Baseball The National Pastime in World War II

Keith Rakes

6/2/2010

History 481

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The United States home front during World War II faced many hardships and challenges

that affected everyday life. The men and women who stayed home as “our boys” went to fight

the Nazi’s and Japanese viewed themselves as a crucial part in the war. Franklin Delano

Roosevelt knew these sacrifices and the people understood this too. From rationing crucial

materials such as rubber to food, to scrap metal drives and victory gardens, the people of the U.S.

were more than willing to make sacrifices to win the war. Yet Roosevelt did not want those who

stayed home to be all work and no play. National morale was a top priority and baseball was a

large part of this. Baseball was “the national pastime”, and was viewed as the only major sport in

the time. It brought communities large and small together in a common bond, to watch the boys

of summer play. Roosevelt saw the game as a relaxing form of entertainment that could benefit

the country greatly. In the eyes of the President, baseball was it and only one man could keep the

game alive, Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Baseball, before the U.S. entered World War II, was a corrupt sport to belong too. Some

players and owners knew a gambler or a member of a crime family that could easily and illegally

make money off of the game. In the early years, it was govern by a three person commission that

proved to be inadequate. Crime families in New York and Chicago played a major role in the

outcome of baseball games. Players threw a game (intentionally lose) to make an extra $500 to

$5,000 dollars, depending on the teams playing. The result of the three person commission was

that very few people were banned for gambling. It would be the 1919 World Series that sealed

baseball’s underworlds fate.

The event that finally got the federal government’s attention and involvement was the

1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and the Cincinnati Reds. It became known as

“the Black Sox” Scandal when a federal grand jury indicted eight players (who all played for the

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White Sox) for throwing the series for gamblers. It was after the scandal that baseball team

owners from both leagues hired a new commissioner from outside the sport. This was Landis, a

hard fighting, his way or the highway, former federal judge from Chicago. He knew that to give

the people a clean game, the game had to be cleaned up. His efforts took place during the early

years of his tenure.

Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s, Landis did his best to clean up the game. He banned

anyone and everyone that interfered with its. His list included mostly players who either

conspired with gamblers, or jumped contracts. His efforts were finally seceded by the late 1930’s

when the country was coming out of the Great Depression. Baseball was a clean sport, and

respected by all organizations, including the federal government. Yet by the 1930’s the world

order was changing and Europe was on the brink of war. By 1939, Nazi Germany was

conquering Europe in a fast pace and Japan was taking control of the Pacific. Roosevelt

understood that the U.S. was going to join the war eventually, but could not due to a lack of

public support. For Landis, baseball was going to change due to the U.S. entrance into World

War II. To this, he insisted that Major League Baseball must continue and this paper will discuss

the importance of baseball continuation during World War II and that the game had to change to

benefit those at home as well as abroad.

U.S. goes to war and Landis is worried

In 1940, Europe was at war against Nazi Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union. In Asia,

Japan was conquering the South Pacific from island to island. The United States, under the

presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, opted to remain neutral for the time being. For Landis,

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it was a great idea for a number of reasons. The game was interrupted when the country entered

World War I, and he did not want to see that happen again. Secondly, a neutral country will keep

all the good, young players at home and fans in the ball parks. In late 1940, Roosevelt asked that

all able men to sign up for the peacetime draft. Many ball players (encouraged by Landis but

frowned upon by team owners) did this out of respect of the country and their patriotic duty. The

country remained neutral throughout the 1940 and 1941 baseball season. For Landis, the 1941

baseball season would be the greatest season under his tenure.

The 1941 Major League Baseball season went off like any other season, but ended up

being the best season in Landis’s career. The people still rooted for their favorite teams from

New York to St. Louis, while keeping an eye on the war in Europe and Asia. Many ball players

were having their best season in 1941. There was Stan ‘The Man’ Musial of the St. Louis

Cardinals, and Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox, who was the last person to bat .400 (.406 to

be exact) for a season.1 The team that everyone feared the most: the New York Yankees with

‘Joltin’ Joe Dimagio. They went on to win the World Series over the Brooklyn Dodgers that

year. Landis knew that teams were going to lose some players if the country went to war, but was

surprised when Hank Greenberg of the Detroit Tigers was drafted in October, 1940.

