Uncle Sam's League

Dead Man's Hill . . .

2012-01-26T11:17:00.000-05:00

Sergt. Burns Relates Manner in

Which Former Third Base-

man Was Killed.

—

Sergeant John N. Burns of Riverdale, N. Y., one of the casuals who returned on the cruiser Pueblo to New York yesterday, told of the burial of Capt. “Eddie” Grant, former third baseman of the New York Nationals, in a German cemetery in the Argonne forest, known as “Dead Man’s hill.”

Capt. Grant, Burns said, was leading a company of the 307th Infantry to the aid of the “lost battalion,” when he was caught in a machine gun barrage and killed. Sergeant Burns, who was nearby, crawled over to the body, but was unable to move it because of the heavy fire. That night, however, he and three other soldiers crawled out and brought the body in, and it was buried on “Dead Man's hill,” in the midst of slain Germans.

“I hope some of the boys will remove the body and give it the decent burial that a hero deserves,” Burns said. “A German cemetery is not the place for a brave American like Capt. Grant to be at rest.”

Watertown (NY) Times, January 26, 1919.

Honoring the boys . . .

2012-01-18T08:37:00.000-05:00

BIG LEAGUE MEN MAY

HONOR HEROES

—

Special Days Likely to Be Appointed

for Players Who Went to War

—

Chicago, Jan. 18.—Among the standard bearers of liberty returning from France and Belgium are to be found baseball heroes, and it has been suggested that club owners do something to honor these men by setting aside special days for these players. Other days could be chosen to pay tribute to those players who fell fighting

The magnates have one of their own number to honor in the person of Lieutenant Colonel Tillinghast Huston, part owner of the New York Yankees—one of the first men to volunteer. Colonel Huston was a pioneer American engineer in France, paving the way for the coming of Pershing’s hosts. He has returned to America and announces he will remain in baseball. A special day in his honor should be observed throughout the American league.

Two Sox Catchers in List.

The White Sox have two catchers—Jenkins and Lees—who passed through some heavy fighting in France. Neither has been seriously wounded. Lees, who used to face all kinds of danger in a steel mill in Pennsylvania and came close to death when a beam fell near him in the Bethlehem steel plant, has been favored with the same good fortune in the fighting in France and Belgium. On two occasions he was one of a few survivors of some of the bloodiest fighting in the closing chapters of the war. George seems to have lived a charmed life. He missed the machine gun bullets and the bursting shells which were much more numerous than falling steel beams at Bethlehem, Pa. A special day for Lees and another for Jenkins at Comiskey park will be the proper thing, and no doubt President Comiskey will select dates early in honor of these as well as other players of his club who went into the service.

Ed Klepfer, a former member of the White Sox, reported seriously wounded, has notified President Dunn of the Cleveland club, of which he is a member, that he is not so badly bunged up as rumored. He expects to don a uniform and pitch for the Indians in the 1919 American league race. Klepfer’s return is expected to be the signal for a demonstration in his honor in Cleveland. . . .

Albany Journal, January 18, 1919.

Hitting 'em out . . .

2012-01-12T08:25:00.002-05:00

“Chief” Meyers Feels

Training as Marine

Will Aid Batting Eye

—

“Chief" Meyers, redoubtable catcher for the Giants and known to the neighboring farmers back home in Connecticut as J. T. Meyers, will be hitting them out on a skin diamond better than ever next season, since his summer’s training in the Marine Corps at Paris [sic] Island, S. C.

All summer long the big chief’s gnarled and broken hands toyed with a Springfield, and when he swung the bat in the bi-weekly baseball games on the sand diamond at the great Marine Corps Training Station, where there is no fence, the horsehide pellet generally soared well out into the sea.

Meyers says that his marine training has done wonders for him and that it has made him good for many more seasons behind the bat. He has a farm of 250 acres and a patriotic wife back in Connecticut, where he will continue his training as soon as he is discharged from the ranks of the soldiers of the sea.

New York Tribune, January 12, 1919.

Pitching ace . . .

2012-01-11T08:57:00.002-05:00

Sport Snap Shots

Pittsburg fans already are planning a real reception for Lieut. Elmer Ponder when the young pitcher rejoins the Pirates at the opening of the season, for he has made an excellent record as an aviator and earned designation as an ace just prior to the signing of the armistice. Ponder, in his brief career as a Pirate, showed signs of developing into a very effective hurler, and Hugo Bezdek, who is proud of the valorous conduct of the youngster in Uncle Sam’s service, will hail his return with joy. The pitcher has not yet received his discharge from the aviation corps, but expects to be sent home soon and counts on reporting to Bezdek at the Pirates’ training camp

Lima (OH) News, January 11, 1919.

Death of a Tiger . . .

2012-01-08T09:10:00.002-05:00

Former Eastern League

Twirler Dies of Wounds

PITTSFIELD, Mass., Jan. 6.—Sergeant Robert Troy, formerly pitcher for the Pittsfield team in the Eastern baseball league, died of wounds received in action in France on October 7, according to word received here today. Troy was given a trial by the Detroit Americans in the fall of 1918.

Bridgeport (CT) Standard Telegram, January 7, 1919.

Eddie's final out . . .

2012-01-04T16:15:00.000-05:00

Army Chaplain Writes of Eddie

Grant's Last Charge; Buried in

Cemetery Prepared by Germans

New York, January 2.—Manager John J. McGraw of the Giants has received a letter from Chaplain Henry D. Wacker, U.S.A., who officiated at the funeral services of Captain Eddie Grant when the former player of the Giants lost his life in the Argonne Forest. The letter follows:

“This letter comes to you from one who is a total stranger to you. The reason I am writing it is because I am sure you would like to know about the death of one who was associated with you as a member of the Giants, namely, Captain Eddie Grant, 307th Infantry. It was my sad duty to bury the remains near the spot where he paid the supreme sacrifice for the great cause for which he came over here to France.

“He lost his life in leading an attack against the Boches, who had surrounded several companies of the 308th Infantry, trying to break through an impassible barrier of machine guns and artillery fire. Although tired and worn out by a campaign of heavy fighting, he nevertheless gladly accepted the command to accomplish what several others had failed to so. As he led his command to attack, he fell the victim of machine gun fire, heroically giving his life that his comrades in arms in the 154th Brigade might be rescued. After a short while we were able to approach the spot where he fell and secure his body. We buried him in a place where several of his fellow officers lie buried, which had been prepared by the Germans in the Argonne Forest as a small cemetery for their dead.

“Captain Grant was the most popular man in the 307th Infantry, well beloved by his men, who would follow him wherever he led the way. He had no fear of death, going where duty and honor called him. Now he lies near the sport where he poured out his life’s blood that liberty and justice may prevail.

“This letter comes to you from one who has been an admirer of the New York Giants in their several fights for the pennant. I wish you a successful season and hope that we can have baseball on the same plane as before the war.”

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, January 4, 1919.

Reindeer Bill a sergeant . . .

2011-12-30T21:44:00.000-05:00

KILLIFER A SERGEANT

NOW; SO IS ALEXANDER

Bill Killifer, of the Cubs, and the National league’s best catcher, is a sergeant now. Nobody in Chicago knew this until two days ago, when Killifer, who has been in the army at Camp Custer since the world’s series ended, walked into the office of the Cubs in uniform. Killifer said army life had done away with a number of little ills which bothered him all last season and that his arm is in the best of condition from saluting. He’s making $38 a month.

“Alexander is a sergeant, too,” he said. “I’ve heard from the old geezer two or three times. I hope he is back here for the opening of the pennant season, and I can’t see why the Cubs shouldn’t win the pennant again. They will if they’re all as fit as I am.”

Killifer expects his own discharge by spring. He aspired to be an officer, and thinks he would have had a commission by spring had the war gone on.

Washington Post, December 30, 1918.

A perfectly good ball . . .

2011-12-27T09:43:00.000-05:00

Baseball By-Plays

John Evers tells of an experience he had in France that has pathos in it. He was at a Knights of Columbus station somewhere near the front when an Army chaplain came up and inquired about him. Evers made himself known. The chaplain’s name was Coon and he hailed from somewhere in New Jersey. He wanted to tell Evers a little baseball story that he thought might interest him.

