August 10- Philadelphia Phillies

From May 10^th to May 30th I cataloged and wrote about all of the 2012 Major League Baseball Stars and Stripes New Era caps I was able to get my hands on in honor of the men and women who served their country in the United States military and the ties they have to each team I wrote about. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find all 30 teams, but I did promise to continue on as I was able to track down each of the remaining teams. Lucky for me, a few of the teams were issued multiple caps which all corresponded with how many game caps each team used on the field. This would explain why I wrote two posts on the Oakland Athletics on May 21^st and May 30^th. Nonetheless, my original plan was to buy all of them because I loved the concept so much; however, with time being a years removed from when they were worn I’ll be lucky if I’m able to find the remaining teams. As it stands I have nine teams left to go: San Diego Padres, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays, Texas Rangers, Washington Nationals, Minnesota Twins, Los Angeles Angels and the Chicago White Sox. There’s no telling when or if I’ll be able to find them, but the hunt and the stories that follow will be more than worth it.

You can go ahead and file this story under one of the more unusual, yet tragic stories that I have written about. Unusual in the sense that one man’s life path had so many close calls, but tragic because so many lives were lost along the way. Some of you may know this story, but I assure you I will do my best not to screw it up. I have my good friend Jason Cobb (@JasonMCobb) to thank for bringing it to my attention as my mind was really more focused on finding this Philadelphia Phillies cap as opposed to any good stories surrounding it. It was near the end of May when it was brought to my attention, right around the time when I was wrapping up on my Memorial Day posts. Jason had asked when teams I had upcoming as he is an avid reader of my blog. I rattled off the few caps I had and he asked if I had ever heard of Jack “Lucky” Lohrke. The name rung a bell, but I could put my finger on why. He then asked if I had a Phillies cap on order to which I said no. “That’s too bad,” he said. “If you get one you have to do a story on this guy,” he followed. I was intrigued. Jason has always been good about dropping some serious baseball knowledge on me and he would be the only person I’d humbly admit to knowing way more about the game than me. It was kind of a slow day at work so I was able to get a pretty thorough story before I went home and conducted my own investigation.

.190/0/1- Jack Wayne Lohrke was born Feb. 25, 1924, in Los Angeles, the second of three sons of John and Marguerite Lohrke. His father was employed by Fluor Corp, a global engineering and construction firm. Jack attended South Gate High School in LA where he dominated on the school’s baseball team. By the time he graduated (1942) he was playing semi-pro ball. His first minor league team was the Padres, but he played only seven games for them before joining a minor-league team in Twin Falls, Idaho, the Cowboys, a then-affiliate of the New York Yankees in the Pioneer Baseball League. He was named Twin Falls' most valuable player during his first year and met his future wife, Marie, who was the sister of another player. But, like a lot of his colleagues, when the time came to serve their country, Lohrke was not one to hesitate as he enlisted with the National Guard. Lohrke would soon find himself within the company of the 35th Infantry Division.

Lohrke was sent to train in San Luis Obispo, California. One day while riding on a train through California to ship off to war, the train Lohrke was on jumped off the tracks, killing three people around him while many more were severely burned by steaming water that rushed through the train car. Lohrke walked away without a scratch like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable. As a member of the 35th Infantry Division, he fought in the D-Day invasion of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, one of the costliest of human lives. On four separate occasions solders on both sides of him were killed in combat, yet he emerged unscathed. In 1945 Lohrke had fulfilled his duties and he was sent back to the States. Lohrke's good fortune continued when he returned to the US. A colonel had bumped him at the last moment from the passenger list of a military transport plane that was scheduled to fly from Camp Kilmer, New Jersey to his home in Los Angeles. Less than an hour after the plane took off it crashed in Ohio, killing everyone on board.

After the war, and following his transition back to civilian life, Lohrke resumed his baseball career. The summer of 1946 found him playing for the Class B Spokane Indians of the Western International League. On June 24, 1946, Lohrke was a passenger on the team bus carrying the team as it traveled toward Bremerton, Washington, to begin a road trip. At the time, Lohrke was the team's third baseman and was batting .345 in 229 at bats. His performance had earned him a promotion to the AAA Pacific Coast League's San Diego Padres but the team was unable to contact him as he was in transit between cities. The Indians’ business manager contacted the police along the route and asked that they relay the message to Lohrke, which they did when the team stopped for dinner. Lohrke, under orders to report immediately to the Padres, removed his gear from the bus, said goodbye to his teammates, and hitched rides back to Spokane. Later that evening, the team bus broke through a guard rail on a mountain pass, plunged down a hill, and crashed. Of the 15 players on it, nine were killed, including player/manager Mel Cole. The six survivors were badly injured.

"When the bus took off . . . I bummed a ride back to Spokane," Lohrke said in a 1990 interview with the Los Angeles Times.. "When I got there I found out both of my roommates had been killed." Although he was accustomed to being lucky, Lohrke said, war had conditioned him to deal with disaster. "Having been in combat, what's going to shock you?" Lohrke said in 1990. "I'm a fatalist. I believe the old song, that whatever will be will be."

From the time he joined the Padres after the accident, Lohrke was called, for obvious reasons, "Lucky"-Lucky Lohrke, the ballplayer who got off the bus in the nick of time, the soldier bumped from the plane that crashed. The name stuck. Who else, after all, had more right to be called Lucky? He's in the Baseball Encyclopedia that way: Lucky Lohrke. An amiable man, he lived with the nickname, but he never liked it, never wanted to be reminded of how close he had come to riding that bus into oblivion. But what could he do about it? –Sports Illustrated 1994

Lohrke played for seven years in the Majors, five of which came with the New York Giants from 1947-1951. From 1952-1953 he played in 37 games over two years with the Phillies, amassing a .190 average zero home runs and only one run batted-in. Lohrke’s time with the Giants was definitely more worthy of note (.244/22/95), but I already wrote about them.

After retiring from baseball in 1958, Lohrke worked in security for the Lockheed Missile and Space Co. in Sunnyvale, California and a few other companies all while living in San Jose. In April of 2009 Lohrke passed away, two days after suffering a stroke at the age of 85. Any bit of the legacy that he left behind is carried out in the few interviews he game to whomever came calling. Most notably, he lived and died by a quote he told Sports Illustrated in 1994 for a story headlined: "O Lucky Man" about the nickname he had bestowed upon him. He was known to have an aversion to storytelling or bragging about anything from his past. "My father didn't want heroes in our family." "When you're the age I was back then, you haven't got a worry in the world. You're playing ball because you want to play-and they're giving you money to do it. And then...well, sometimes those names spring back at me. I'll tell you this: Nobody outside of baseball calls me Lucky Lohrke these days. I may have been lucky, but the name is Jack. Jack Lohrke."

August 2- Montreal Expos

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post on the Montreal Expos. Unfortunately, there is a good reason for that. In the 35-year history of Expos baseball the team only wore four caps: two of them served as the team’s every day game caps, one was their batting practice cap and the other is one they wore for a short period of time when they played their home games in San Juan, Puerto Rico when they were looking to relocate in 2003. The latter cap is one that I have been trying to track down for quite some time.

