May 21- Oakland Athletics

May 20- Atlanta Braves

May 19- St. Louis Cardinals

May 18- Chicago Cubs

This is one of the more unusual posts that I’ve put together, but not for the sake of any kind of an oddity. The Chicago Cubs are one of the oldest organizations in not only Major League Baseball, but professional sports in general. I would have thought that to some degree that there would have been a lot more guys within the history of the organization to serve their country, but to my surprise I was wrong. Over the last week or so I’ve come to the realization that it has nothing to do with the players themselves, but more the notoriety that some players have gotten for their service. I suppose a lot of this falls on most Web site I’ve pilfered through only feature Hall of Famers, but then again combing through over 100 years of rosters and comparing them to a list of possible military service is royally time consuming. So, I had to take what I could find.

One of the interesting programs that the Cubs are involved with that I was able to come across is called Me & a Friend. Me & a Friend is a joint collaboration of the USO and the Cubs to provide free tickets to youths 18-years-old and younger who have parents serving their country overseas. The Cubs have also honored discounts for active and retired military personnel who arrive to their games in uniform.

The Cubs record for Memorial Days (since 1971) is 18-22 with three games off in 1984, 1992 and 1999. In 1976 the Cubs split a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies, but outside of that, nothing particularly special happened in any of their games. Sorry. I dug deep!

As I mentioned before it was a little difficult to pull names, and by that I mostly mean that I had difficulty finding a second name for someone who I haven’t written about.

GA: On the list of Hall of Fame players who served time in the military, Grover Cleveland Alexander is number one on the list. Despite starting and ending his career with the Phillies, Alexander’s eight years with the Cubs was the longest tenure of his career. Alexander (also known as Pete Alexander) was one of the greatest pitchers of all-time, and has the third-most wins in the history of Major League Baseball. Alexander was drafted during World War I and spent much of 1918 in France as a sergeant with the 342nd field artillery. Alexander certainly drank alcohol before the war, but after the war he became an extremely heavy drinker as he suffered from severe post traumatic stress and drinking was the only thing that would calm him down. While he was serving in France, he was exposed to German mustard gas and a shell exploded near him, causing partial hearing loss and triggering the onset of epilepsy. Following his return from the war, Alexander suffered from shell shock and was plagued with epileptic seizures, which only exacerbated the problems he already was experiencing with alcohol. Always a drinker, Alexander hit the bottle particularly hard as a result of the physical and emotional injuries he sustained in the war - injuries that plagued him for the rest of his life. People often misinterpreted his seizure-related problems as drunkenness. Combined with hearing loss and epileptic seizures, Alexander was not in great shape throughout the 1920s. And yet he still managed to have some dominant years for the Cubs (who had acquired him from the Philadelphia Phillies right before Alexander was drafted).

"Grover Cleveland Alexander wasn't drunk out there on the mound, the way people thought. He was an epileptic. Old Pete would fall down with a seizure between innings, then go back and pitch another shutout." -Ty Cobb ("Cobb", by Al Stump)

Alexander led the League in strikeouts six times in his career; five times with the Phillies and only once with the Cubs. His best season in Chicago came in 1920 when he won 27 games with a 1.91 ERA and 173 strikeouts, all of which were league-leading. Despite winning the pitching Triple Crown he wasn’t even remotely close to winning the National League MVP. Actually, if you ever get a chance to look at his stats you’ll see that his “mediocre” years were the only times he received votes for the MVP. Even though he made it into the Hall of Fame in 1939, he still got the shaft throughout his career.

The origin of the nickname "Old Pete" is something of a mystery. It is uncertain how frequently Alexander was publicly called by that nickname during his playing days. On his 1940 Playball baseball card he was referred to as "Ol' Pete." In The World Series and Highlights of Baseball, by Lamont Buchanan, published in 1951, the year after Alexander died, on pp. 106–107 the author refers to "Pete Alexander" and "Ol' Pete" in a matter-of-fact way, suggesting the nickname was well-known. When he won his 373rd game on August 10, 1929, one newspaper had called him "old Pete", indicating that the nickname was in public circulation. (The Scrapbook History of Baseball, by Deutsch, Cohen, Johnson and Neft, Bobbs-Merrill, 1975, p. 131).