In 1940, Major League ball players signed up for the draft. One of them was ‘Hammerin’

Hank Greenberg, the power hitter of the Detroit Tigers. Hank explains in his autobiography that

instead of listing his home address in the Bronx (like his younger brother) he listed it as Detroit:

I don’t know what prevailed upon me to list my residence as Detroit. Maybe I thought it

would keep me from being drafted so soon. What a mistake that turned out to be! Some

6,000 numbers were drawn out of that fishbowl, and my number was around 5,000, and

1 Robert W. Creamer, Baseball in ’41: A celebration of the best baseball season ever- in the year America went to

war (New York: The Penguin Group, 1991) 272.

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Joe’s was around 2,300… I figured I’d be called, but I thought I’d be able to play out the

1941 season. It didn’t work out that way for me.2

Hank was drafted into service in October, 1940. Besides Hank, Hugh Mulcahy, a pitcher

for the Philadelphia Phillies was also drafted into the Army as well, al bight a little earlier in the

same year.3 There were six categories that defined a man going into the service. The groups were

A through F. All A’s were deemed fit for duty. All F’s were considered unfit for duty. All the

teams were affected by the draft. One team that was not affected as much was the St. Louis

Browns. A majority of the team was considered unfit for duty (draft number 4- F) and did not go

to the war. Over the next four years, many other Major League ball players was drafted for the

services, yet Commissioner Landis had some concerns that only Roosevelt could answer. Yet

Landis never expected the U.S. to enter the war as soon as it did.

The U.S. Enters World War II and Landis receives his “Green Light”

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 pushed the U.S. to enter the

war. For Landis, baseball was changed forever. In early January, 1942, Landis wrote a letter to

Roosevelt about the status of baseball during the war. He “stressed that baseball made no

suggestions to President Roosevelt, asked for no favors, and would ask for none.”4 Overall, he

just wanted Roosevelt’s advice on the status of the game. He got his answer on January 16, 1942.

2 Hank Greenberg, Hank Greenberg: The story of my Life, ed. Ira Berkow (New York: The Times Books, 1989) 143. 3 Charles C. Alexander, Our Game: An American Baseball History (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1991) 187.

4 J. G. Taylor Spink, Judge Landis and 25 Years of Baseball (St. Louis, MO: The Sporting News Publishing Company, 1974), 236.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt always billed himself as a man for the people. This is even true

when it came to baseball. Commissioner Landis received a letter from Roosevelt on January 16,

1942. He wrote that:

I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be

fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours than ever before. And

that means that they ought to have the chance for recreation and for taking their minds off

their work even more than before. Baseball provides a recreation which does not last over

two hours or two hours and a half, and which can be got for very little cost. And,

incidentally, I hope that night games can be extended because it gives an opportunity to

the day shift to see a game occasionally.5

This was all that Landis needed to keep baseball going, yet Roosevelt had to be the war

president that he was. He insisted that “individual players who are of military or naval age

should go, without question, into the services.”6

Kennesaw could not agree with him more, even

though the talent pool was going to go down. Roosevelt was a fan of the game, and did not want

to see his Boston Red Sox or Washington Senators shut down because the country was going to

war. He ended his letter to Landis with an interesting scenario:

Here is another way of looking at it- if 300 teams use 5,000 or 6,000 players, these

players are a definite recreational asset to at least 20,000,000 of their fellow citizens- and

that in my judgment is thoroughly worthwhile.7

Known as Roosevelt’s “Green Light Letter”, it gave Landis the go ahead to keep

professional baseball going. He requested that each team gets fourteen night games (the

maximum was seven before the war), and Landis agreed. It was now the local teams that took

this letter and interpreted into playing baseball for the country.

5 Roosevelt to Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Washington D.C., January 16, 1942, in The Public Papers and Addresses

of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: 1942 Humanity on the Defensive ed. X (Scranton, PA, Harper and Bros., 1950), 62.