The funny thing about this photo is that my friend John Beare (@Interstate19) is the only person I know of to own this cap. Not to mention this photo (his) is the only one I have been able to find on the internet.

The reason I bring all of this up is because there are too many great stories about the Expos organization that really need to be told, even ones that may seem insignificant to the most casual of baseball fans. So, I decided to stray wayward from one of my rules, I decided to buy an Expos Cooperstown Collection cap from Lids that truly defies the concept of being a Cooperstown Collection cap. Back on February 16^th I wrote about the true Cooperstown Expos cap, the one they wore from 1969-1991 which looks almost identical to this with the exception that blue panels stretching around on either side of the front white panels are red.

With this cap I had debated on writing about Dennis “El Presidente” Martinez, most of which revolved around to 100 wins he had as an Expo which put him in the rare club of one of nine players in Major League Baseball history to win at least 100 games in both the American League and the National League. The other hot topic of course is the fact he is the only person in Expos history to throw a perfect game. Yah, you could debate that the Washington Nationals are still technically the Expos, at which I would retort with, “Go to Montreal and state your case with any still-heartbroken fan and see where that gets you.” On a personal note, the crazy thing about the perfect game, which I recently found out about, is that my childhood friend Bryan Gildner’s brother Joel was at that game with his father at Dodger Stadium on July 28, 1991. Since Joel now lives in Austin, Texas and because I had already marked up this cap, I decided to postpone that story for a while, at least until another awesome custom Expos cap comes into my possession. Hopefully soon.

6/5/86: I came across this date accidentally and am forever grateful that I did. Like with a lot of my other posts which rely heavily upon a specific date in a team’s history I found this on one of the random “This Date in Baseball” Web sites that I sift through regularly. The story really starts back in the 1940s at the time when The United States of America and Canada had entered into World War II. Major League Baseball players were lining up at the local enlistment offices in droves, ready to do what they could to help out with the war effort. With most of the notable names overseas the owners did their best to capitalize on making money by still promoting baseball by any means necessary. By any means necessary this of course also meant that they didn’t hesitate to organize an all-female baseball league. It was called the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League and it lasted 12 years from 1943-1954. For five seasons one of the best players in the league’s history was a woman named Helen Callaghan Candaele St. Aubin from Vancouver, British Columbia who went by the shortened name Helen Callaghan.  

As a rookie with the Minneapolis Millerettes Callaghan hit .287 in 111 games, for second in the league. She also finished third in total bases, hits, runs and stolen bases (112), while tying for third in home runs. The Millerettes could not compete attendance-wise with the Minneapolis Millers, so the team moved in 1945, becoming the Fort Wayne Daisies. That year Callaghan had her best season, batting .299 to lead the AAGPBL. (The league average was .198 that year.) She tied for the league lead in homers (three), led in total bases (156), was second in steals (92), first in hits (122), second in runs (77) and first in doubles (17). Callaghan was often called the "Ted Williams of women's baseball". The league was not yet giving out Player of the Year or All-Star honors, but it is clear she was a candidate for both. Ft. Wayne finished second and advanced to the championship, but fell four games to one despite a .400 mark from the younger Callaghan. Callaghan slipped drastically in 1946, hitting just .213, even though league averages rose about 10 points. She still tied for third in steals with 114. After missing the 1947 season due to illness, she returned for part of 1948 after getting married and having her first child. However, that year she hit just .191 as a bench player. She finished her career with Kenosha in 1949 as Helen Candaele, bouncing back to a .251 mark, tied for seventh in the league. She was ninth in total bases (113), eighth in steals (65), sixth in doubles and tied for eighth in triples. In a five season career, Callaghan was a .257 hitter (355-for-1382) with seven home runs and 85 run batted in 388 games, including 354 stolen bases, 249 runs, 35 doubles, 15 triples and 221 walks while striking out 161 times. Her on-base percentage was approximately .359, while she slugged .319.

The now Candaele gave birth to five sons. Her son Kelly produced a short documentary back in 1987 for PBS entitled A League of Their Own, which covered the history of the AAGPBL. The documentary inspired director Penny Marshal to make a film with the same name in 1992. One of Candaele’s other sons, Casey, decided to follow in his mother’s footsteps and make it big in professional baseball. 

Casey was born on January 12, 1951 and was raised in Lompoc, California which is northeast of Santa Barbara. He attended the University of Arizona and was even a part of the 1980 College World Series team which also featured Craig Lefferts, Dwight Taylor and the tournaments Most Outstanding Player Terry Francona. Candaele went undrafted but the Expos offered to sign him as a free agent in August of 1982 which he happily signed. From 1983 through 1985 Candaele worked his way up the minor league chain starting with the Class-A West Palm Beach Expos to the AA Memphis Chicks in his first season, the AA Jacksonville Suns in 1984 until finally landing with the AAA Indianapolis in 1985. Candaele’s numbers were pretty decent during his ascent; however, due to the fact that he was a second baseman, shortstop and outfielder, the Expos didn’t have room for him on the roster as the likes of Vance Law, Hubie Brooks, Tim Raines and future Hall of Famer Andre Dawson stood in his path. The only way that Candaele was going to make it to the Majors was if someone got hurt or he had the best season of his career to motivate general management to call him up. Well…

When 1986 rolled around Candaele got off to a blazing start at the plate. He was hitting over .300 and showing strong discipline at the plate with very few strikeouts and a decent amount of walks. When June rolled around the front office couldn’t ignore his progress and made the call for him to pack up and head to the show. On June 5, 1986 Candaele was put in to pinch hit for Dan Schatzeder, thus making him the first and only mother/son combination to play at the top level professionally. Candaele promptly struck out to Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Charles Hudson, but it was still a pivotal moment in baseball history.

Candaele spent 30 games with the Expos that year before getting sent back down. He resurfaced the following season hitting .272 with 122 hits and 23 RBI while only striking out 28 times in 138 games. He finished in fourth place for the Rookie of the Year Award that season. Candaele played for seven more years at the Major League level; one more season with the Expos, five with Houston Astros and two with the Cleveland Indians despite his final season coming in 1997. He spent quite a bit of time in the minors. Nonetheless, Candaele will forever be etched into the baseball history books.

#44- Carl Morton was born in Kansas City, Missouri on January 18, 1944 and grew up in West Tulsa, where he played baseball on the same Webster High School team as future major-leaguer Rich Calmus. He went to college at the University of Tulsa before moving on to the University of Oklahoma where he continued his baseball dreams as an outfielder for the Sooners under head coach Jack Baer. In 1964 Morton was signed as a free agent by the Atlanta Braves who wanted to convert the outfielder into a pitcher. From 1965-1968 the Braves kept him in their minor league system where he showed signs of promise. His best season came in 1968 as a member of the AA Shreveport Braves where he went 13-5 with a 2.72 ERA and 130 strikeouts; however, the Braves didn’t have enough faith to hang onto him as the first leg of the 1968 Expansion Draft on October 14^th. See, back in 1968 the Expansion Draft was broken up into two legs; the first was for the Expos and the San Diego Padres in which they could only pilfer through National League roster to build their teams. The second leg was held on October 15^th between the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Pilots in which the two could only raid American League teams. Fun fact about that draft is that only one future Hall of Famer was in the mix, Hoyt Wilhelm. Anyway, Morton was selected by the Expos with the 45^th overall pick.

