August 14, 1945, 75 years ago today: V-J Day, Victory over Japan. Afraid of the United States of America unleashing further nuclear devastation, as on the cities of Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, the Empire of Japan surrenders to the Allies, ending World War II. V-E Day, Victory In Europe, had been on May 8, the day after Nazi Germany signed their articles of surrender.
This is an update of a post I did on the 70th Anniversary of V-J Day.
Every anniversary, the number of living World War II veterans becomes fewer and fewer. An 18-year-old kid who enlisted toward the end would now be 93 years old.
For this reason, we must keep the facts of what everyone who survived it, including on "the home front," would call "The War" for the rest of their lives, alive.
The Axis -- Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and the Empire of Japan -- had to be defeated, dismantled, and replaced by governments more like America's than like what they had before.
If that meant allying with the British Empire, the French Empire, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, whose own leaders weren't exactly paragons of democracy, then so be it. The British and the French got better after The War; the Soviet Union did not.
When the U.S. Army began reaching the Nazis' concentration camps, which led to the deaths of 11 million people, 6 million of them Jews, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, later to become President of the United States, called for photographers and film crews to document what was found. He believed that, eventually, prominent people would deny that what became known as The Holocaust had occurred, and he wanted irrefutable proof that its horrors had happened. "Ike" turned out to be right.
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Some of the information in this post comes from the extensive site
Baseball in Wartime, run by Gary Bedingfield.
All told, there were 1,343 men who both played in the major leagues and served in World War II. All but 5 of them served in the armed forces of the U.S. 1 major league player served in the Cuban Army: Pitcher Adrian Zabala. 4 were Canadian: Hank Biasatti and Dick Fowler in the Army, and Joe Krakauskas and Phil Marchildon of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Biasatti was a 1st baseman, the other Canadians were pitchers.
1 man served in the OSS, the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA: Moe Berg, the longtime backup catcher who spoke multiple languages -- a side effect when you grew up in Newark, New Jersey in the 1920s, and definitely a plus when you served your country in the 1930s and 1940s.
566 served in the U.S. Army, including Hall-of-Famers Luke Appling, Bobby Doerr, Warren Spahn, Red Schoendienst, Monte Irvin, Hoyt Wilhelm and (broadcasters' wing) Joe Garagiola.
466 served in the U.S. Navy, including HOFers Mickey Cochrane, Bill Dickey, Charlie Gehringer, Harold "Pee Wee" Reese, Phil Rizzuto, Stan Musial, Bob Lemon, and the 1 man involved in the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944 who would go on to play in MLB: Lawrence Peter "Yogi" Berra, pictured above in his Navy uniform. A year later, Yogi "won his first world championship." And, by far, his most important one.
180 served in the U.S. Army Air Force -- which wouldn't be separated from the Army as the U.S. Air Force until after The War, in 1947 -- including HOFers Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg and Enos Slaughter.
68 served in the U.S. Marine Corps, including HOFers Ted Williams and Ted Lyons, and should-be HOFer Gil Hodges. So did a pair of HOF broadcasters, Jack Brickhouse (not surprising, he seemed like a really gruff guy) and Ernie Harwell (very surprising, since he seemed like such a gentle soul).
At one point, Lyons pitched for a Marine team against a USAAF team, and DiMaggio was on it. Lyons said, "I enlisted to get away from DiMaggio, and, now, here he is!"
50 served in the U.S. Coast Guard, the most notable of them being Yankee star (hard to call him a "Yankee Legend" since he doesn't have a Plaque in Monument Park -- maybe he should, given his WWII service and his nickname of "Ol' Reliable") Tommy Henrich.
7 served in the U.S. Merchant Marine, including Yankee slugger Charlie Keller.
There were 2 major leaguers killed in The War. Neither was a star:
Elmer John Gedeon, born April 15, 1917 in Cleveland. He was an All-American in track and a letterwinner in baseball and football at the University of Michigan. He appeared in 5 major league games, all with the Washington Senators in September 1939, 4 as CF, 1 as RF. He wore Number 34. Had 3 hits in 15 at-bats, for a .200 batting average. He played for the Charlotte Hornets -- not the World Football League team, or either of the NBA franchises that have had the name, but a minor-league baseball team.
He was drafted into the Army in 1941, and was assigned to the Army Air Force. He crashed in a B-25 bomber training mission in 1942, but survived, and resumed pilot training. Captain Gedeon was shot down in a B-26 over St. Pol, France on April 20, 1944. He had just turned 27. There is no mention of him at Nationals Park in Washington. Nor was there at its predecessors, Robert F. Kennedy Stadium and Griffith Stadium.
