Mark Vanderheid - Vietnam 1968

Mark Vanderheid was a well-known young athlete in Tonawanda, New York. On this day, 46 years ago, his life ended in Vietnam.

Mark E. Vanderheid, the son of Mr. Edward and Mrs. Lillian Vanderheid, was born in Tonawanda, New York, on February 11, 1949. He played varisty football at Tonawanda High School and Little League baseball. 

A catcher, Vanderheid was with the VFW team that won the Tonawanda American Little League title in 1961. He went on to play for Tondisco and the Yankees Babe Ruth League teams.

Vanderheid graduated from high school in 1967 and was employed by Acme Markets in North Tonawanda and Walters Service Station in Tonawanda. He also continued his affiliation with the Tonawanda American Little League by umpiring games.

He was just 19 years old when he enlisted with the Marine Corps on July 31, 1967. He was stationed at Parris Island, South Carolina, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, before being sent to Camp Pendleton, California at the start of the year. From California he was sent overseas to Vietnam on January 5, 1968, and served with B Company of the 1st Marines, 1st Marine Division.

On June 28, 1968, Lance Corporal Vanderheid was killed in action when he was hit by mortar shell fragments near Quang Tri, South Vietnam.

His body was returned to Tonawanda in July with services conducted by Reverand Lyle V. Newman at the John O. Roth Funeral Home. He was buried with military rites at Elmlawn Cemetery in that city.

On December 19, 1968, the following letter from the Vanderheid family appeared in the Tonawanda News:

Editor:
Recently there were two memorials given in memory of our son. Lance Corp. Mark Vanderheid who was
killed in Vietnam June 28, 1968. 

It has been very heart-warming for our family to know Mark has been
loved and remembered in such wonderful ways. 

In November, Terry West of the Tonawanda varsity football team was given the Mark Vanderheid award for the most spirited player. A family Mark spent many enjoyable hours with started the trophy fund, knowing his love of sports and others hearing of this memorial also contributed. 

Mark not only loved to play in sports but liked teaching other young boys the games. He coached Little League and also umpired the games. 

We talked of the war one day while he was home on leave (just a year ago) and. he said, "Mom, someone has to help those people over there. Those kids have never known anything but war and. if I can do even a small part to help them to some day just be kids and enjoy a childhood like I did, to be able to throw baseballs and footballs instead of hand grenades, I'll have
done my part."

Mark loved people. They didn't have to be young. He loved and respected all ages. We are pleased to know Mark will be remembered in that way.

The other memorial is the beautiful stained glass window in the Payne Avenue Christian Church. Words just
can't express the deep feeling within us as we sat in church listening to the memorial dedication service the young friends of Mark's had to dedicate the stained glass window that has been put in our church in memory of him. 

How very proud you parents of these young men and women should be. We're proud of them! Very proud to say they were friends of our son. 

In talking and listening to these young people you could hear them saying, "There is a God." They didn't carry banners or posters to proclaim this but worked on quietly remembering a friend in a very wonderful, beautiful way.

There is much to be said for these young people They have been thoughtful and kind and we are very
grateful to each and every one of them Many of them come to spend the day or evening with us. They will never know how much their visits have meant. We hope never to lose their friendships. 

We would like so much to say the names of each and every youth and adult that has given of their efforts, time and money to make these lovely memorials but, I wouldn't want to forget even one name in trying to remember them all but I'm sure you know our love and gratitude to each and every one of you.

May God bless you all.

Mr. and Mrs. William Vanderheid

In May 1969, Tonawanda American Little League renamed its ballfield Mark Vanderheid Field.

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Baseball and the Sands of Iwo Jima

“Nobody knows exactly what they've got on this island, but they've had forty years to put it there.”
Quote from Sands of Iwo Jima (Universal Studios, 1949)

Think of an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you probably picture a tropical paradise with crystal-clear water, white sands and palm trees gently swaying in the warm breeze. It would be perfect, idyllic, but definitely not a description of Iwo Jima.

Just 750 miles south of Tokyo, Iwo Jima is little more than a speck in the vast Pacific Ocean, and about as inhospitable as could be imagined. A little under five miles long with Mount Suribachi at the southeastern tip, the sulphur-reeking chunk of rock is scattered with steep and broken gullies that cut across the surface and are covered by scraggy vegetation and a fine layer of black volcanic ash.

Surprisingly, Iwo Jima had a civilian population of around 1,000 before they were forcibly evacuated during the Japanese military build-up in 1944. The Japanese had no doubt about the importance of the island. It was one of the last outer defences shielding the home islands, and they were determined to keep control whatever the cost.

With a garrison of around 20,000 troops under the command of Lieutenant General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, the Japanese took full advantage of the island’s natural features and turned it into a fortress of underground tunnels and defensive bunkers, riddled with concrete pillboxes, artillery positions, machine-gun pits, trenches and mortar sites.

Three divisions of the United States Marine Corps (over 70,000 men) would be involved in the amphibious landings at the beaches on the southeast coast of Iwo Jima, in sight of Mount Suribachi, with a goal to capture the entire island - including its three airfields - to provide a staging area for attacks against the Japanese mainland.

February 19, 1945, was D-Day at Iwo Jima. The Third Marine Division (initially held in reserve) had sailed from Guam, which it had captured from the Japanese in August 1944, while the Fourth and Fifth Divisions were coming from Hawaii. With the Third Division were a number of marines who, before the war, had earned their living playing professional baseball. Bob Addis was an outfielder in the Yankees organization, James Stewart was a pitcher with the Atlanta Crackers, Jim Hedgecock was a left-handed hurler in the Browns organization, Stan Bazan was a catcher who was also in the Browns system, Bob Schang (son of former major league catcher, Wally Schang) was a catcher in the Cotton States League and Ed Beaumier was a pitcher in the Canadian-American League. Two youngsters, Jimmy Trimble and Frank Ciaffone, had been signed by big league clubs (the Senators and Dodgers respectively), while Ray Champagne and Billy Parish were top-level semi-pro players; Champagne from Rhode Island and Parish from Texas. There was also Jimmy Scondras, who had been a baseball star at Holy Cross, and Jim Morris and Pee Wee Day, both high school players.

Jimmy Trimble

Ray Champagne

The Fourth Marine Division had a bona fide major leaguer in Harry O’Neill, who had appeared in one game behind the plate for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1939. They also had Jack Griffin, a ballplayer from the University of Kansas, and Owen Nilsen, a catcher in New York’s highly competitive Queens Alliance League.

Harry O'Neill

Meanwhile, within the ranks of the Fifth Marine Division were first baseman Jack Nealy of the Birmingham Barons, Bob Holmes, a pitcher in the Yankees organization; outfielder Jack Lummus, a football and baseball star at Baylor who played minor league ball in the West Texas-New Mexico League; John Beck a pitcher at San Diego State; Wayne Terwilliger, a high school shortstop who was at Western Michigan College before enlisting, and Mike Furdyna, a high school standout from Troy, New York, who was being closely observed by the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jack Lummus

Included in the air support during the invasion of Iwo Jima were Chicago White Sox first baseman Jake Jones, now a fighter pilot aboard the carrier USS Yorktown, and Texas League outfielder Arnold Traxler, who flew torpedo bombing missions from the carrier USS Hornet. During support of ground forces on Iwo Jima, Lieutenant Traxler was shot down by Japanese anti-aircraft fire and had to be rescued from the sea by a destroyer. There was also Dodgers farmhand Walt Schmisseur, now a fighter pilot aboard the carrier USS Lexington. Navy personnel on the carriers included Yankees first baseman Buddy Hassett (USS Bennington), Indians farmhand Joe Tipton (USS Kadashan Bay), former Washington State multi-sport athlete-turned high school coach Archie Buckley (USS Saratoga), and Braves left-hander Art Johnson (USS Langley), “We were about a mile off shore,” Johnson later recalled. “Our bombers spent six days bombing the island, but it didn’t bother them [the Japanese] a bit because they were deep in the caves. We didn’t know that. We found out later, unfortunately, when our marines went ashore.”

Jake Jones

Also off the coast of Iwo Jima were Athletics outfielder Eddie Collins, Jr. (son of Hall of Famer Eddie Collins, aboard the light cruiser USS Miami), recent Cubs signing Harlan Larsen (part of the Marine Corps detachment aboard the cruiser USS Indianapolis) and Niles “Sonny” Jordan (aboard the USS Bennett), a high school ballplayer from Washington.

Coming in with the Marines aboard the landing crafts were Frank Baumholtz, an outfielder in the Reds system and Mel Clark, a high school outfielder from West Virginia. Baumholtz was skipper of an LCI mortar ship and group commander in the Iwo Jima invasion. His LCI had part of the stern shot away but the youngster escaped injury.

Frank Baumholtz

The initial wave of marines that landed at Iwo Jima did not come under fire and it was hoped that the heavy bombardment of the preceding days had wiped out most of the Japanese forces on the island. But as the marines advanced off the beaches they came under vicious and deadly accurate fire from concealed Japanese positions. 

Coming ashore in an amphibious tank was Wayne Terwilliger. “As we got onto the beach, there was all this ash, nothing but ash,” recalled Terwilliger in his autobiography ‘Terwilliger Bunts One.’ “The tanks couldn’t get any traction to get up the embankment. After a lot of tries, our tank finally took hold...I think we were the first – and maybe the only – tank to get up there...As soon as we reached higher ground, we could see mortars and stuff coming in at us. I managed to look back down to where the infantry was coming in behind us, in Higgins boats or rubber ducks, and they were getting blown right out of the water. It was bad.”

