Japanese aircraft carriers. Loaded with a 1,000-pound bomb, Bebas and the other dive-bomber pilots of VB-8 searched in vain for the enemy carriers. With fuel running desperately low, not all made it back to the Hornet. One plane ditched in the sea and Bebas was among many who had to land at Midway Island. After refueling, he returned to the Hornet.

On June 5, 1942, Bebas was among 20 dive-bombers that were launched from the Hornet to attack a small Japanese force of cruisers and destroyers. Because they would operate at the limit of their combat range the dive-bombers carried the smaller 500-pound bombs. When the fast-moving Japanese destroyer Tanikaze was spotted, Bebas put his plane into a vertical dive, selected his point of aim, and raced for his release point amidst flak bursts from the destroyer’s anti-aircraft guns. Frighteningly close to the huge destroyer, Bebas pressed the electrical bomb release button, pulled out of his dive and closed the dive brakes. Bebas’s bomb fell just 100 feet from the Tanikaze’s port quarter. The following afternoon, he participated in a strike against the heavy cruisers Mikuma and Mogami, scoring a damaging near miss on the latter ship. Following the Battle of Midway, the Hornet returned to Pearl Harbor, where VB-8 became shore-based and returned to operational training.

While on a routine training flight leading three planes on a dive bombing practice off Oahu on the morning of July 19, 1942, Bebas put his Dauntless into a dive to attack a target boat maneuvering off Barber’s Point. He released his practice bomb at 2,000 feeten but instead of immediately recovering and gaining altitude he entered a steep right turn. Whether he blacked out or was unable to overcome the heavy stick force present in the dive is unknown, but his plane crashed into the ocean, killing himself and the observer/rear gunner, Ensign William M. Stevens.

In April 1943, Bebas was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his involvement in the Battle of Midway. The citation accompanying the medal, which was received by his mother, read in part: “With utter disregard for his own personal safety, Ensign Bebas participated in persistent bombing and strafing in the face of tremendous anti-aircraft fire. His courageous conduct and stern devotion to the fulfillment of a vastly important mission contributed materially to the victory achieved by our forces.”

The following month, his mother and sister, Anne, traveled to Boston, Massachusetts, at the invitation of the Navy, to christen a destroyer escort vessel named in Gus Bebas’s honor. The 1,400-ton USS Bebas was based in the Pacific until the cease of hostilities, performing patrol and escort duties and receiving three battle stars.

“He was a student of whom we all felt proud,” eulogized Dr. Franklin B. Snyder, president of Northwestern University, at a memorial service in honor of Bebas at St. Andrew's Greek Orthodox Church in Chicago on June 27, 1943. “He was loved and admired by the students and his friends, one we knew would have a distinguished record. We regret his death but we take a pride in his heroism and his accomplishments. On behalf of the university, I salute him!”

Gus Bebas and Ensign William Stevens are buried at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California.

Baseball in Wartime Website Home Page Gets a Facelift

2011-01-30T23:31:00.000Z

It's time for change at the Baseball in Wartime website. I've been making quite a few changes over the past month - particularly to the biographies of players killed during World War II - and I felt it was time to change the home page to show the site is still well and truly active.

The changes are nothing fancy; primarily a new montage image featuring Bob Feller, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams and Pee Wee Reese, plus a new navigation table featuring brief overviews of major parts of the website.

So, if you haven't been over to the Baseball in Wartime website why not check it out now

www.baseballinwartime.com

Gary Bedingfield

Troy Furr and James Stewart Added to List of Those Killed in WWII

2011-01-05T21:51:00.000Z

The list now stands at 139. Yes, that's right, 139 former professional baseball players lost their lives serving their country during WWII. Troy Furr and James Stewart are the latest additions to the list; both players signed with the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association during the winter of 1943 and were preparing for the 1944 campaign when military service beckoned. Here are their stories.

Troy L. Furr
Troy Furr, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Bill Furr, was born in Concord, North Carolina in 1923. An infielder, he was playing semi-pro baseball in the Concord City League and led the circuit in pitching and fielding in 1943.

