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| Elmer Wright, Robert Marsico, Pride Wingfield and Frank Draper |
"When we were growing up in Bedford," recalls Frank’s brother, David Draper, "There wasn't much going on here for young people, so from a young age [Frank] was always playing sports in and around Bedford. That's how he became such a good athlete.
Frank Draper was tall, lean and fast. He played baseball for Mud Alley - a tough neighborhood team and starred with Bedford High School. After graduation, he went to work at Hampton Looms, the town’s largest employer, and became the centerfielder and leadoff hitter with the company’s baseball team. Batting two and three for the team were his brothers, David and Gamiel.
Meanwhile, Elmer Wright - the son of Bedford's deputy sheriff – was also establishing himself as a standout athlete at Bedford High School. A hard throwing right-handed pitcher, Wright hurled for a number of local semi-pro teams before signing a professional contract with the St. Louis Browns in 1937.
Wright was assigned to the Terre Haute Tots of the Three-I League his rookie year where he won 10, lost 13, and finished the season with the Kitty League's Mayfield Clothiers. He began the 1938 season with the San Antonio Missions in the Texas League, and spent time at Palestine and Johnstown.
Wright was back with San Antonio for 1939, and posted a 10-9 won-loss record that year and was 10-5 in 1940. He was due to attend spring training with the St. Louis Browns in 1941.
About 30 miles away in Roanoke, Virginia, a young catcher named Robert Marsico was making a name for himself on the Gilmer High School baseball team. After graduating, he got a job with the Frank E. Brown company treating cowhides, and later helped build the Blue Hills golf course in Roanoke before landing a job with the Piedmont Label Company in Bedford. It wasn’t long before Marsico was the starting catcher on the Piedmont Label baseball team.
Like many local youngsters, Draper, Wright, Marsico and another Bedford ballplayer - Pride Wingfield - had joined Company A of the National Guard enticed, perhaps, by the promise of a dollar every Monday night after marching practice at the Bedford Armory. But as the war in Europe took hold and the United States began to expand its fighting forces, it was announced in October 1940, that Bedford's Company A would be mobilized into the Federal Army for a period of one year.
Four months later, on February 3, 1941, the four young ballplayers, along with six officers and 88 other enlisted men of Company A, reported to the Bedford Armory where they were issued new uniforms and took the oath of transfer and allegiance. They were sent to Fort Meade, Maryland, home of the 29th Infantry Division, and between training, they regularly played for the Fort Meade baseball team.
It was while returning to Fort Meade from military exercises in North Carolina that news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor reached the boys of Company A. There was no way they would be home in a year. They were now soldiers in Uncle Sam’s army for the duration.
In August 1942, as part of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division, Company A left Fort Meade bound for Camp Blanding in Florida. Two months later, they were at Tidworth Barracks in England, just ten miles from historic Stonehenge. The 29th was the only U.S. infantry division in England at the time and it was the beginning of an intensive training program that would last until May 1944.
To occupy their spare time, a baseball team was formed during the summer of 1943. Doug Gillette, a former minor leaguer was responsible for putting the team together and Draper, Wright, Marsico and Wingfield were all successful in the tryouts for the 20-man roster. Included in the lineup were minor leaguers Robert Keller and Bob Cleer, along with semi-pro players Lou Alberigo and Dante Roitero. A greyhound race track was the team's chosen home. Gillette found a backstop; they marked off baselines and the track's fences made outfield walls. Left field appeared to be a mile deep, while right field was just 270 feet away. The Plymouth Yankees played there all summer and won 27 straight games.
At the end of the 1943 season an ETO (European Theater of Operations) World Series was held in England over a four-day period at the Eighth Air Force Headquarters, Bushy Park, London. Starting on Monday, September 27 and concluding on Thursday, September 30. The event featured 20 teams from all across England and Northern Ireland, and was arranged by Major Donald Martin (ETO Special Service athletic officer). The 116th Infantry Regiment Yankees entered the tournament as a virtually unknown entity.
