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Baseball in the Armed Forces


67Rally
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Ran across these old photos showing an baseball game being played in Cuba 1898. I think the catcher might be barefoot.

 

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This was written on the backside.

 

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  • 1 month later...
Salvage Sailor

Another one from my Pineapple Army photo archive

 

Fort Ruger, Coast Artillery Baseball Team, early 1920's

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Fort Ruger, Coast Artillery Baseball Team, early 1920's - Coach, Catcher's Gear and Ball Boy - Hawaiian Department

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Salvage Sailor
On 2/9/2019 at 12:32 PM, 67Rally said:

 

 

I love these two photos! If you have high resolutions scans, I'd be happy to work on them and bring out the images in greater detail.

 

Some details - 1st US Infantry Regiment, Schofield Barracks, 1912

1st Infantry Baseball Team 1912 Schofield Barracks 001b.jpg

1st Infantry Baseball Team 1912 Schofield Barracks 001c.jpg

 

Some details - 1st US Infantry Regiment, Schofield Barracks, 1912

1st Infantry Baseball Team 1912 Schofield Barracks 001a.jpg

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And here is a picture of 4 of the 11 members of the 310th Motor Transport Repair Unit, Third Army Baseball Champions. This another of the photos that Pete Belmonte and I had to leave out of our WWI and Baseball book because there just wasn't room for all the great pictures people shared with us.

 

This picture is significant because there is a 4 out of 11 chance that one of these players is the team's right-handed third baseman Paul B. Speraw. Speraw played for the Bethlehem Steel Company team before the war and after war made it to the Major Leagues, playing for the St Louis Browns against the Boston Red Sox for one game.

 

Note the great Third Army patches on their hats----Man. where are those hats?

s/f

Al

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  • 2 months later...
Salvage Sailor

USS POCONO (AGC-16) Adirondack Class Amphibious Force Flagship in service 1945 to 1971

Large felt letterman type patch with chain stitching 1947

 

 

 

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easterneagle87

Great topic!! IMO, in the time I was in the early 90's, by the time I got done with work, I didn't want to hang around any longer than I had too. We all just wanted to "escape". I think in the early 20th century the military had a more "capitve" audience. More barracks troops that didn't have mobility or, to be real, a life. Between deploiyments and FTX's there just didn't seem to be the time. OR sponsors. Who'd put up the $ for jerseys and stuff. The unit's weren't spending the $. I was an officer and aviator and we didn't have the pool of people like an infantry battalion. When one of my warrant officers did gather folks for a team, it got too serious. Instead of gathering to enjoy it, play a little ball and maybe drink a few beers, no.. he wanted practices and if you didn't perform you were out. I wasn't a kid, and if I wasn't going to have some fun, why do it. Yes, it does make me sound like an old curmudgeon.

 

One interesting thing to add, when we deployed to Saudi during Desert Shield/Storm, you'd be surprised how many baseball gloves, balls and a couple bats appeared around our bivouac area. When we re-deployed back across into Saudi, we found the perfect diamond shaped wadi area for a ball field. We set up a game. Leather gloves, pick ax handles substituted well and it was a great afternoon.

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Salvage Sailor

We would play softball against the ROKN (South Korean Navy) salvage ship crews in both Chinhae and when they came to Pearl Harbor. Somewhere around here I have a set of slides from one of the games taken after we drank so much no one cared who won the game. Most of the ROKN ended up climbing the palm trees.....

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  • 5 months later...

Great photo from 1957 of a player of a Ft Bragg team playing a Ft Jackson team, maybe theee Ft Bragg Post team, as we would think if it was a unit team, we'd see the unit on the from of the uniform. Note this one has an Oval with Wings on his baseball cap, maybe Senior or Master, not sure if this is a personal application cause he's a Paratrooper, or everyone on the Bragg team did this as the team comprised of all Paratroopers, could be as Bragg was home to the 82nd Abn Div, the XVIII Abn Corps and the embryonic Special Forces, and No Legs Allowed on the Team :lol:

 

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Great photo from 1957 of a player of a Ft Bragg team playing a Ft Jackson team, maybe theee Ft Bragg Post team, as we would think if it was a unit team, we'd see the unit on the from of the uniform. Note this one has an Oval with Wings on his baseball cap, maybe Senior or Master, not sure if this is a personal application cause he's a Paratrooper, or everyone on the Bragg team did this as the team comprised of all Paratroopers, could be as Bragg was home to the 82nd Abn Div, the XVIII Abn Corps and the embryonic Special Forces, and No Legs Allowed on the Team :lol:

 

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Fella here looks like an Old Timer, a WWII vet??? Looks like it right, thus the either Senior or Master wings!