Wayne Terwilliger

Among those who lost their life on the first day of battle was Second Lieutenant Jack Griffin of the 4th Combat Engineer Battalion, 4th Marine Division. Griffin had been a three-sport sensation at the University of Kansas in the mid-1930s. 

The following day, February 20, saw the loss of Ensign Walt Schmisseur, when his Grumman F6F-5 Hellcat fighter plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire. Schmisseur was a Dodgers prospect who had batted .278 with the Olean Oilers in 1942. February 21 saw the loss of Navy Lieutenant Archie Buckley who had quarterbacked the football team at Washington State. Buckley had died saving crewmates aboard the USS Saratoga after it had been attacked by Japanese planes. On February 22, Second Lieutenant Bob Holmes of the 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, was killed while in command of a DUKW, six-wheel-drive amphibious truck. Holmes had been a pitcher in the Yankees organization and had been with Binghamton and Norfolk in 1943. First Lieutenant Jimmy Scondras had landed at Iwo Jima with the 12th Marines, 3rd Marine Division and volunteered for duty as a forward scout. The former Holy Cross athlete was killed in action on February 25. Just days earlier, and unknown to Jimmy, his brother, David, had been killed on the battlefields of Europe.

On February 27, 4th platoon commander of the 3rd Reconnaissance Company, 3rd Marine Division, asked for eight volunteers to go out on patrol and find the location of the Japanese mortars that had his men pinned down. Private Jimmy Trimble was among the first to volunteer. Trimble had been a pitching sensation at St. Albans, a prep school in Washington, D.C., and was signed by the Senators as soon as he graduated in 1943. The Senators were paying Trimble’s way through college (Duke) when he enlisted with the Marine Corps in January 1944. Trimble set out towards the front line with his fellow volunteers on February 28. As darkness began to fall the team dug in for the night. There was an eerie quietness to the place. Just after midnight on March 1, a flare unexpectedly lit up the area and the marines were instantly overrun by the Japanese. Trimble took a bayonet in the right shoulder but continued to fire his rifle in the direction of any movement. Seconds later, two grenades dropped into the foxhole. One exploded alongside Trimble. The young pitcher caught the full blast of the grenade. His back, upper arms and the back of his head were a mass of wounds, but he was still alive. Moments later, a Japanese soldier with a mine strapped to his body, jumped in the hole, wrapped his arms around the severely wounded Marine and detonated the mine, killing them both. 

On March 2, Private Jack Nealy, a radioman with the 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, was killed in action. Nealy had signed as a first baseman with the Birmingham Barons of the Southern Association in late-1943 and appeared in just one game. On March 3, Private First-Class John Beck, a machine-gunner with the 26th Marines, 5th Marine Division, lost his life in the fighting. Beck had been a pitcher at San Diego High School and San Diego College (now San Diego University). That same day, Private First-Class Frank Ciaffone of the 9th Marines, 3rd Marine Division, was killed in action. Ciaffone had been an outstanding pitcher at Abraham Lincoln High School on New York’s Coney Island. Following graduation in 1942, he had played for the Dodger Rookies (a team of Brooklyn hopefuls) and would have played in the Dodgers organization in 1943 if he had not enlisted. Corporal Owen Nilsen of the 4th Marine Division had been a catcher with the St. Albans Americans in the Queens Alliance League of New York before enlisting. He was killed in action on March 6. Just days before, he had been awarded a Silver Star for conspicuous gallantry as a member of an advanced reconnaissance team assigned the hazardous mission of obtaining information about the landing beaches and shore installations on February 17 - two days before the actual amphibious landings. Also killed on March 6 was First Lieutenant Harry O’Neill of the 25th Weapons Company, 4th Marine Division. One of only two major leaguers to lose their lives in service during World War II, O’Neill had been a sensation at Gettysburg College, Pennsylvania, before signing with the Philadelphia Athletics in June 1939. He had spent the rest of the season with Philadelphia as their third-string catcher, and made his only major league appearance on July 23, as a late-inning defensive replacement for Frankie Hayes. O'Neill had caught Chubby Dean in the ninth inning without making a plate appearance. In the early evening of March 6, O’Neill was hit by a Japanese sniper’s bullet that pierced his throat, severing his spinal cord and killing him instantly.

John Beck

In early March, First Lieutenant Jack Lummus commanded the third rifle platoon in Second Battalion’s E Company, 27th Marines, 5th Marine Division, as they spearheaded a final assault on an objective east of Kitano Point in the north of the island. Lummus led an assault on three concealed Japanese strongholds and despite minor wounds received from grenade shrapnel, he single-handedly knocked out all three positions. The following day, March 8, Lummus stepped on a landmine. Both his legs were blown off but he continued to urge his men on before being evacuated to the 5th Division Field Hospital and underwent surgery and blood transfusions. He died on the operating table the following day. Lummus had been a football and baseball star at Baylor in the late 1930s. He had played minor league baseball with the Wichita Spudders in 1941 and professional football with the New York Giants that winter. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor (one of 27 Iwo Jima recipients), the United States’ highest military honor, awarded for personal acts of valor above and beyond the call of duty.

On March 11, Private First-Class Mike Furdyna of the 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, died of wounds received while fighting on Iwo Jima. Furdyna had been a star athlete at La Salle Institute, in Troy, New York, playing baseball, basketball and football. He had received an offer from the Brooklyn Dodgers to appear for spring training after graduating in 1943, but enlisted in the marines beforehand.

Although the island was initially declared secure at 18:00 on March 16 (25 days after the landings), the marines still faced Kuribayashi's stronghold in a gorge at the northwestern end of the island. On March 22, 1945, Private James Stewart of the 34th Replacement Draft, 3rd Marine Division, was killed in action. Stewart had been signed by the Atlanta Crackers during the winter of 1943. He never got to play a game, enlisting with the Marine Corps before the following season began.

Four days after the death of Private Stewart, Iwo Jima was officially declared secure. The 36-day assault resulted in more than 26,000 American casualties, including 6,800 dead. Of the 22,000 Japanese troops on the island, 18,844 died either from fighting or by ritual suicide. Only 216 were captured during the course of battle and it was estimated there were close to 3,000 Japanese left alive in the island's warren of caves and tunnels. It was not until January 1949, that the last two Japanese soldiers finally surrendered.

4th Marine Division Cemetery on Iwo Jima

An Important Game
During the battle for Iwo Jima, all-star Tigers catcher Birdie Tebbetts was on the island of Guam; a captain in charge of morale for the Army Air Force. Not surprisingly, baseball played a big part in his daily activities and he had assembled a team of players that included former big leaguers Max West (Braves), Joe Gordon (Yankees), Howie Pollett (Cardinals) and Tex Hughson (Red Sox). As the fighting on Iwo Jima was coming to an end, Tebbetts’ team were dispatched to the island to play for the battle-weary troops. “Our B-24s circled the pockmarked airstrip [on Iwo Jima] and put down for a bumpy landing,” recalled Tebbetts in his autobiography ‘Birdie: Confessions of a Baseball Nomad.’ “It was plain to see that just the day before our guys had been in the midst of a fierce battle; smoke was still rising from burnt-out emplacements and caves.”

Birdie Tebbetts

The Seabees bulldozed a diamond out of the rock; its outfield boundaries being the Pacific Ocean. Chalk lines were laid out and empty bomb crates and packing cases were used as makeshift bleachers. “When we got suited up and went out there to warm up,” remembered Tebbetts, “I look around and there were GIs and marines standing on top of boxes, hanging off cranes, trucks and jeeps...Our job...was simple. To put on a big-league ballgame for 12,000 grimy, cheering, gun-toting, battle-torn soldiers and marines. To take their minds off the shear horror of what they had just been through. They came on foot, by jeep, truck, a tank or two, and even some on crutches. It was an incredible sight.”

The game was a huge success and served as a perfect morale booster for the marines of Iwo Jima. Afterwards, Tebbetts was approached by a marine colonel. “This ballgame was a lifesaver,” he told the catcher. “These guys would have gone crazy without something like this to take their minds off what happened here.” The colonel then walked away but stopped, turned back to Tebbetts, saluted, and said, “This is the most important game you’ll ever play, Captain Tebbetts.”

Mariana Baseball Series
In late August 1945, with the war all but over, Seabees cut another baseball field in the side of a hill on Iwo Jima, built stands and named it Higashi (Japanese for east) Field. Birdie Tebbetts was back and this time he came with three teams. The 58th Bombardment Wing Wingmen, the 73rd Bombardment Wing Bombers and the 313th Bombardment Wing Flyers.

Forty-eight players were divided between three teams representing bombardment wings of the 20th Air Force - the 58th Bombardment Wing Wingmen, led by Tebbetts and featuring Enos Slaughter (Cardinals), Joe Gordon, Joe Marty (Phillies), Billy Hitchcock (Tigers), Howie Pollett and Chubby Dean (Indians: the same Chubby Dean that Harry O’Neill had caught in his only major league appearance in 1939); the 73rd Bombardment Wing Bombers, managed by Buster Mills of the Cleveland Indians and featuring Stan Rojek (Dodgers), Taft Wright (White Sox), Mike McCormick (Reds), Tex Hughson and Sid Hudson (Senators farmhand); and the 313th Bombardment Wing Flyers, managed by Lew Riggs of the Dodgers and featuring Johnny Sturm (Yankees), Max West, Walt Judnich (Browns) and Stan Goletz (White Sox).