The 1943 ETO World Series Lineup
CBS Clowns - US Army (Central Base Section)
Buccaneers - US Army (Eastern Base Section)
116th Infantry Regiment Yankees - US Army (Field Force)
Agitators - US Army (Northern Ireland)
Yanks - US Army (Service of Supply)
American School Center Angels - US Army (Southern Base Section)
General Hospital Medics - US Army (Southern Base Section)
Signal Company Dodgers - US Army (Southern Base Section)
Americans - US Army (Western Base Section)
Military Police Nitesticks - US Army (Western Base Section)
Port Ramblers - US Army (Western Base Section)
Signal Hounds - US Army (Western Base Section)
Derry Marines - US Marine Corps (Northern Ireland)
Creevaghs - US Navy (Northern Ireland)
901st Engineers - USAAF (Eighth Air Force HQ)
Air Support Command Eagles - USAAF (Eighth Air Force)
Bomber Command Moles - USAAF (Eighth Air Force)
Fighter Command Thunderbolts - USAAF (Eighth Air Force)
Service Command Red Devils - USAAF (Eighth Air Force)
Composite Command Mustangs - USAAF (Northern Ireland)
Favorites to win the tournament were the CBS Clowns, led by pitcher Chuck Eisenmann, formerly of the San Diego Padres.
In the preliminary round on September 27, the games went as anticipated. The CBS Clowns beat the Signal Hounds with Eisenmann striking out 19; Minor leaguer Mauro Duca hurled a three-hitter for the Fighter Command Thunderbolts over the Port Ramblers; Alabama State League right-hander Fran Hecker of the ASC Angels beat the Yanks, 7-5, and Carl Smith of the Agitators beat the Signal Company Dodgers, 2 to 1, in 10 innings, striking out 21 along the way.
There was, however, one surprise. The otherwise unheard of 116th Infantry Regiment Yankees beat the mighty Bomber Command Moles, 4 to 1, in 11 innings, with Elmer Wright outdueling former Brooklyn farmhand Joe Rundus. The Moles had been tipped to be semi-finalists at least and were shocked to be out of the tournament at such an early stage.
The second round of preliminary games on September 28, saw the CBS Clowns trounce the Air Support Command Eagles, 7 to 1; the Fighter Command Thunderbolts overcome the Agitators, 2 to 1, and the darkhorse 116th Infantry Regiment Yankees cruise past the Derry Marines, 9 to 1.
In quarter final games on September 29, it took 13 innings for the 901st Engineers to defeat the ASC Angels, 3 to 2, while the 116th Infantry Regiment Yankees disposed of the Service Command Red Devils, 5 to 3.
Later the same day, Doug Gillette hurled the 116th Infantry Regiment Yankees into the finals by defeating the 901st Engineers, 7 to 3. But the real upset of the afternoon was the 3-2 defeat of the CBS Clowns by the Fighter Command Thunderbolts. Mauro Duca scattered six hits with nine strike outs while Chuck Eisenmann struck out 15 in a losing cause.
The game was scoreless for three innings. The Thunderbolts managed singles off Wright in the second and third innings, but without success. However, they scored a run in the fourth on a walk, a single and a double and Doug Gillette - who was catching for the 116th - came to the mound and let in two more runs on wild pitches. But the Yankees were quick to respond in the bottom half of the inning, tying up the game by scoring on two doubles, a single and a base on balls.
With the score tied, 3-3, the Yankees took the lead in the sixth when two men were safe on errors and scored when a batted ball got past the second baseman and went into right field. They tallied again in the seventh, Frank Draper, getting his second triple of the game, but was out at the plate trying to score when Joe Gubernot, reached on a ground ball to second. In the seventh inning, Gubernot came home on an error at first for the final tally of the game and Gillette pitched shutout ball for five innings to give the Yankees a memorable 6-3 win and the ETO World Series crown.