Without much of a farm system established, the Expos threw Morton out to the wolves on April 11, 1969 where he only lasted eight games before getting hurt. That year he went 0-3 with a 4.60 ERA and 16 strikeouts in five starts. With a taste of the Major Leagues out of the way, Morton was determined to do better the next season when he got back to 100%. Not only did he do that, Morton was phenomenal in 1970. In 37 stars, 43 games overall, Morton went 18-11 with a 3.60 ERA and 154 strikeouts. He unfortunately walked a league-high 154 batters, but it didn’t matter. Morton was voted as the NL Rookie of the Year and even finished ninth for the NL Cy Young and 27^th for the NL MVP. While the rest of his career never quite matched the gusto of his 1970 season, Morton went on to play two more seasons for the Expos before getting traded to the Braves for Pat Jarvis before the 1973 season.

Morton played four decent years with the Braves, finishing with 15 or more wins in his first three years, but he only won four games in 1976. As a result of his falloff year the Braves traded him to the Texas Rangers along with Roger Moret for former-AL MVP Jeff Burroughs. Morton, sadly, never pitched in the Majors again, and only spent one last season in the minors before hanging it up for good at the age of 33.

With his playing career over Morton moved back to Tulsa. On the morning of April 12, 1983 Morton went out for a jog and when he arrived at the home of his parents he suffered a heart attack in their driveway and was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. He was 39-years-old. One of the more tragic realities that came from Morton’s death involved another death less than a year before his passing. On August 2, 1979 New York Yankees former AL MVP and beloved catcher Thurman Munson was killed in a plane crash. Back in 1970 Munson had also won the Rookie of the Year honors in the AL. It is the only time in baseball history that two Rookie of the Year winners from the same year would come to premature endings.

July 30- Oakland Athletics

This is one of the few articles I’m writing in which I’m writing in real time as opposed to the date that I am specifically writing for. I realize how far behind I am in these posts, a little more than 70 days if my count is correct, but this is an important post that lies heavily upon the game that’s about to take place, Game 5 of the American League Division Series.

There comes a time when the people play the game transcend themselves into something beyond what takes place on the field. Some guys do it more publicly, others in private. No matter what the motivator is the important thing to remember is that they are putting in the effort as often as they can. That’s what I see when I look at this cap. When New Era released the 2013 Memorial Day cap I immediately fell in love with them. If you recall my posts back in May I was a huge fan of the 2012 models witch only featured the digital camouflage on the logo, leaving the panel the exact colors of what the teams normally wear on the field. Prior to that all the caps were red, white and blue and featured some variety of the Stars and Stripes despite the fact that the colors may not have corresponded with the teams’ uniforms. Thus, the 2012 did a better job of that; however, like in years passed each hat used was worn on both Memorial Day and the Fourth of July, another thing I really didn’t mind. In 2013 New Era introduced caps specifically for each holiday. The Oakland Athletics Fourth of July cap is one I currently have waiting in the wings to write about as the approach that New Era took was original and fascinating. In the case of this cap, the Memorial Day cap, I love the approach with the all-digital camouflage panels; however, I’m a little confused about the color choice for the “A’s” logo. For the Fourth of July caps New Era went back to the Stars and Stripes motif, but they made the panels for each teams’ cap in the color which corresponded to where each team was playing: grey for the road, white for home and even a Canada Day cap specifically for the Toronto Blue Jays. The reason I bring this point up is because the Athletics played their Memorial Day game at the Coliseum against the San Francisco Giants; however, the “A’s” logo is in yellow which has been the traditional color scheme for the road cap. I know this is something that very few people think about, but for some reason it jumped out at me. I assure you that it isn’t a complaint; in fact, the color scheme actually works better for the cap and perhaps the traditional white “A’s” logo would have been lost within the rest of the cap. My only point of reference I have with this comes with my post from June 30th about the misprinted Texas Rangers caps in which the “T” logo was done in white as opposed to the red as it was intended.

The one constant in all of these caps is that the proceeds benefit Welcome Back Veterans, a program to help returning veterans get treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome as well as to create awareness for others who may not understand it. To date Welcome Back Veterans has raised over $17 million to make a difference in the lives of our courageous veterans and their families. While they may not seem like much, these caps are a great way to show your support as well as a way to give back to the brave men and women who serve their country to provide stability for our freedom and ways of life. As a cap collector I’m proud to add it to my collection. As a baseball fan I’m proud to wear it to show support for the game. As a citizen of the United States of America I’m proud to support those who serve.

I’ll do my best not to butcher this portion of the post as there is a lot of history behind it. Like my Memorial Day posts back in May I did my best o focus on how the military played a part in the history of each team. In a few cases I hit the nail on the head, while in others I focused more on people who served but were still living which really wasn’t the way I should have approached it if I were staying true to the holiday and its meaning. Rather, in most cases I treated it more like a Veteran’s Day piece. I don’t regret those decisions for the sake of their importance and the importance that the men and women I shared stories for still deserve the recognition they may never have gotten as quite a few of my stories dated back to World War I. Since I only own two of the three caps from last season I made sure to do a write-up on each, which I did on May 21^st and May 30^th. When it comes to this cap I’m focusing more on the veterans’ side of things so please don’t call me out for it as I’m well aware of what I am doing. So, without further ado, the story.

#62- If there was one player on this current Athletics team who I feel truly exemplifies what it means to be an Oakland Athletic as well as a great human being, I would have to nominate relief pitcher Sean Doolittle. In the last two years I’ve run into Doolittle four times, in every case he’s popped The Shark before he says hello. I realize that’s a personal thing to me, but the action goes a long way when it comes to character. We all know him as the jokester of the team, follow his Twitter account and you’ll see what I’m talking about. His comedy skills cover a wide range of topics, even his tweets about the Athletics always hit home as he comes off as a real fan of the game, but more important the teams and the fans who support them. His signature right arm extension and curl under the chin before he throws has become a phenomenon with fans called “Doolittling.” It’s much like “Tebowing,” except it’s awesome. I for one call it “What I do Every Night and Day When I Sleep,” but I’m a rare case. Seriously, I actually make that same motion in my sleep. See…

His bushy red beard has become a near iconic representation of the team itself; scrappy, rugged, but 100% Green Collar Baseball. He gets fired up when he comes off the mound after a great inning and cracks jokes amongst his teammates when he’s sitting in the bullpen or chillin’ in the dugout. But the one thing that many tend to forget about is that he’s a fan just like every one of us. Not necessarily a fan of the game, but a fan of the team that suits up and takes the field for. He has been since he was old enough to pick up a ball, much like the rest of us, while he was living in the Bay Area when his family was stationed nearby.