Based primarily on Tinian and Saipan in the Mariana Islands, all three teams ascended on Iwo Jima for a series of games. On August 29, Tex Hughson hurled the 73rd Bombers to a 3-2 win against the 313th Flyers in the opening game. The following day the 58th Wingmen beat the 313th Flyers, 5-4. Enos Slaughter’s seventh-inning home run was the winning margin in a game that featured seventeen put outs by the two center fielders. John “Swede” Jensen (Pacific Coast League) had 11 for the Flyers while Joe Marty hauled in seven for the Wingmen. 

On August 31, Nick Popovich (White Sox farmhand) threw a 3-0 three-hitter for the 58th Wingmen over the 73rd Bombers to clinch the Iwo Jima round-robin series. Two days later the three teams were split into National and American League all-star teams for the final game of the tour. Lew Riggs gave the Nationals a 1-0 lead with a homer in the first inning. The American League tied in the bottom of the inning with doubles from Bob Dillinger (Browns farmhand) and Taft Wright. The Nationals then took a 3-1 lead in the second when Nanny Fernandez (Braves) singled, moved to second on an infield out and scored when Birdie Tebbetts threw into center field trying to pick him off. The National League added two more runs in the ninth when Enos Slaughter doubled, Swede Jensen walked, then Herm Reich (Pacific Coast League) and Bill Leonard (Pacific Coast League) singled. The final score was 5-1 to the senior circuit.

Just like earlier in the year when Birdie Tebbetts brought his team to the island, the ballgames proved very popular with the military personnel (mainly Army Air Force) who were on the island. “One day we were playing on Iwo Jima at the same time as a big named band,” recalled Rugger Ardizoia of the 313th Flyers, a Yankees farmhand before military service. “Playing for the troops we had over 10,000 watching us while the band had only about 1,000. The band leader was so disgusted he decided to pack up and leave while we carried on playing.”

After Iwo Jima
First baseman Jake Jones returned to the White Sox for spring training in 1946. He injured his leg before the season got under way and played just 24 games hitting .266 with five doubles, a triple and three home runs. He played every game of the 1947 season albeit between two different clubs as he was traded by the White Sox to the Boston Red Sox on June 14. Jones batted only .237 but hit 19 home runs and contributed 96 RBIs. The following season was his last in the majors, playing as a backup first baseman to Billy Goodman. He appeared in appeared in 36 games and batted just .200. Jake Jones was recalled to active military service during the Korean War.

Yankees first baseman Buddy Hassett was discharged from the Navy on November 16, 1945. He was 34 years old when he reported to the Yankees spring training camp and was released by the club on April 30, 1946. After considering retiring from baseball, he rejoined the organization and played with the Newark Bears. In 1949, Hassett took over as manager of the New Jersey International League club.

Boston Braves left-hander Art Johnson was wounded later in the war, when fragments from a Japanese kamikaze plane that hit the deck of the carrier USS Langley, tore into his knees. He was discharged from service in October 1945. “I went to spring training in 1946 but could not make it,” he recalled. “My arm was sore, and, of course, my knees were damaged by the kamikaze attack. Billy Southworth was the manager, a really nice guy. I did get a disabled military pension because of the injury.”

Athletics outfielder Eddie Collins, Jr., returned to the club in 1946, but was released in April and spent the season with Jersey City and Buffalo of the International League before retiring from the game as a player. He was assistant general manager of the Philadelphia Phillies from 1954 to 1955.

Yankees farmhand Bob Addis was discharged in 1946 and returned to baseball, spending that season with Wellsville and Binghamton. He was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers in November 1947 and was with St. Paul the following year. Addis moved up to the Montreal Royals in 1949, but was traded to the Boston Braves at the end of the season and in 1950 he played with the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association before being called up and making his major league debut with the Braves on September 1, 1950. He played 16 games that season and batted .250. He remained in the big leagues through 1953.

Browns left-hander Jim Hedgecock returned to the minors in 1946, spending two seasons with Vancouver, winning 21 games in 1947. He played Triple-A ball with Seattle in 1948, but never made it to the major leagues and retired as a player after 1953. Jim Hedgecock was just 48 when he passed away in 1970.

Browns’ farmhand Stan Bazan did not return to professional baseball after the war. Neither did outfielder Arnold Traxler, who was just 44 when he passed away in 1961.

Minor league catcher Bob Schang returned to the minors in 1946, playing in California that year and Louisiana the next.

Left-hander Ed Beaumier was back in the minor leagues in 1947, winning 16 games in the North Carolina State League followed by 10 wins with Rome in the Canadian-American League the following year.

Indians’ farmhand Joe Tipton was back in the minor leagues in 1946. He batted .375 for Wilkes-Barre in 1947 and joined Cleveland the following season. Tipton spent seven seasons in the big leagues as a back-up catcher for the Indians, White Sox, Athletics and Senators.

Harlan Larsen, who had signed with the Cubs before enlisting with the Marines, was aboard the USS Indianapolis when it was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. Of the 1,196 aboard, about 300 went down with the ship. It is not known whether Larsen got off the ship at this time. Around 900 men were cast into the Pacific Ocean with no lifeboats and little food or water. A series of blunders resulted in four days elapsing before it was realized the ship was missing and by the time the survivors were found only 321 men were still alive (Harlan Larsen was not among them); nearly 600 had died from shark attacks, starvation, thirst, exposure and wounds. 

Reds minor leaguer Frank Baumholtz was with Columbia in 1946 and batted .343. He made his big league debut with Cincinnati the following year and played 10 seasons in the majors with the Reds, Cubs and Phillies.

Rhode Island semi-pro Ray Champagne was signed by the Boston Red Sox and went to spring training in 1946. His wife, Violette, was expecting their first child at the time, and the Red Sox wanted to send Champagne to Scranton, Pennsylvania, but he wanted to stay close to home and requested to play for the Lynn Red Sox in the New England League. The Red Sox would not allow this and Champagne chose instead to return to semi-pro ball. He worked as a salesman for 32 years for the International Supply Company in Cranston, Rhode Island.

Texas semi-pro third baseman Billy Parish came home from the war to his wife, Ellouise, and a two-and-a-half year-old daughter, Diane, whom he had never seen. He went to work for the Texas Power and Light Company and continued to play baseball for the company team for a few years.

Kansas high school pitcher Jim Morris was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946. He won 21 games with Miami (OK) in 1947 and 18 games with St. Joseph in 1949, but arm trouble brought a premature end to his pro career. In 1950, he went to work for the Boeing Airplane Company and continued to play baseball with the Boeing Bombers. Leading them to seven Kansas state titles, two national titles and the very first World Baseball Championship in 1955.

Iowa high schooler Pee Wee Day won a scholarship to Northwestern University where he played baseball and football. In 1949, he played in the Rose Bowl against California with Northwestern winning 20-14. After graduation, professional sports were eager to sign the gifted young athlete and he was offered a contract to play baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals and football for the Chicago Cardinals. He declined both and went to work for the Martin-Marietta Cement Company as a sales representative.

Infielder Wayne Terwilliger completed his education at Western Michigan and was playing second base with the semi-pro Benton Harbor Buds when he was signed by the Chicago Cubs in July 1948.  He spent the remainder of the season with Des Moines and was with Los Angeles when he was called up by the Cubs in August 1949. Terwilliger played nine years in the major leagues with the Cubs, Dodgers, Senators, Giants and Athletics. Nearly 89 years old, he has remained in baseball ever since, as a player, manager and coach.

Washington high school player Niles Jordan was aboard the USS Bennett when it was hit by a Japanese kamikaze plane on April 7, 1945. Three men were killed and 18 wounded. Jordan was not among the casualties. After being discharged from military service he attended Mount Vernon Junior College where he played baseball and football. He was signed by the Phillies in 1948 and won 19 games with Klamath Falls in 1949, 17 with Terre Haute in 1950 and 21 with Wilmington in 1951. Jordan made his major league debut with the Phillies in August 1951, starting five games for a 2-3 record. He pitched briefly with the Reds in 1952, and continued to throw in the minors until 1958.

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Chotaro Muramatsu - Guam - 1944

Chotaro Muramatsu was a Japanese high school pitching ace who went on to play professional baseball in his home country with the Tokyo Senators. On this day, 70 years ago, Muramatsu was killed in a military flying accident.

Chotaro Muramatsu was born on May 9, 1921 in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The pitching ace of the Naniwa Shogyo high school baseball team, young Muramatsu helped his team in the 14th National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament final in 1937 by defeating Chukyo high school, 2-1.

Muramatsu again played at Koshien in 1938 and signed with the Tokyo Senators in 1939. Used as an outfielder his rookie season, the 17-year-old batted just .160 in 34 games. In 1940, Muramatsu played 58 games for the Senators (the team changed its name to Tsubasa in mid-season). While batting only .175 and stealing eight bases as an outfielder, the right-hander pitched 11 games with five starts for an 1-0 record and 3.79 ERA.

In 1941, Tsubasa merged with Nagoya Kinko to form Taiyo, and Muramatsu played 36 games in the outfield, batting a lowly .121. In 1942, he played 70 games, batted .192 and stole six bases.

Following the 1942 season, Chotaro Muramatsu was drafted into military service. He died in a flight training accident in Guam on June 20, 1944. He was 23 years old.

Bill MacCoy - Texas - 1943

Bill MacCoy was the record-setting captain of the Princeton baseball team with everything to live for. Then, on this day in 1943, one week before he was due to receive his wings in the Army Air Force, disaster struck.

William Logan MacCoy, Jr., was born in Overbrook, Pennsylvania on April 17, 1920. He was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. W. Logan MacCoy. His father was an affluent lawyer and president of the Provident Trust Company.

