Baseball Vs Ww2

September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland breaking from what was political tension to war; British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on Nazi Germany. Fast forward two years to December 6th, 1941, Japan bombs the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, forcing the United States hand into joining World War Two. Even before the war had started, the United States had issued the Selective Training and Selective Service Act of 1940, bumping up the military from around two hundred thousand soldiers to more than two million in the first year.
During an all out war, sports may seem insignificant to some, but to many baseball was more than that. Baseball was a way of life to many people during World War Two. This was the beginning of

the modernized era of baseball, where players were not looked at as people but as celebrities. During the golden years of baseball, its bets players like Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams were setting records that many believed to be impossible to break, yet this came to a halt when the United States entered World War Two.
The battle was not just won on the war front, but also had to be won at home with support from the American people.

Baseball players took a huge role to support the war on the home front by supporting the sales war bonds and keeping morale high. This happened in the likes of war bonds and support to keep morale high, several players helped to their part. They held events to raise money, played in exhibition matches overseas, and served as the subjects of war propaganda posters and movies. Female and African American players also deserve credit during this time. The American Girls Professional League and the Negro League helped keep baseball on the minds of Americans, and became very popular during the war. American baseball players, by participating in the war with service and support, made an impact on the American war effort by generating morale to keep the home front

strong.
The historiography of baseball's effect on World War Two is a positive history. Even with the negative reports about how players did not see active service, the authors would write positively about how they would visit other soldier’s camps to boost morale. 1Bullock discusses this, basing most of his book on how players helped the war in other ways. The main thesis of book was based around how baseball player affected the war off the battlefield. Klima took the opposing side by writing about how the players who were soldiers wanted to go into active service.2 He also writes about, like most of the other historical writing about baseball and World War Two, the dip in production in the MLB because of players leaving for war. His thesis discusses how the war was good for baseball because of the field the league found many interesting players to fill in, and on the war front, the players were becoming American heroes by fighting for their country. Obermeyer's thesis is more about the business of baseball and how it took a massive hit during the war because of the lack of players, and the ways the MLB tried to fix it.3 He discussed how Major League Baseball scraped the bottom of the barrel to find talent to keep the level of play as high as possible. There is one common theme that all three of these authors wrote about, and all other authors wrote about as well. It was about how players sacrificed their careers and the game they loved to be called into service. They described it as honorable, but yet sad because a five year span of the “Golden Age” of baseball was lost.
In 1940, the federal government administered the Draft, registering all men from ages 21 to 45 to be able to serve in the army. This bolstered the number of soldiers in the United States military services to two million in the first year, including baseball players. The first Major League player to be drafted was Hugh Mulcahy, a Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, on March 8, 1941.4 After Mulcahy nearly 500 major league baseball players were drafted into the service, while other players willingly enlisted.
The draft effected many professions in the United States, including Major League Baseball. Members of Major League Baseball were drafted including players, coaches, front office, and even umpires. Not all of the players who served were drafted, some enlisted to help the war effort like Hall of Fame pitcher. Bob Feller. Although Greenburg was originally drafted, he was discharged after a law was passed that men over 28 were eligible to be discharged.5 He reenlisted after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He gave up his fifty-five thousand dollar salary for a twenty-one dollar a month salary from the military, one year after he won the Most Valuable Player award.6
Ted Williams, one of the greatest players of all time, was drafted along with Joe DiMaggio, Lefty Groove, Bob Feller, and Yogi Berra who all served time in the military.

But not all of the players that were drafted played in the major leagues. Around two thousand minor league players served.7 Billy Southworth was an outfielder in the minors who enlisted said, “I think it's my duty to enlist because they're going to need us, my baseball career can wait.”8 There were also many different players that took this attitude during the years of the war. The number of players that sacrificed their careers to fight for their country is astounding. It proved that baseball was America's

pastime.
Contrary to belief, some people believed that baseball players may have enlisted into the military, but never saw combat. They also believed were treated differently than the other soldiers by receiving special treatment. Steven Bullock wrote a book about how baseball was a great morale booster for the war effort, but for the most part they were little help of the battlefield.9 He uses Bob Feller as an example, he was widely used as a example for baseball players who were serving in the war, but Bullock points out that he was sent to a post that saw little to no contact. He even goes into greater detail about how the American military leaders used these players “at their disposal” and only used as profitable and ego-building prospects. Instead of engaging in battle the would play in exhibitions, and there even was a quote that said that they, “were sidetracked into safe berths where they wore a baseball uniform as often as they wore Army or Navy fatigues.”10 Phil Rizzuto and Johnny Vander Meer were exempted from duties so that they were able to practice. Minor league players were not given there exemptions, as a result fifty minor league players were killed compared to only two major league players, Harry O'Neil and Elmer Gedeon. The most famous of all players who were wounded in service was Bert Shepherd. Shepard's leg was detached while flying a fighter jet over Germany. He then returned to the United States where he continued his quest to make it to the major leagues using a prosthetic leg as a replacement.11
Some players were not happy about how they were receiving so much special treatment. Yankees outfielder, Joe DiMaggio, demanded more active duty service from his superiors after a string of occurrences where he was recused from duty.12 He request was denied. Bob Feller made the same requested after he was fed up with is limited post, his was accepted. He was sent to the Pacific theater and saw a significant amount of action aboard the U.S.S. Alabama. Feller was not the only Hall of Farmer to see action. Yankees catcher Yogi Berra was on the beaches of Normandy during D-Day.
Although many major league players were not casualties of war, many were victims of the war in other ways.13 Many suffered mental breakdowns due to post-traumatic stress disorder, and many were unable to play because they lost so much weight during the war. A players physical health is important, but his mental health is crucial. Baseball is a mental sport that sees many promising players not make it because of mental instability. On the odd side, promising young major league player Cecil Travis suffered a huge blow to his career by getting frost bite on both legs during the Battle of the Bulge.14 He was never to able to regain quickness in his legs, he never returned to his earlier form.
Players not only lost their ability to play during the war, but they also missed out on multiple years of their careers; these years could have been used to achieve records that would make them the greatest of all-time. Ted Williams went into the war on pace to break Babe Ruth's home run record, the most sought out record in baseball. But because he missed 5 years due to his service he was unable to concur this feat. Bob Feller would have easily eclipsed the 300 win mark, but he was unable to win enough games. Although statistics may have seemed irrelevant at the time, statistics in baseball mean a lot. They are how you put your name in the history books.