Also wearing Number 34 for the Senators was Bert Shepard, a pitcher who lost a leg when his plane was shot down, but used a prosthesis, and pitched 1 game for the Senators in 1945, and continued to pitch in the minor leagues until 1954.
Harry Mink O'Neill, born May 8, 1917 in Philadelphia. He graduated from Gettysburg College, within walking distance of the site of the greatest battle of the American Civil War. At GC, he played baseball, football and basketball. He played 1 inning with the Philadelphia Athletics, also in 1939, on July 23, as a defensive replacement at catcher, wearing Number 30, and never came to bat -- making him a true "Moonlight Graham."
He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942. He survived being shot by a Japanese sniper at the Battle of Saipan. 1st Lieutenant O'Neill was killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima on March 6, 1945. He was not quite 28. There is no mention of him at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Nor was there at its predecessors, Veterans Stadium and Shibe Park/Connie Mack Stadium.
There is one other possibility: Charles Andrew Frye of Hickory, North Carolina was born in 1913, and pitched in 15 major league games, all with the 1940 Philadelphia Phillies. With a terrible team, he went 0-6 with a 4.65 ERA. He pitched 2 more seasons in the minors, enlisted, and was discharged on December 22, 1944 -- 8 months before V-J Day, and listed as 154 pounds, about 20 under his playing weight. But his weight and the timing together, and it's not proof of an illness contracted during his service, but does suggest it.
Charlie Frye died on May 25, 1945, in Hickory, of a ruptured gastric ulcer, 5 months after his discharge. So, officially, he isn't a former MLB player who died as a result of his military service in World War II. Unofficially, the evidence that he should be counted as one is, as he was upon his discharge, rather thin. Perhaps more information is needed.
By a macabre coincidence, the only major leaguer believed to have been killed in the Korean War was also born in 1917, and also appeared in the majors only briefly in 1939:
Bob Neighbors of Talihina, Oklahoma, the St. Louis Browns and the U.S. Air Force. He played 7 games at shortstop. (Strangely, there is no known record of what uniform number he wore.
Baseball-Reference.com doesn't have one. Nor does Jack Looney's fantastic book
Now Batting, Number... which charts baseball uniform numbers from the first-ever experiment with them in 1916 right up to 2005, just before the book's publication.)
He enlisted in 1942, and unlike most players, stayed in the service after the War, rising to the rank of Major. Like Gedeon, he flew a B-26. His plane was reported missing in 1952, and his body has never been found. There is no mention of him at the new Busch Stadium, nor was there at its predecessors, Busch Memorial Stadium and Sportsman's Park.
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Today, exactly 75 years after V-J Day, we are down to 16 men who are living veterans of both World War II and Major League Baseball:
* Cloyd Boyer, born September 1, 1927, from Alba, Missouri. He pitched for his home-State St. Louis Cardinals 1949 to 1952. He returned to the majors with the first edition of the other Missouri team of the era, the 1955 Kansas City Athletics. He was the brother of All-Star 3rd basemen Ken and Clete (a Yankee star).
* Bobby Brown, born October 25, 1924 in Seattle, grew up in San Francisco. A 3rd baseman, he played for the Yankees from 1947 to 1954. He is the last surviving member of the Yankees' '47 and '49 title winners. He was Yogi's roommate at the time. He also won rings in '50 and '51. Then he returned to the service, in the Korean War.
He became a cardiologist, and served as President of the American League from 1984 to 1994. He should not be confused with the Bobby Brown who helped the Yankees win the 1981 Pennant, a black outfielder.
* Billy DeMars, born August 25, 1925, from Brooklyn. He was a shortstop, mostly with the Browns. He became a longtime coach, including the hitting instructor for the Phillies in their 1976-83 quasi-dynasty. He is 1 of 8 surviving former Browns. He is also 1 of 7 surviving former Philadelphia Athletics, and the last living man to have played for Connie Mack.
* Carl Erskine, born December 13, 1926, from Anderson, Indiana. A pitcher, he spent his entire career with the Dodgers, from 1948 in Brooklyn to 1959 in Los Angeles. He is the last surviving player featured in Roger Kahn's book about the 1952-53 Dodgers, The Boys of Summer.