#14- I have all ready written about Ernie Banks back on April 26th, but there were a few things I didn’t touch on for his career. Banks had started his professional baseball career with the Amarillo Colts in 1948 before signing with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League in 1950. Banks then enlisted in the Army and served his country for two years fighting in the Korean War before coming back with the Monarchs in 1953. Later that year he signed a deal with the Cubs and made his MLB debut on September 17, becoming the first black player to ever take the field for the Cubs.

May 17- San Francisco Giants

It’s only fitting that I’d write about the Giants while I’m in the Bay Area; however, like my Baltimore Orioles post from yesterday, the players I chose made their mark while the franchise was still in its original home, New York City. As one of the oldest franchises in Major League Baseball history, the Giants have had their fair share of Memorial Day moments and veterans of war take the field. I’d be lying if I told you that I didn’t know who I was going to write about going into this post, but the reality is that there are really only a few guys of note worth mentioning which I’ll get to later in this post.

When it comes to giving back to the troops, one of the biggest names to give back to those who serve is currently Giants pitcher Barry Zito. In 2005 Zito founded Strikeout for the Troops, a program that assists with the most immediate needs, including air flights and lodging, adaptive equipment for an easy transitions at home, help at the Gold Star Family Support Center at Fort Hood, support for Fisher House Foundation, backpacks filled with toiletries and other necessities to those who arrive at the hospital with often just the clothes on their back. Other funds have been dedicated to support morale building events nationwide, research and treatment for  PSTD issues, the purchase of holiday gifts for military children, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, telephone and gift cards, and even paid for transportation and baby sitting so families can stay close. Pretty noble if you ask me.

Something that I probably should have talked about in the first of these Stars and Stripes post is the origin of Memorial Day. The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day", which was first used in 1882. It did not become more common until after World War II, and was not declared the official name by Federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, the Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971. After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted Congress's change of date within a few years.

Going back to 1971 the Giants have played on 34 of 42 of those days, tallying a record of 16-19 with eight games off. No, my math is not incorrect. Like a few of the other teams I’ve written about the Giants played a doubleheader against the San Diego Padres on May 30, 1977 and lost both ends of the affair. In all the research I did I wasn’t able to find any other real games or patterns of note. Sorry. I thought I found one with the Atlanta Braves as the Giants had lost every game on Memorial Day they played from 1971-2008, but broke the streak in 2009 for a 1-4 record. Other than that, nothing that special.

As I mentioned above I opted to roll with players from the old days of Giants baseball since all of these guys were involved with every war from World War I through the end of the Korean War.

#24- If there has been any one player to personify the Giants organization it has to be Willie Mays. Mays is one of the few players to make the transition from New York to San Francisco and continue to boast solid numbers year-after-year. The “Say Hey Kid” first donned the black and orange on May 25, 1951 and went on to have an electric rookie season consisting of a .274 average, 20 home runs and 68 RBI, which easily won him the Rookie of the Year award.

Starting the 1952 season, Willie batted just .236 in 34 games before he was drafted into the Army, an obligation that would keep him out of the major leagues until 1954. Red Smith chronicled Mays's last game before his military call-up, in Brooklyn's Ebbets Field: "... there was a fine, loud cheer for Willie. This was in Brooklyn, mind you, where 'Giant' is the dirtiest word in the language." At the time of his departure, the Giants were in first place, with a 2 ½ game lead over the Dodgers. The Giants promptly lost eight of ten and were never a factor in the pennant race.

The Army sent Willie to Fort Eustis, Virginia, and assigned him to play baseball for the most part. According to Mays, Durocher kept an eye on him from afar, chiding him when he stole a base with his team leading and sending him money from time to time. The August 13, 1953, edition of Jet magazine reports that Mays broke a bone in his foot sliding into third base in an Army game and would wear a cast for five weeks. Mays recalled that he also sprained his ankle in a basketball game, prompting another call from Durocher, telling him to stay off the court.