With ballplayers being called into military service at an alarming rate, Earl Mann, president of the Atlanta Crackers of the Class A1 Southern Association, signed Furr during the winter of 1943 in the hope he would be a useful infielder for the club's 1944 season.

Unfortunately, military service intervened and Furr entered service with the Army at Fort Bragg, North Carolina on April 13, 1944.

Furr served overseas as a Private First Class and was reported missing in action on January 3, 1945.

James E. Stewart
James Stewart was born in Hazlehurst, Georgia. A pitcher, he was signed by the Atlanta Crackers along with Troy Furr during the winter of 1943. Sadly, he never got to play a game in a Crackers uniform as he entered military service with the Marine Corps.

Private Stewart was in the Pacific with 7th Platoon, Company C, 34th Replacement Draft, 3rd Marine Division at Iwo Jima in March 1945. He was killed in action on March 22 - one of 4,500 Marines who lost their lives on the tiny volcanic island. Major leaguers Harry O'Neill and minor leaguers Jim Trimble, Frank Ciaffone, Bob Holmes, Jack Lummus and Jack Nealy also lost their lives on Iwo Jima.

Thanks to Ray Nemec and Mark Aubrey for help with this article.

If you can provide more information on these players or any others killed in service during WWII please contact me at gary@baseballinwartime.com

Can Anyone Identify Troy Furr and James Stewart?

2011-01-05T10:54:00.000Z

My search for the identities of baseball players who lost their lives during World War II is a never-ending one and I have recently discovered two more possibilities. Perhaps someone can help shed a little more light?

Whilst browsing the Spartanburg Herald of January 1946, I found an article about former Atlanta Crackers players who died during World War II. Five names were mentioned and three were familiar to me, but two were new.

The two I have not seen before are Troy Furr and James Stewart. Using baseball-reference.com as my first port of call, neither player is listed as having ever played for the Crackers or any other team between 1930 and 1944.

Using other sources, I believe I have now identified Troy Furr as Troy L. Furr of Cabarrus County, NC, who was killed in action while serving with the US Army. He was born in 1923 and entered service in April 1944. Unfortunately, I've not been able to discover any other details relating to his baseball or military career.

With regards to James Stewart, I've also drawn a blank on his baseball career and there are far too many Stewarts in military records to make a positive identification.

Can anyone help with more information on these men so they can take there rightful place alongside the other 137 players who were killed in service during WWII?

Thank you!

Milt Rosenstein: Killed in Action during WWII

2011-01-05T00:48:00.001Z

Milt Rosenstein with the
Miami Beach Flamingos in 1941

Milton “Rosey” Rosenstein was born on June 20, 1920 in Hunter, New York. The son of Mr. and Mrs. Isidore Rosenstein, Jewish immigrants from Russia, he grew up in Ellenville, New York, a village approximately 90 miles northwest of New York City in the Rondout Valley, at the eastern base of the Catskill Mountains.

Rosenstein starred in baseball and basketball at Ellenville High School, and went on to play amateur baseball during the summer of 1940 with Saugerties A.C. The team played its home games at Cantine Memorial Field in Saugerties (about 40 miles northwest of Ellenville on the Hudson River), and Rosenstein – a 6-foot, 187-pound left-hander – was the ace of the staff along with burly right-hander Eddie Wallace. At a time when town baseball was a big attraction, Saugerties A.C. played in front of good-sized crowds against opponents like the Hudson Whalers, General Electrics, Kingston Recreations and the Pittsfield Pros. They also regularly played traveling Negro teams such as the New York Black Yankees, Detroit Clowns and Homestead Greys. On August 10, 1940, Rosenstein pitched Saugerties A.C. to a 2-1 win over the inmates at Sing Sing Prison. Allowing just four hits, the 20-year-old struck out 13.

In 1941, Rosenstein signed with the Miami Beach Flamingos of the Class D Florida East Coast League. The Flamingos were managed by Max Rosenfeld, who had briefly played as an outfielder with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early 1930s. Aged 38, Rosenfeld was also playing in the outfield for the Flamingos and was in the outer pastures on many occasions as Milt Rosenstein compiled a team leading 20-12 won-loss record, a superb 2.63 ERA and a league-leading 238 strikeouts.