* Johnny Groth, born July 23, 1926, from Chicago. A center fielder, mostly with the Tigers, he played in 157 games in 1950, a record until the 162-game schedule was instituted in 1961. (Players get credit for statistics in games that are called due to rainouts when tied.)
* Chris Haughey, born October 3, 1925, from Astoria, Queens. "Bud" Haughey's major league debut was on his 18th birthday, the last game of the 1943 season, as a pitcher for his hometown Dodgers. It was also his last major league game. Dodger legend Gil Hodges also made his big-league debut in this game.
* Howie Judson, born February 16, 1926, from Hebron, Illinois, outside Chicago. A pitcher, went 1-14 for the 1949 White Sox, and was unotherwise unremarkable.
* Ed Mickelson, born September 9, 1926, from Ottawa, Illinois, also outside Chicago. Despite getting 1,374 hits in minor league play, the 1st baseman's major league career was fleeting, with brief callups with the 1950 Cardinals, 1953 Browns and 1957 Cubs.
* Larry Miggins, born August 20, 1925, from The Bronx. An outfielder, he had end-of-season callups with the Cardinals in 1948 and 1952.
* Robert J. "Bob" Miller, born June 16, 1926, from Detroit. A pitcher, he went 42-42 over 10 season with the Phillies, including pitching in the 1950 World Series for the "Whiz Kids." He and Curt Simmons are the last 2 surviving players from that team. He later served as the head coach at the University of Detroit Mercy. His sons Pat and Bob also became baseball coaches.
He should not be confused with the 2 Bob Millers who not only both played for the 1962 Mets, but even roomed together, and, whenever the phone would ring, would answer, "Hello, Bob Miller here."
* Bobby Morgan, born June 29, 1926, from Oklahoma City. 3B, starred with the Montreal Royals, had a callup with the Dodgers in 1950, spent '51 back in Montreal, and filled in for Billy Cox with the Dodgers in '52 and '53, appearing in 3 World Series games. Also played with the Phils, Cards and Cubs until 1958.
* William Edward "Eddie" Robinson, born December 15, 1920, from Paris, Texas. A 1st baseman, he is the last surviving member of the last Cleveland Indians team to win the World Series, in 1948. A 4-time All-Star, he had 3 100+ RBI seasons, with the White Sox and A's.
He came to the Yankees in the infamous 1953 trade that sent Vic Power to the A's. He helped the Yankees win the 1955 Pennant, although he did not win a World Series with them. He closed his career with the 1957 Orioles.
He later served in the front offices of the Orioles, Houston Astros, A's, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, including 5 seasons (1972-76) as Braves general manager and 5 (1978-82) as Rangers GM. He losed his active baseball career as a scout for the Red Sox, the only 1 of the original 8 AL teams for whom he didn't play. Currently the oldest living ex-MLB player, if he lives at least another 4 months and change, he will be 100 years old.
* Frank Saucier, born May 28, 1926, from Leslie, Missouri. An outfielder, he was The Sporting News' Minor League Player of the Year with the San Antonio Missions in 1950. He played 18 games with his hometown St. Louis Browns in 1951, going just 1-for-14.
He is best remembered for a game in which he barely played: On August 19, 1951, he began the game in right field, and was listed as the Browns' leadoff batter, but never came to bat. Instead, he was removed for a pinch-hitter, the 3-foot-7 midget Eddie Gaedel. His baseball opportunity apparently at an end, re-enlisted, serving in the Korean War.
* Bobby Shantz, born September 26, 1925, from Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Though listed at just 5-foot-6 and 139 pounds, he was the last of the many great pitchers brought to the Philadelphia Athletics by manager-owner Connie Mack. In 1952, he went 24-7 for an A's team that went 79-75. Despite the 4th place finish, he was named AL MVP.
He moved with the A's to Kansas City, and in 1957, he came to the Yankees in one of the many lopsided trades that led people to think that, as had been the case before the A's moved in, that Kansas City was still a "Yankee farm team." He went 11-5 and led the AL with a 2.45 ERA, helping the Yankees win the Pennant. He won a World Series ring in 1958, but did not appear in the Series. He pitched 3 Series games each in 1957 and 1960.
He was traded to the Pirates, then became an original Houston Colt .45 (Astro) in the 1962 expansion draft. He closed his career with another hometown team, the ill-fated 1964 Phillies, but their epic collapse was hardly his fault: In 14 games, 11 in relief, he had a 2.25 ERA at age 39.