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.

Great thread been following it all along . . . . . . . . .

 

a couple of my shirts

 

 

lewis

 

 

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These are great! That shirt on the right looks like it was made in the 1970s.

In nearly four years since I started this post, it has been fun to see what shows up, here. Similarly, my own collection of baseball militaria has expanded significantly with numerous jerseys, uniforms, photographs and even some groups from major leaguers' personal collection (including scrapbooks, photos, wartime medals, etc.). I have been remiss in sharing much in this thread.

 

Here is a sampling of my USMC jerseys and uniforms.

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Some photos in my collection have historical (and human-interest) significance that encompass both the military and baseball worlds. This January 14, 1941 photo of Army Air Corps aviation cadet, Billy Southworth, Jr. shows the young former minor leaguer full of joy carrying his flight leathers, perhaps having just having them issued to him. Southworth was the son of the Cardinals' hall of fame manager, Billy Southworth, set aside his baseball career to fly in the USAAC. Sadly, the combat veteran who flew several B-17 missions over Europe (a recipient of the DFC and Air Medal), met his end on a B-29 training flight when engine trouble prompted him to attempt an emergency landing in New York's La Guardia Field. He overshot the runway and the wing of the ship clipped the waters of the bay causing the plane to cartwheel. The nose section separated and sank to the bottom carrying the deceased occupants to the bottom, Major Southwarth's body wasn't recovered until six months later when a heavily decomposed body washed ashore, having been subjected to the currents of the waters of Flushing Bay.

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Thought I read something somewhere about Southworth dropping a baseball over Germany while on a bomb run. I have to find where I saw that., it's been a while since I first read it but it was in a book.

 

Randy

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Thought I read something somewhere about Southworth dropping a baseball over Germany while on a bomb run. I have to find where I saw that., it's been a while since I first read it but it was in a book.

 

Randy

Randy,

 

I know that I've read that, as well. I am temporarily moved out of my home for repairs (water damage) and away from my library, but I know that nugget is in one of my books.

 

Southworth kept a diary from the time of his last season in the International League through his enlistment (against his father's wishes and fears) up until his death. He kept the diary for his father and after receiving it in his son's effects, couldn't bring himself to read it...ever. Father gifted his son the Cardinals ball cap he wore as a manager during the World Series championship which Jr. wore on bombing missions in his B-17. I've seen photos of that hat...not sure who has it at present.

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easterneagle87

.

Great thread been following it all along . . . . . . . . .

 

a couple of my shirts

 

 

lewis

 

 

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Seeing this jersey reminded me of an episode of American Pickers where Mike picked a family who had a surplus business at one time. In one of he boxes, he found a whole bunch of these Marine jerseys. Some good, some really mothed. I wonder what ever happened to them.

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Seeing this jersey reminded me of an episode of American Pickers where Mike picked a family who had a surplus business at one time. In one of he boxes, he found a whole bunch of these Marine jerseys. Some good, some really mothed. I wonder what ever happened to them.

Most of those uniforms, as you stated, were junk. If you watch the market as I do, you would see that there have been a nonstop procession of the WWII gray/red Marines jerseys to the market ever since. The salvageable items from that AP "discovery" have been steadily arriving in the marketplace, in my opinion.

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  • 2 months later...

Staff Champions - 1940 Hawaiian Division

 

Ah...that's who got that photo! I was watching that one but I had something too nice not to snag that I had to let this one slip by, Great snag!!

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  • 2 months later...
T Ambrosini

Baseball in Adak, AK 1944-45...

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A-batta-batta....  SWING!

 

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One more...

 

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Oh, one more...  The outfield.

 

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A-batta-batta....  SWING!
 
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Is it me or is he swinging righty with a lefty grip? Love old time baseball wherever it was.


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T Ambrosini

Great eye!  Look at how he has choked up on the bat...  Bottom hand suddenly goes above the top hand.  Maybe that is from the lost art of chopping a single down the first base line!  I'm throwing at his head next time up :-)

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14 hours ago, T Ambrosini said:

Oh, one more...  The outfield.

 

SCAN0253.JPG

 

What a fantastic collection of images! Thank you for sharing your find!

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