MacCoy attended Haverford School where he first began to excel as an athlete. He was the captain of the squash and tennis teams while playing varsity baseball and football.

MacCoy went to Princeton in 1939 to study politics as a preliminary to his planned career as a lawyer. It was in his freshman year that he began his illustrious baseball career. The young outfielder captained the team and won the Leroy Kellog Cup. Interestingly, MacCoy was part of television history that year. On May 17, W2XBS televised the first ever baseball game - a 2-1, 10th winning win for Princeton at Columbia. 

But MacCoy did not limit himself to baseball. He also took up hockey - a sport which was entirely new to him - because "it was a challenge to him, and offered the closest of competition and teamwork." 

MacCoy became an outstanding hockey player and a member of the varsity team for three years.

In 1940, MacCoy switched from the outfield to catcher. He won the Sophomore Cup as the most improved ball player at Princeton and was selected for the Eastern Inter-Collegiate (EIL) All-League team. He also had a 16-game hitting streak - an EIL record that stood for 40 years. The 20 year-old spent the summer as warm-up catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics under the watchful eye of the venerable Connie Mack. 

In December 1941, MacCoy married Adele Goodwyn Griffin - a descendant of John Tyler, tenth President of the United States - at Christ Church in Media, Pennsylvania. 

MacCoy's senior year was little short of outstanding. The newlywed captained Princeton to an EIL championship with a .452 batting average, scoring winning runs in two decisive extra-inning games against Yale and Harvard. Furthermore, MacCoy was selected for the EIL All-League team and won the Frederick W. Kafer Memorial Cup for "sportsmanship, play and influence in baseball." 

During his time at Princeton, MacCoy attended ROTC for four years, displaying the same natural ability and those qualities of leadership which made him a standout in athletics. He received his second lieutenant's commission in the Army on June 11, 1942 but transferred to the Army Air Force in August - challenged by the "self-reliance and skills needed to become a successful pilot."

MacCoy received his primary flight training at Tulsa, Oklahoma and his basic flight training at Enid Army Air Filed, Oklahoma. He then headed to the twin-engine advance flying school at Pampa Army Air Field in Texas.

Serving as a student officer at Pampa AAF, MacCoy's life came to an abrupt end on June 19, 1943,  when the Cessna UC-78C Bobcat he was flying collided in mid-air with another airplane, six miles northeast of Pampa. Bill MacCoy was just a week away from receiving his pilot's wings.

"Those of us who knew Bill well have lost a true friend," wrote classmate Joseph O. Rutter. "One could not help being completely dominated by him because of his forceful personality. And at the same time one could not help becoming devoted to him because of his affability, quiet humor, kindliness and loyalty. 

MacCoy's loss devastated his family - not least his wife, Adele, who was five months pregnant at the time. Their daughter, Marguerite, was born October 5, 1943, taking her father's middle name - Logan - as her own.

In 1946, MacCoy's father arranged for a memorial to be built at University Field (now Clarke Field) home of the Princeton baseball team. The MacCoy memorial included a bronze likeness of the young ball player built into a brick wall directly behind homeplate. MacCoy's father also presented new dugouts to the team. The MacCoy Memorial still oversees Princeton baseball.

In June 1987, there was a rededication of the MacCoy memorial at Clarke Field. Among the dignitaries in attendance was a Princeton graduate and former commissioner of Major League Baseball, Bowie Kuhn.

Bill MacCoy is buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

Chipper Wantuck - New Guinea - 1944

Chipper Wantuck had a promising career ahead of him in professional baseball when military service beckoned in December 1942. Eighteen months later, on this day 70 years ago, he lost his life serving with an army medical battalion in the Pacific.

Roman E. "Chipper" Wantuck grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where he lived with his mother, Mrs. Antoinette Wantuck, five sisters and four brothers. He attended Bowen High School in South Chicago, and he excelled in baseball for the Boilermakers.

Following graduation, Wantuck attended spring training with the Sheboygan Indians of the Class D Wisconsin State League in 1941, in the hope of earning a place on the team. With the young hopefuls playing daily inter-squad games throughout May, Wantuck demonstrated his abilities on the mound, allowing just three hits over five innings on May 7, and three hits over six innings with eight strikeouts on May 11. When the squad was cut to the required 15 players in mid-May, Wantuck had earned a spot.

On May 18, 1941, Wantuck beat the Fond du Lac Panthers, 6-0, on three hits to begin a memorable rookie season. By July 4, his wins and losses were even at five and five but he won 10 of his next 12 decisions to finish with a 15-7 record in 31 appearances and a 3.31 ERA. He struck out 174 batters over 201 innings, and played nine games in right field (he batted .232 for the year, 33 for 142). On July 21, he beat Oshkosh, 5-0, on a two-hitter, and on August 28, he destroyed Green Bay, 22-2, allowing just four hits while driving in six runs with a double and a grand slam. The Indians finished fourth in the league to earn a place in the playoffs, and after beating the LaCrosse Blackhawks in four games, they were awarded the championship following Green Bay's forfeit.

Wantuck, a fan favorite in Sheboygan, was back with the team for the 1942 season and rang up a string of 10 wins without defeat. On May 27, he beat Oshkosh, 7-1, allowing just one hit in the second inning. On June 22, he again beat Oshkosh for his ninth straight win with a 7-0 three-hitter. It was in the July 13 Wisconsin State League all-star game at Joannes Park, Green Bay, that Wantuck truly demonstrated his all-around ability. In a one-man show, he hurled five innings of shutout ball against league-leading Green Bay, and hit two home runs over the center field fence that stood 10-feet high and 381 feet from home plate. "Chipper truly was the greatest of the great," declared the local press.

For the rest of the season, Wantuck continued to win games and hit home runs, resulting in a deluge of praise from the local press. "Not only is he a pretty fair pitcher," announced the Sheboygan Journal in September, "but in slugging the ball for distance there isn't anyone to match him on the squad. Or in the league, for that matter."

Wantuck finished the regular season with 19 wins (second best in the league, and his 13 consecutive wins set a league record) and a 2.70 ERA, but his biggest crowd-pleasing feats were his home runs. On four occasions during the regular season he hit two home runs in a game and even hit two in one inning against the Wisconsin Rapids White Sox. He finished the season with 16 home runs, which led Sheboygan hitters and was third best in the league - pretty good for a pitcher - and he achieved that mark in only 62 games and 203 at-bats, while Cliff Aberson -who led the league with 22 home runs - took 391 at-bats to achieve his tally.

In November 1942, it was announced that Wantuck had been drafted by the Macon Peaches of the Class B South Atlantic League. "So it's good bye to the Chipper and good luck," declared the local press. "We certainly enjoyed his play ... and we'll miss that easy swing ... and those majestic drives sailing over the fences."

But his advancement in professional baseball was put on hold when military service called in December 1942. Wantuck served with the Army Medical Corps and was based at Texas City, on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas, where he became a star pitcher for the Texas City Army Camp Buckeyes in the Texas City Oil League. The Buckeyes finished second in the first half of the season, but the team folded when Wantuck and many of the players were transferred. "Fans will be ready to argue with any newcomer or old-timer," wrote Shorty Yarbrough in the Galveston Daily News in July 1943, "that Roman Wantuck was as much pitcher as any man who ever set foot on the high school athletic field [where the Buckeyes played their home games]. Wantuck will no doubt be ready for return to organized ball when the big battle is won and we Texas City fans will follow his record."

Private First Class Wantuck served in the Pacific with the 116th Medical Battalion, 41st Infantry Division. On June 16, 1944, he was killed in action at Biak Island, New Guinea. News of his death came as a terrible shock to the baseball community. The Chicago Cubs (who added Wantuck to their defense list after he was drafted by Macon) announced he was the first Cub to lose his life in action in the war. Jack Sheehan, director of the Cubs' minor league clubs, rated Wantuck as "one of the most promising players in the Cubs' system."

In February 1949, Wantuck's body was returned to Chicago where he was finally laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Calumet City, Illinois.

Ed Tuttle - Florida - 1942

Minor leaguer Ed Tuttle was an aviation cadet with the navy when he lost his life in a flying accident on this day in 1942.

Edgar W. Tuttle was from Maiden, North Carolina, and attended Balls Creek High School in Newton, where he achieved a magnificent athletic record. He played four years of high school basketball and baseball, and during his senior year was a member of the county baseball championship team. Tuttle graduated from high school in 1934 and entered Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina, as a candidate for a degree with a mathematics major and a history minor.

He was an excellent forward in basketball and an outstanding pitcher/outfielder for the Mountain Bears. In 1935, his freshman year, Tuttle made just four pinch-hit appearances for the varsity team, and his teammates that year included his brother Charlie, a pitcher, and team captain Lindsay Deal, who would play a handful of games for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1939. The 1936 season witnessed Tuttle place his stamp on local college baseball. With his brother as the Mountain Bears’ alternate captain, Ed Tuttle batted .419 and was 2–1 in five mound appearances, as Lenoir Rhyne enjoyed one of its best seasons in a long time with a 9–6 won-loss record in the North State Conference.

The Mountain Bears of 1937 put on a disappointing performance although Tuttle had a 5–2 record and 3.26 ERA. He also batted .284 with three home runs and a teamleading 19 RBIs, earning him All-Conference honors. His best outing was against Guilford College on May 4, holding the Quakers to four hits in the 14–2 victory. A highlight for Lenoir-Rhyne was a 5–4 win against the Hickory Rebels of the professional independent Carolina League. In his senior year, 1938, Tuttle served as co-captain with batterymate Clyde McSwain, and led the pitching staff along with right-hander Felix Little.