A 3-time All-Star, his career record was 119-99. He won Gold Gloves the 1st 8 seasons they were given out, 1957 to 1964. In 2003, he was one of several surviving A's players invited to Veterans Stadium, as the Interleague schedule allows the A's to play their 1 game in Philadelphia since 1954. (I was there.) His brother Billy Shantz (1927-1993) was a teammate on both the A's and the Yankees.
* Willard Wayne Terwilliger (who went by his middle name), born June 27, 1925, from Clare, Michigan.
A 2nd baseman, he debuted with the Cubs in 1949, and played for both the Dodgers and the Giants before they moved. He is 1 of only 4 surviving men on both rosters, combined, from the Bobby Thomson game on October 3, 1951. (The others are Dodgers Carl Erskine and Tommy Brown, and Giant Willie Mays.) He is 1 of 16 surviving former Brooklyn Dodgers, 1 of 14 surviving former New York Giants, and 1 of 27 surviving former "old" Washington Senators, the ones who moved to become the Minnesota Twins in 1960-61.
He closed out his career with the A's in 1960. He coached in the Yankees system, and was the 3rd base coach for the "new" Washington Senators when they moved to become the Texas Rangers in 1971-72. He coached on teams managed by Ted Williams and Don Zimmer in Texas, before winning rings as Tom Kelly's 3rd base coach with the 1987 and 1991 Twins. He returned to the Dallas area to coach the independent league Fort Worth Cats (named for the old Texas League team), and left them and retired from baseball for good after the 2010 season, at age 85.
* George Rezin Elder Jr., born March 10, 1921, from Lebanon, Kentucky. An outfielder, he played 41 games in the majors, all with the St. Louis Browns in the 2nd half of the 1949 season.
UPDATE: Howie Judson died on August 18, 2020. Bob Miller died on November 27, 2020. Billy DeMars died on December 10, 2020. Wayne Terwilliger died on February 3, 2021. Bobby Brown died on March 25, 2021. Johnny Groth died on August 7, 2021. Cloyd Boyer died on September 20, 2021. Eddie Robinson died on October 4, 2021. Chris Haughey died on April 24, 2022. George Elder died on July 7, 2022. Bobby Morgan died on June 1, 2023.
That leaves 5: Carl Erskine, Ed Mickelson, Larry Miggins, Frank Saucier and Bobby Shantz.
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With the death of Hall-of-Fame Red Sox 2nd baseman and Army veteran Bobby Doerr at age 99 on November 13, 2017, there were no more living men who played in MLB in the 1930s. With the death of A's pitcher and Army veteran Fred Caliguiri at 100 on November 30, 2018, there were no more living men who debuted in MLB before the Pearl Harbor naval base at Honolulu, Hawaii was bombed by the Japanese, bringing America into The War.
There are 4 remaining men who played in MLB during World War II:
* Eddie Robinson, 99, who debuted on September 9, 1942, and last played on September 15, 1957.
* Chris Haughey, 94, his only appearance coming on October 3, 1943.
* Eddie Basinski, 97, who did not serve, May 20, 1944 to July 4, 1947.
* Tommy "Buckshot" Brown, 91, who was too young to serve, August 3, 1944, and remains the 2nd-youngest MLB player ever, to September 25, 1953.
Basinski is the last surviving player who played in the "Tricornered Game" in which the Giants, Dodgers and Yankees all played against each other to sell war bonds at the Polo Grounds in 1944; and the last surviving player mentioned in Dave Frischberg's song "Van Lingle Mungo."
Brown remains the 2nd-youngest MLB player ever, behind Joe Nuxhall, who got shelled in 1 inning for the Cincinnati Reds in 1944, shortly before turning 16, returned to the majors from 1952 to 1965, mostly for the Reds, and became a broadcaster for them.
UPDATE: As I said, Robinson died on October 4, 2021. And Basinski died on January 8, 2022. That leaves 2: Haughey and Brown.
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The best baseball player killed in World War II was Eiji Sawamura. When an All-Star team of U.S. players toured Japan in the Autumn of 1934, he was 17, and pitched against them, striking out Charlie Gehringer, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx, all in a row. But he lost the game 2-1 because he gave up a home run to Gehrig.
From 1936 to 1943, he pitched for the Tokyo Kyogin, the team that became known as the Yomiuri Giants, helping them win 4 Pennants, pitching 3 no-hitters, and winning the league's Most Valuable Player award in 1937.
On December 2, 1944, he was 1 of 2,134 men killed when the Hawaii Maru, a ship named for Japan's victory at Pearl Harbor ("maru" is Japanese for "ship"), was sunk by the submarine USS Sea Devil off the coast of Yakushima Island in the East China Sea.