 Sorry for stealing this.

During this time of his life his family had season tickets to the Athletics before moving on to Tabernacle Township/Medford, New Jersey where he went to school at Shawnee High School before attending the University of Virginia.

I bring all of this up for a bevy of reasons, the first of which has to do with the amount of grief I’ve seen him get, direct or not, on social media. People make mistakes. It’s not our job to point them out, complain about them or rub in the person’s face. Yes, we all have the right to do so, but there is a fine line between being a fan and being a jerk. When I see Athletics fans blast him or any other player it upsets me. How can anyone call themselves a fan if that’s what you’re going to do to your own guy? I guess it’s one thing if a particular player is vocal about not wanting to be on the team and that he “plays for himself,” but all I need to do is direct you back to the picture above, mostly the kid on the left who is cheering on the team he loves much in the same way that we do. I don’t think he would do the same.

Like all of my other Memorial Day posts there is some connection that I try to keep with the team and the holiday. In the other posts I listed each teams’ record on Memorial Day; however, I have already done that in a previous post for the Athletics; instead, it just so happens that Doolittle came into the game played on this year’s Memorial Day, May 27^th. Doolittle pitched two shutdown innings, taking over for starter Dan Straily who had gone a solid six, only allowing one run to the Giants. Doolittle pitched perfectly, literally, striking out two and not allowing a single base-runner as he locked up his ninth hold on the season. Grant Balfour came in for the ninth inning and closed the door for his 11^th save on the year.

When I originally bought this cap I had no idea what I was going to do with it, from a writing perspective. I had already touched most of the military/Memorial Day history with the other two posts, but with this I had found myself in a bit of a jam. That is, until I caught a commercial on Fox Sports 1 right before Angie and I left to run errands. I tried to find the video online with no success, so hopefully a few of you have seen it by now. The commercial starts with Doolittle walking out from around a corner saying something to the tune of, “Hi, I’m Sean Doolittle, pitcher for the Oakland Athletics.” To be honest, which I saw this I almost laughed out loud as, for some reason which lies more heavily on his Twitter account and the station it was on, I thought something funny was about to happen. Nope! Instead, Doolittle was doing a public service announcement for the United Service Automobile Association (USAA), the service that provides insurance and benefits to veterans and their families. In the commercial Doolittle talked about his father and stepmother, both of whom are veterans. His father is retired Air Force and teaches ROTC back in his home state of New Jersey while his stepmother is still active duty Air National Guard stationed at McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. This was the point where I started to get a rough idea of where I wanted to take this piece.

I conducted quite a bit of research and came across an article written and published by the Associated Press from late August, right around the time when I moved to Florida. In it, a writer followed Doolittle to the USS Hornet, a decommissioned US Navy aircraft carrier that was converted into a National Historic Landmark in 1998 where it has serves as a museum open to the public in Alameda, California. Doolittle’s visit came at his own inquiry which started as a photo of a patch from the Doolittle Raiders. 

Forever Into Danger

The patch set Doolittle on a quest of his lineage as the man behind the Raiders was Lieutenant Colonel James “Jimmy” Doolittle of the US Army Air Forces who planned and led the first air raid bombing of the Japanese Home Islands on April 18, 1942, six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid was not necessarily intended to win the war, but to boost morale throughout the country in stir up more support for the cause. They succeeded. Because of the surname Sean wanted to better understand the connection to see if there was any relation, especially considering that he comes from a military family. After many twists and turns it was determined that the late General was in fact Sean’s seventh cousin. On his cleats and under the bill of his cap Sean has a written tribute General Doolittle and the Doolittle Raiders, not necessarily because of the family ties, but for everything they did for their country.

Doolittle's contributions to the military have been widespread. This season he was one of the finalists for the Branch Rickey Award which is given annually to an individual in Major League Baseball in recognition of his exceptional community service. Doolittle has meets with veterans at the VA Hospital in Palo Alto and has invited them to games on numerous occasions, speaking with them in the dugout before home games. In August he went to Walter Reed in Washington, D.C. to meet with veterans and wounded warriors when the Athletics visited Baltimore to play the Orioles. He and his teammates started “A’s Relief” this season to honor local heroes from the Bay Area who are Good Samaritans and providing relief. The Reliever-of-the-Month receives four game tickets, food vouchers, onfield recognition and a chance to watch batting practice with the bullpen staff. The heroes also receive a donation to the charity of their choice. He also supports Freedom Alliance, an educational and charitable organization that honors service members and their families.

I know I haven’t talked much about baseball in this post, or really much about his playing career even though he has a truly extraordinary story of how he got the Majors, but that’s the story that everybody seems to know now. Everything I wrote above wasn’t exactly new information, but I felt that it was the right story to tell under the theme of this cap. I guess the thing that I mostly wanted to do with this piece was share a bit more humanity rather than just focus on his job. That is the part that I think a lot of people tend to not separate when talking about Doolittle the person, or any other player for that matter. Sometimes, and coming from me I know how ironic this is, there’s just more to life than baseball.

June 9- Boston Red Sox

I have to admit, and I’ll give you the same answer no matter how many times I’m asked this question: What is the best Major League Baseball stadium you’ve ever been to? As much as my heart belongs to the Coliseum and the Oakland Athletics, I have never been in such a state of child-like wonder more than the three days I got to spend at Fenway Park in Boston. While I realize that New York Yankees fans will more than likely disagree with me on this answer, the fact of the matter is that if you name any other stadium, you’re just wrong. Granted, as a Yankee fan, or a fan of a rival team I can totally understand you having a bad experience at Fenway, but I’m merely talking about the park itself. As far as atmosphere is concerned, Fenway is definitely Top-five.

Prior to campaign for the MLB Fan Cave at the start of 2012 I was set to be completely finished with my education at the University of Oregon right around St. Patrick’s Day. As a personal reward for my accomplishment I had been saving money in order to finance a continent-wide tour of all the stadiums in MLB, including Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Of all 31 stadiums (including Olympic) available, I was going to make sure that I hit the five that I had always wanted to visit since my childhood: Wrigley Field, Tiger Stadium (Comerica Park), PNC Park, Olympic and Fenway. Needless to say, when I got accepted for the Fan Cave gig everything got put on hold. Well, everything except baseball that is.

When I was let go from my services as a Cave Dweller I found myself in a peculiar situation, one that I had never been in since I was two-years-old; I didn’t have a job and I wasn’t in school. Due to the fact that I was let go the day after Memorial Day in 2012 I wouldn’t be able to enroll back into classes until fall term. The main reason for that is because the one Spanish class that I needed was over capacity during summer term and I couldn’t take it again until winter of 2013. In short, the Fan Cave really screwed me and didn’t bother feeling the slightest bit sorry for my situation. No matter, I stood strong and got it done this last winter. With about $14,000 left of the initial $18,000 I got for my three months of work in New York City, I plotted out, made calls and set up reservations for my North American Baseball tour.