“During his four years as a baseball player,” declared the college newspaper, “Tuttle has been a joy to the coach as he hurled those spherical forms over the plate to strike out so many of those enemies’ batters.”

In April 1939, the Hickory Rebels were looking for players. Having been part of the outlawed Carolina League for the past three years, the Rebels joined the newly formed Class D Tar Heel League, and signed Tuttle, McSwain and Little from Lenoir-Rhyne.

Charlie Tuttle, who had played with the Newton-Conover Twins of the North Carolina State League in 1938, also signed with the Rebels in 1939. McSwain played 67 games for the Rebels and batted .274, while Little and the Tuttle brothers saw limited service on the mound.

Ed Tuttle later accepted a position as a math teacher and athletic coach at Oxford High School in Claremont, North Carolina, but gave baseball another chance in 1940, and signed with the Newton-Conover Twins of the Tar Heel League. The Twins were an independent team who played at Legion Field in Newton, just seven miles from Claremont. Tuttle had played 13 games and was batting .241, when the Twins disbanded on July 19. He did not return to baseball and continued to work as a teacher. His brother Charlie, who had long ago abandoned his baseball career, was also a teacher at Mountain View High School near Hickory, North Carolina.

On January 15, 1942, Tuttle entered military service with the Navy. He completed basic training as an aviation cadet in Georgia, in April 1942, then reported to Naval Air Station Lee Field in Green Cove Springs, Florida, for the next stage of training towards earning his wings and a commission. On the morning of June 11, 1942, Air Cadet Tuttle took off from Lee Field with his flight instructor Ensign John C. Newman. At 12:28pm, ten miles from the airfield while executing training maneuvers, Tuttle’s plane collided head-on with another. Both planes fell from the sky and crashed in flames. Tuttle and Newman were killed, as was the instructor of the other plane, Ensign John C. Alloway, a former star football half back at Wittenberg College (now Wittenberg University) in Springfield, Ohio. Aviation Cadet William O. Rowland, the passenger in Alloway’s plane, was the only survivor, somehow managing to parachute to safety.

“During the time that your son was on duty here,” wrote Captain J. D. Price, the commandant at Jacksonville Naval Air Station, in a letter to Tuttle’s parents, “he established himself as an outstanding young man. Edgar had a most promising future.”

A further letter was received, this time from Lieutenant Commander R. W. Cutler: “The regiment was very proud of him and I hope this letter will give you and your husband something to hold on to during your hours of grief. He met his death in the line of duty and this gives you every right in the world to be very proud of his record in the United States Navy.”

Tuttle was buried at the Friendship United Methodist Church Cemetery in Newton, North Carolina.

William Shepherd - New Guinea - 1944

On this day, 70 years ago, Montana-born ballplayer, William Shepherd, was killed in action while serving with the army in the Pacific.

William J. Shepherd, the son of Mr. and Mrs. James J. Shepherd, was born in Helena, Montana on December 24, 1906. Shepherd, who attended Helena schools and graduated from Carroll College in 1925, was a star first baseman with Webster Cigars of the Helena City baseball league. He was described by the Helena Independent-Record as “one of the popular Sixth ward boys who helped keep athletics alive in Helena.”

Shepherd entered military service in 1941 and served in the Pacific with the 116th Medical Battalion of the 41st Infantry Division. Thirty-seven-year-old Private First Class Shepherd was killed in action on June 9, 1944, during the 41st Division's bloodiest engagement on the island of Biak, off New Guinea's coast.

He is buried at Resurrection Cemetery in Helena, Montana.

Don Norton - France - 1944

Canadian ballplayer, Don Norton, lost his life while serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force on this day, 70 years ago.

Donald B. “Don” Norton was born in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada in 1920. He emerged as an outstanding natural athlete while at Milltown High School and was recognized as one of the province's premier track and field athletes. At a 1938 interscholastic track meet he tied the provincial high school record for the 220-yard dash and set new records in the standing broad jump and the 100-yard dash. During his senior year in high school, he set a triple jump record at the 1939 Maritime Interscholastic Championship.

Norton played baseball with the local St. Croixs team in 1938 and 1939. Used as a relief pitcher, pinch runner, right fielder, and a third-base man, his amazing speed made him a constant threat when on the bases. St. Croixs won nine consecutive New Brunswick titles from 1931 to 1939, they also won seven Maritime championships and the team was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 1971.

The St. Croixs team of St. Stephen, New Brunswick in 1939

Norton attended Mount Allison College (now University) at Sackville, New Brunswick in 1939. In his freshman year he earned first-place finishes at the Halifax Intercollegiate Meet in the 100-yard, 220-yard dash, broad and triple jump events. At the 1940 Intercollegiate Meet, Norton duplicated firsts in the same events as he had during 1939 and added a second-place finish in javelin. At the Highland Games the same year, he ran the 100-yard dash in record time. Then in 1941 he beat Canadian sprint champion, Peter Taylor, in the 100-yard dash. In 1942, Norton equaled his best time in the 100-yard dash and broke his own record in the broad jump.

But Norton’s most heroic act Mount Allison College did not take place on the athletic field. On December 16, 1941, a fire broke out at the college’s men's residence. With little regard for his own safety, Don Norton ran from floor to floor, waking up the sleeping students and helping them to make improvised ropes from bed sheets. Eventually, Norton jumped from a third-storey window into the safety of a fireman's net. Four students lost their lives in the fire. Norton’s efforts saved many more.

Norton enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force after graduating from Mount Allison and trained as a navigator. He continued to run track for the RCAF and was recognized as the fastest runner in a Canadian military uniform.

Flying Officer Norton served with 420 Squadron and was based at RAF Tholthorpe in Yorkshire, England. On June 8, 1944, Don Norton, who had survived a plane crash earlier in his military service, was killed when his Handley Page Halifax III was shot down and exploded upon crashing in a field at Ronchois, France.

"Every person who was on the campus when Don was here,” declared a Mount Allison College publication shortly after his death in 1944, “will long remember him for his marvelous running as well as his general all round ability in everything he tried. There were few his equal, and his death is indeed a blow to all who knew him."

The Don Norton Memorial Award later established at Mount Allison. The university presents the award - in memory of all students who gave their lives in WWII - to the male student who makes the greatest overall contribution to university life in his senior year.

Don Norton is buried at Poix-de-Picardie Cemetery in Somme, France. He was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 1970.

Syl Sturges - Normandy - 1944

On this day in 1944, minor league ballplayer, Syl Sturges, lost his life serving with the Army Air Force at Normandy.

Sylvester H. "Syl" Sturges, born in Richmond Hill, New York in 1919, was an athletic and personable young man, with a mild temperament and a gift for making friends. Sturges enjoyed music and the great outdoors, including fishing and swimming, but his greatest passion was playing baseball. He attended John Adams High School in Ozone Park, New York, where he excelled in sports and, as a hard-hitting outfielder, co-captained the baseball team with future minor league first baseman, Charley "Moose" Metelski.

In high school he played against future Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto, who was at Richmond Hill High School, and he played in the highly competetive Queens Alliance League with Glen Morris and  Melvina. He went eight-for-eight in a doubleheader at Dexter Park in Queens, New York, and was being scouted by Larry McPhail of the Cincinnati Reds at the time.

Graduating from high school in 1938, Sturges later signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers' organization, and was assigned to the Americus Pioneers of the Georgia-Florida League in 1939, where he batted .250 in 20 games. He joined the Shelby Colonels of the Class D Tar Heel League in 1940, and after batting.243 in 65 games was assigned to the Goldsboro Goldbugs of the Class D Coastal Plain League, where he hit .321 in 14 games before breaking his leg. Having made a full recovery, Sturges began the 1941 season as the Goldbugs' regular left fielder until switching to second base in August. He batted .284 with 30 doubles and 39 RBIs.

Sturges entered military service on October 15, 1941, and trained as a pilot with the Army Air Force at Yuma, Arizona. At the beginning of 1944, he was sent to a secluded airfield in Connecticut, where he learned to tow a glider while piloting a Douglas C-47. Shortly afterwards, Second Lieutenant Sturges left for England with the 32nd Troop Carrier Squadron of the 314th Troop Carrier Group, Ninth Air Force. On a visit to London, Sturges decided to exercise his musical talent. An accomplished violinist, he purchased an inexpensive fiddle to keep himself entertained.

At 3:25 A.M., on June 7, 1944 - the day after the Normandy invasion - Sturges was the co-pilot of a C-47 transport plane that took off from Saltby Airfield in Leicestershire, in light rain and ground haze. The plane was heading to Picauville, France, as part of Operation Freeport - a mission to drop supplies to troops on the ground. Shortly after take off, it was lost out of formation in the low cloud and not seen again. At 5:00 P.M. that evening, the burnt out wreck was discovered about a mile northeast of Sebeville in France. The badly burned bodies of Sturges and pilot First Lieutenant George Risley, Jr., were still at the controls. Crew Chief S/Sgt. Howard Flisrand and radio operator Andrew Barraca were the other crew members who perished.

News, however, was slow getting back to the Sturges family about the loss. He had been reported missing in action and as late as September 1944, the Long Island Daily Press hoped that "the family of Lieutenant Syl Sturges of Richmond Hill soon gets some good word about the whereabouts of the former Adams, Queens Alliance and minor league baseballer, who has been reported missing in action."

Sturges was buried at the American cemetery in Ste-Mere-Eglise in Normandy, France. His remains were later returned home and now rest at the Long Island National Cemetery in New York.

