WWII Baseball

The year 1941 was notable for many events. Ted Williams hit for average .406 which has never been equaled since. Joe DiMaggio hit in 56 consecutive games which also has never been equaled. And the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor which put us into WWII. After that season many of the players enlisted in the services so that by 1942 season teams were straining to field enough players. The Cincinnati Reds signed a left-handed pitcher Joe Nuxhall then age 16 and still in high school. He actually pitched in a major league game in 1944 and remained in baseball for two decades. The St. Louis Browns had a one armed outfielder, Pete Gray, who would catch the ball, tuck glove under his other arm stump, extract the ball and throw it back to the infield. Earlier, we talked about Bill Veeck sending a midget up to bat in a game. So we had many patchwork teams with older players mixed in with military rejects. Connie Mack was the dignified owner/manager of the Philadelphia Athletics for many years. He always wore street clothes in the dugout with a high stiff collar and a stiff straw hat. Everyone addressed him as Mr. Mack. One of his wartime pitchers was a character named Bobo Newsom who was inclined to "hit the sauce". On a day he was to pitch Bobo showed up with a hangover and Mack put him in the lineup to pitch and left him in to take his punishment and would not take him out. The defense plants were working three shifts and to accommodate these workers some games were scheduled to start at 10:00AM which was a strange time but we kids loved it. Ted Williams was a Marine pilot who served four years during WWII and was called back during the Korean conflict so he probably lost an estimated six years out of his career. And that's the way it was.
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