On June 11, after having struck out 15 Miami Wahoos batters the night before, he hurled two hitless innings to close the game for the Florida East Coast League All-Stars against the Fort Pierce Bombers, albeit in a losing cause.

The Flamingos, helped by future major leaguer Gene Bearden’s 17 wins (Bearden had been the ace of the Flamingos’ staff the previous year with an 18-10 record), finished second in the league standings just three games behind the West Palm Beach Indians. They beat the Fort Pierce Bombers in four games in the first round of the playoffs, and then clinched the league championship beating the Indians in six games. Rosenstein hurled a 5-0 three-hitter in the second game on September 11, made a ninth-inning relief appearance the following day, and made his final appearance of the season in the fifth game before a record crowd of 1,203 at Flamingo Park on September 14. Rosenstein pitched six innings in that contest and was relieved by Jack Embler who claimed the 6-5 win in 11 innings.

In just one season as a professional ballplayer, Milt Rosenstein was a 20-game winner, a circuit strike out leader and a star performer on a league championship team. On December 5, 1941, it was announced that he had been purchased by the Atlanta Crackers, pennant winners of the Class A1 Southern Association.

The young hurlers future looked extremely bright, but on March 17, 1942, his baseball career came to an abrupt halt with a call from Uncle Sam. He entered military service with the U.S. Army at Camp Blanding, near Jacksonville, Florida, and later that year was stationed in California where he attained the rank of corporal.

In December 1942, Rosenstein returned home to Ellenville on furlough to spend a few days with his parents. It may have been the last time he was home as he was later assigned to the 126th Infantry Regiment of the 32nd Infantry Division in the Pacific Theater.

In October 1944, 24-year-old Rosenstein – now a staff sergeant – was heading for the island of Leyte, part of the Visayan Islands in the central Philippines, where the Allied campaign was launched for the recapture and liberation of the Philippines.

The 32nd Infantry Division landed at Leyte on November 14, and went into action along the Pinamopoan-Ormoc highway. Two days later they relieved the 24th Infantry Division at Breakneck Ridge and captured the town of Limon in bitter hand-to-hand combat against the Japanese.

On November 28, 1944, little more than three years after hurling the Miami Beach Flamingos to victory, Rosenstein was seriously wounded in action and died later that day. He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star for gallantry.

Milt Rosenstein’s body was returned home to Ellenville, New York in 1949. Services were held at the Hebrew Aid Synagogue on February 3, with Rabbi Jacob I. Nislick officiating. He was buried, with full military honors, at the Hebrew Aid Cemetery in nearby Wawarsing, New York.

Milt Rosenstein is one of 137 former professional baseball players who lost their lives in military service during World War II.

Walt Dropo - 1950 AL Rookie of the Year - Dies at 87

2010-12-23T15:35:00.001Z

Walter Dropo was born on January 30, 1923 in Moosup, Connecticut. He attended Plainfield High School in Central Village, before attending the University of Connecticut.

A promising baseball, basketball and football player, Dropo’s college career was interrupted by military service in November 1942. He was stationed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, where he continued to be a star athlete with the Fort Devens Reception Center teams. His teammates at that time included Skippy Roberge of the Boston Braves, George Yankowski of the Philadelphia Athletics, Bob Repass of the Washington Senators, Gene Czaplicki (a Cardinals farmhand), Bill Manning (a Cubs farmhand) and Joe Kwasnieski (a Red Sox farmhand). He was later stationed in Europe, seeing time in

France

Italy

and

Germany

Following World War II, Drop returned to the University of Connecticut. When he graduated in 1947 he was the school’s all-time leading scorer in basketball. Dropo was drafted in the first round of the 1947 BAA (Basketball Association of America) Draft by the Providence Steamrollers. He was also drafted by the Chicago Bears in the 9th round of the 1946 NFL Draft.