Baseball at Normandy - June 6, 1944

People of western Europe! A landing was made this morning on the coast of France by troops of the allied expeditionary force. This landing is part of the concerted United Nations’ plan for the liberation of Europe, made in conjunction with your great Russian allies. Although the initial assault may not have been made in your own country, the hour of liberation is approaching. 
General Eisenhower June 6, 1944

Today's blog article commemorates the 70th anniversary of the D-Day Normandy landings, and looks at baseball’s largely overlooked contribution to this historic event. 

By the start of the 1944 season, around 340 major league players were in military service, plus more than 3,000 from the minors, and with the vast manpower shortage, just 10 minor leagues were in operation. Every branch of the service had an abundance of former
ballplayers helping to fill their ranks and many were in Britain as part of the pre-invasion
preparations. Among them were major leaguers Larry French, Roy Bruner, Paul Campbell, Whitey Hilcher, Earl Johnson, Art Kenney, Ted Klainhans, Si Rosenthal, Tom Saffell, Lou Thuman, Monte Weaver and Elmer Gedeon; future Hall of Famer Yogi Berra; future major leaguers Russ Bauers, Ross Grimsley, Morrie Martin, Eddie Kazak and Bert Shepard; and minor leaguers Lefty Brewer, Syl Sturges, Elmer Wright, Hal Cisgen, John Fessler, Lloyd Rice, John McNicholas, Joe Marco and Frank Labuda. Six of them would be dead before the end of June. The following is an historical account of D-Day interwoven with biographical details of ballplayers who were there. 

On June 6, 1944, at the beaches of Normandy, France, Allied forces made one of the largest amphibious assaults ever conducted. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel to launch an invasion that would begin the liberation of the people of mainland Europe who had lived under Nazi rule for over four years. 

The Commanders 

General Dwight D. Eisenhower 
Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force and was charged with planning and carrying out of the invasion. Eisenhower loved baseball. Historian Bill Swank says that in his senior year at Abilene (Kansas) High School, Eisenhower was the baseball team captain and leading hitter, and he went on to play football for Army during his sophomore year, but a horse riding injury precluded further participation in intercollegiate athletics. However, rumors that he played baseball professionally - under an assumed name - are probably untrue.

During the build-up to D-Day, Eisenhower was based at Strategic Air Force Headquarters in London - also home to the 988th Military Police and their baseball team, the Fliers. Eisenhower frequently inquired about the progress of the Fliers. "I spoke to him on numerous occasions when I was on duty at the main gate," recalled Fliers' first baseman Norbert Kuklinski. "He always asked after the team and even got to see a couple of our games."

Boston Braves manager Bob Coleman, General Eisenhower, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and New York Giants manager Mel Ott (Polo Grounds, June 19, 1945)

General Omar Bradley 
Bradley was in charge of the 1st U.S. Army at Normandy, and during the months before the invasion, he supervised the refinement of assault plans and troop training. 

Bradley had been a star on the baseball team at Moberly High School in Missouri. He enrolled at the United States Military Academy at West Point in the fall of 1911 and became an alternate on the freshman baseball team the following spring. He went on to letter three years in baseball and one in football. “It is almost trite to observe,” he said, “that in organized team sports one learns the important art of group cooperation in goal achievement. No extracurricular endeavor I know of could better prepare a soldier for the battlefield.” 

Colonel Russell “Red” Reeder 
Colonel Reeder, commander of the 12th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division at Utah Beach, was an exceptional baseball and football player at West Point in the 1920s and had a tryout with the New York Giants. He was offered a contract but chose to stay with the army. On June 11, 1944, Reeder was severely wounded when an artillery shell exploded close by, shredding his left leg below the knee. His leg was later amputated at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington but he went on to become athletic director at West Point in 1947. 

Fooling the Germans
On Sunday, May 28, 1944, the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR) Red Devils baseball team played the 505th PIR Panthers before an enthusiastic crowd of 7,000, at the local soccer stadium in Nottingham, England. The Red Devils had been Camp Mackall, North Carolina, champs in 1943, and this was their first chance to play baseball in over nine months. “We had no uniforms,” recalled Adolph “Bud” Warnecke of Fayeteville, North Carolina. “We had to wear remnants of military clothing and jump boots, so we didn’t look much like a ball team. But I’ll always remember the great reception we got from the British people.”

The Panthers proved no match for the Red Devils. “We beat the heck out of the 505th,” said Warnecke. “The score at the end was 18 to 0, to our guys.”

508th Parachute Infantry Regiment
Nottingham, England May 1944

Okey Mills, a colliery league pitcher from Crab Orchard, West Virginia, started the game on the mound for the Red Devils and was relieved by Forrest "Lefty" Brewer in the fourth inning. Brewer was a minor league pitcher who won 25 games with St. Augustine in 1938. With his deceptive pick-off move, he picked off the first two men that got on base, and the Nottingham Guardian the next day described how the teams “played with extraordinary vigor,” and noted there was “spectacular hitting, some magnificent catches and many exciting incidents.”

“I think most of the spectators enjoyed the game,” remembered Lee Reisenleiter, “but it must have been hard for them to make sense of it all.” 

“I certainly enjoyed myself,” added Warnecke, “but little did I know that eight days later we would jump into Normandy!”

Speculation still hangs over the true reason this baseball game was staged. The “official” story at the time was that the Nottingham Anglo-American Committee requested the Americans to stage a sporting event because the people of Nottingham had for years been void of entertainment. However, because the game was arranged by Brigadier General James M. “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, many believe the game was designed to fool the Germans. If American paratroopers were playing baseball in England, how could an invasion be imminent? To further publicize the event, photographs were taken of each player and sent back to their hometown newspapers. Probably the most convincing fact that this game was staged to fool the Germans was the noticeable absence of paratroopers in the stands at the game. Having been such a familiar sight in Nottingham for the last few months, only officers and players were on hand. As the crowd cheered each crack of the bat, the rest of the regiment made a 40-mile journey to a local airfield where runways were packed with C-47 transport planes adorned with black and white stripes. Preparations for the invasion had begun. 

The Airborne Invasion 
The airborne assault into Normandy was the largest use of airborne troops up to that time. 
Paratroopers of the U.S. 82nd and 101st Airborne divisions, the British 6th Airborne Division, and the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion took part in the assault. Numbering 
more than 13,000 men, the paratroopers were flown from bases in southern England to the Cotentin Peninsula in more than 900 planes. An additional 4,000 men, consisting of glider infantry with supporting weapons and medical and signal units, arrived in 500 gliders later on D-Day to reinforce the paratroopers. The parachute troops were assigned what was probably the most difficult task of the initial operation - a night jump behind enemy lines five hours before the coastal landings. 

Airfields all over England were a hive of activity during the days prior to June 6. The 
runways were packed with Douglas C-47 transport planes adorned with black and white invasion stripes, with groups of paratroopers meticulously studying maps of the drop zones in Normandy. They packed equipment, cleaned rifles, played cards and shot dice in the hangar buildings. They attended movies, wrote letters to loved ones, and learned of their objective: to keep the Germans from reinforcing troops that were defending the beaches. 

On June 4, they were ready to take off but the weather forced a delay. The following 
night - with their faces blackened and hearts racing – men of the 101st and 82nd 
Airborne Divisions boarded C-47s for the flight across the English Channel. D-Day had 
begun and the paratroopers would spearhead the invasion. 

Escorting the C-47s in a P-51B Mustang was First Lieutenant Bob Stephens, a pitcher with the Fulton Tigers. Stephens had finished the 1941 season with a 5-6 won-loss record and a 3.97 ERA before entering military service. C-47s were stark inside. A row of hard metal bucket seats lined both sides of the plane and the roar of the engines drowned out any attempt at conversation as they trudged through the dark skies towards the Normandy coast. Once over the mainland of France the sky became illuminated with searchlights, and deadly tracer bullets pierced the wings and fuselage of the unarmed and unarmored planes. At an altitude of just 400 feet, anti-aircraft fire exploded all around as they neared their drop zones. When the red light over the door of the planes flashed on, everybody stood up and clamped themselves onto the cable that ran down ceiling. Amidst yells of “Go! Go! Go!” American paratroopers ascended through the darkness into chaos, panic and confusion.

The first paratroopers to land in Normandy were the pathfinders who began to drop at
00.15 on June 6, and were assigned to set up landing zones for the main force of
airborne troops. Due to low clouds and anti-aircraft fire, their planes were scattered and
many never found their assigned landing zones. However, the pathfinders’ radar beacons worked effectively and many of the sticks of follow-up paratroopers landed clustered near these beacons. Among the pathfinders was Private Bill Robbins of the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), an outstanding high school athlete from Coldwater, Kansas, who went on to play at Kansas State Teachers College and in the Kansas Ban Johnson League. Robbins was captured by German troops soon after landing in Normandy and remained a prisoner of war until being liberated in April 1945.

Parachuting into Normandy with the 506th PIR of the 101st Airborne Division was Lieutenant Lyn “Buck” Compton, who was portrayed in the Band of Brothers television series.Compton played baseball and football at Los Angeles High School and entered UCLA on a football scholarship in the fall of 1939. A teammate of Jackie Robinson at one point, he played in the Rose Bowl in 1943, and became all-league catcher at UCLA. Six hours after landing in Normandy, Compton led an assault against a four-gun battery of 105mm cannon that was defended by a platoon of German infantry and was firing on Utah Beach where American troops were coming ashore. Compton was awarded the Silver Star for his part.