Obviously I’ve been talking a lot about my trip throughout these posts so I’ll spare the details of everything leading up to getting to Fenway. I stayed in Boston off-and-on for a little over a week. During my time I caught two Red Sox games and a concert. I’m also not going to go into too much detail on either of the games or the concert as they will be talked about at length when I get to the particular hats I was wearing those nights. The main things I want to focus on here are all the little nuances about Fenway Park that make it a baseball paradise. Things like…

The old bullpen car

Bullpen cars something that has been long forgotten, used between 1951 and 1996, but according to lore it was just as much of an in between inning thrill as zambonies are at hockey games. They used to take the pitchers from the bullpen to the mound and were occasionally used to bring special guests to the field before the games. It sounds crazy, but it was part of the game.

The Ted Williams statue (featuring a drunkard)

An 8-foot, 6-inch-tall statue of Williams mounted on a four-foot granite base was unveiled Friday afternoon outside Gate B of Fenway, located behind the right-field line. The structure, which weighs 3,380 pounds, depicts Williams holding a bat over his left shoulder while he places his cap on the bald head of a cancer-stricken child. Williams made a tradition of visiting children at the Jimmy Fund Clinic of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Pesky Pole (featuring The Shark)

Pesky's Pole is the name for the pole on the right field foul line, which stands 302 feet from home plate, the shortest outfield distance (left or right field) in Major League Baseball. Despite the short wall, home runs in this area are relatively rare, as the fence curves away from the foul pole sharply. The pole was named after Johnny Pesky, a light-hitting shortstop and long-time coach for the Red Sox, who hit some of his six home runs at Fenway Park around the pole but never off the pole. Pesky and the Red Sox give credit to pitcher Mel Parnell for coining the name. The most notable for Pesky is a two-run homer in the eighth inning of the 1946 Opening Day game to win the game (in his career, Pesky hit 17 home runs). On September 27, 2006, on Pesky's 87th birthday, the Red Sox organization officially dedicated the right field foul pole as Pesky's Pole with a commemorative plaque placed at its base.

And of course, the Green Monster

The Green Monster is the nickname of the 37.167 feet left field wall in the park. It is located 310 to 315 feet from home plate; this short distance often benefits right-handed hitters.

Part of the original ballpark construction of 1912, the wall is made of wood, but was covered in tin and concrete in 1934 when the scoreboard was added. The wall was covered in hard plastic in 1976. The scoreboard is manually updated throughout the game. Despite the name, the Green Monster was not painted green until 1947; before that it was covered with advertisements. The Monster designation is relatively new; for most of its history it was simply called the wall. In recent years, terrace-style seating has been added on top of the wall.

For those of you who are Red Sox enthusiasts you’re probably thinking, “Dude, you’re missing something.” And yes, you would be correct. I am missing the one thing that I had three opportunities to have a photo taken with or of and somehow managed to blow it. But, I’ll get to that in a minute. First, that hat.

This cap was introduced at the start of the 1946 season as a replacement for basically the exact same hat; however, the key difference between this cap and the one used in 1945 is that this one features a white outline around the “B.” The ones prior to this did not, and will be featured in a post down the road. Even though I have touched upon this detail in several of my prior posts, the addition of the outline proved to be one of the more successful uniform alterations made in MLB history. That season the Red Sox finished with the second-best record in their team’s history (104-50), only one less win than what the 1912 team posted. Besides the one win difference, the other unfortunate difference between the 1912 team and the 1946 team is that the 1912 team won the World Series that year 4-3 over the New York Giants. In 1946 the Red Sox lost the World Series 4-3 to the St. Louis Cardinals. The other notable moment of the 1946 season is that it was the first season since 1942 that the full team was back together and on the field as the previous three years saw several players including Bobby Doerr, Pesky and Williams all shipping off for war as I wrote about on May 26^th. The last appearance this cap made was the final game of the 1951 season as in 1952 the “B” was changed to the more traditional looking style of today.

Now, as I mentioned a little bit ago there is another important feature of Fenway that I didn’t list, which I did on purpose. For some strange reason I didn’t take a trip to see “the lone red seat” which sits out in centerfield beyond the Red Sox bullpen (Williamsburg). Actually, I take that back. I did end up out there for the second game I attended; however, whomever’s seat it was all ready had their keester in it. What does this mean in the long run? Basically, I have to get back to Fenway to make a photo happen; which I’m totally cool with. Which brings me to the marks.

42/37/21- No, it’s not a date or jersey numbers or stats. It’s the section (42), row (37) and seat (21) of the longest home run “hit on record.”  The Ted Williams hit on June 9, 1946, was officially measured at 502 feet, well beyond "Williamsburg". According to Hit Tracker Online, the ball, if unobstructed, would have flown 520 to 535 feet.

The ball landed on Joseph A. Boucher, penetrating his large straw hat and hitting him in the head. A confounded Boucher was later quoted as saying, “How far away must one sit to be safe in this park? I didn't even get the ball. They say it bounced a dozen rows higher, but after it hit my head, I was no longer interested. I couldn't see the ball. Nobody could. The sun was right in our eyes. All we could do was duck. I'm glad I did not stand up.”

Manny Ramirez is the only other player at Fenway Park who has ever hit the ball over the seat, on June 23, 2001; Ramirez hit two home runs; one estimated at 463 feet and another one with an official estimate of 501 feet. The latter blast struck a light tower above the Green Monster, denying it a true landing point, to which the official estimate deferred to Williams' record placing Ramirez's home run exactly one foot short.

As noted in the 2007 book The Year Babe Ruth Hit 104 Home Runs, researcher Bill Jenkinson found evidence that on May 25, 1926, Babe Ruth hit one in the pre-1934 bleacher configuration which landed five rows from the top in right field, an estimated 545 feet from home plate. Ruth also hit several other "Ruthian" blasts at Fenway that landed across the street behind straightaway center field, estimated at 500 feet.

By the way, in case you didn’t know, the name “Williamsburg” is the proper name for the Red Sox bullpen as it was aptly named for all the home runs Williams knocked into it.

4/20/46- I pretty much shot my wad early with this one, so to speak, as this was the date of opening day at Fenway in 1946. The significance I all ready stated above with Pesky’s home run in the eighth inning against the Philadelphia Athletics.

May 30- Oakland Athletics

I’ve finally come to the end of this journey, but I assure that this will not be my final Stars and Stripes post. I still have a few more teams to go, but I still need to track them down. Some day soon I’m sure it will all come together.

This was the first and only hat of the 2012 Stars and Stripes collection I ever intended on picking up. I bought it a few days before Father’s Day when I was hanging out and catching up with my friend Jason at Just Sports (@JustSportsPDX) in Clackamas. I was originally going to scoop it up while I was in New York during my time in the MLB Fan Cave, but unfortunately there was a “disagreement” between the powers that be and myself over retaining my employment. Basically, I wanted to keep my job, but they felt the exact opposite. It happens.