“The other day,” he said, “we were moving up through a piece of woodland, and the machine gun fire was pretty heavy. Up there in a little clump of bushes I found the body of a boy who had been killed instantly. I knelt down to see if there was any hope, and then went through his pockets to get his identification number and see whether there were any letters for the folks at home.

“In his outside overcoat pocket I found this.”

Mr. Coon drew out a soiled but perfectly good baseball.

That boy had gone to battle and that baseball was his most prized possession.

“I’d like to have that ball,” Evers remarked.

“Not for a million dollars,” the chaplain said. “I’m too big a fan, and this is too precious to me. It will be more precious to others. If I can find them when we get back that boy’s baseball belongs to them. If not, then I’ll keep it as one of the biggest prizes of my life.”

Sporting News, December 26, 1918.

Posting the W . . .

2011-12-20T08:48:00.000-05:00

SHAWKEY SAW SURRENDER

—

Yankee Pitcher Present When

Hun Turned Over Navy.

Harry Sparrow, business manager of the Yankees, received a letter from Bob Shawkey, the New York American pitcher, yesterday afternoon. Shawkey gave a vivid description of the surrender of the German fleet. Shawkey is chief yeoman on the battleship Arkansas, which along with other British and American ships attended to the surrender of the Kaiser’s ships off the Firth of Forth. Bob writes that the British and Yankees took no chance of any monkey shines and that each ship was stripped for action.

During his cruise on the Arkansas Shawkey said he once came within fifteen miles of the Arctic Circle and saw some seas that were a little severe on the ballast of a baseball sailor. Bob also said that he wouldn’t have missed that sight of the German surrender for anything in the world, but now that it’s over he again is thinking about baseball. He expects to get his discharge from the navy before the Yanks leave for their training trip in the spring.

New York Sun, December 20, 1918.

On the job . . .

2011-12-18T11:55:00.000-05:00

EDDIE COLLINS LOVER OF

THE MARINES

—

Eddie Collins intends to stick in the United States Marine corps until he is officially “tired” out of the service. In a long interview Collins, who is in the quartermaster’s department at the Washington avenue depot supply base at Philadelphia, took time between hustling big trucks and crates around to say that he had enlisted in Uncle Sam’s service until Uncle Sam was through with him, then he would devote his time to baseball.

“I don’t know anything about retiring from baseball,” said Collins. “In fact, I haven’t given the game a thought. Last season I didn’t feel right when playing, so I just stepped out and enlisted. At that time I made up my mind to forget all about baseball until the war was over, and then if I still was wanted I would try it again.

“Baseball is my profession, so why should not I go back to it? It is my means of livelihood, and you will agree I would be foolish if I dropped it. But there is one thing I wish to make clear. I don’t know when I will be mustered out, and I have made no effort to get my honorable discharge. There is still work to be done and I want to be on the job at the marine depot to do it. When the peace terms have been signed and the army disbanded, then will be the time for me to think of baseball.”

Albany Journal, December 18, 1918.

Not a crab . . .

2011-12-17T09:31:00.000-05:00

Johnny Evers Back Home

Johnny Evers, chief cheerer-on of the Umpire Baiting League and formerly of the Boston Red Sox and Braves and the Chicago Cubs, made home plate when La Lorraine nosed into the harbor. The nemesis terror of umpires has been in France directing athletic activities through the Knights of Columbus and has grown fat at the job.

Evers has been busier than when caught between first and second, and, folks, what do you think? He has been teaching the neophytes of the great and glorious slam-bang game in France to respect the umpire’s decisions. He says he said it. The heavier-than-usual and modest-as-the-usual-violet keystoner stood up like a good boy before newspaper men yesterday and talked of baseball in France.

“The boys over there want the big leagues to be going full tilt when they return,” he said. “They have no lack of respect for big league players and are anxious for the sport to take its accustomed speed in the United States.”

The first question that was hurled at him on his arrival in France was from a truckload of doughboys whirling on toward Verdun:

“How’d you get the title of ‘crab’?”

Evers says he couldn’t answer because he denies the allegation.

Wooden Leg’s a Bar

His baseball classes began at 8 o’clock in the morning, and consisted of a chalk talk and then an hour and a half of actual labor story work on the diamond. One day the practice game was interrupted when the star pitcher broke the suspender on his wooden leg.

Evers ran onto Joe Jenkins as the latter was marching toward Verdun. He saw Grover Alexander putting ’em over with his gun in the 342d Field Artillery. Evers says Alexander was busy with that gun until 11 o’clock the day the armistice terms were agreed upon, and that he was shooting them right and left. Til Huston, he says, is at the front with the army of occupation, in command of the 16th Engineers. The first question Roy Bates asked was whether Perry had gone to Boston or remained with the Athletics.

Evers passes it out that the French take to baseball in a hurry, and the game will likely get a good standing there.

Johnny did his turn lighting cigarettes for soldiers in the front line trenches when he wasn’t busy with boxing carnivals and baseball tournaments. Just a whisper has come that Evers picked up a gun dropped by a wounded American and cut down the German male census by two or three.

New York Tribune, December 17, 1918.

Call him Leatherneck . . .

2011-12-13T08:45:00.000-05:00

How Chief Meyers Looks

Batting in the Marines

Baseball fans! Looks strange but this is Chief Meyers. Looks rather strange without his baseball makeup, but this is the chief. The photographer says so. Our sporting editor says that his position at bat is all wrong, but it was explained to him that after a chief signs up with the marines at a stupendous salary he resigns himself to a different sort of a swing at a wide one or a Hun.

Gloversville (NY) Herald, December 13, 1918.

Ready to report . . .

2011-12-07T08:35:00.000-05:00

ARE READY FOR THE GAME

—

Big League Soldiers Are Being

Mustered Out.

—

(By International News Service.)

NEW YORK, Dec. 7.—The demobilization of ball players in the army who had not been sent over seas is already under way, and it is probable that before the end of the current year most of the players called last summer will be mustered out of the service. Reports have been received in New York of the demobilization at Camp Pike, Ark., which means the return to civil life of two former members of the Yankees and one member of the Robins. All were young players who had shown great promise.

Catcher Herold Ruel, whom Miller Huggins pronounced as good a young catcher as he ever had seen in action, left the Yankees in midstream to report to his draft board at St. Louis. He was sent to Camp Pike and showed up so well in his work that he was recommended for admission to the training corps for officers. He was about to receive a commission when the armistice was signed, and now comes the word that he was in the first troops to be released from the Arkansas camp.

Another ex-Yankee who left the club to join the national army was Infielder Aaron Ward, a promising infielder who got little opportunity to show his skill as a regular because Huggins was so well fixed with infield talent. Ward was also in the officers’ training corps at Camp Pike up to a few days ago, but he has been discharged and is now at his home in Alabama ready to answer when called upon to report for baseball.

The Brooklyn player who has been affected by the early discharge of soldiers at Camp Pike is Ray Schmandt, another St. Louis boy who made his debut with the Robins last spring after showing up strongly during the previous season with the Lincoln club of the Western league. Schmandt made quite a hit in his few games with the Robins last spring, playing first base and second base at times, and showing plenty of skill in both positions. He was training at Camp Pike when the demobilization order came. Other players well known to major league followers who have been discharged from the Arkansas camp are Hasbrouck, who was with the White Sox throughout the 1917 season, and Earl Smith, of the Rochester club, who had done some playing in the major leagues.

From Boston comes the announcement that Walter Pipp, Yankee first baseman, will be turned back to civil life within a few days. Pipp was accepted for the naval aviation service and spent the three months specified at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was then sent to the ground school at Pensacola, Fla., to complete his course and obtain a commission. The ending of the war resulted in an order against any more officers being commissioned, and Pipp, like others in his class, made a formal request for release from the service. Tris Speaker, who was entering the Boston school when Pipp was sent to Florida made a similar request. It is said that both requests will be acted upon immediately and that both players, with many other prospective aviators, will soon be turned back.

Fort Wayne News and Sentinel, December 7, 1918.

Doin' it all . . .