Compton was back in England by July, but was badly wounded during Operation Market Garden in Holland in September. He was hospitalized for more than two months but returned to combat in December 1944 - in time for the defense of Bastogne. The 506th suffered heavy losses during the Battle of the Bulge. Weather conditions were treacherous and, in the heavy snow, Compton suffered a severe case of trenchfoot. He was evacuated and his combat days were over.

Compton was back at UCLA after the war and played varsity baseball in the spring of 1946.
In June, he tried out with the Los Angeles Angels at Wrigley Field. On June 24, the team
bus of the Western International League’s Spokane Indians veered off the road and down an embankment before crashing and bursting into flames. Nine men died. Spokane was an Angels' farm team and Compton was signed to join the club as a replacement player but at 24 he and his wife decided he was too old to start a career in pro ball. He went on to spend five years as a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. In 1952 he began 20 years as a prosecutor for the district attorney's office, and in 1968, he was responsible for the investigation of Robert F. Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan. He was later appointed an associate judge in the California Court of Appeals.

With the 501st PIR of the 101st Airborne Division was Tom Niland, and outstanding
baseball and basketball player from Tonawanda, New York, who had just enrolled at Canisius College when he was drafted. Niland went on to earn a Silver Star at the Battle of the Bulge but suffered a severe arm wound. After the war he served as a coach and then athletic director for 43 years at LeMoyne College in Syracuse.

Landing in Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division were 26 members of the 508th PIR Red Devils baseball team - Camp Mackall, NC, champs in 1943. Among them was Private Forrest “Lefty” Brewer; Private Elmer Mertz was a star infielder on Sheboygan's Gmach softball team; Corporal William Maloney was a high school ballplayer from Hartford, Connecticut; Private Okey Mills was a semi-pro pitcher who played in the Coalfield League in West Virginia; Sergeant John Judefind had been a star infielder with St. James High School in Chester, Pennsylvania; Private Merle Blethen was the son of Clarence Blethen who played for the Red Sox and Dodgers in the 1920s; Private Joe Laky was a sandlot player from Ottawa, Illinois; Private First Class Rene “Punchy” Croteau was a semi-pro player from Holyoke, Massachusetts; Corporal Frank Labuda was a star shortstop with the Chicago Heights Owls in the late 1930s and briefly played minor league baseball with the Ogden Reds; Corporal Walt Lupton was a New York sandlotter; and Private First Class John McNicholas was a minor league outfielder with the Oneonta Indians in 1942.

Lefty Brewer was involved in the successful assault on German troops entrenched at La Fière manor but was killed later the same day during a German counterattack. William Maloney was killed on June 7, John Judefind died on June 8, Elmer Mertz was killed on June 13, and Rene Croteau was killed July 4. Merle Blethen was seriously wounded on July 7, and Joe Laky and Walt Lupton both lost their lives later in the year in Holland. Also with the 82nd Airborne Division, but attached to the 505th PIR was Private First Class Joe Makuch, who, using the name Joe Marco, hit .334 as a minor league outfielder with the Paragould Browns in 1940. Private First Class Arthur “Dutch” Schultz, who, after the war played varsity baseball at San Francisco State and had a tryout with the
Philadelphia Phillies, was also with the 505th PIR, as was Private Joe Dunn, an amateur first baseman from Troy, New York, who played his last ball game on May 28, 1944, in an exhibition game against the 508th PIR in England. Two days after landing in Normandy, Makuch was wounded and lost a finger. He never played baseball again. Dutch Schultz would earn a Bronze Star for his heroics at Normandy. Joe Dunn survived D-Day and went on to successful combat jumps in Holland, but died from wounds he received during the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945.

Staff Sergeant John Fessler parachuted into Normandy with the 507th PIR. Fessler was an
infielder from Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, who had played three years of minor league
baseball before the war. In 1941, he played 116 games as a shortstop with the Goldsboro Goldbugs and batted .279. He had been an outstanding member of the 507th PIR basketball team since entering military service. Fessler was killed in action on June 10, 1944.

With the 505th PIR was Cloid Wigle, a high school ballplayer from Silverton, Oregon. Wigle was wounded the day after D-day and was a prisoner of war for a brief time in Normandy. In his retirement years, Wigle used his wood lathe to produce baseball bats and fungoes which ended up in the hands of many players and coaches across the country including Alex Rodriquez and Sparky Anderson.

Among the C-47 pilots that delivered the paratroopers to their drop zones on D-Day
was Second Lieutenant Syl Sturges, an outfielder who had played three seasons in the minors prior to military service. By 1944, Sturges was in England with the 314th Troop Carrier Group and at 03:25, on June 7, 1944 – the day after the invasion - Sturges was the co-pilot of a C-47 that took off from Saltby Airfield in England, in light rain and ground haze. The plane was heading to Picauville, France, as part of Operation Freeport - a mission to drop supplies to troops on the ground. Shortly after take off, the plane was lost out of formation in the low cloud and not seen again. At 17:00 that evening, the burnt out wreck was discovered about a mile northeast of Sébeville in France. The badly burned bodies of Sturges and pilot, Second Lieutenant George Risley, Jr., were still at the controls.

Omaha Beach
Elements of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division and U.S 29th Infantry Division faced the veteran
German 352nd Infantry Division at Omaha, the most heavily fortified beach, with high
bluffs defended by mortars, machine guns, and artillery. As infantry disembarked from the landing craft, they had to wade through water sometimes neck deep. Those that made it to the shingle did so at a walk, because they were so heavily laden, and had to brave the full weight of enemy gun fire. Within minutes of the ramps being lowered, troops were leaderless and almost incapable of action. It had become a struggle for survival and rescue.

Allied commanders considered abandoning the beachhead, but small units of infantry,
often forming ad hoc groups, supported by naval artillery, eventually infiltrated the
coastal defenses by scaling the bluffs between strongpoints. Further infantry landings were able to exploit the initial penetrations and by the end of the day two isolated footholds had been established. American casualties at Omaha on D-Day numbered around 5,000 out of 50,000 men, most in the first few hours, Approaching Omaha Beach during the early hours of June 6th were the landing crafts of the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. Aboard these were Frank Draper, a superb, naturally-gifted athlete, who had been the lead-off hitter with the semi-pro Hampton Looms mill team in Bedford, Virginia; Elmer Wright, a minor league pitcher in the St. Louis Browns’ organization; Lou Alberigo, a semi-pro third baseman from Rhode Island; Hal Baumgarten, a catcher at New York University; Private Robert Marsico, a catcher with the Piedmont Label team of Bedford, Virginia; and Carl “Chubby” Proffitt, a semipro first baseman from West Virginia.

As they approached the beach the enemy opened fire with artillery, mortar, machine-gun and small arms fire. Draper was on a craft that violently shook with the horrifying impact
of an antipersonnel shell that ripped through the metal side and tore off his upper arm. Rapidly losing blood, the young soldier slumped to the floor where died in a pool of blood,
seawater and vomit. The landing craft’s of the other men made it to the beach but as the
ramps dropped they were met with a hail of enemy fire. Many were killed outright. Others lay critically wounded, screaming for help. Those that could jumped in to the sixfoot of water and desperately tried to make their way to the beach. Elmer Wright and Lou Alberigo were killed in the hail of gunfire almost as soon as they hit the beach. Baumgarten had his jaw shattered by a shell that exploded nearby. In shock he gradually moved forward using the bodies of dead GIs as cover eventually making it to the sea wall. “When our ramp went down it was a signal to every machine gun on that beach,” Baumgarten said, “and there were a lot of them to open up on our little boat.”

Marsico suffered severe wounds to his right arm and leg. He was hospitalized in England
for three months and spent the next year at a rehabilitation center in Norfolk, Virginia. Carl Proffitt miraculously survived D-Day and was later awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star and two Bronze Stars.

Coming ashore at Omaha Beach with the 1st Infantry Division was Technician Fifth Grade Joe Pinder, a stockily built right-hander from McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. Pinder had played in the minor leagues since 1935 and was a 17-game winner with Sanford of the Florida State League in 1939. For Pinder, June 6 was a special day - his birthday. He was 32. As the landing crafts approached the beach an artillery shell exploded close to Pinder's landing craft, tearing holes in the boat and causing carnage among the men inside. For those that survived - Pinder included - panic set-in as the vessel filled with water and began to sink. Still 100 yards from the beach the ramp was dropped and they were instantly met with a hail of deadly machine-gun fire, killing many outright as they struggled to reach the shore. As in baseball, Pinder took his work very seriously, and despite the chaos, he was determined to do what he was there for – to ensure vital radio equipment made it to the beach so a line of communication could be established. He grabbed a radio and placed it on his shoulder and amid the deafening sound of gunfire, made his way down the ramp and into the waves. With the air filled with small arms fire and exploding artillery it was only a matter of time before Pinder was hit. As he desperately waded through the water, a bullet clipped him, causing him to stumble, but he did not stop. Another bullet ripped through the left side of his face and he held the gaping flesh in place as he carried on. Pinder made it to the beach, dropped the radio and returned to the water to retrieve more equipment. Then, instead of looking for somewhere to protect himself from the relentless enemy barrage, he returned a third time to collect essential spare parts and code books. Again he was hit - a burst of machine gun fire tore through his upper body and he fell, then somehow struggled to his feet, and with his last ounce of energy made it to the beach and his radio equipment. Moments later he passed out from loss of blood and died later that morning. Joe Pinder had made the ultimate sacrifice in helping to establish vital radio communication on Omaha Beach.