Actually, due to the fact that it’s an Oakland Athletics hat, they were pretty much non-existent throughout New York City. I had popped over the New Era Flagship store a few times as they were being released, but they had the New York Yankees, New York Mets and Boston Red Sox in stock. The Red Sox one was really weird for them to have, but then again I’m sure they sell. The Lids Web site had all three color variations of the cap, but for some reason I didn’t buy any of them there either. Actually, to be honest, the main reason I started collecting of these specific models is because of something I touched on in my post from May 20^th about the Atlanta Braves. 10 of the hats I picked up were being clearanced out for the price of 2 for $22. At that moment the only thing that mattered was that they were worn on the field at some point and I had no reason to not pull the trigger. It is my one rule (which I bend a few times) of my New Era collection, every hat must have been used on the field. There just isn’t that much history that can be drawn out of a custom cap… well, maybe one custom cap, but that’ll be kept a secret until later in the year.

Sorry to break off in a weird tangent, just had to bring everyone else up to speed. Anyway, this was the only color that any of the Just Sports stores had in stock. Since I was able to actually touch it and try it on I didn’t really have any reason to not buy it. It was also within this purchase that I bought my stepfather’s Los Angeles Dodgers cap for Father’s Day as well. Nothing like killing two birds with one stone, I always say.

The second I got home I absconded into my bedroom to do a bit of research and hat marking for this cap. It was interesting to see so many players from the turn of the century who had gone to war during the Connie Mack era, but none of them really seemed to fit my mold of an interesting story. So I combed along, changing my keywords and parameters until I came across one player, buuuuuuut… I’ll get to that in a moment. Sorry, I segued myself to the end a little too fast there. Sorry.

Since 1971, the Athletics third season in Oakland, they’ve gone 21-18 on Memorial Day with five days missed due to travel or off days, the most of any team I’ve written about. I found a feeeeeewww patters within their record, but something that could easily be refuted. In 1971 the Athletics played the Yankees in a double header. They lost the first game, but won the second. In 1972 they played they Texas Rangers in a double dip, winning both games as well as the World Series that season. In 1973 they beat the Yankees and went on to win the World Series that year as well. In 1974 the Athletics played and beat the Detroit Tigers and then went on to win the World Series for a third time. Now, up until this point anytime the Athletics beat a team twice on Memorial Day they went on to win the World Series; however, they only beat the Tigers once. Well, upon further research I found out that the Athletics beat the Tigers the next time they played… in 1977. The Athletics won every game leading up to the game as well. After that, everything falls apart. The Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals twice in 1976 and 1980, but no trophy. In 1985 the Athletics beat the Yankees once again and then followed that up with another victory in 1988, but they lost the World Series that year to the Dodgers. But not 1989. Basically, all these little facts and numbers really don’t mean anything other than what the writer (me) can spin out of the information. I thought this bit of history was fun to break down on a more unorthodox level.

Now, onto the marks.

19-’49: Leland V “Lou” Brissie was born on June 5, 1924 in Anderson, South Carolina. He didn’t play baseball in high school but played, instead, in the local textile league with the ware Shoals mill team. On the day he graduated from Ware Shoals High School, Athletics’ manager, Connie Mack, signed him to a professional contract and agreed to send the 6-foot 4-inch southpaw to Presbyterian College for three years.

Brissie was scheduled to report to the Athletics for spring training in 1943, but enlisted with the Army in December 1942. “I lost a brother in the war so I enlisted in the service,” Brissie explained. Brissie began basic training on March 25, 1943, and was stationed at Camp Croft, South Carolina. In June 1944, he pitched for the Monaghan semi-pro textile team of Greenville. Brissie struck out 22 of the Easley mill team batters in the contest but lost, 1-0, on a home run. The week before, pitching for Camp Croft against the Greenville Army Air Base Jay Birds, he struck out 19.

Later that year, Corporal Brissie was sent to Italy with the 88^th Infantry Division. He served as a squad leader with G Company of the 351^st Infantry Regiment. On December 7, 1944, Brissie's squad was hit by a fierce artillery attack in the Apennine Mountains in northern Italy. "Our unit suffered over 90 percent casualties," Brissie said. "Within minutes we lost three of our four officers as well as eight other men in the barrage," he recalled. Brissie was badly hit. His left shinbone was shattered in more than 30 pieces and his left ankle and right foot were broken. He had to crawl for cover through the mud and then lay there unconscious until he was found hours later. Brissie was rushed to a field hospital where his leg should have been amputated, but somehow he was able to persuade the doctors to ship him to an evacuation hospital where the limb might be saved. He was finally sent to a military hospital in Naples where Captain Wilbur Brubaker set about saving the young soldier’s leg. “Captain Brubaker did a marvelous job,” Brissie told sportswriter Joe O’Loughlin in 2005. “Once he operated on me, I didn’t wonder if I could make it back to pitch but how I could do it. I felt like the good Lord put Dr. Brubaker in my life. I really felt that God put me on the path that took me to all those hospitals over that three-day period to get me to someone who could help me.”

Brissie went through a total of 23 operations and 40 blood transfusions on the road to recovery. “They had to reconstruct my leg with wire,” he explains. “I wound up going to hospitals all over. I was the first guy in the Mediterranean Theater who was put on penicillin therapy.” During that time, Brissie received a letter from Connie Mack who said that when Brissie was ready to play ball he would see to it that he would get the chance. Brissie never wavered from his vision of pitching in the majors. “I’ll play ball again,” he told Scoop Latimer, sports editor of the Greenville News, “but it will be quite a while. I want to play ball. If God lets me, I’ll play it, too. That’s my ambition.”

In 1945, still on crutches and with a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts to his name, Brissie went to Philadelphia to see Mack. But at that time he was not ready to play. “Determination can do it,” Mack told reporters. "I know he'll make good. I'll never forget how he looked last summer, he had just undergone an operation and was about to undergo another one. He was on crutches and I thought ‘poor boy, he'll never be able to pitch again.'” But crutches and all, Brissie could not stay away from baseball. Although he suffered a re-infection of the leg in 1946, he received a contract from Mack for 1947.

He reported to the Savannah Indians of the South Atlantic League and went on to win 23 games that year with an incredible 1.19 ERA. "Brissie has had only one year of organized baseball,” Mack told the press. “But he has tremendous speed and a lot of stuff." 

On September 28, with his leg in a specially designed brace, Brissie was on the mound for the Philadelphia Athletics in his major league debut, donning the #17. Facing the Yankees in their last game of the season, the lefthander went seven innings and struck out four against Bill Wight in the 5-3 loss. "It was a great day," Brissie later recalled. "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I lost the game, but it was still a great experience."