2011-12-05T08:37:00.000-05:00

Sisler Captures

All the Trophies

—

George Sisler, now a lieutenant in the chemical warfare branch, denied a chance to go to France and gas the Germans, because of peace, is winning fame in another way. Recently at Camp Kendrick, Lakewood, N. J., where he has been in training, they had an athletic meet among the officers. All Sisler did was to make a clean sweep of the four events on the program, the 100-yard dash, the punting of a football for distance, drop-kicking the football for accuracy and distance and throwing a baseball for distance. Had there been anything else on me program Sisler was ready to do his bit. Contests for enlisted men also were on the program, but in these Sisler only could look on, but there wasn’t anything done he couldn’t have beaten a mile had he been given the chance. For successor to Jim Thorpe as all around American league champion George Sisler is hereby nominated, and he probably could beat Thorpe at anything the Indian ever tried to do. Sisler writes that he doesn’t know when he will be released from service, but it is back to old baseball for him when they turn him loose.

El Paso Herald, December 5, 1918.

Tinker to Evers to Berlin . . .

2011-12-01T09:46:00.000-05:00

Evers and Soldiers Pick Site

in Berlin for World Series

—

“Fighting Trojan” Says Baseball

Makes Them Forget Horrors

of the War.

—

MANY STARS IN THE ARMY, HE

WRITES FROM PARIS.

—

(There is little room for dispute when Johnny Evers, of the Famous “Tinker, to Evers, to Chance” combination, is called the best second baseman baseball ever produced. After leaving the Chicago Cubs he went to Boston, and was captain of the Brave when they won the World Series in 1916.)

By JOHNNY EVERS.

PARIS (By mail).—One point which the United War Work Campaign ought to make clear to the American public is that when the American soldier isn’t busy fighting he is putting energy and “pep” into his recreation pursuits. He proved a hard fighter in battle and a strenuous contestant in games. He’s hard to beat in either.

Aptly illustrating this is the story told of a party of “Yanks” who, relieved from the fighting lines, were en route to a village where they could rest a few days. While waiting for motor trucks they started a game of baseball, getting the equipment from a convenient Knights of Columbus building. In a few minutes three thousand young Americans were excited spectators. With them the recent battle with the Hun was history. They had licked him and that was enough.

Maintains Morale.

This is what helps to maintain morale, and the need for baseball and other forms of recreation is clearly recognized by the K. of C. to their war relief activities. That is why the Knights have sent overseas so many men notable to the athletic world. They are needed to direct sports.

I modestly ask to be listed as a “notable” because of my long connection with big league baseball in the United States. The boys in the army wanted baseball, and that’s why I’m here.

I find the men just as keen for baseball before a battle as they are after, and it certainly helps to keep their minds off the serious work ahead for them. Officers know the value of this, and they tell me that frequently before they lead their men “over the top” they purposely start a discussion among the men regarding baseball or baseball players.

My ambition to stage a world series in Paris or somewhere nearer the fighting lines didn't materialize, but we have enough baseball to keep the boys satisfied.

When I came overseas I expected, of course, to find that athletic entertainments were popular, but I confess I am amazed at the extent of this popularity. Every spare minute they have, if the weather permits, they are engaged in some out door sport. Baseball, wrestling, boxing, tennis, running, jumping, walking, medicine ball and even ping pong claim their attention, and the result is that there is not as fine a body of athletes in the world as Uncle Sam's warriors. Champions? I’ll wager I can pick a team of all around athletes from the United States army to-day that can defeat any other aggregation of men possible to collect.

One of the best things the Knights and the Y. M. C A. did in their vast war activities was to supply the great amount of baseball equipment, which they did for the men. It’s in use every daylight hour. It’s as important as the work done by the Y. W. C. A. and the supplies sent by the Jewish Welfare Board, the American Library Association and the Salvation Army.

Our soldiers are arranging athletic contests for the time when they get into Berlin. Maps of the German metropolis are available here, and some of the soldiers and I have already selected parks, parade and drill grounds where the American national game will be played.

New York Telegram, December 1, 1918.

All at sea . . .

2011-11-27T09:58:00.002-05:00

Ernie Shore May Quit

Baseball for Season

 CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 26.—Ernie Shore, the elongated twirler of the Boston Red Sox, who has been studying in the officers’ material school here for the commission of ensign, may be out of baseball the coming season. Shore, if everything goes well, will be recommended for his commission during the first week in December. The big pitcher says it is his intention when he receives his promotion to go on several cruises and will not ask that he be released to play professional ball.

Jack Barry, manager of the 1917 Red Sox, may seek to be released from the school. Barry's class will graduate in February, but the big fellow, since he suffered from an aggravated case of water on the knee, has been forced to fall considerably behind in his studies.

New York Tribune, November 27, 1918.

Mitting the king . . .

2011-11-20T10:07:00.000-05:00

AND KING GEORGE

HAD NEVER HEARD

OF HINKY DINK!

—

So Frank Murphy and Joe Roach

Had to Explain About the

Chicago Alderman.

—

New York, Nov. 20.—What would you think of a plain, every-day king who didn’t know “Hinky Dink” Kenna?

Well, Frank Murphy and Joe Roach can’t figure it out, either, and they haven’t got over it yet.

You remember Murphy, of course. He was a star with the Cleveland nationals, back in ’84. Roach was a captain on a Lake Michigan tugboat. Although neither will ever see 50 again, they decided in January of last year that they ought to get into the big fracas, went up to Canada and hauled right off and enlisted.

Roach’s fame as a tugboat captain cropped out after their arrival in England and he was given charge of a tug in the channel. Murphy became his mate.

One day King George was at the wharf, preparing to sail for France. Murphy spied him, wiped some of the grease off his hands with cotton waste, elbowed his way through a crowd of dukes and generals and such and exclaimed:

“How are you, king? I’m Frank Murphy, formerly with the Cleveland Nationals, and this”—turning to the abashed Roach—“is Capt. Roach, one of ‘Hinky Dink’ Kenna’s constituents. You know ‘Hinky Dink’ naturally.”

George Frederick Ernest Albert, “emperor of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and of the British dominions beyond the seas, king, defender of the faith, emperor of India,” etc., etc., grinned a most unkingly grin, shook hands heartily, with both Chicagoans, and inquired into their history and future intentions.

But—and there was a note of sadness in his voice, denoting a sense of loss—he had never even heard of “Hinky Dink.”

Murphy relieved the King’s embarrassment as neatly as possible by discussing such light topics as the war and British politics. Oh, well, such is fame, anyway.

Murphy and Roach, who arrived here to-day on the Allan liner Grampion, said that while in England they also “mitted” Secretary Baker and had “one heluva fine time” with Senator J. Ham Lewis.

Note—For those in the same predicament as the King, “Hinky Dink” Kenna has been Democratic alderman from the Chicago First Ward since the days when Armour had only one shoat.

Syracuse Journal, November 20, 1918.

Never gonna happen . . .

2011-11-17T09:40:00.000-05:00

Baseball League

To Be Formed Next

Spring in England

—

LONDON, Nov. 16.—It is proposed in various sporting circles in England to organize a baseball league to be operated throughout the coming spring and summer. The game has made rapid strides since the arrival of Canadian troops here early in the war, and especially since the coming of the Americans.

The game is now played by English teams in preference to cricket. This is particularly true in barracks, where the British soldiers have been in constant contact with their American fellows. 

It is pointed out that there will be many Canadian and American soldiers in England during the coming spring and summer, unable, for various reasons, to return to their homes in Canada and the States.

It is felt that the presence of these players will give the game a big boost here. Baseball is bound to assume a permanent place on the calendar of British sport.

New York Tribune, November 17, 1918.

'Certainly does hurt . . .'

2011-11-13T20:03:00.002-05:00

MEMORIAL TO EDDIE GRANT IS

SUGGESTED BY CAPT. M’CORMICK

—

Fellow Player Now Captain In United States Army Be-

lieves Suitable Monument Should Be Erected at Polo

Grounds; Grant Served as Major at Time of His

Death; Not Member of Giant Team at Enlistment.

—

By SAM CRANE.

Capt. “Eddie” Grant is dead, but not forgotten, nor will he be forgotten in years to come if the suggestion made by Capt. Harry McCormick is carried out as Eddie’s old pal desires. I received the following telegram yesterday:

Camp Kearney, Ky., Nov. 9.

Sam Crane. New York City:

Suggest suitable memorial for Eddie Grant’s biggest sacrifice. Memorial by voluntary subscription. Eddie’s death certainly does hurt.

Capt. H. E. McCormick.

No one knew “Eddie” Grant, as a ball player or as an officer, better than Harry (“Moose”) McCormick. They played on the Giants together for years and were together at the officers’ training camp in Plattsburg, both being in the first squad of ambitious and courageous young men to try for commissions.