On January 4, 1945, Pinder was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty. “The indomitable courage and personal bravery of T/5 Pinder,” claimed his citation, “was a magnificent inspiration to the men with whom he served.”

Landing at Omaha Beach with the 5th Ranger Battalion was Sergeant Bill Fennhahn, who had excelled in baseball at Hillsdale High School in Columbia County, New York. Surviving that day unscathed, he was wounded three separate times as the Allied forces advanced through Europe. The second occasion was a bizarre incident that occurred while the Rangers were involved in capturing the town of L'Hopital in France. Fennhahn, who spoke
German, was interrogating a German civilian when an American soldier in another unit heard the German and simply started shooting at close range! On the third occasion he was in Germany when machinegun fire broke both his legs and severed vital nerve fibers. Fennhahn was in hospitals in Europe and the United States for sixteen months. Despite these severe injuries, Fennhahn's pre-war ambition to play professional baseball remained with him. "He tried out for the Giants in Phoenix, Arizona, and accepted an offer to play with Peekskill," recalled his widow, Terry Fennhahn. Fennhahn made 13 appearances with the Peekskill Highlanders in the North Atlantic League in 1946, and posted a 4-3 record with a 5.18 ERA. The following year - 1947 - he made three appearances with the Quebec Alouettes in the Canadian-American League and was 2-0, but recurring leg problems kept him off the mound for most of the season. He was back with Quebec in 1948 and made 20 appearances with a 4-5 record and 4.60 ERA. "A lot of guts," said his manager Tony Ravish, "I always pitched him in seven-inning ball games because he had shrapnel in the back of his legs ... then his legs would get tired naturally. But for seven innings, boy, he could fire that ball for me!" "As much as he wanted, he couldn't continue playing professionally," recalled his widow.

Utah Beach
Utah Beach was added to the invasion plan toward the end of the planning stages, when more landing craft became available. It was about 3 miles long, and the westernmost of the five landing beaches, located between Pouppeville and the village of La Madeleine.
Despite being substantially off course, the U.S. 4th Infantry Division landed with relatively little resistance in contrast to Omaha Beach. There were approximately 200 casualties. “Because we were combat engineers,” Morrie Martin told Bill Swank in When Baseball Went to War, “we were the first to land on Utah Beach at HHour just as dawn was breaking on June 6. Artillery was flying overhead, but we didn’t fire a shot because the Germans didn’t know we’d come ashore.”

Martin was born in Dixon, Missouri, and was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1941 after scout Wally Schang watched him pitch two shutouts and strike out 43 batters in one afternoon. He was assigned to the Grand Forks Chiefs of the Northern League and was 16-7 with a league-leading 2.05 ERA. He was with the St. Paul Saints of the American Association for 1942 but was in military service by the end of the year. Martin served with the 49th Engineer Combat Battalion and was involved in amphibious landings at North Africa and Sicily prior to Normandy. Martin earned his first Purple Heart at Normandy. “I got hit by shrapnel guarding a crossroads going into Saint-Lô,” he recalled. “They patched me up, put in a few stitches.”

“I got my second purple heart on March 23, 1945 at a crossroads near Bonn. I was shot in the leg. I don’t remember much after that. I woke up once and heard a doctor say, ‘That’s one sick man.’ They wanted to saw off my leg. A nurse from Georgia looked at my records and saw I was a ballplayer. She told me not to let them cut my leg off. They had a new drug - penicillin. She told me I had over 150 shots, one every four hours, and that finally stopped the infection. I wish I knew who she was to thank her. Martin received his medical discharge in October 1945. He made it to the major leagues as a 26 year-old rookie in 1949. He pitched 10 games for the Dodgers and had a 1-3 record. He was back in the majors in 1951, this time with the Athletics. It was to be his best season with an 11-4 record and 3.78 ERA, beating every American League team at least once. In total, Martin pitched 10 seasons in the majors with the Dodgers, Athletics, White Sox, Orioles, Cardinals, Indians and Cubs. Primarily a relief pitcher, he hurled a career-high 58 games in 1953 with the Athletics, posting a 10-12 record and 4.43 ERA.

Coming ashore at Utah Beach with the 4th Infantry Division was left-handed pitcher, Staff Sergeant Pete Petropoulos, who was a batting practice pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1938. He signed a professional contract in 1939 and was assigned to the Daytona Beach Islanders of the Class D Florida State League, where he posted a 10-9 won-loss record. In 1940, Petropoulos was with the Fort Lauderdale Tarpons of the Florida East Coast, and had a 7-4 record. On June 7, Petropoulos was badly wounded by an exploding enemy artillery shell. He suffered severe leg wounds and was picked up by German troops the following day and was held prisoner without food or medical aid in Montebourg, France. Eleven days later, on June 19, Petropoulos was repatriated when Allied troops overran Montebourg.

Petropoulos was shipped back to the United States with a Silver Star and Purple Heart. He
was sent to Rhoads General Hospital in Utica, New York, where it was feared he might have to have both legs amputated. Seven major operations followed and the former ball player’s legs were saved. After Petropoulos left hospital he went to work for the New York Giants as a scout, and in 1948 he became a goodwill ambassador to servicemen and veterans, conducting The Sporting News Sports Caravan, which, in conjunction with Liggett & Myers the makers of Chesterfield cigarettes, visited veterans’ hospitals in the New York metropolitan area. “I know from my long years of association with Pete Petropoulos,” David Woodside told The Sporting News, “that he can talk the language of any vet either in or out of a hospital.”

This tour was later expanded to take in veterans’ hospitals in southern states, and
Petropoulos also managed the Chesterfield-Sporting News (later Chesterfield Satisfiers)
baseball team that played at veterans’ hospitals for the next 12 years.

Also with the 4th Infantry Division was First Lieutenant Ordway “Hal” Cisgen, who had
signed with the Yankees’ organization in 1939 and was last with Utica in 1942, where
he posted a 5-3 record and 2.32 ERA. Cisgen was born in Lorain, Ohio, about 30 miles
west of Cleveland, and had attended Lorain High School, where he starred in basketball
and baseball. He was killed in action on July 11, 1944.

Other D-Day Casualties
Among the 2,500 killed on D-Day was Private First Class Gordon S. Cochrane, Jr., the son
of Hall of Fame catcher Gordon “Mickey” Cochrane. Former major league pitcher, Elden Auker, wrote in his autobiography, Sleeper Cards and Flannel Uniforms: “The bullet that killed him [Gordon, Jr.] had some kind of range. It traveled all the way across the Atlantic, lodged itself into the spirit of Gordon's father, the great Mickey Cochrane, and slowly killed him. Mickey's gravestone shows he died June 28, 1962, but he started dying June 6, 1944. Consider his another life claimed by World War II.”

Coming ashore at Omaha Beach a few hours after Morrie Martin was his cousin Private First Class Ralph Hickey of the 1st Infantry Division. He never made it to the beach and his body was never recovered. “We were born and raised together,” Martin recalled. “He was like a brother.”

First Lieutenant Lloyd Rice was wounded in the shoulder while coming ashore on D-day.
Rice, a minor league outfielder, had batted .363 in 97 games with Federalsburg
Athletics in 1940. He returned to the minors in 1946 and played two seasons with the
Wilmington Blue Rocks. Also among the D-Day wounded was Sam Colacurcio, Jr., mascot for the Jersey City Giants from 1931 to 1934 when his father operated the team.

The Navy
The Invasion Fleet was drawn from eight different navies, comprising 6,939 vessels:
1,213 warships, 4,126 transport vessels (landing ships and landing craft), 736 ancillary craft and 864 merchant vessels. Warships provided supporting fire for the land forces. 

Aboard one of four LCS(S) rocket boats that were attached to the attack transport APA-33 USS Bayfield, and positioned 300 yards off shore of Utah Beach on D-Day was Seaman Second Class Yogi Berra. The vessels had rendezvoused with nine others and were firing rockets at targets to try to take out machine-gun nests and land mines in support of the troops going ashore. "It was just like a Fourth of July celebration," he later recalled. Just 19 years old, Berra had played one season in the minors with the Norfolk Tars before being called to service. "Yogi was very personable,” recalled fellow sailor Lou Putnocky. “Of course it always would come up in conversation when you had new people, 'What are you gonna do after the war? What did you do before the war?'
"And [Yogi] said, 'Oh, I played ball, at Norfolk, in the minors.' "And we looked at him, with his bandy legs. What the hell kind of ballplayer is this; are you pulling our leg? Were you a batboy or something? And we never paid much attention. He didn't elaborate on it too much. It would come up every now and then, and we would kid him about it.”

He would be back in baseball in 1946 for the first of 18 years as a catcher in Yankee
pinstripes, World Series winning manager and Hall of Famer.

Also off shore during D-Day was former major league outfielder Si Rosenthal, who had played over 100 games for the Red Sox in 1926. He was aboard the minelayer USS Miantonomah, which was off Omaha Beach, performing services for the battleship USS Texas.

Playing a critical role for the Navy during the build-up to D-Day was Lieutenant Larry
French, with the U.S. Navy Supply Corps. Based in England, French – who had won 197
games over 14 seasons in the major leagues prior to entering military service in 1942 – was responsible for the provision of spare parts for landing craft. French would later serve in the Pacific Theater aboard the USS New York during the Okinawa invasion. He was recalled to active service during the Korean War and made the Navy a career, retiring in 1969 having attained the rank of captain.

I am sure you will agree that, as with other major battles during WWII, baseball made
no small contribution on D-Day. For that reason, I hope you will remember these heroes
of our game on this 70th anniversary of the Normandy Invasion.