During his time in the service, his mother Anna died, and Willie harbored some bitterness that he wasn't allowed to resume his playing career to support all his half-brothers and -sisters, since his stepfather was unemployed.

Willie estimated that he played 180 games while in the service. When he returned to the Giants in the spring of 1954, he was one-half inch taller and 10 pounds heavier, now 5'11" and 180 pounds. When Mays showed up at the Giants' camp in Phoenix on March 1, the consensus among New York writers seemed to be, "Here comes the pennant," despite the Dodgers' 105 wins in 1953. Newsweek predicted in its April 5 issue that Mays could mean the difference between "the second division and the pennant in 1954."- John Saccoman, SABR

Even though Mays never saw any combat, his time in the military went a long way to bring a more positive attitude to the men in uniform. When Mays returned to the Giants lineup in 1954 he continued his now-legendary career that started only three years prior. He hit .375, winning him his only batting title of his career. More than that he led the League in triples (13), on-base percentage (.667) and OPS (1.078). Aaaaaand he also won the National League MVP award and his only World Series title that same season.

The rest of his career reads like a grocery list: 20-straight All-Star Game appearances from 1954-1973, 12-straight Gold Gloves from 1957-1968, 3283 hits, 660 home runs (most in Giants history), 1903 RBI, a second NL MVP award in 1965, 12 total Top-six MVP finishes and his enshrinement in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1979.

R/C- I actually wrote about both of these guys on January 26th. Rube Marquard and Christy Mathewson both served their country during World War I as members of the Chemical Service program along with Ty Cobb and Branch Rickey. Marquard went on to have a long and fruitful career and life after the war, while Mathewson contracted tuberculosis during a gas test and his career and life cut short.

#20- This is another guy I wrote a little bit about on January 23rd. Monte Irvin didn’t have a long Major League career; however, his time playing in the Negro Leagues more than make up for it. He fashioned a career of dual excellence both with the Newark Eagles in the Negro Leagues, where he was a teammate of Larry Doby, the first player to break the color barrier in the American League, and with the Giants in the National League. After hitting in the Negro leagues for high marks of .422 and .396 (1940–41), Irvin led the Mexican League with a .397 batting average and 20 home runs in 63 games, being rewarded with the MVP award.

Irvin was drafted by the Army in 1942. He spent three years with the GS Engineers, 1313th Battalion. The battalion was first sent to England, then after D-Day to France and Belgium, where they built bridges and repaired roads. In late 1944, his unit was deployed in Reims, France, as a secondary line in case the Germans broke through at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

Irvin recently explained that black soldiers had a rough time in the Army because white soldiers treated them badly. "The black troops were treated better in Europe than they were in the US," Irvin said. "They got a taste of freedom over there."

He agrees, however, that many white American soldiers realized the incongruity of fighting in Europe to free oppressed people while blacks were oppressed at home, and that may have made things a little easier for the black soldiers when they returned.

In addition to the psychological trauma Irvin faced in combat, he also developed tinnitus, a ringing in the ears that affected his dexterity. That and three years away from baseball made his return to the game difficult. - Baseball in Wartime

When he returned to the Negro Leagues in 1946, he was approached by Branch Rickey of the Brooklyn Dodgers, but having been away from baseball for three years, Irvin felt he was not ready and needed to get into shape. Had he accepted Rickey's offer he may have been the first black Major Leaguer. He returned to the Eagles to lead his team to a league pennant. Irvin won his second batting championship hitting .401, and was instrumental in beating the Kansas City Monarchs in a seven-game Negro League World Series, batting .462 with three home runs. He was a five-time Negro League All-Star (1941, 1946–48, including two games in 1946).

Irvin led the Negro National League hitters in 1946 with a .346 average. In 1949, aged 30, he signed with the New York Giants. He spent eight years in the major leagues with the Giants and Cubs and finished with a lifetime batting average of .293. A back injury forced Irvin to retire after the 1956 season. He became a scout for the Mets in 1967 and in 1968 he became Assistant Director of Public Relations on the Baseball Commissioner's staff. Monte Irvin was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by a special Negro Leagues committee in 1973.

