The Wilmington morning star., 1945-02-18
BASEBALL LOOP
HOPEFULLY PREP
FOR NEXT SEASON
247. American League
Players Reported In
Armed Services
By JERRY LIsKA


CHICAGO, Feb. II. G -
Big league baseball, hopefully pre-
pairing for its fourth wartime sea-
son, has undergone almost a COM
plete turnover in personnel since
Pearl Harbor.
How good a patch-and-pray Job
the sport has quietly accomplish
ed the past three seasons is clear
ly shown in a study Of the Ameri-
can Leagues national defense
service list.
Up-to-the-minute figures disclose
that each junior circuit club dis
plays an average Of 30 blue stars,
five more than the active list OF
Is players permitted during the
season.
A total of 247 American league
players have gone to war, lnclud-
ing 19 since the close of the 1914
season. This compares with pres
ent active list of 276 players, 126
of whom are At with their 1945
status under sharp selective serv-
ice scrutiny.
Latest National league manpow-
er statistics are not available here,
But Leslie M. O'Connor, chairman
of the Major League advisory
council, estimates player losses are
comparable in the. two leagues.
The American League also can
show three gold stars. Outfielder
Elmer Gedeon and Pitcher Forrest
Brewer of the Washington Senators
were killed in action as was Catch
er Ardys Keller of the st. Louis
Browns.
In addition, Pitcher Phil Mar
childon, a 17-game winner for the
Athletics in 1912, was taken prison
err after his Canadian Air Force
plane was shot down over Kie)
and Gene Stack of the Chicago
White Sox died of heart attack
while pitching in the Army.
The Detroit Tigers and the Phil
adelphia Athletics with So players
each lead in American League con-
tributions to the armed forces.
While the Champion st. Louis
Browns have yielded the fewest
at 26. The White Sox have lost
33, the Senators 80, the New York
Yankees 20, the Boston Red Sox %
and the Cleveland Indians 81.
It seems incredible-yet great
tribute to big league strategists
who had to scrape the bottom OF
the talent barrel-that the majors
last summer enjoyed one of the
best seasons in history at the
box office with only a handful Of
established stars.
How few name" players there
were is best noted in a survey of
the junior circuits national defense
list.
The once invincible Yankees
have Joe Di Maggie, Red Ruffing,
Joe Gordon, Marius Russo, john
ny Sturm, Sturgeon Chandler,
Weatherly and Rollie Hemsley
in the Army, Phil Rizzuto, George
Selkirk and Bill Dickey in the
Navy, Charley Keller in the Mer-
chant Marine and Tom Heinrich in
the Coast Guard.
The long-trying Red Sox can
dream of things that might have
been if Ted Williams CMarines),
Bob Doerr, Jim Tabor, Tex Hugh
son (Army) and Johnny Pesky
Navy were back.
The White Sox have given Uncle
Sam Slugger Luke Appling, Ed
Smith, Sam West, Taft Wright
(Army), Ted Lyons, Bob Kennedy
(Marines and Johnny Rigney
Navy. The Tigers, who almost
COPIED the league bunting during
Dick Wakefield's short release
from service, also have contAbut-
ed Hank Greenberg, Birdie Teb-
belts, Tom Bridges (Army), Char
ley Gehringer, Bill McCosky, Hal
White, Virgil Trucks and Ned Har-
ris Navy.
The Browns won the champion
ship without Johnny Lucadello,
John Bernardino, Pete Appleton,
Walt Judnich, Maurice Newlin and
Steve Sundra. Brilliant Bob Teller
heads Cleveland's list of 81 fight
ing men which also includes Joe
Krakaukas, Gene Desautels, and
Harry Eisenstat.