As Capt. McCormick says in his telegram, “Eddie’s death certainly does hurt,” and to none was it more of a shock than to the “Moose.” Both went overseas about the same time, Grant as captain and McCormick as lieutenant. They both fought in the victorious drives that sent the Germans on the backward track.

Lieut. McCormick was promoted to the rank of captain for his bravery on the field of battle. He was sent back to the United States after recovering from shell shock and was assigned as an instruction officer to Camp Kearney. He may go back to France within a short time.

Now Capt. Grant was not advanced in rank officially, but he was killed while acting major of his battalion, the commanding officer having been wounded while leading his brave unit in one of the most sensational and courageous episodes of the many this world’s war has produced—the rescue of the “lost battalion” in the Argonne forest.

Doubtless Capt. Grant would have been promoted and obtained a major’s commission, but what is earthly rank to the supreme promotion he secured in the performance of his duties that won the admiration of his friends and countrymen.

Not Giant at Time.

“Eddie” Grant was not a member of the Giants when he joined the colors, so that his “biggest sacrifice” does not entitle the New York club to have the golden star emblematic of the first major league baseball player’s death on the field of battle, on its service flag but the New York Giants was the last big league team on which he played and it will be appropriate and a fitting mark of respect to his memory that a suitable memorial be placed on the Polo grounds.

El Paso Herald, November 13, 1918.

11.11.18

2011-11-10T10:09:00.000-05:00

Ballplayers Lost in the Great War:

Alex Burr

Larry Chappell

Eddie Grant*

Newt Halliday

Mark Milligan

Ralph Sharman

Bun Troy*

*Killed in Action

(Photo: “Scene at Arlington National Cemetery ... at the burial of returned bodies of the A.E.F. from France,” Library of Congress.)

Casualty at home . . .

2011-11-09T08:23:00.001-05:00

Third Strike Called

On Larry Chappelle

—

Larry Chappelle, [sic] until the war broke out a member of the Salt Lake Pacific Coast League baseball club, formerly a member of Charley Comiskey’s White Sox and at one time a member of the Milwaukee club, is dead at the Letterman Hospital today, a victim of pneumonia, following influenza.

Chappelle enlisted with several other members of the Salt Lake club in the hospital corps and was stationed at the hospital where he died.

Oakland (CA) Tribune, November 9, 1918.

Home from over there . . .

2011-11-07T07:48:00.003-05:00

Dusting ’Em Off

By W. J. Macbeth

According to a San Francisco paper Harry (Moose) McCormick, former outfielder and pinch hitter of the Giants, is a captain in the supply department at Camp Kearny, where he has whipped together a formidable baseball club. His New York friends were of the opinion that McCormick was still in France, having gone there soon after graduation as a second lieutenant from the first school for officers held at Plattsburg. It appears, however, that McCormick was invalided home to recover from shell shock.

New York Tribune, November 7, 1918.

Letter from France . . .

2011-11-05T08:58:00.000-04:00

Double World Series

In 1919 Is Predicted

— 

Ball Players “Over There”

Will Have Big Games

of Their Own

—

By W. J. Macbeth

Our soldiers in France take their play seriously, as seriously almost as the grim work of clearing Europe of the Hun pest. Save for what use may made of the occasional pleasant autumn day, the 1918 baseball season for the boys in O. D. has ended.

But those soldiers who were fans or players before they entered the service, as well as the converts to the national pastime among our own troops and their associates in arms, are typical of the dyed-in-the-wool crank at home. These are getting great satisfaction now from discussion of past battles of the diamond and argument over the prospects of another spring. Indeed, baseball has caught on so well with the British, French and Italian soldier that the first league of real international flavor is likely to flourish another summer.

Indeed, the establishment of the American game in the battle scarred fields of Europe is likely to have a direct bearing on the world’s series of 1919 in the opinion of Clarence Mitchell, a major league southpaw of considerable repute, who saw service with the Cincinnati and Brooklyn clubs of the National League.

Mitchell as Prophet

“There will be double world’s series next fall,” Mitchell has just written from France, “for the public will demand it and the army and navy will insist upon it.

“Over here we haven’t any doubt about the war’s end in plenty of time for the big leagues to start their schedule, but we do not expect to be released by Uncle Sam in time to get back in the game. That means that plenty of the best ball players of the two major leagues will still be in service. For months after peace comes and terms are being arranged we’ll be playing baseball in France while the big leagues are playing at home. And the club that can win out in the army and navy competition will be the best club in the world—at least the soldiers and sailors will think so. “And that club will have to be let in on the world’s series if it asks the chance, as it surely will. I only hope I’ll show enough class to be counted in on the doings, for those games will be something a fellow will think about and talk about for the rest of his life.”

—

In this connection it is interesting to learn that no less an authority than Grover Cleveland Alexander is of the same opinion as Clarence Mitchell, so far as the excellence of army baseball material is concerned. Big Alec has accepted a commission from the Cubs to dig up embryo stars from the trenches.

In a letter to Fred Mitchell, manager of the champion Cubs, recently the mighty Alexander declared he could name six pitchers, none of them ever having had any special reputation before the war, well worth a good salary from any major operator. Alexander says, further, that he has discovered some wonderfully natural heavy hitters and classy outfielders. The material of the representative teams of the army is of a higher class than the minor leagues provided in their palmiest days.  

—

Otis Lambeth, one of Cleveland’s most dependable pitchers in the season of 1917 and a particularly obnoxious customer to the Yankees, has been decorated for bravery in action in France. So far as is known, Lambeth is the first major league player to receive such distinction. Lambeth, a big, husky boy, reared on a Kansas farm, was perhaps the most enthusiastic of all the American League players engaged in military training in 1917. It was with difficulty his teammates restrained him from running off to the wars even while the Cleveland club, which was badly off for pitchers, was still a very prominent factor in the flag race.

—

Jack Hendricks, manager of the St. Louis Cardinals last season and one of the most successful minor league managers of the last decade, is in the city preparing to sail for France as a secretary of the Knights of Columbus. Hendricks, who has a son in an officer training school, is a graduate of the sand lots of Chicago.

—

Frank Shellenbach, of the White Sox pitching staff, has enlisted in the aviation branch of the United States Army and is now attending an officers’ school in the hope of being commissioned as an active flier. Shellenbach is the nineteenth player of Comiskey’s club to go into active service. Four of the former world’s champions are commissioned officers.

New York Tribune, November 5, 1918.

Ode to a leatherneck . . .

2011-11-02T08:59:00.002-04:00

Pickings from Hopp’s Poetree

Ray I. Hoppman

Chief Meyers doffed his baseball jeans

And joined the dare and do marines.

If he can fight like he can play

The Kaiser better quit to-day.

New York Telegram, November 2, 1918.

Blue in khaki . . .

2011-10-30T09:58:00.002-04:00

UMPIRE BILL KLEM

ENTERS THE ARMY

—

YONKERS, Oct. 29.—William J. Klem, of this city, for many years a national League umpire, announced tonight that he had enlisted in the stevedore division of the army quartermasters department. He is 41 years old.

Schenectady Gazette, October 30, 1918.

A proud, sad story . . .

2011-10-27T08:26:00.001-04:00

BASEBALL’S FIRST GOLD STAR

EDDIE GRANT’S BIT FOR U. S.

In the window of a home up in the little town of Franklin, Mass., a gold star gleaming on a service flag tells its proud, sad story. For Eddie Grant is dead, the first big league ball player to give his life for his country on the battlefields of France. And Eddie Grant was a Franklin boy.

In the casualty lists of the army received last week he was listed as Capt. Edward Grant, Three Hundred and Seventh Infantry. But to the thousands of baseball fans who knew him during the l0 years he gave to the national game and to the fans of Philadelphia, Cincinnati and New York in particular, it is Eddie Grant that lies, cold in death, behind the on-sweeping allied lines in France.

Eddie Grant was never a great ball player. He was a good player, but not a great one. Yet in the game of life, in its big moments that preceded death, he rose to heights that shall make him immortal in baseball history.

He was killed leading a company that was going to the rescue of the famous “Lost Battalion” in the Argonne Forest. He was killed at the head of advancing troops in the uniform of the army of his country.

His Baseball Career.