May 16- Baltimore Orioles

If there’s one thing I’ve really gotten a kick out of, and will continue to get a kick out of, over the next year it’s any post that I do featuring the smiling bird logo on my Baltimore Orioles caps. I touched on this reason back March 14th with my Billy Ripken story; the smiling bird has always been one of my favorites since my youth. Hopefully that better explains why I’m always mimicking the head turn and expression in all of my photos for the future.

The Orioles are kind of a peculiar selection today. After combing through books, encyclopedia pages and scores of Web sites I was only able to come up with two really solid names for my cap, but neither of whom have an actual ties to the Orioles. By this I mean they never wore an actual Orioles uniform or cap; however, they were a part of the franchise in the old days.

Before moving to Baltimore the Orioles were known as the St. Louis Browns. We’re not talking about a one-to-five year stretch; we’re talking real embedded roots kind of a baseball franchise. The Browns played in St. Louis from 1902-1953, but prior to St. Louis they played in Milwaukee for one season (1901) as the Brewers. They were never really successful until they moved to Baltimore; however, for one season (1944), they were the best team in the American League. This of course was marred by controversy as critics felt that their only World Series bid was as a result of every other team’s top-tier talent being overseas to fight in World War II. In the case of the Browns they still had all of their best players, but not because any of them tried to duck the war effort. In fact, most of them were classified 4-F: unfit for military service. But even with all of their best players on board they still found a way to lose to their cross-town rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals in six games. One piece of note from that series is that it was the one to take place in one stadium as the Browns and Cardinals shared the facility. When the Browns finally changed over to the Orioles in 1954 the Korean War had just ended and the Vietnam War was just getting started. In either case, no representatives from the team had been drafted or enlisted and forced to fight.

The Orioles have done a great job as a team in showing their support of active military personnel. All non-prime home games on Sundays are now Military Days where active, retired and reserve members of the military can get buy one, get one free tickets and anytime anyone comes in uniform with their military ID can get a free Orioles cap from guest services. This season the Orioles will be taking on the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park for Memorial Day and the following day and bringing the last two games to Camden Yards to finish off the celebration.

As I mentioned above it was a bit of a challenge to find anyone associated with the franchise who served their country and fought overseas; however, I did find two prime figures from the Browns era who more than deserved the recognition.

GS: I had previously written about George Sisler and his time with the Browns back on January 12^th, but I didn’t go into much detail about his military career. In 1918 Sisler joined the Chemical Corps (known at that time as the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) during World War I. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to Camp Humphries, Virginia. Also with CWS were Branch Rickey, Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, and Perry Haughton (president of the Boston Braves) were sent to France. Just as Sisler was preparing to deploy overseas, the armistice was signed on November 11. Sisler was subsequently discharged from the CWS.

If you ever get a free chance to check it out take a peak at the CWS records available for all of those players. Their jobs were not easy in the slightest, and they certainly didn’t play baseball to spread goodwill during their time in the service.

BV: Bill Veeck (as in wreck) was a native of Chicago, Illinois, and a franchise owner and promoter in Major League Baseball. Veeck was at various times the owner of the Cleveland Indians, Browns and Chicago White Sox. As owner and team president of the Indians in 1947, Veeck signed Larry Doby and thus successfully integrated the American League. Veeck was the last owner to purchase a baseball franchise without an independent fortune, and is responsible for many innovations and contributions to baseball.

His time in the service started at the end of the 1943 season when he joined the Marines at the same time he owned the Milwaukee Brewers, a Minor League team at the time. The next spring he was stationed on the Pacific island of Bougainville when the recoil of an anti-aircraft gun smashed his right leg. He spent the rest of the war in hospitals. Veeck sold the Brewers soon after he returned from military service in 1945. “It was a choice between the club and my marriage,” he wrote later. The marriage had been in trouble even before Veeck joined the Marines. He moved his wife Eleanor and their three children to a dude ranch in Arizona.