6 Roosevelt to Landis, 62. 7 Roosevelt to Landis, 62

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Major League owners’ response to the Presidents Letter

The Landis- Roosevelt Letter drew a great reaction from team owners of both leagues.

Edward C. Barrow, president of the New York Yankees stated to the New York Times: “It

certainly has clarified our position greatly, and we will now be able to go ahead with our plans

with considerably more assurance than we have felt up to now.”8 Other owners also felt that

Roosevelt’s recommendation’s was worth accepting. Donald L. Barnes, owner of the St. Louis

Browns called the President’s request for night games “the best news he’s heard in a long time.”9

Yet, all the owners (including Landis) agreed that the main goal of professional baseball was not

to fill the stadiums and make a profit. The goal was to help the American home front while the

country was at war. Even as American League teams like the Yankees and the Browns were

making changes to get ready for the 1942 season, the National League still had some unfinished

business with Roosevelt’s letter.

Before the 1942 Season could get underway the National League wanted to make sure

that they understood the Roosevelt- Landis letter. On January 18, 1942, Ford Frick, President of

the National league “secretly” met with his top advisors to discuss the letter. According to John

Drebinger, Frick (who had to be chased down by Drebinger and finally gave in) stated that the

meeting discussed issues for the upcoming season. They mostly discussed night games being

expanded to fourteen, the playing schedules of all the teams, and how the league was going to

purchase defense bonds.10

Drebinger believed that the meeting was about helping the

Philadelphia Phillies get out of debt. He also stated that contracts could also be sent to players for

8 Associated Press, “Clarification of Game’s Status Delights Baseball Club Owners,” New York Times, January 17,

1942. University Microfilms, 1942. Microfilm. 9 New York Times, January 17, 1942, Microfilm.

10 John Drebinger, “More Night Games Expected By Frick,” New York Times, January 18, 1942, University Microfilms. 1942. Microfilm.

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the upcoming season.11

By the time Spring Training rolled around, everything was in place for

the season to start. For Commissioner Landis, baseball had to think big and give back big. Yet he

was not alone. Many baseball team owners wanted to help too. World War II was a civilian war

in which everyone was involved, including baseball. Besides playing for profit, teams were

playing for war charities.

The Major League becomes the Charity League

Commissioner Landis felt that if teams were going to play each other, than the games

were going to be for war charities. Charities from the American Red Cross to Army- Navy Relief

Funds got large amounts of money from the games. This was especially true for the Washington

Senators of the American League. Most (if not all) of their series that were played went to the

war. When the Yankees played the Senators for a four-game series in May, 1943:

Martial music, patriotic fervor and the tread of well-drilled feet echoed over Griffith

Stadium today as the Yankees struck their first blow in the interests of the nation’s armed

forces by hammering the Senators into subjection in the game for the Army and Navy

relief funds.12

The Yankees took the series three games to one, yet almost every series that was played

(and by every team) went to the charities. These games were continued throughout the war.

Even though the charity games started in 1942, they really picked up in 1943. Baseball

teams took many different steps in raising money to fight the war. Richard Goldstein writes that:

11

John Drebinger, New York Times, January, 18, 1942. Microfilm. 12 James P. Dawson, “M’Carthymen Top Senators In Ninth: Yanks Score 4 Runs to Win in Game Played for Army and

Navy Relief Funds”, New York Times, May 23, 1943.

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Gate receipts from selected exhibition and regular season games, all-star contests, and the

World Series would be funneled to war related charities or defense bonds. The ball clubs

would schedule a bizarre mix of starting times for their games in order to accommodate

war workers on various shifts. Individual players would promote bond sales, watch the

skies for enemy planes on off nights, pick apples to relieve a farm labor shortage, donate

blood, go on USO- sponsored trips to the war fronts, and visit defense plants to spur

production. Fans would be called upon to haul commodities such as scrap metal to the

ballpark for conversion to war material- their reward a free seat- and would forsake the

privilege of keeping foul pops, instead of tossing the baseballs back onto the field for

shipment to the armed forces, to supplement the official equipment fund.13

Anyone and everyone chipped in for “our boys on the front”. This was even true for

Landis when he requested that all proceeds for the 1942 All-Star game go to the equipment fund

for servicemen, plus he added $25,000 from Major League offices in Chicago just to get the ball

rolling.14

Landis was very generous when he gave out money to the military or other charities.