Back in 1905 Eddie Grant was starring in baseball at Harvard. Upon leaving college he played a few games with Lynn. The next season, that of 1906, found him with the Jersey City club of the old Eastern League.

He made a great record with Jersey City. He hit for .322. The Philadelphia club of the National League brought him to the Quaker City that fall.

He played with the Phillies during four seasons. His work was never spectacular, but was steady if not brilliant.

In 1911 he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds. This was the deal that brought Bode Paskert, the outfielder, to the Quakers.

With Cincinnati Grant continued to play a consistently good game. He was with the Reds all the seasons of 1911 and 1912 and part of 1913. It was in 1913 that he was sold to the Giants.

His Epitaph.

He played on the Giant team that won the National League pennant that year. He was with the ill-fated aggregation of McGraw that cracked under the rush of the Boston Braves in 1914. He was with the Polo Grounders in 1915. At the end of that season he retired from baseball to take up the practice of law.

From this profession Grant entered the officers’ training camp at Plattsburg when the United States declared war on Germany. He was commissioned a first lieutenant and assigned to Camp Upton. He displayed exceptional aptitude for military affairs and was soon made a captain. He sailed for overseas many months ago.

Now Eddie Grant is dead—killed in action in France. His is the first gold star on baseball’s service flag. He died for his country and for the world. No greater epitaph awaits any man.

Utica Tribune, October 27, 1918

Captain Eddie . . .

2011-10-23T11:07:00.000-04:00

GRANT’S GRAVE

FEW YARDS FROM

WHERE HE FELL

—

Eddie Died Like the Big

Leaguer That He Was.

—

By Damon Runyon

With the American First Army, Oct. 23.—Harvard’s Eddie Grant, the old Giant third baseman, sleeps in the forest of Argonne, only a few yards from where he fell. His grave is marked by some stones and a rude little cross tenderly reared by his men.

Eddie died leading his battalion, in a desperate fight to relieve Whittlesey’s beleaguered men two weeks ago. He was commanding a company of the Three Hundred and Seventh infantry from Camp Upton, when the battle began.

For four days and four nights, his company was part of the command which was trying to get to Whittlesey. On the morning of the day that relief was effected, Eddie was so worn out he could scarcely move. Some of his brother officers noticed him sitting on a stump, with a cup of coffee in front of him.

Two or three times, they say, he tried to lift the cup, but he was so weak he couldn’t do it. Finally with a terrific effort, he gulped down the coffee, when the command came to move.

He stepped off at the head of his company as briskly as ever. On the way through the forest, fighting at every step, Grant came upon stretcher bearers carrying back the major commanding the battalion, who had been wounded. The major called to Grant:

“Take command of the battalion!”

Eddie Grant was then one of the few officers left. The major had hardly spoken when a shell came through the trees, dropping two lieutenants in Grant’s company. Eddie shouted:

“Everybody down,” to his men, without hunting cover for himself. He called for more stretcher bearers for the two lieutenants. He was calling and waving his hands when a shell struck him. It was a direct hit.

Officers and men say Eddie’s conduct during the fight was marvelous. He never slept while the drive for Whittlesey’s position was on.

The writer yesterday saw Christy Mathewson, Grant’s old teammate and his roommate while Eddie was with the Giants.

Matty was greatly saddened by the news. He is a captain in the gas corps.

New York American,

as printed in Syracuse Herald, October 23, 1918.

Eddie, Tris & Alex . . .

2011-10-22T19:37:00.000-04:00

SPORTING CHAT

The national game records the death of Eddie Grant on the battlefields of Europe. Grant, who was a Harvard boy, played the infield for Mugsey McGraw once. He was a great fielder. Soon after America entered the war Grant enlisted, taking a commission of captain. Grant died leading a charge to rescue some other American soldiers.

—

Tris Speaker, Cleveland’s great outfielder, announces that he will take up aviation. Tris has aviated into the air after many a fly, so the job will not be an entirely new one.

—

Win Noyes, who pitched on the coast before he showed Connie Mack what great stuff he had, and Grover Cleveland Alexander, were recently opposing pitchers in a game played in France. Both pitchers were reported to be in big league form.

—

Uncle Sam’s bid in the last world’s series was $16,034, which will buy the soldiers a few balls and bats.

San Jose News, October 22, 1918.

Indians at war . . .

2011-10-21T10:08:00.000-04:00

Club’s Record Is Fine.

The record of the players of the Cleveland American league club in the present war, is a fine one. Among Lee Fohl’s 1918 players, there can now be found a first lieutenant, Paul Des Jardien; a second lieutenant, Clark Dickerson; four candidate officers, Ed Klepfer, Bill Wambsganss, Louis Guisto and Guy Morton; a sergeant, Otis Lambeth; a corporal, Joe Harris; a mechanic, Chester Torkelson ; four privates, Allan Gould, Jess Petty, Ed Miller and Harry Lunte; a naval aviation cadet, Tris Speaker, and two naval reserves, Ray Chapman and Josh Billings.

Of this number Dickerson, Guisto, Klepfer, Lambeth, Harris, Torkelson, Petty, Miller, Des Jardien and Gould are “over there.”

Ralph Davis’ Column,

Pittsburgh Press, October 21, 1918.

It ain't so . . .

2011-10-18T08:50:00.002-04:00

LOOKING ’EM OVER

By Louis A. Dougher

George Sisler, the St. Louis Browns’ first baseman, is another young man before the public who has been placed in a wrong light by some unknown masquerading under his name. Be it known right here that George is a lieutenant in the Chemical Warfare section of the army, working his head off with Mike Flynn and company down at Camp Humphreys and praying night and day that the war won’t end before he can get one crack at the Huns.

Before George reported for duty, a player was performing with a shipyard ball club under the name of Sisler. Furthermore, George was said to have declined a commission ”because he would have to pay for his own outfit.” Then the critics got busy. They hammered Sisler to beat the band. They played tunes on his anatomy.

And then George heard of it and issued a statement on the eve of reporting at Camp Humphreys, where he is now. He denied ever playing with a shipyard team and rightly scorned to reply to the second rumor … exposed to the antics of fakers. It’s really too bad!

Washington Times, October 18, 1918.

Game strategy . . .

2011-10-15T10:37:00.000-04:00

LOOKING ’EM OVER

By Louis A. Dougher

“If we had enough teachers over here, we’d have all France playing baseball,” writes Johnny Evers, the Troy Terror, now serving overseas as an athletic director with the Knights of Columbus, and he goes on to make some wise remarks about the French. The most noticeable comment he makes is that “most of the questions they ask are about the strategy of the game and not the mechanical part.”

Those of us who have followed carefully the present war know already that the greatest strategists and tacticians among the allied leaders are Frenchmen. This phase of a game—even the war game—seems to appeal to the French naturally. They absorb strategy faster than do the English, who are also beginning to dabble in baseball.

If American soldiers remain in France another year, it is quite within belief that the French will be playing baseball by themselves offering strong teams for competition with the best the Americans have to place against them. And that will be poking along the path leading to a real worlds series of the future.

Washington Times, October 15, 1918.

Out of their league . . .

2011-10-10T09:21:00.000-04:00

GREAT LAKES TEAM DISBANDED

—

Professional Ball Players Now Have

Chance to See Real Service

By George Y. Henger.

GREAT LAKES, Ill., Oct. 10.—The Great Lakes ball club has disbanded and the players are ready for sea. They’re on their way to the gun turrets, to the gold braids of commissioned officers or to the decks of an Atlantic fleet minesweeper. Red Faber, world’s series hero, alone remains detailed at the vast training camp. Faber commences a special course of yeoman schooling for overseas duty.

The Spanish influenza epidemic has done something for the service at least, according to a news dispatch from Chicago. It has caused the Great Lakes naval training station all star baseball team to disband and the players, some of whom according to reports never handled anything more deadly than a baseball bat, are being assigned to real service that scatters them to various other stations. Some of them even may go to sea.

In the next class entering the officers’ material school, the stepping stone to an ensignship will be the entire infield that turned back the naval club guided by Rabbit Maranville.

Joe Leonard of the Nationals who played first, Ben Dyer of the Tigers, second baseman, Phil Chouinard, once with the White Sox, shortstop and Fred Thomas of the Red Sox at third, have passed the necessary physical tests for entrance.

Manager Johnny Lavan of the Browns and Washington, now a junior grade lieutenant of the medical corps, is preparing to depart for duty in France.