After marrying his second wife Mary Frances Ackerman, Veeck bought an 80 percent stake in the St. Louis Browns in 1951. Hoping to force the NL's Cardinals out of town, Veeck hired Cardinal greats Rogers Hornsby and Marty Marion as managers, and Dizzy Dean as an announcer; and he decorated their shared home park, Sportsman's Park, exclusively with Browns memorabilia. Ironically the Cardinals had been the Browns' tenants since 1920, even though they had long since passed the Browns as St. Louis' favorite team. Nonetheless, Veeck made a concerted effort to drive the Cardinals out of town.
Some of Veeck's most memorable publicity stunts occurred during his tenure with the Browns, including the appearance on August 19, 1951, by little person Eddie Gaedel. Veeck sent Gaedel to pinch hit in the bottom of the first of the game. Wearing elf like shoes and "1/8" as his uniform number, Gaedel was walked on four straight pitches and then was pulled for a pinch runner. Shortly afterwards "Grandstand Manager's Day" – involving Veeck, Connie Mack, and thousands of regular fans, enabled the crowd to vote on various in-game strategic decisions by holding up placards: the Browns won, 5–3, snapping a four-game losing streak.
After the 1952 season, Veeck suggested that the American League clubs share radio and television revenue with visiting clubs. Outvoted, he refused to allow the Browns' opponents to broadcast games played against his team on the road. The league responded by eliminating the lucrative Friday night games in St. Louis. A year later Cardinal owner Fred Saigh was convicted of tax evasion. Facing certain banishment from baseball, he was forced to put the Cardinals up for sale. Most of the bids came from out-of-town interests, and it appeared that Veeck would succeed in driving the Cardinals out of town. However Saigh accepted a much lower bid from St. Louis-based brewing giant Anheuser-Busch, who entered the picture with the specific intent of keeping the Cardinals in town. Veeck quickly realized that the Cardinals now had more resources than he could possibly hope to match. Reluctantly, he decided to leave St. Louis and find another place to play. As a preliminary step, he sold Sportsman's Park to the Cardinals. Veeck would have probably had to sell it in any event; the 44-year old park was in a poor state of repair, and even with the rent from the Cardinals he did not have the money to bring it up to code.
At first Veeck considered moving the Browns back to Milwaukee (where they had played their inaugural season in 1901). Milwaukee used recently-built Milwaukee County Stadium in an attempt to entice the Browns. However, the decision was in the hands of the Boston Braves. For the Browns to move, the minor league Brewers would be shut down. The Braves wanted another team with the same talent, and an agreement was not made in time for opening day. Ironically, a few weeks later, the Braves themselves moved to Milwaukee. St. Louis was known to want the team to stay, so some in St. Louis campaigned for the removal of Veeck. He then got in touch with a group that was looking to bring a Major League franchise to Baltimore. After the 1953 season, Veeck agreed in principle to sell half his stock to Baltimore attorney Clarence Miles, the leader of the Baltimore group, and his other partners. He would have remained the principal owner, with approximately a 40 percent interest. Even though league president Will Harridge told him approval was certain, only four owners—two short of the necessary six for passage—supported it. Realizing that the other owners simply wanted him out of the picture (indeed, he was facing threats of having his franchise canceled), Veeck agreed to sell his entire stake to Miles' group, who then moved the Browns to Baltimore as the Orioles.

May 15- New York Mets

I started writing this article earlier in the day, but quickly realized by the third paragraph that I was in fact writing a decent lead for a completely different New York Mets hat. I had a feeling something like this would happen; that I wouldn’t be able to form a strong enough opening to my story. For hours I’ve gone back-and-forth with different methods and ideas of how to kick this off, but none of them worked. The last few days seemed much easier to put together and I really have no idea why this article is so difficult. I guess something like this was bound to happen after 133 articles each and every day. I just want everything to be perfect.