Sometimes though, the teams disappointed him.

Commissioner Landis always enjoyed giving money to charities, yet the teams sometimes

did not put in enough effort. He was disappointed when the New York Yankees played the St.

Louis Cardinals for the 1942 and 1943 World Series. Both series went short at only five games

apiece (he was hoping for the full seven), but “nothing gave him greater pleasure than when he

signed his name to a USO check for $362,926.50 from the 1942 series and one for $308,375.40

to the War Relief and Service Fund of 1943.”15

During his tenure Landis always gave some

portion of his paycheck to charities like the Red Cross. The teams did too, but also held blood

and scrap metal drives to help the war effort.

Teams get creative

13 Richard Goldstein, Spartan Seasons: How Baseball Survived the Second World War (New York, Macmillian

Publishing Co, 1980) 65. 14 Spink, 234. 15 Spink, 237.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt viewed ball players as entertainers for the common people.

The player’s, saw themselves as common people too, only being paid to play a sport they truly

loved. The players across the Major League helped in more ways than just selling war bonds. In

Boston, the Red Sox and Braves kept watch at night for suspicious planes (Fenway Park did not

have lights and did not receive them till after the war).16

Players and fans alike gave blood to the

American Red Cross. Yet the most important was scrap metal drives that adults and children

could help out and have fun at the same time.

Scrap metal drives by the individual teams were commonplace during the war. It was also

rewarding for the entire family. A game between the Red Sox and Yankees in September, 1942

saw 3,000 kids bring fifty tons of scrap metal to see the game. The Dodgers gave free admission

to anyone that brought a piece of scrap metal to Ebbets Field.17

As the fans, did their part at the

ball park, the player’s did the same thing by going overseas.

For the teams, allowing the people to help out the war was a thankful experience. Yet the

individual players also did their part too, by boosting morale for the servicemen overseas.

Goldstein explains that, “a number of baseball people went on overseas trips sponsored by the

USO, entertaining servicemen with stories and showings of World Series rings”18

This is what

Landis and other baseball officials wanted. It showed that even baseball supported the war effort

by the soldiers and sailors. The amount of Army- Navy relief games increased as the war

continued from 1943- 1945 in addition to games between the Majors and Navy ball clubs.

16 Goldstein, 86. 17 Gerald Bazer and Steven Culbertson, Baseball during World War II: The Reaction and Encouragement of Franklin

Delano Roosevelt and Others, in Project Muse, http://muse.jhu.edu.ezb.lib.cwu.edu/journals/nine/v010/10.1bazer.pdf (accessed April 19, 2010)

18 Goldstein, 80.

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Kenesaw was happy that the teams were taking steps in helping out in the war. The New York

teams did one better by “auctioning” off players for war bonds.

The War Bonds League

As Landis got older (he was 75 years old when the U.S. entered the war), he wanted the

teams to personally help out the home front. The club owner’s could not agree with him more.

The organizations saw themselves as members of the communities and vowed to help. The

owners and players did their part to keep the American community rolling. One of the biggest

payouts that the players did was auctioning war bonds. Known as a war bonds league, the players

of the New York Yankees, Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers “auctioned” off themselves for war

bonds. Richard Goldstein explains that one of these auctions were extremely successful:

The auction yielded $123,850,000 in initial war bond pledges. The most expensive of the

thirty-seven players selected was Dixie Walker, who went for $11, 250,000 in bonds to

the Brooklyn Club, a social organization. At the other end of the scale, when a trio of

Giant players appeared on the dais to be auctioned off, a member of the Brooklyn

Chamber of Commerce shouted, “We bid twenty-five cents for the entire Giant team.”19

The war bonds league was extremely popular in New York. It became a betting game for

the fans: besides whose team beat who’s, but also who brought in the most money in war bonds.