Detailed to a mine sweeper operating in the war zones is “Rags” Faircloth, the Western association pitcher, who so successfully understudied Faber during the past season. It was Faircloth who shut out Jacobson’s club in their final game at Great Lakes.

Ray Neusel and Freddy Hofmann, St Louis boys, are slated for the seaman gunners school at Washington, D.C., together with eight others of the squad. Pitchers Rube Ehrhardt (Cubs), John Paul Jones (Giants), George Cunningham, (Detroit), Catcher Spence Heath, Catcher Verne Clemons, Infielder Buddy Croake and Outfielders Billy Fox and Swanson and complete this gunners’ draft.

Jones and Clemons already have passed examinations for their ratings. On the right sleeve they carry the crossed guns and three bars of a first class mate.

The passing from baseball of this squad, temporarily at least, marks the close of a remarkable service club [one of the greatest service teams ever molded together. The team carried the big league stamp from hill to outfield. It twice trimmed picked clubs from the Eastern fleet sent out to win the naval championship.

It defeated two picked teams from the Atlantic fleet, the Rock Island arsenal club and with one exception every nearby professional organization. The Cubs alone trimmed the navy. In an exhibition game Phil Douglas shut out Great Lakes, 5 to 0.

One series was lost throughout the entire season. Camp Grant, with Harold Carlson working both games, trimmed Great Lakes in two consecutive games in midseason. Neither Lavan nor Cunningham were in Navy uniform at that time, however.

Cedar Rapids (IA) Gazette, October 10, and

Sporting News, October 17, 1918 (combined article).

To the coast . . .

2011-10-07T09:44:00.002-04:00

WOULD GO 2,000

MILES FOR TITLE

—

Great Lakes Ready to Travel

That Far After Baseball Championship

—

Great Lakes, Ill., Oct 7.—Great Lakes is ready to travel 2,000 miles to land the naval baseball championship of America. Holders of the Eastern title through successive decisions over the crack Atlantic Fleet and the Norfolk Club, the Great Lakes Naval Training Station has issued a challenge to the Mare Island, Cal.. champion for a post-season series.

According to the plans of Lieutenant (J. G.) John Lavan, manager of the Station club, the trip west will be a series of short jumps if enough games can be booked with army cantonment teams enroute.

For example, the Camp Pike team at Little Rock has accepted a two-game series. Guy Morton of the Cleveland Americans is running the Pike team and he recently engineered a successful set of games against Camp Funston. With Morton are Ray Schmandt, of Brooklyn, Muddy Ruel, of the New York Americans and the Big Bill Fincher of the Browns. They claim the strongest army team in America.

They are more than eager to meet Great Lakes with its array of big leaguers such as Faber, Lavan, Thomas, Dyer, Johnson and Clemons.

Out on the coast at Mare Island, however, is the main objective of the navy—Duffy Lewis’ club which includes Earl Hamilton, Rowdy Elliott, Swede Risberg, Howard Ehmke and Fred McMullin. A victory over Mare Island and the naval title goes undisputed to the big inland Station of Lake Michigan.

Kokomo (IN) Tribune, October 7, 1918.

Chicago to Detroit . . .

2011-10-05T16:34:00.000-04:00

Cicotte Now Working

as an Eagle Builder

—

Eddie Cicotte, the White Sox pitcher, has returned to his home in Detroit and landed himself a job at River Rouge, building eagles [patrol craft] at Henry Ford’s new plant. Cicotte has a wife and two children to support. The veteran hurler was undecided just what to do, but after a chat with Billy Wreford, United States Employment Commissioner, entered the plant and will help build those sea devils to hunt down the U-boats.

Philadelphia Public Ledger, October 5, 1918.

Call him Fred . . .

2011-10-01T10:25:00.000-04:00

“BARON” VON KOLNITZ, who a few years back played with the Reds and the White Sox, has been made a major, the first instance of a professional ball player attaining such heights in the army. The “Baron” hails from the Carolinas and received his promotion recently at one of the Southern camps. He expects to be summoned for duty overseas any day. Von Kolnitz broke into the big leagues as a catcher, but was used frequently in the infield. He was a hard hitter.

New York Tribune, October 1, 1918.

Chicago to the Colors . . .

2011-09-27T09:21:00.000-04:00

SOX AND CUBS WITH UNCLE SAM

TO BATTLE HUNS

—

Players Now Taking Essential

Work Belong in the Deferred Classes.

—

28 FROM SOX AND CUBS

—

Number Does Not Include Athletes

Who Quit Game To Enter Shipyards.

—

Chicago. Sept. 27.—Alfred E. Von Kolnitz’s promotion from captain to major, recently announced, reminded us that not all professional ball players of yesterday joined “Paint and Putty” league [sic], although one hears more about those who did. In the upheaval caused by the work or fight order, and the recent rush by ball players to obey it, one is inclined to forget the steady drain on the ranks of professional performers ever since the United States went to war.

In fact, that drain was so steady it left few players except those in deferred classes or outside the first draft age when the gates of the major league parks closed the first of the month.

Chicago’s two clubs alone have furnished twenty-eight players for active service since the beginning of the war. This number does not include athletes who quit the game to enter shipyards, munition plants or other essential pursuits—only men who actually donned the uniform of the army or navy either by enlistment or draft.

Sixteen White Sox are included in the list and twelve Cubs, with two more of the north side champions awaiting their call to the national army in the first October contingent. Not all these players actually played with White Sox or Cubs this year, as some of them enlisted or were drafted before the season opened, but they would have been in Chicago uniforms if available, to fill vacancies occurring rapidly during the year.

Besides Maj. von Kolnitz, who was the first of the local players to join the colors, there is known to be a captain and a corporal among the Sox soldiers. Jim Scott earned a captain’s commission and Joe Jenkins was a corporal before he went overseas early this year. There may be others of the former Sox who have won non-commissioned berths, or maybe shoulder bars, and the news has not yet trickled back to us.

Of the other thirteen White Sox in service Edward Collins joined the marines. Bruno Haas entered naval aviation. Urban Faber, Fred McMullin, Charles Risberg, Harry Lake, and Leo Constantineau enlisted in the navy, and George Lees, Ted Jourdan, Pat Hargrove, Fred Henry, Earl Kiser, and George Payne went into the army.

So far as known the Cubs have no commissioned officers, but William Killefer plans to try for a lieutenancy as soon as he finishes his preliminary work at Camp Custer. Tom Daly is a corporal in the army and Grover Cleveland Alexander ought to be at least a top sergeant by this time if he is half as good a soldier as he was pitcher.

The other nine former Cubs in service are Peter Kilduff, Pickles Dilhoefer [sic], W. E. Marriott, Skelton Napier and Abraham Lincoln Bailey in the army, and Harold (Rowdy) Elliott, Elwood Martin, Victor Aldridge, and Harry Weaver in the navy.

It is easier to remember those whose names appear in the box scores of the ship and munition leagues than those who have become mere cogs in the mammoth machine that is being constructed to feed the Huns to the carp in their own Rhine.

Kokomo (IN) Tribune, September 27, 1918.

Grover over there . . .

2011-09-26T09:04:00.002-04:00

OTHERS MAY HAVE CLASS,

BUT LOOK AT THIS ONE

—

BASEBALL TEAM OF THE

342D FIELD ARTILLERY ...

[O]ne of the teams in France that banks not only on performance, but on reputation and record is that representing the 342d field artillery, which is pictured above. If there are any service ball clubs in France that can beat this lineup they will have to go some. Look at the layout: First in the group, reading from left to right, is Clark, formerly an Illinois University player; next comes Brown, who was with a crack independent team in Kansas City; Poge Lewis, famous athlete from Washington University; Lindsey of Kansas University; Wynn Noyes, once with Connie Mack’s Athletics; Andruss, a veteran Army player; Colonel Nugent of the 342d, who doesn’t play but can tell how the game should be played; next we have none less than the great Grover Alexander himself, who is the pitching ace of the 342d field artillery, and some ace; Clarence Mitchell, formerly of the Brooklyn Dodgers; Otis Lambeth, the under-hand pitcher of the Cleveland Indians; Chuck Ward, formerly shortstop and third baseman with Pittsburg and Brooklyn; Lloyd Waite, collegian and major league tryout; Wetzel, minor leaguer and Kansas City independent player; Balingal of Nashville, who has made his mark in independent ball. The team includes others in reserve, but these are about enough to establish its class. It’s some team, in service or anywhere else, and many a major league manager would like to have it to make a pennant race with.