116th Infantry Regiment Yankees
Pfc. Louis J. Alberigo (3B) Cranston, RI - Semi-pro
Cpl. Wilburt J. Allen (C) Virginia
Sgt. Robert L. Cleer (OF) West Virginia - Philadelphia Athletics' organization
John Crenshaw (C) Courtland, WV
Sgt. Adam Decker
S/Sgt. Frank P. Draper, Jr. (CF) Bedford, VA - Hampton Looms
Sgt. Douglas Gillette (Manager/P) Central Village, CT - St. Louis Cardinals' organization
Pfc. Carl W. Grimes (P) Virginia
Pfc. Joseph E. Gubernot (SS) Shamokin, PA
Pvt. Robert E. Keller (2B) Hagerstown, MD - Washington Senators' organization
1/Sgt. James W. Mabes (Coach) Virginia
Sgt. Robert E. Marsico (C) Roanoke, VA - Piedmont Label Company
T/5 George T. McManus (OF)
Pfc. Joseph L. Pellegrini Brooklyn, New York
S/Sgt. Carl D. “Chubby” Proffit (1B) Charlottesville, VA
Cpl. Dante A. Roitero (P) Brooklyn, NY - Semi-pro
T/Sgt. William D. Rowell (OF) Emporia, VA
Cpl. Maurice M. Williams (P) Fairfax, VA
Pfc. M. Pride Wingfield (OF) Bedford, VA
Sgt. Elmere P. Wright (P) Bedford, VA - St. Louis Browns' organization
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| 116th Infantry Regiment Yankees after winning the 1943 ETO World Series |
That was the Yankees last chance to play any form of competitive baseball. For the remainder of 1943 and the first five months of 1944 the order of the day was intensive military training in preparation for the invasion of mainland Europe. Wright, however, still found time to keep in touch with the St. Louis Browns. “You certainly have spent quite a long stretch in the Army,” wrote Browns’ Vice-President William O. DeWitt in reply to Elmer Wright’s letter on March 16, 1944, “and if the newspaper stories are correct, perhaps you will get a chance to return to this country in the not too distant future.”
On May 18, 1944, the 29th Infantry Division was taken in trucks to containment camps on the southeast coast of England. The countdown to D-Day had begun. Movement outside the camps was strictly forbidden as absolute secrecy regarding invasion details was essential and it was a boring and anxious couple of weeks for the men of Company A. "Whenever we had time, I put on a glove and [Elmer Wright] pitched to me," recalled former college catcher, Hal Baumgarten in Alex Kershaw's The Bedford Boys. "Wright was fast. I had to put a double sponge in the glove."
On the morning of June 6, 1944, many of the Yankees ball team were on landing crafts heading for Omaha Beach at Normandy. Company A of the 116th Infantry Regiment was to lead the D-Day assault. As the landing crafts approached the beach, the enemy opened fire with artillery, mortar, machine-gun and small arms fire. Frank Draper's craft shook with the horrifying impact of an anti-personnel shell that ripped through the side of the vessel and tore off his upper arm. Rapidly losing blood, the young soldier slumped to the floor. Bedford’s fleet-footed outfielder died soon afterwards in a pool of blood, seawater and vomit.
Elmer Wright and Robert Marsico’s landing craft made it to the beach. As the ramps dropped down the men of Company A were met with a hail of deadly accurate enemy fire. Many were killed outright; others lay critically wounded, screaming for help. Those that could jumped in to the six-foot of water and desperately tried to make their way to the beach.
Hal Baumgarten, the young receiver who had played catch with Elmer just days before, made it to the beach but an exploding artillery shell shattered his jaw. As he slumped to the ground, he looked to one side and there was the dead body of Elmer Wright. “I was certain it was him because of his nose,” he recalled. “It was just like Dick Tracy’s in the cartoon.”
In addition to Draper and Wright, third baseman Lou Alberigo and pitcher Maurice Williams were killed that day. Marsico suffered injuries to his right arm and leg in the chaos and carnage. He somehow survived the killing zone, but his injuries ensured he would never play baseball again. Joe Pellegrini died of wounds on June 29. First baseman Carl "Chubby" Proffit was wounded three times and earned the Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star.
The small community of Bedford, Virginia, had suffered badly. It was not until July 16, 1944 that news of the horrendous losses suffered on D-Day reached the townsfolk of Bedford, Virginia. Nineteen of the 34 Bedford boys of Company A died in the first bloody minutes at Omaha Beach. Two more died later in the day. Bedford suffered higher losses per-capita than any other American community in World War II.
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