In a game between the Giants and the Dodgers, the people who bought the Giant players also

beat “their rivals $45,000 to $25,000 in war bond achievements.”20

The Giants won 8 to 5. Even

as the teams were bringing in money of the war, the players were taking less pay from their

owners because of the war.

19

Goldstein,75. 20 Goldstein, 76.

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Baseball goes old and grey

As all the team owners were busy making changes to satisfy war needs, Larry MacPhail

was doing just that. As President of the Brooklyn Dodgers (and not well liked in the Major’s) he

went about in setting the standards for how baseball was going to help America win World War

II. MacPhail was the first owner to sign a player to a bond- buying contract. At a meeting with

Major League owners and officials, he signed Freddie Fritzsimmons to a $12,000 contract which

included war bonds.21

Many players (mostly those who could not be drafted) took these contracts

for patriotic reasons. As the war progressed player’s contracts were getting smaller due to the

financial strain of the team.22

Yet for older player’s they felt as if the team owner’s was not

giving them a good deal.

As many young players in the Majors went to the war (about 500 total), the team owners

had to give contracts to players who were past their prime. Many players that received baseball

contracts during World War II, had not played a game since the early 1930’s. Since these men

could not be drafted, they ended up becoming ball players. There were many reasons why

players did not get drafted for the war, but mostly for medical reasons and age. Older men in

their late thirties and early forties found their way back to the professional baseball:

At the same time, overage veteran often discovered a new vigor (and inevitably an old

weariness) in the midst of the worsening wartime talent shortage. In 1943, at age thirty-

eight, Luke Appling of the White Sox won his second AL batting title. At thirty-seven

and in his twelfth in the AL, outfielder Bob Johnson batted .324 for the Red Sox. Paul

Waner, three-timer NL batting champion in the twenties and thirties, hung on through the

war years to finish with 3,154 career base hits and a .333 lifetime batting average. Jimmie

Foxx, released by the Red Sox, put in a couple of inglorious seasons with the Cubs and

21Goldstein, 64. 22 Alexander, 188.

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Philadelphia Phillies before quitting with 535 home runs and a .325 career average. Even

forty-two year old Babe Herman, who hadn’t appeared in a big league game since 1937,

became a pinch hitter for the Dodgers.23

The men who played during the war knew that their contracts lasted for at least a season.

Yet that did not stop them from wanting to play ball. The most famous ball player to not be

drafted was Pete Gray of the St. Louis Browns. He lost his left arm in a farming accident as a

kid, yet still managed to play ball as an adult. His only season came in 1944, when the Browns

opened the season with eighteen 4-Fs.24

For the players, contracts were going to get harder to

negotiate for.

The men who played baseball during this era knew that they were playing for the nation

and to make money. The owners had to walk a fine line when conducting contract negotiations

with older players who wanted to make as much as they did back in the early years. For the

owners, the situation was not going to allow it. In an editorial written by John Kieran, he makes

out a scenario in which an older player and a team owner discuss a contract. It shows that the

contract negotiations got pretty heated at times. The owner always thought about the war, and

how his team was going to help the war effort. The older player just wanted to make as much as

the younger player in his position. Some players just did not understand. The dialogue went

along these lines:

T.B. (Third Baseman)—“I get it. You mean me. Now look! You wouldn’t be profiteering

already, would you? Don’t tell me you can help win the war by starving my kids. The

Japs didn’t drop that stuff on Pearl Harbor so that you could chisel down my wages. I’ve

been reading all the war news and that part isn’t in there at all. It’s pretty small on”—

C.O. (Club Owner) — “Small! You don’t realize the immensity of this thing—this

struggle—this effort that everybody has to make. I tell you, a ball player ought’s to be the

last to complain. It wouldn’t sit right with the public. Whole business have been wiped

out. They’re not making new cars anymore. There not making any”—

23 Alexander, 191. 24 Goldstein, 197.

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T.B.—“ Somebody’s still making apple sauce though. What’s the big idea? If you hire a

man, you still pay him don’t you?”25

It is not known if this was a regular occurrence between owners and older players. Most

of them wanted to just get back on the field and play. For them, they felt as if they were doing

the country a service and helping out the war. As older players filled in the ranks of Major

League teams, schedules were changed when Landis added extra games. These games pitted

Major League ballplayers against the armed forces best.