The Yomiuri Giants retired his Number 14. In 1947, the Sawamura Award for Japan's best pitcher was established, 9 years before America had its equivalent, the Cy Young Award. He was a charter inductee into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1959.
There appear to have been 20 former NFL players killed in World War II. Two of them played for the New York Giants, Al Blozis and Jack Lummus. Plaques in their memory were placed on the center field clubhouse at the Polo Grounds, and both have been honored in the Giants' Ring of Honor. Blozis' Number 32 has been retired.
Al Blozis
(Lummus' plaque was found in 2005, and the football Giants bought it and put it on display. The whereabouts of the other Polo Grounds plaques are unknown.)
The best football player killed in World War II never played a down of professional ball. Nile Kinnick, winner of the 1939 Heisman Trophy as a two-way back at the University of Iowa, turned down a contract from the NFL version of the Brooklyn Dodgers, who had drafted him.
Instead, he enrolled in law school, since he was considering a career in politics. There are still living Republicans in Iowa who believe that, had he lived, he would have beaten John F. Kennedy in the 1960 Presidential election. Of course, that presumes that he would have beaten Richard Nixon, either for the Republican nomination for President that year, or for the Vice Presidential nomination under Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952.
Kinnick left law school to enlist in the Navy -- 3 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor -- and was killed during a flight training accident off the coast of Venezuela on June 2, 1943. The University of Iowa retired his Number 24, and, in 1972, renamed Iowa Stadium for him: Kinnick Stadium.
There were 2 former NHL players killed in World War II: Joe Turner, a goaltender who played only 1 game, for the Detroit Red Wings against the Toronto Maple Leafs on February 5, 1942. Despite being Canadian, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. On December 13, 1944, he was lost in action with in the Hurtgen Forest of Germany.
And Dudley "Red" Garrett was a defenseman who played 23 games for the New York Rangers in the 1942-43 season. He was serving aboard the HMCS Shawinigan when it was sunk by the Nazi submarine U-1228 in Cabot Strait, off the coast of Newfoundland, on November 25, 1944. He was only 20.
The NBA wasn't founded until 1946, so none of its former players were killed in World War II. Nor have any been killed in any war. Nor can I find a reference to any prominent college player, who hadn't yet gotten to play in a pro league, who was killed in World War II.
There have been so many soccer teams, all over the world and especially in Europe, that a definitive list of players fitting any category is difficult. Given what happened to records in Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union, we may never know how many "footballers" from those countries were lost in action in World War II.
There appear to have been at least 73 British players who were killed as a result of their military service in that war, 5 of them Scottish, the rest English. The best of them may have been Herbie Roberts, a centreback for North London team Arsenal, who helped them win the Football League in 1931, '33, '34 and '35, and the FA Cup in 1930 and '36, before dying of a blood disease, not in combat, on June 19, 1944, at 39. He was 1 of 9 players who had played for Arsenal who were lost.
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The East Brunswick Veterans' Memorial, at the Civic Center off Ryders Lane, has a memorial dating to 1949, to 12 natives of the Township who were killed in action in World War II: Adam Albrecht, Edward Biernacki, Casper Fetyko, Milton Finkelstein, Constantine Haransky, Henry Jensen, Lawrence Kossman, William Kossman, Joseph Mihalichko, Edward Modzelewski, Alex Volgyi and Alfred Wolff.
The Kossmans were brothers. According to the
East Brunswick Public Library, also at the Civic Center, both of them, and also Haranski and Jensen, were killed on February 10, 1944, in the Battle of Anzio in Italy. Albrecht was killed in Italy 7 days later, and while the Library does not go into further detail, it seems likely that his death was also during the Anzio campaign.
Albrecht, Biernacki, Fetyko, Jensen, the Kossmans, Mihalichko, Modzelewski and Wolff have streets named after them in the Township. So does Michael Lonczak, killed in action in Germany, but whose name, for a reason I don't know, does not appear on the memorial. Also with streets named for them are the 4 we lost in Vietnam, and the 1 each we lost in Afghanistan and Iraq. We lost 1 in the Civil War and 4 in World War I, but none of them has a street named for him.
Of the 4 we lost in World War I, 3 were actually stateside, in the Spanish Flu epidemic that ended up killing twice as many people as the war. Joseph Crandall died in combat, and had a school named after him, just 2 blocks from the town's WWI memorial, at the American Legion Post.