He turned down both, however, to sign with the Boston Red Sox and joined the Scranton Red Sox of the Class A Eastern League as a first baseman in 1947. Dropo batted .297 with 12 home runs his rookie year and joined the Birmingham Barons of the Class AA Southern Association in 1948. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound right-hander hit .357 with the barons and made his major league debut on Opening Day April 19, 1949 against the Philadelphia Athletics. He played just 11 games at the big league level that year before being sent to the Sacramento Solons of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League.

He was back with the Red Sox in 1950 and was named American League Rookie of the Year as hit 34 home runs, batted .322 and drove in a league-leading 144 runs.

Dropo went on to enjoy a 13-year career in the major leagues although a fractured wrist suffered in 1951 meant he never returned to the form he showed in his rookie season. Nevertheless, Dropo played nearly 1,300 games and batted .270. In June 1952, after being traded to the Detroit Tigers, he collected 12 consecutive hits to tie a major league record.

After his playing career ended following the 1961 season, Drop became regional manager of an investment firm, and in 1972 he went to work for the family business, the Washington Fireworks Company, in Washington, D.C.

Walt Dropo passed away on December 17, 2010. He was 87.

Goodbye, Bullet Bob!

2010-12-16T22:47:00.000Z

The unstoppable force that was Bob Feller is gone. One of the game’s greatest heroes and, for obvious reasons, one of my all-time heroes, succumbed to complications with leukemia after fighting a four-month battle with the disease.

I first met Bob back in 1989, when he came to England with the MLB Alumni All-Stars. I was playing for the Great Britain national team in an exhibition against the Alumni in Manchester. Bob pitched to the first couple of batters and I remember watching him and thinking how I had never been so close to a true living legend. We met again, briefly, when the Alumni All-Stars returned to England a year or so later and put on a training clinic at the home ground of my club team, the Enfield Spartans. Bob was very friendly but I’ll also remember how tough he was . . . boy, was he tough.

Our paths crossed again in 2007. I was a keynote speaker at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans; Bob was guest of honor. My dear friend, Bill Swank, made sure Bob and I had a few moments together and I fondly recall Bob telling me, in his gruff voice, that there wasn’t any good baseball being played in England except at the American School in London. “I’ll take that as a compliment, Bob,” I responded. “I was the coach of that team!”

Earlier this year I’d heard that Bob was ill. I didn’t want to believe we’d lose him because when I’d met him back in ’07 he was still as strong as an ox, but I guess Bob’s time had come so all I can do is say thank you for the wonderful memories.

I salute you, Bob.

Bob Feller (right) with myself and my wife, Lainy in New Orleans, 2007

Bob Feller was born on November 3, 1918 in Van Meter, Iowa. A gifted right-hander with an overpowering fastball and outstanding curve, he played four years of American Legion baseball and in 1935 - when he was only 16 years old - he was signed by the Cleveland Indians.

In his first major league start on July 19, 1936, Feller faced the St. Louis Browns and struck out 15. He won games that year, nine the next and 17 in 1938. In 1939, he won 24 games (his first of six 20-plus win seasons) and became the first American League pitcher to throw a complete game no-hitter on opening day 1940.

On December 8, 1941 – the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor - Feller enlisted in the Navy. He was sworn in by former heavyweight boxing champion, Gene Tunney, at the Chicago courthouse. Feller was assigned to the Norfolk Naval Training Station in Virginia, as part of Tunney’s physical fitness program, and pitched for the baseball team. The line-up included Freddie Hutchinson and Vince Smith, and Feller hurled his first game for Norfolk on April 3, 1942, against Richmond University. In three innings he struck out three and allowed one hit. Norfolk won the game, 13-1.

On June 15, 1942, Feller participated in a five-inning baseball game at the Polo Grounds, New York, as part of an all-sports carnival to raise funds for Army-Navy Relief. Feller pitched the Navy team to victory against the Army’s Hugh Mulcahy - allowing three hits and striking out five.

But Feller was not happy. “I wanted to get out of the Tunney program and in to combat,” he told author William B. Mead. “So I went to the gunnery school there. And I went on the USS Alabama that fall.”