MLB vs. USA

During World War II, Commissioner Landis and top military officials decided to add

additional games that pitted baseball’s best against the services best. Both branches had ball

clubs (including individual bases and navy installations) and those good enough became military

all-stars. Fortunately, many of these all stars were former big leaguers themselves. The Navy was

lucky in drafting most of the players and their bases (especially Naval Training Station Great

Lakes, and Norfolk, VA) often played against the Major League baseball teams.26

It was viewed

by Landis as a national morale booster in which everyone can enjoy. The military branches saw

it as a way to promote the services to the public. They also had friendly competitions between

themselves.

The branches of the military had always been rivals. For years it was Army versus Navy

in football, but this came apparent in baseball as well. Even as Major League baseball took huge

hits during the war, other leagues in the era were as bad off as well. Navy installations played

25

John Kieran, “Casual Conversation on Baseball Contracts”, Sports of the Times in New York Times, January 18, 1942. 26 Goldstein, 250.

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against each other as well as the army. Both branches assembled in Hawaii for a competition in

September of 1944. The Navy won the series eight games to two, and one ended with a tie.27

As

competition increased between the Major League teams and those serving in the armed forces,

the Minor Leagues took a large hit during World War II.

The Minors Take a Hit

Even though the Major League faired pretty good during the war, the Minor Leagues

took a heavy beating because of it. Alexander argues:

By the spring of 1942 the military draft had hit the minor leagues hard; several circuits,

including the strong Texas League, decided to suspend operations “for the duration,” in

the parlance of the war years. The toll of suspended minor leagues increased year by

year, until only ten remained in operation at the end of the 1944 season. Somehow the

Southern Association, the Texas Leagues counterpart, managed to stay in business, as did

the American Association and the International and Pacific Leagues, the three top-level

minors. In those circuits, as in the majors, nondraftable players became increasingly

scarce, the play increasingly substandard.28

The Minor Leagues was hit hard by the draft. By the war’s end, 9,000 Minor League

ballplayers were drafted for the service. Some opted to shut down for the duration of the war

others merely went out of business. Many players ended up quitting baseball to pursue a career

in the military for better pay. They offered more income than the Minor league clubs.29

As the

Minor Leagues were hurting for talent, the Negro league was actually prospering during the war.

The Negro League never folded during the war. Actually, their game prospered when

more people came to see them play. The East- West All- Star game “was a bigger attraction than

27 Goldstein, 240. 28

Alexander, 188. 29 Bob Considine, “Drastic Changes forseen for Baseball this Year,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, January 28, 1942,

University Microfilms. 1942. Microfilm.

16

ever, and crowds in the war years filled Comiskey Park for contests that matched the finest

baseball players in the United States—few of whose names were at all recognizable to white

fans.”30

As many black players were not drafted for the war, the quality of play did not change as

much. Many people (primarily the owners) knew that black players would eventually make it to

the Majors. Landis did his best to keep the color barrier up during his tenure. Too this, teams like

the Homestead Grays, and the Kansas City Monarchs made more money than their big league

counterparts.31

The Negro league did what the Minor’s could not do, actually make a profit and

remain open during the war. As baseball on all levels took a large blow from the war, the game

continued to be played. By 1944, age was catching up to Landis, and it was not long before the

old Judge left his post forever.