Brissie returned with the Athletics for the 1948 season and changed his jersey to #19, posting a 14-10 record with a 4.13 ERA and 127 strikeouts, as Mack’s team finished a surprising fourth in the American League. Brissie finished in fourth place for the AL Rookie of the Year award and 24^th place for the AL MVP. In 1949, he went 16-11 with 4.28 ERA and 118 strikeouts. ’49 would also be the year he’d make an appearance in an All-Star Game. He pitched three innings, giving up a few runs including a home run to Ralph Kiner of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the sixth inning. Regardless, the American League won the game 11-7.

Brissie pitched for the Athletics until the middle of 1951 when he was traded to the Cleveland Indians, where he’d stick it out until the end of the 1953 season.

#30/36 On July 23, 1939 an unknown Athletics player named Harry O’Neill was brought into the game as a defensive substitution at catcher for every day guy Franklin Hayes. The two innings he’d end up recording were the only six outs he’d ever make in his professional career. He never had an at-bat; he also never had a consistent jersey number for the few games he saw from the bench, #30 and #36.

O'Neill distinguished himself as a very gifted college athlete. At Gettysburg College, the 6-foot-3, 205-pounder sometimes called "Porkie," led the school's baseball, football and basketball teams to league championships. After graduation, he was the subject of a bidding war between two American League teams, eventually signing with his hometown A's. After spending two years in the minor leagues, O'Neill enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942, and rose to the rank of first lieutenant with the 25th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Division. Fighting in Saipan, he was wounded in the shoulder by shrapnel, treated for weeks back in the U.S. Soon after, he was shipped back to the Pacific to Iwo Jima, where he was killed by a sniper. O’Neill has the unfortunate distinction of being one of two MLB players to be killed during the war. In 1980, Harry M. O'Neill was inducted into Gettysburg College's Hall of Athletic Honor for baseball, football and basketball.

May 29- Cleveland Indians

I was shuffling through my ITunes account tonight, trying to find something to help string this post together. For the most part a lot my posts are written with classical music playing in the background to help keep me from rushing through things. The last thing I want to do is leave out an important piece of information. Classical music also doesn’t have a lyricist. Every now-and-then when I listen to anything with lyrics I tend to get my sentences jumbled by writing the lyrics to the song down as opposed to whatever thoughts are going through my head. So, since I’m writing about the Cleveland Indians, nothing I had in my arsenal was really helping me out creatively.

As much as Cleveland has been dumped on over the years I can honestly attest to say that most of it is exaggerated. Funny, but exaggerated. I am probably one of the very small percentage of people who had Cleveland in their “Top-five cities to visit” list last season, which is something that I had been looking forward to doing for the better part of a decade. I grew in a family that loved Rock and Roll. From Chuck Berry to Elvis. From The Beatles and Rolling Stones to Cheap Trick and The Darkness. Rock and Roll is the lifeblood of my family, well, on my mother’s side at least. I’m not going to go into detail on it now, but visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was very high on my “must do” list. While I was there I of course brought my IPod along to really live the experience more intently. The most important song on my playlist, this one.

My Uncle Tim and I have a kindred love for Ian Hunter which dates as far back as when he was originally in Mott the Hoople singing “All the Young Dudes.” This song though, and not the Presidents of the United States of America version that was used for “The Drew Carey Show,” just radiated my experience in that city. Even more interesting is the story behind the song. Mott the Hoople was doing a tour with David Bowie on the East Coast and at every venue they were met with half-filled crowds and were received rather negatively. When they got to Cleveland they were met with a pack house and amazing fans. Hunter states on his web site, "the inspiration for 'Cleveland Rocks' goes back to the old days when people used to make fun of Cleveland. Cleveland was 'uncool' and LA and NYC were 'cool'. I didn't see it that way. Lotta heart in Cleveland." The song was first released in 1977 under the title "England Rocks" on a single in the United Kingdom, predating the release of the "Cleveland" version by two years. Hunter has maintained, however, that Cleveland was the original subject of the song, stating on his web site, "I originally wrote 'Cleveland Rocks' for Cleveland. I changed it later to 'England Rocks' because I thought it should be a single somewhere and Columbia wouldn't release it as a single in the U.S. (too regional). 'Cleveland Rocks' is Cleveland's song and that's the truth." The response to this day is still overwhelming as it’s used as a victory song for all of their sports franchises and it serves as the unofficial theme song for the city. In recognition of "Cleveland Rocks", Hunter was given the key to the city by Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich on June 19, 1979.

The main reason I bring all of this up, besides the fact that I’m writing about an Indians hat, is because of the line, “I’ve got some records from World War II! I play them just like me granddad do! He was a rocker and I am too! Oh Cleeeeveland Rocks. Oh Cleeeeeveland Ro-ocks!” In lieu of my Stars and Stripes posts I couldn’t think of a more fulfilling line and song for this piece.

The Indians, like a lot of teams throughout Major League Baseball, offer military discount tickets and sometimes free tickets on special days when active, retired and off duty soldiers arrive in uniform. In 2012 the Indians held “Marine Week” from June 15-20 to pay tribute to the men and women brave enough to join the Marines. The event featured Marine rock bands, on-field celebrations and auctions featuring autographed by Hall of Fame Indians for charity.

One of the more interesting military stories involving the Indians over the last five years involved All-Star outfielder, and South Korean international, Shin-Shoo Choo who was nearly called back to his homeland to fulfill his country’s military obligation duties. Luckily, for his sake, things worked out for the better.

Since 1971 the Indians are one of the few teams in MLB to have a losing record on Memorial Day. Their 19-20 record featured a 1976 doubleheader with double wins against the Baltimore Orioles, not mention the Indians also had four of those days off due to travel and off days. The Indians also boast some of their weirdest streaks when it comes to Memorial Day. The first I noticed is that from 1971-1999 the Indians went 5-0 against the California Angels; however, after the Angels changed their name to the Anaheim Angels in 1997 they met up again in 2000 where the Angels finally walked away with victory. In 2004 AND 2005 the Indians had Memorial Day off; however, in both of those years they played the Oakland Athletics over the weekend. In both years the Indians swept the Athletics. As an ardent Athletics supporter I really hated finding this stat.

Upon looking at the numbers I marked on my hat I quickly realized that my “Cleveland Rocks” reference makes much more sense. All three of the players I’m paying tribute to spent time in the military during World War II. Now, Just as a heads up I’m not going to talk about their stats much due to the fact that I writing about all three again down the road.

#14- In 1942, at the age of 17, Larry Doby won the Negro National League batting title with a .427 average. It was his first year in professional baseball as a second baseman with the Newark Eagles.

Doby hit .325 with the Eagles in 1943 and entered military service at the end of the season. He served with the Navy at Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois, where he played with the Negro baseball team. He was later stationed at Ulithi Atoll in the Pacific. Doby's early experiences in relatively integrated northeast New Jersey could not prepare him for the discrimination that awaited him in other places. He often spoke of how stunned and embarrassed he was when he arrived for training upon induction into the Navy in 1944 only to be segregated from whites he had played with and even served as captain for on teams while growing up.