Feller then spent 26 months as chief of an anti-aircraft gun crew on the USS Alabama (BB-60), a South Dakota-classbattleship. “We spent the first six or eight months in the North Atlantic. I was playing softball in Iceland in the spring. We came back in the later part of the summer, and went right through the Panama Canal and over to the South Pacific. We hung around the Fiji islands for a while, and then when we got the fleet assembled, and enough men and equipment to start a successful attack, we hit Kwajalein and the Gilberts and the Marshalls and then across to Truk.”

Feller worked hard to stay in top physical shape while on the Alabama. He had a rowing machine and a punching bag, and did regular chin-ups and push-ups. He would run on beaches whenever the ship was in port and run around the ship when at sea.

Early in 1944, Feller was contacted by Seabee Albert P. Pellicore of Chicago, who asked him to play a game against a team composed of the best players on an island in the Pacific. "Bob was in rare form that day." Pellicore explained in a letter to John P. Carmichael, sports editor of the Chicago Daily News, "and pitched exceedingly fine to the delight of the largest crowd ever assembled in these parts." The "All-Stars." playing against Bob, lost the game 9-0, with Feller striking out 15. "I write this because I feel the people back home should know about a man who besides his regular line of duty is contributing so much toward the entertainment of all concerned," the letter concluded.

The USS Alabama returned to the United States in the spring of 1945, and Feller was assigned to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois, where he coached the baseball team and posted a 13-2 won-loss record with 130 strike outs in 95 innings.

He returned to the Indians in August 1945, and in his debut in Cleveland he beat the Tigers, 4-2, in front 46,477 adoring fans. In January 1946, Feller set up a three-week school in Tampa, Florida, to develop the baseball skills of returning veterans – both aspiring ballplayers and those with some organized baseball experience. Men paid for their own transportation to the school as well as room and board, but the instruction – by major leaguers – was free.

In 1946, he set a major league record for the most strikeouts in one season with 348. His last season in baseball was 1956, by which time he had won 266 games, led the American League in strikeouts for seven years, was an eight time all-star selection and had three no-hitters under his belt. And all that was achieved having missed the best part of four prime seasons (aged 23 to 26) while serving his country.

Feller was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962. Talking about his military service some years later on an episode of ESPN's Major League Baseball Magazine, Feller said "I'm very proud of my war record, just like my baseball record. I would never have been able to face anybody and talk about my baseball record if I hadn't spent time in the service."

Not one to be phased by modern technology, Feller participated in an online chat with fans from Cooperstown in April 2005. One of the many questions he was asked was whether he had any regrets about serving in the war? "No, I don't," he replied. "During a war like World War II, when we had all those men lose their lives, sports was very insignificant. I have no regrets. The only win I wanted was to win World War II. This country is what it is today because of our victory in that war.”

Bill Jennings Dies at 85

2010-10-24T14:29:00.003+01:00

William L. “Bill” Jennings was born on September 28, 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended Southwest High School and Washington University in St. Louis and served with the Merchant Marine during World War II.

Jennings, a 6-foot-2, 175-pound shortstop, signed with the New York Giants organization in 1946 and joined the Trenton Giants of the Class B Interstate League his rookie year. In 35 games he batted .310.

Back with Trenton in 1947, Jennings played 137 games and batted .277 with 18 triples and nine home runs. Aged 22, he joined the Jersey City Giants of the Class AAA International League in 1948 and batted .250 in 152 games.

He was with the Minneapolis Millers of the Class AAA American Association for 1949 and 1950, batting .285 both years and hit 23 home runs the latter season. Jennings started the 1951 season with the Oakland Oaks but was purchased by the St. Louis Browns on July 16. Three days later he made his major league debut with the Browns against the Washington Senators getting a hit in four at-bats and driving in two runs. He played 64 games over the season and batted .179.

The 26-year-old played for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League in 1952 but batted just .201 in 118 games and ended his playing career the following season with Toronto and the Charleston Senators of the American Association.

After baseball, Bill Jennings worked as a milk man from Bailey Farms Dairy. He passed away on October 20, 2010 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was 85 years old and is being buried at National Cemetery in St. Louis tomorrow.