Landis passes on, Baseball continues play

By 1944, Kenesaw Mountain Landis had been Commissioner of Major League Baseball

for twenty-five years. Yet time was catching up to the 77 year old man:

One of his last public appearances was at a game played at Great Lakes, Ill., August. 23,

between the crack Great Lakes team and the New York Giants, a club the Judge had

rooted against in the old days. Perhaps, as they played against a great sailor team in an

exhibition, he felt privileged again to root against New York, and the Great Lakes team

won 5 to 1.

Landis was hospitalized for the remainder of the 1944 season in Chicago his health was

going up and down. While he was in the hospital, he pushed for the teams to continue helping

out the war effort for the fans and the country. On November 25, 1944 Kenesaw Mountain

30 Alexander, 193. 31 Alexander, 193.

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Landis, Major League Baseball’s first Commissioner died in his sleep of natural causes.32

He

was succeeded by Happy Chandler, A United States Senator from Kentucky. Chandler believed

that baseball was doing the right thing in helping the home front. Night games continued but

there was an issue. All the major cities were subjected to blackouts. It caused night games to be

interrupted during the play (Roosevelt failed to realize this in his letter to Landis).33

It mainly

caused games to run longer than the two hour’s that Roosevelt liked. Yet most people who

worked in the factories preferred morning games, so games starting at 10:00 AM were not

uncommon. Those who were lucky to get out of the factories at 9 AM got to see good early

morning baseball. Yet, by 1945 life was returning back to normal.

By 1945 World War II came to an end, and the ball players that left came back to play

some more. The older players, and handicapped were out of a job, when the players came home.

Charity games continued, but at a reduced level. The older players took over the young guys on

the USO tours. Night games continued and later more was added. Landis did what no other

person in baseball could not do; continue the game in a war environment. Even with Roosevelt’s

blessing, Landis knew that everyone had to play their part for the cause. League officials, team

owners, and even players did their fair share to promote the game for the war. Major League

baseball was instrumental in winning the war at home.

Conclusion

32

Spink, 244. 33 Goldstein, 76.

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Besides the government, baseball probably did more for the American home front than

any other organization in the United States. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis believed

that baseball could help the country through this terrible saga, and was determined to not let it

get postponed like in 1917. He asked for Roosevelt’s advice, and never asked for any favors

from the government. As he saw it, baseball did not need any special treatment from the outside.

Yet he was not the only in promoting baseball during the war.

As like most men, Landis was not alone. Franklin Delano Roosevelt felt that the country

would be better off if baseball continued. It allowed people to relax after a long day of working

in the factories. Club owners pitched in by offering discounted prices, benefit games for charities

and the military, and scrap metal drives for the children who could get in to see a game for free.

Players also did their part too by selling war bonds, blood drives, and USO trips to visit the

troops. In baseball, everyone played a part in helping the people at home.

For the United States during the war, Major League baseball played a huge role in the

home front and did usher in a new era for the sport. It is the era of giving back to the community

which still exists to this day. It brought the common people and baseball organizations closer,

creating a tighter community. For the United States during World War II, it was the game that

saved America’s morale.

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Bibliography

Primary

Dawson, James, P., “M’Carthymen Top Senators in Ninth”, New York Times, May 24, 1942.

Drebinger, John, “More Night Games Expected By Frick”, New York Times, January 18,

1942.

Considine, Bob, “Drastic Changes forseen for Baseball this Year,” Cedar Rapids Gazette,

January 28, 1942.

Kieran, John, “Sports of the Times: Casual Conversation on Baseball Contracts”, New York

Times, January 14, 1942.

Special to the New York Times, “Roosevelt Urges Continuation of Baseball War and More

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http://muse.jhu.edu.ezp.lib.cwu.edu/journals/nine/v010/10.1bazer.pdf (accessed April

20, 2010).

Creamer, Robert, W. Baseball in ’41. New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 1991.

Goldstein, Richard, Spartan Seasons: How Baseball Survived the Second World War. New

York, Macmillan, 1990.

Ritter, Lawrence, and Donald Hong, The Image of Their Greatness. New York, Crown

Publishers Inc., 1979.

Taylor Spink, J. G., Judge Landis and 25 Years of Baseball. St. Louis, MO, The Sporting

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