Sporting News, September 26, 1918.

Catching Sherry . . .

2011-09-24T17:52:00.000-04:00

No One Could Hold Him

So Sherry Smith Lost

(Correspondence of The Eagle.)

Paris, France, September 7— Sherrod Smith, former Brooklyn National League star, pitched a losing game against a Knights of Columbus team organized among players serving with a division stationed near Blois this week. Smith played with the soldier team from Blois. He pitched good ball, but no member of his team could hold his curves. Captain Beckwith, who was catcher for the Chicago Cubs in ’94 and ’95, played third base for the Blois team. The score was 9 to 6.

Asa L. Needham, of Meriden, Neb., pitched for the Knights of Columbus team, which was directed by Sergeant East, who was pitching for the St. Louis Americans when he joined the colors. Wilford M. Kuhn, of Tiffin, Ohio, former Southern and Eastern leagues star pitcher, played first base for the Knights of Columbus team, and Wellington Povey, of Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., formerly of the Seattle team of the Northwestern League, played left field for the Knights.

This team should not be confused with the Knights of Columbus all-star team which Johnny Evers is organizing for the purpose of playing the various division teams throughout France. The organization of the all-star team is well under way and it is hope the begin the tour the latter part of September.

Brooklyn Eagle, September 24, 1918.

Rabbit is ruffled . . .

2011-09-19T08:53:00.000-04:00

Former Boston Brave Roasts

Ball Players Deserting Clubs

to Take Steel League Jobs

—

Walter (Rabbit) Maranville, a chief gunner’s mate on the battleship Pennsylvania, former Boston Brave shortstop, and one of the greatest infielders of the National league, criticizes baseball players who are deserting their clubs to take positions in the Steel league and to play with shipbuilding concerns.

He says the move displays a lack of patriotism and is not helping the sport, inasmuch as the people who support the game do not think highly of these men.

“Ball players who are in the draft and jump their clubs to go to work in the steel and shipbuilding leagues are not doing baseball a bit of good,” said Maranville. “They also are not helping Uncle Sam. They are not skilled enough to be of much use in those concerns and their chief object is to play ball. Fans will remember the players who left their clubs, and after the war is over those who come back undoubtedly will be tormented all around the circuit for their act.”

Cato (NY) Citizen, September 19, 1918.

Getting 'em over . . .

2011-09-16T08:56:00.000-04:00

Alex Has Not Forgotten How to Throw Curves

—

ALEXANDER GOES INTO BOX FOR

SOLDIER NINE

—

Former Syracuse Pitcher Twirls

6 Innings Against Team of Aviators.

—

Big Leaguer Wins Out in

Fourteenth inning 5 to 3 Score.

—

Grover Cleveland Alexander, former Syracuse pitcher, who made a great name for himself when he went into the big league playing with the Philadelphia and Chicago National league clubs and who is now over in France, has been doing some pitching for an army nine, according to a letter just received by Albert Silverstein of No. 1313 Orange street from R. M. Yarwood of this city who is a naval aviator stationed at Panillac, Gironde, France.

Big Alexander pitched the last six innings of a game on August 11th for the army nine against a team of naval aviators at Panillac, the former Syracuse star going in with the score tied at 3 all in the ninth and holding his opponents scoreless while his team got two runs in the first half of the fourteenth and winning out 5 to 3. The aviators got two hits off Alexander while he was on the hill but the big fellow whipped them over with such speed that there was no danger of any scoring while he was working.

Syracuse (NY) Herald, September 16, 1918.

Mighty Casey . . .

2011-09-15T09:26:00.000-04:00

Navy Baseball Team

Blanks An Army Nine

—

Superb Pitching of Jeff Pfeffer and

Hit by Casey Stengel Win Day

—

By Charles A. Taylor 

In one of the best played games seen at the Polo Grounds in many a day the sailors from the Brooklyn Navy Yard defeated the soldiers from the Quartermaster Corps at Camp Merritt yesterday afternoon by a score of 1 to 0. It was a relief to the 8,000 spectators to see some real snappy baseball after the sad showing made by the Giants and the Yanks on the same field during the last two months.

The presence of a battalion of artillerymen clad in the navy blue and 500 khaki-garbed warriors, not to mention the array of officers of high rank who were on hand, also added a zest and color to this particular diamond battle which has been lacking before, despite the fact that Harry Sparrow, of the Yanks, and John B. Foster, of the Giants, have from time to time invited Uncle Sam’s boys to spend an afternoon or so as their guests. . . .

The game went to the sailor lads by reason of the superb pitching of Jeff Pfeffer and the timely blow Casey Stengel struck with his bat in the third inning. Pfeffer allowed the Army only three widely scattered hits, one coming in the third, another in the seventh and the last bingle in the eighth. Rube Bressler was Jeff’s opponent, and he was almost as good as Jeff, save for the bunching of safeties he permitted in the third frame. Sandberg was Pfeffer’s battery mate, while Dilhoefer handled the twists of Bressler.

The third inning tells the entire story of the conflict. With one man out for the Navy, Sheridan, who played a few games with the Dodgers early this season, singled to left field. Shannon flied out to Roseff in left, but Jimmy Hickman planted a safety in right, which brought Sheridan to third.

Casey Stengel settled the controversy, although no one was wise to the fact at the time, by hammering the ball to left for a single, which scored Sheridan with the big run.

The Army never had a chance against the lanky Pfeffer . . . 

New York Tribune, September 15, 1918.

More for Marcus . . .

2011-09-12T08:57:00.000-04:00

MARK MILLIGAN DIES

IN FALL OF AIRPLANE

—

Former Pittsburg Pitcher, Just Out of His

Teens, Killed on Fort Worth Flying Field.

—

Marcus G. Milligan, formerly a pitcher with the Pittsburg Pirates, who enlisted in the Army aviation branch before the 1918 season opened, died in the post hospital at Fort Worth on September 4 of injuries received in a fall with his airplane the previous day. A lieutenant flyer named Greene was killed in the same accident.

Milligan’s home was in Pensacola, Fla., and he was not yet 22 years of age. He learned to play ball at Alabama Technical Institute and while still a student of that school was signed by the Pittsburg Club because of the wonderful showing he had made as a pitcher. To preserve his amateur status he played ball under the name of “Orr” until the 1917 season.

Pittsburg released him to Portsmouth in the Virginia League for experience in 1916 and in 1917 sent him to Scranton and to Birmingham, recalling him in the summer of 1917. He ranked second among pitchers of the Southern League in percentage of games won in 1917 and in his few games with Pittsburg showed wonderful ability and a great future in baseball was predicted for him, but he chose to serve his country and enlisted as an aviator before reaching the draft age.

Milligan was a wonderful physical specimen, standing six feet and two inches in height and weighing 180 pounds and in his aviator’s uniform was a strikingly handsome figure.

Sporting News, September 12, 1918.

The graceful southpaw . . .

2011-09-08T05:54:00.000-04:00

AMERICANS WASTE HITS.

—

English Critic Insists Foul Ball Should Benefit Batter.

—

Since the American Army and Navy has been “at home” in England many British sporting writers have had a hand in criticizing as well as praising the national pastime of baseball. Few have reached such entertaining heights as the anonymous critic of The Field, London’s famous sporting weekly. In a recent issue of The Field a description of the July 4 game, at which the King was an impressed visitor, is given. It follows in part:

“Americans have never taken kindly to cricket, which they regard as much too slow a game for their temperament, and their humorous writers are never tired of describing in the most good-natured way the little failings and peculiarities of our national game. Curiously enough, Englishmen also think baseball is too slow a game for their temperament, and, although probably very few of them could give a good reason for this idea, the actual cause is not far to seek. . . . It will seem almost incredible to English cricketers, but it is a fact, as attested in The Daily Mail in an analysis of the July 4 game by an American baseball journalist, that although in the course of the game something like 250 balls were thrown—a matter of 40 odd over’s at cricket—the safe hits numbered only eight, two by the Army and six by the Navy. A few other hits were made, which were so poor that they got a man out, and a few others in the nature of cricket snicks or ‘corner strokes’ were of no advantage to the batter, since they were behind the boundary line.

