During World War II, Baseball Did Its Part with Spectacle and Stunts
An IBWAA writer remembers war bond drives with MLB stars.
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . The 1942 promotional matchup between Babe Ruth and Walter Johnson hailed back to arguably the best hitter and best pitcher the game had to offer in the history of the game to that point. Ruth batted against Johnson 152 times in his career, with the Bambino getting the best of The Big Train, hitting .350/.467/.740 with 10 home runs, though Ruth did strike out two percent more against Johnson (14.5% of plate appearances) than his career rate (12.5%).
. . . Johnson also brought out the best of Ruth when the Babe was pitching early in his career. The two opposed each other on the mound a dozen times between 1915 and 1918. Ruth posted a 1.68 ERA over 96 2/3 innings in those matchups while Johnson threw to a 1.80 ERA in 85 innings.
Leading Off
During World War II, Baseball Did Its Part with Spectacle and Stunts
By Paul Jackson
Baseball’s relationship with the federal government has never been cozier than during the Second World War. Given a famous “green light” by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the grateful sport would do almost anything to support the United States’ war effort, making do without stars fighting overseas and transforming the country’s ballparks into theaters of national pageantry.
Throughout the war, life on the home front was dominated by the E-type bond securities that helped finance America’s drive to ultimate victory. Wars have to be paid for, either by raising taxes or taking on debt, and “war bonds” did the latter while deferring some of the war’s cost to future generations. War bonds also helped keep the economy cool; there was far more cash to go around in the 1940s than there were consumer goods to spend on, and taking money out of public circulation helped prevent demand-driven inflation.
Over the course of the global conflict, the United States government raised over $185 billion dollars via war bonds. The majority of those sales came during eight different “drives,” usually month-long affairs when the constant clamor to buy bonds became an earsplitting roar.
The Fifth War Loan drive began on June 12, 1944, just a few days after the beginning of the Allied invasion of Europe. Building on those events, the Fifth War Loan theme was “invasion,” the retaking of occupied territories across the globe. The government set a goal of $16 billion in sales. The actor Orson Welles served as the campaign’s ceremonial chair, and FDR used a “fireside chat” radio address on June 12 to give an extended sales pitch that included what we’d today consider a very hard sell:
“There are still many people in the United States who have not bought war bonds, or who have not bought as many as they can afford. Everyone knows for himself whether he falls into that category or not. In some cases, his neighbors know, too.”
Baseball was an integral partner in every loan drive, partnering with civic leaders to throw elaborate and sensational exhibitions that served as extended sales pitches for war bonds or other war-related causes.
Babe Ruth was a frequent star of these spectacles. Too old to serve in the armed forces, he remained the game’s biggest celebrity during the war, even in retirement. In 1942, 69,000 people donated to get a chance to see Ruth take an at-bat against another retired legend, Walter Johnson.
In 1943, Ruth gravitated toward the one thing he’d never gotten a chance to do in his career: managing. He skippered an All-Star team against his former Boston Braves, and later that same summer he returned to Yankee Stadium to manage the “Yanklands,” an amalgam team composed of players from the Yankees and the Indians. Ruth’s opponents were the Cloudbursters, former players training to be combat pilots, including Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain, and 24-year-old Ted Williams, all now in training at the Navy’s Pre-Flight school. All proceeds from this game went to baseball’s War Relief and Service Fund, benefiting the Red Cross. Everyone paid their way into Yankee Stadium that day–fans, of course, but also the players, the management, even the press.
During that game, Ruth, 49 years old, took his last at-bat as a professional and drew a walk. On base, he refused a pinch-runner, but the batter behind him singled, forcing him to go all-out for second. Safely in after a huffing and somewhat undignified scramble on his bad right ankle, Ruth excused himself.
Each subsequent loan drive had to find ways to attract or maintain public interest. During the 1944 summer drive, bonds cost $18.75, with a ten-year payout of $25. Hoping to raise $6 million in “invasion” bonds at a June 17 event at New York’s Polo Grounds, organizers took a kitchen sink approach. In an event breathlessly billed as “one of the most elaborate and colorful combination sports and entertainment carnivals ever,” baseball was just the final act.
The night culminated in a seven-inning contest between two Army teams (which always included a healthy number of erstwhile players), umpired by the great Bill Klem, who came out of retirement for the occasion. There was a basketball game on a specially built outdoor court, and a mixed-doubles tennis match on the grass between second and third. A former PGA titleholder did golf demonstrations, pitching to pins 75 and 125 yards away from home plate. There was boxing, and soccer. Everything, it seems, but polo.
The weirdest event on the card was a tug-of-war between eight members of the soccer team and eight members of the NYPD, whose average weight was–the New York Times reported–about 250 pounds. “Enjoying a tremendous weight advantage, the police won the first two pulls then let the soccer players add three more men. Then they won the third pull as well.”
The biggest applause of the six-hour event went to Mrs. Emma Van Coutren. She had been asked to speak because every one of her 12 children were engaged in the armed forces: six sons in the Navy, one in the Merchant Marine, one in the Marines, one in the Army, and three daughters serving in the Women’s Army Corps (WACs).
“Tonight I must ask all of you good people three questions,” she said in her speech. “Are you buying bonds? Are you writing letters? Are you praying?” 30,000 people rose to their feet, cheering and wiping away tears. Loan drives went hard.
30,000 was a good turnout, but something of a disappointment. For their next event, scheduled for June 26, the New York War Bonds Sports Committee decided to get weird, and we’ll tell you about that singular baseball game in our next installment
Paul Jackson writes about baseball, history, and culture on Substack at Project 3.18 and on Instagram. He has previously written for ESPN.com. Paul can be reached via email at pjacks2@gmail.com.
Extra Innings
Last Tuesday, the baseball world lost former reliever Scott Sauerbeck at 53 due to a heart attack. Sauerbeck was drafted in the 23rd round in 1994 by the New York Mets and spent four full years in the Mets’ minor league system until the Pittsburgh Pirates drafted the lefty in the Rule 5 draft after the 1998 season. He had one of the historically best Rule 5 seasons for the Pirates after moving to relief, pitching to a 2.00 ERA over 67 2/3 innings. Sauerbeck would go on to pitch in seven big league seasons, accumulating 5.1 career bWAR. IBWAA extends its deepest condolences to Sauerbeck’s family and friends.