Doby was back with the Eagles in 1946, batting .360, helping the team to the Negro League World Series title, and attracting interest from major league scouts. Doby began 1947 with the Eagles but signed with the Cleveland Indians on July 2, 1947, the first African-American to play in the American League. That same year he also signed with the Patterson Panthers of the American Basketball League as the first African-American in that league. Doby is rarely ever talked about when it comes to his life’s accomplishments. I found a quote by Bob Feller which best describes it, "He was a great American, he served the country in World War II, and he was a great ballplayer. He was kind of like Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, because he was the second African-American player in the majors behind Jackie Robinson. He was just as good of a ballplayer, an exciting player, and a very good teammate. He helped us win the World Series in 1948. He was a great ballplayer, a great American and an excellent teammate."

With that be sure to expect a full article dedicated to Doby in the future.

#19- Bob Feller went through a few number changes before he stuck with #19. Oddly enough, Doby’s #14 was one of them from 1937-1938, a decade before Doby was signed to the Indians. Feller played from 1936-1941 and had been in the Top-three for the American League MVP award in his last three years before becoming the first MLB player to enlist in the military after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I found an article he wrote about his reason for leaving baseball, even if for a short time, and his time in the Navy. I figure why not let him tell it:

I never have to strain my memory to recall the day I decided to join the Navy. It was 7 December 1941. I was driving from my home in Van Meter, Iowa, to Chicago to discuss my next contract with the Cleveland Indians, and I heard over the car radio that the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor. I was angry as hell.

I'd spent almost six full seasons in the major leagues by then, with a record of 107 victories and 54 losses, and I had a family- related draft exemption, but I knew right then that I had to answer the call. I arrived in Chicago late that afternoon to meet Cy Slapnicka, the Indians' general manager, who had come there to talk about my contract for 1942, and told him about my decision. I then phoned Gene Tunney, the former world heavyweight boxing champion and an old friend. A commander, Gene was in charge of the Navy's physical training program. He flew out from Washington and swore me in on Tuesday, 9 December.

After my basic training, the Navy made me a chief petty officer and assigned me as a physical training instructor. It was valuable in its way, but I wanted to go into combat. I'd had a lot of experience with guns as a kid, so I applied for gunnery school and sea duty. After four months of naval gunnery school in Newport, Rhode Island, I was assigned to a battleship, the USS Alabama (BB-60), as a gun-captain on a 40-mm antiaircraft mount that had a crew of 24.

Action in the North Atlantic -- and the Pacific

I got what I wanted. The Alabama spent six months escorting convoys in the North Atlantic, and then -- in August 1943 -- went through the Panama Canal and headed for the central Pacific. Over the next two years, we saw action off Tarawa, and in the Marshalls, the Carolines, and the Philippines. We bombarded beaches to support amphibious assaults, served as escorts for aircraft carriers, and fended off kamikaze attacks. Two enemy bombs hit the ship during the Marianas Turkey Shoot, and we survived a typhoon that pummeled us with 80-knot gusts off the Philippine coast. The Alabama never lost a man to enemy action. The people we had on the gun crews were very good shots.

In March 1945, I was sent to Great Lakes Naval Training Center and managed the baseball team there. In the third week of August, just 15 days after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, I went on inactive duty. It was back to baseball after that. I rejoined the Indians on 23 August and pitched eight games. I won five and lost three.

Serving in the military is almost always a defining moment for any young man or woman. You're young and impressionable. You meet a lot of new people, and you travel to new places. You learn to be on time, how to follow and, eventually, how to lead.

You Never Forget Combat

But it makes a difference when you go through a war, no matter which branch of the service you're in. Combat is an experience that you never forget. A war teaches you that baseball is only a game, after all -- a minor thing, compared to the sovereignty and security of the United States. I once told a newspaper reporter that the bombing attack we lived through on the Alabama had been the most exciting 13 hours of my life. After that, I said, the pinstriped perils of Yankee Stadium seemed trivial. That's still true today.

You and your comrades never lose touch. I've gone to my share of Alabama reunions, and all of us treat each other as shipmates no matter what else we've done or accomplished -- or haven't -- over the years. I still remember with pain the sailor who stopped by my compartment to talk baseball during one of our North Atlantic convoy runs. A few minutes later, he was missing. Apparently he'd fallen overboard into rough seas -- an accident of war.

Like anyone who has been under fire, I'm certainly not a war-booster. But I still believe, as I did that grim Sunday afternoon in December 1941, in a strong and well-equipped military and in the values that being in the service instills in the young men and women who don the uniform. I'm well aware of the hardships that our service members are enduring right now.

Serving Your Country

For myself, I wouldn't be unhappy if they re-imposed a draft -- not just because we need more troops to meet our needs, but because going through military training is such a character-builder for young people. Everyone ought to serve his or her country for a couple of years or more, even in times of peace.

I was at Great Lakes Naval Training Center a few months ago, where I'd been invited to speak to the graduates of the Navy's basic school, and someone asked whether I'd urge my grandson to sign up, as I had done. My answer was a resounding yes.

I'm still a Navy man at heart. And I'm proud to have served. –Military.com

Feller would go on to play 12 more season, all of which came with the Indians.

#42/6- There’s a reason I did this, and it has a rather simple explanation. Bob Lemon Made is MLB debut in 1941 as the #38, but it was changed in 1942 to #42. It would be the last number he’d wear until after returning from three years in the war in 1946 where he adopted the #6, which he only wore for one season. I picked them for the sake of him going away one person and coming home another.

He was born in San Bernardino, California on September 22, 1920. He was signed by the Cleveland Indians as a third baseman in 1938, and played in their minor league system until entering military service with the Navy in 1943.

Lemon served at Los Alamitos Naval Air Station in California for the first two years of his service. In 1945, he was sent to Aiea Barracks in Hawaii, and it was there that he made the conversion from infielder to pitcher.

All three players: Doby, Feller and Lemon served their country at the same time, and won the second World Series trophy in Indians’ together in 1948. All three are enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame together, and all three a true heroes within the Cleveland community.

KT- I wouldn’t be right to not mention this person in regard to Memorial Day, especially with his ties to the Indians Organization. Kevin Tillman, the brother of former Arizona Cardinal Pat Tillman, was originally a 30^th round draft pick by the Houston Astros back in 1996 out of Leland High School in San Jose, California. Not wanting to pass up on college, he enrolled at Arizona State University with his brother and was once again taken in the draft, this time by the Anaheim Angels in the 31^st round of the 1999 Amateur Draft, which he was then picked up by the Indians.

Tillman played one season in 2001, splitting his time with the Burlington Indians of the Rookie League and the AA Akron Aeros of the Eastern League. He hit .241 with six home runs, six doubles and 24 RBI.

After the tragedy which took place in New York City on September 11, 2001, both he and Pat enlisted in the US Army with the Army Rangers, which they both completed. The two were then assigned to the 2nd Ranger Battalion in Fort Lewis, Washington and deployed together to South West Asia as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Kevin was in the convoy right behind his brother’s on April 22, 2002, the day that Pat was killed.