“Yet although the reason why cricketers do not take to baseball has been clearly shown, there are certain points about the game which would of themselves make it worth playing. In the first place, the throwing in by the fieldsmen is simply streets in front of anything that cricketers can do, even the youngest and most active of them. The way in which a man gathers the ball and returns it without the very slightest loss of time would afford an object lesson to the best eleven the Universities could turn out. But we shall never see this baseball perfection in cricket, for it implies the presence in the field of no player who is not in the very prime of life; the numerous veterans who do very well at cricket would be hopelessly out of it.

“Another great point in baseball is the beauty of the throwing by the pitcher. On July 4 both the pitchers, [Herb] Pennock for the Navy and [Ed] Lafitte for the Army, threw in the most graceful manner, but Pennock, who is left-handed, would have afforded a model for a Greek sculptor, worthy to be placed side by side with the famous ‘discobolos.’ His every action was grace itself, and his subtle variations would have made the best of our bowler envious. In cricket there have been many left-handed bowlers whose style has been impeccable, but we cannot remember any one who has had as graceful a style as Pennock, and we most strongly advise cricketers to take any chance they may have of seeing him or Lafitte.”

New York Times, August 8, 1918.

Mourning for Marcus . . .

2011-09-05T09:28:00.000-04:00

FLIER FATALLY HURT

—

Former Pittsburg National Pitcher Dies

in Fort Worth.

—

Fort Worth, Tex., Sept. 5.—Flying Cadet G. M. Milligan, former Pittsburg National pitcher, died here yesterday from injuries received Tuesday when he crashed to earth in an airplane with Lieutenant Sidney Green.

Lieutenant Green was instantly killed in the fall but Cadet Milligan’s injuries were not considered serious at the time of the accident.

—

Montgomery, Ala., Sept. 5.— G. M. Milligan, flying cadet, who died of injuries received in a fall at an aviation field near Fort Worth, was formerly a star pitcher for the Auburn (Ala.) Polytechnic Institute team, having been bought by Barney Dreyfuss of the Pittsburg National League team in the spring of 1916. Pittsburg sent the young twirler to Birmingham for further seasoning and after the close of the 1917 season he enlisted in the aviation section of the United States Army. He was born at Heflin, Ala., his family moving from that place to Pensacola, Fla., where he entered baseball.

San Antonio Light, September 5, 1918.

Road game . . .

2011-09-03T09:15:00.000-04:00

Facts and Fancies

Grantland Rice, in a letter from France, says: “Baseball is still the big game back of the lines here. Two of us are going to take a truck and a team thirty miles away Sunday to play a rival brigade. This is being done all over France. There are hundreds of ball games and thousands of players here.”

— Louis Lee Arms, New York Tribune, September 3, 1918.

Rube and Benny . . .

2011-09-01T08:16:00.001-04:00

Rube Marquard and Benny Kauff, of the Dodgers and New York Giants, respectively, in this picture, from left to right, played their last game at the Polo Grounds, New York, before taking up their duties with Uncle Sam. Marquard is a member of the Mine Sweeper Division, U. S. N., while Kauff is a corporal in the National Army. The Giant-Dodger game at the Polo Grounds, Thursday, was the last that the two will participate in for some time.

New York Tribune, September 1, 1918.

Every player's dream . . .

2011-08-29T08:54:00.000-04:00

DIAMOND HONORS

NOTHING LIKE THIS

Honors of a World’s Series are as nothing compared to being honored for doing a soldier’s duty for his country, according to Hugh Miller, former first baseman of the Phillies, now a marine in France.

“You know it is every ball player’s great ambition to play in a World’s Series,” Miller writes. “Well, I had such a dream, too, picturing myself a hero before a large crowd, etc. But say, that is a mere trifle compared to being decorated by General Pershing with the Distinguished Service Cross and given a real hand-shake by the general himself.

“I had a wonderful feeling. It was the greatest moment of my life. I shall never forget it. I captured two Germans, one an officer, from whom we got some good information. They were the first prisoners my regiment got.

“Then, after all this, I went into the last big drive with lots of pep and got wounded. But I am very thankful that I am alive, for the shell exploded right behind me, wounding others severely, including my officer whom I assisted back to safety.”

Miller is now in a hospital in Paris recovering from his wounds and writes that he wants to be out as soon as possible, because he thinks the real big drive that will finish the war is coming and he does not want to miss it. . . .

Sporting News, August 29, 1918.

Ty, Tris and Eddie . . .

2011-08-28T09:52:00.002-04:00

TRIO OF BASEBALL’S GREATEST STARS HAVE

ENTERED DANGEROUS SERVICE

—

Three of baseball’s brightest stars and probably the greatest players in the world have announced their intention of entering active service in dangerous branches of the United States army and navy. These men are not seeking safety first jobs and they are an honor to the great game they represent. One is already in the service and the other two are on their way.

One couldn’t pick a greater cluster of stars than Ty Cobb, Eddie Collins and Tris Speaker, and that is why their patriotism should be an example to other athletes. Ty Cobb has made application for a commission in the gas and flame division of the United States army. Ty says he expects to be in Europe by the end of October. The “world’s greatest player” was ordered to present himself for vaccination and went to Fort Thomas, where the surgeons shot the serum into his batting arm. Cobb says he may have to report to the gas and chemical division before Labor day.

Then there is Tris Speaker of the Cleveland club, who is entering the naval aviation corps. “Spoke” says he has taken a trip in a hydroplane and likes the excitement and danger of it. Speaker will go to the Boston Technical school for eight or 10 weeks. He will then proceed to Pensacola, Fla., for three months of flight training. Speaker made application for entrance to the naval aviation branch on July 16. He expects to pass the examination and be sworn into service this week.

Eddie Collins completes the trio of famous players entering dangerous branches of the service. Eddie knew full well what it all meant when he entered the marines. The enlisting of Collins, Cobb and Speaker will be a boost to baseball and will offset completely the action of some players in entering the shipyards to escape the firing line.

—

Eddie Collins played shortstop on the United States Marines team Saturday and helped his teammates defeat the Dobsons 3 to 2. He drove in two of the runs and scored the other.

Albany (NY) Journal, August 28, 1918.

Branch and Matty . . .

2011-08-24T10:31:00.000-04:00

Rickey and Mathewson Enter

Chemical Warfare Service

Branch Rickey, president of the St. Louis National League Club, has been appointed a major in the Chemical Warfare Service of the U. S. Army, for overseas service. Christy Mathewson, manager of the Cincinnati Reds, has been notified that his application for a commission in the Chemical Warfare Service for overseas duty has been approved, and he has been ordered to take the physical examination.

Rickey and Mathewson are both college graduates. Mathewson from Bucknell and Rickey from the University of Michigan. They are two among a number of former college athletes who have recently been appointed to the Chemical Warfare Service. . . .

Some months ago Mathewson was voted by the soldiers in France the most popular ball player in America and a hectic request was sent him by the Y. M. C. A. to drop everything and dash over to France at once to “take charge of baseball” among the troops. As far as could ever be learned, Matty never could find out exactly what he was to do when he got there. Taking charge of baseball among the troops might have meant anything from dishing out bats and balls to organizing leagues or coaching players. He declined to accept, unless the duties were outlined more specifically, and eventually the matter was dropped. . . .

Now Matty is going to France as an officer in a vitally important branch of the service, and he must feel infinitely better than he would have felt if he had gone as a mere organizer of amusements, after he had been held up for so many years as an example of the perfect American athlete.

Brooklyn Eagle, August 24, 1918.

Bonjour, Johnny . . .

2011-08-21T10:38:00.000-04:00

French Army Adopts Baseball

With Johnny Evers as Bawler Out

PARIS, Wednesday.—Baseball playing is to become a regular part of the physical training of the French army, as a result of reports made by French officers on what they had seen of the effects of baseball on the American army. The reports led the Ministry of War to issue an order recommending the adoption of baseball in the French army.

General Vidal Tuesday sent Captain G. Forbes, an American officer attached to his staff, to the headquarters of the Knights of Columbus with a request that Johnny Evers, the former American baseball star, be sent to his corps to instruct the soldiers in the American national game. The request was granted, and Evers will go to the French camp with two assistants and equipment provided by the Knights of Columbus.

New York Telegram, August 21, 1918.