Since 2008 the New York Mets have hosted a Military Appreciation Day every Memorial Day along with the USO. This upcoming Memorial Day will mark the sixth year they’ve done something so grand. Over 1400 active and retired members of the armed forces will be on hand as the Mets host their cross-town rival the New York Yankees. Last season the Mets hosted the Philadelphia Phillies before a packed house at Citi Field, losing the first game of the series. I remember the day vividly as it was the final full day that I was in the MLB Fan Cave. Eddie Mata, the Yankees fan, and I were shown the door the next day. But the one thing that made it all worth while was when Eddie had scored tickets from the owner of the Phillies for the rubber match on Wednesday.

I had never been to Citi Field, let alone Shea Stadium, but I can honestly say that it is in my Top-five of the stadiums I have visited. Our tickets were about 15 rows behind home plate. Both of us just looked in awe at one another with every “private” door that we were given access to. Around us were a few veterans who were still in town enjoying a game before they had to report back to their base over the weekend. Eddie and I chatted them up a bit, asked where they were from, etc. Eddie asked a few questions too many in my opinion, so I sat back and enjoyed the game without getting too involved. I crushed one of the finest pastrami sandwiches I had ever eaten, I drank a few beers, got soft serve ice cream in a helmet (only way to go), but mostly got to enjoy my freedom again after being cooped up in a glass box for two months. As great and as cool as the experience looks on the outside, it’s way more stressful than I could have ever imagined.

I’ll go into more details of that night in a later post. I found it fitting for the time period and as a reflection of how good I have it some times. Life could always be worse, and life certainly was worse a little shy of a hundred years ago when the United States was involved in its first overseas conflict during World War I. The US had gone to war several times in the previous 200 years, but none of them took as many lives as the four-year conflict we encountered, added on with the influenza outbreak of 1919 which killed millions more. Seriously, the flu. Back then it wasn’t a joke, and it was all made worse by the introduction of chemical-based weapons like mustard gas which were introduced during the war, and eventually brought back within the men who fought and later died due to complications. The most notable figure who faced this was Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson, but he’ll come up again in a later post. Only one person with ties to the Mets throughout baseball history was involved with the first Great War, but very little can be found about his time in the military.

#37- The Old Perfessor, Casey Stengel, served as the original Mets manager from 1962 until the middle of the 1965 season. Prior to his time with the Mets Stengel was a Hall of Fame-bound manager of the Yankees. From 1949-1960 he led the Yanks to 10 World Series, but only won seven of them (1949-1953, 1956 and 1958). His time with the Mets went in the exact opposite direction; he posted some of the worst years in Major League history and became the first manager of a team to compile 100 or more losses in three or more straight seasons. His final record with the Mets was 175-404 and he never managed in baseball again after August 30, 1965.

Stengel played professionally from 1912-1925 as a right fielder for the Brooklyn Robins, Pittsburgh Pirates, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Giants and Boston Braves. In 1919, when he was with the Pirates he was taunted mercilessly by fans of the Robins, his old team. Somehow Casey got hold of a sparrow and used it to turn the crowd in his favor. With the bird tucked gently beneath his cap, Casey strutted to the plate amidst a chorus of boos and catcalls. He turned to the crowd, tipped his hat and out flew the sparrow. The jeers turned to cheers, and Stengel became an instant favorite. In 1921 and 1922 he won two World Series rings as a member of the Giants, thus bringing his ring total up to nine as a player and a manager.

From what I’ve been able to track down his time in the military is a bit of mystery. This is his draft card from May 28, 1917, two days before Memorial Day.

Everything looks pretty legit; however, where everything goes weird is that I found a site that has Stengel listed as having been in the Navy and served during World War I, but according to his stat sheets he played ball every year from 1917-1918 the last few years and months of the war. So, being the good journalist that I am, I kept digging until I found an answer… and sure enough I did in the form of an article from the St. Petersburg Times from July 28, 1963: Casey Stengel

 Stengel never fought overseas. Hell, he never even left the dock. But that was how things went for professional ballplayers throughout the military campaign.

The one thing that I will always give full credit to the Mets about is that they were classy enough to retire Stengel's #37 by the end of the '65 season. Even though his time there wasn't something to be celebrated, the fans and the front office loved having him in the house. The other important thing to note from this is that it took until 1970 for the Yankees to give Stengel the same amount of love.That's the Amazin' Mets for ya!