Below the plaque of every Hall of Fame player who served in the military is a small medallion commemorating the particular military branch in which he served. (Photo by Caspar Ewig)

Ship Honors HoFers Who Served

By CASPAR EWIG
COOPERSTOWN

As Cooperstown rep-resents the best of Americana, it also represents the best of baseball,” Jane Forbes Clark noted in her address that accompanied the christening of the USS Cooperstown in February 2022. And she continued, “Baseball is our national pastime, and the connections between our Hall of Famers and our military are strong.” Thus it is that the USS Cooperstown represents both the village and the wartime heroes enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Although that connection with military service is not often a part of the conversation when one is talking about Hall of Famers, it is not forgotten in the Hall of Plaques, which memorializes each player’s important stats. Below the plaque of every player who served in the military is a small medallion commemorating the particular military branch in which he served. There is an insignia for the Army, the Navy, the Marines, and even for service in the Civil War. The one veteran of that conflict is The Hon. Morgan G. Bulkeley, who subsequently became the first president of the National League.

In total, 70 of the 341 members in the Hall, or just over 20 percent of all players, coaches, managers, and other notable contributors to the baseball experience, served in the armed forces.

The military time interrupted their careers and, for some notables, such as Ted Williams, statisticians have attempted to formulate the probable statistics they would have achieved if those productive years had not been taken away
Some were drafted, and others, like Bob Feller, who was having a fantastic baseball season and who was entitled to a deferment, called up the Cleveland organization on the day after Pearl Harbor and simply told them, “Don’t expect me for spring training. I just enlisted.” Because, as he later reflected, “I didn’t worry about losing my baseball career. We needed to win the war.”

So, like Ted Williams, who almost died flying combat missions in Korea, and Warren Spahn, who got his Purple Heart and Bronze Star while engaged in the Battle of the Bulge and other war theaters in Europe, Feller risked his life in the Pacific aboard the Battleship Alabama. And as a premonition of his subsequent baseball management career, Yogi Berra provided rocket support to the troops landing in Normandy on D-Day, possibly including his fellow future Hall of Famers, Willard Brown and Leon Day, who were in the ground operation on that famous day.

An as an example of the sheer persistence he showed on the field, Louis Santop was discharged from the Army during World War I as physically unfit due to a broken and misshapen arm, so he enlisted in the Navy. And with similar persistence, Jackie Robinson fought to be accepted at the naval Officer’s Candidate School, which was otherwise slow to accept a Black man.

These examples represent only a small portion of the combat exploits of Hall of Famers who entered the service, and the omission of any one is purely the result of necessary abbreviation.

Many players who either enlisted or were drafted ended up playing baseball for the various inter-mural service leagues. Yet their service was no less noteworthy, since morale is an essential element in any war, and the “normalcy” that a baseball game could create for the new recruits helped in easing their way into military service.

In the words of Navy historian Gordon Calhoun, “America’s game went to war and sacrificed right along with everybody else.”

The USS Cooperstown stands as a symbol of that sacrifice.

The official commissioning ceremony for the USS Cooperstown will take place on Saturday, May 6 in New York City.