David E. Hubler - The Nats and the Grays: How Baseball in the Nations Capital Survived WWII and Changed the Game Forever

The Nats and the Grays

David E. Hubler and Joshua H. Drazen

ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD

Lanham Boulder New York London

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hubler, David, 1941

The Nats and the Grays : how baseball in the Nation's Capital survived WWII and changed the game forever / David E. Hubler and Joshua H. Drazen.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4422-4574-7 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4422-4575-4 (ebook) 1. BaseballWashington (D.C.)History. 2. Washington Senators (Baseball team : 1886-1960)History. 3. Homestead Grays (Baseball team)History. 4. Washington Nationals (Baseball team)--History. I. Drazen, Joshua H., 1973 II. Title.

GV863.W18H83 2015

796.357'640975309044--dc23

2014039447

TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

To the Hublers, a Murderers Row lineup of sons Geoff and Rob, daughter-in-law Shannon and our talented and beautiful granddaughters Layla and Macie, and of course batting cleanup, my extraordinarily wonderful wife, Rebecca, whose wisdom, patience, and love always bring me home. And to the memory of my parents, Gladys and Nat, who taught me to love baseball, and especially the New York Yankees.

To the memory of my grandfathers, WWII veterans who helped save the world from pure evil: Alvin Poppy Lazaroff, a Navy dentist who survived a failed Kamikaze attack while serving on the USS Cottle, and Jack Papa Jack Drazen, who experienced the Battle of the Bulge first-hand aboard an Army Sherman tank. I miss them both every day. And to my mother Lynne, my father Barrie, and my sister Jennifer. Nothing would have been possible without their incredible encouragement, love, and support, which I appreciate more than they can possibly fathom.

The sounds were the same through the yearsthe American sounds of summer, the tap of bat against ball, the cries of the infielders, the wooden plumb of the ball into catchers mitts, the umpires calling strike three and youre out. The generations circled the bases, the dust rose for forty years as runners slid in from third, dead boys hit doubles, famous men made errors at shortstop, forgotten friends tapped the clay from their spikes with their bats as they stepped into the batters box, coaches voices warned, across the decades, Tag up, tag up! on fly balls. The distant, mortal innings of boyhood and youth.

Irwin Shaw, Voices of a Summer Day

The authors could not have undertaken, no less completed, this history without the kind assistance from a group of knowledgeable friends and colleagues. And because we value their contributions equally, we have chosen to acknowledge them alphabetically:

Hal Bock and Michael Powers, co-editors of Willard Mullins Golden Age of Baseball: Drawings 19341972, for Hals encouragement and Mikes permission to reprint an example of the great cartoonists work.

George Case III, son of Washington Nationals great George Case Jr., for correcting many of the print errors in the newspapers of the day. The man we went to for explanations, clarifications, and anecdotes.

Alicia Clark, historian for the city of Sanford, Florida, for helping to clarify some initial confusion as to the location of Tinker Field, spring home of the Nationals before and after the war, and for other local information that proved valuable.

Bob Clark, deputy director of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York, for his help throughout the process by providing several official White House documents and his expertise.

Stanley Cohen, author of The Man in the Crowd, The Game They Played, A Magic Summer, and other outstanding sports books, whose friendship and guidance have been valued assets during the writing of this book.

Paul Dickson, author of The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, Bill Veeck: Baseballs Greatest Maverick, Baseball: The Presidents Game, and many other notable volumes, our most knowledgeable guide through the wide world of baseball research.

Dr. Raymond Doswell, vice president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in St. Louis, for his generous permission to reprint the museums photograph of the Homestead Grays team.

Bill Gilbert, author of They Also Served: Baseball and the Home Front, 19411945, for permission to quote from his excellent history.

Matthew C. Hanson, archivist at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, for his assistance in providing photographs and answers when we needed them.

Darren R. Jones and the staff of the Library of Congress for their invaluable assistance and remarkable patience in instructing us in the workings of the librarys computers and archives and for supplying us with the documentation and photographs without which we could not have written this book.

Christen Karniski, our terrific editor at Rowman & Littlefield who first came up with the idea for the parameters of the book and who wisely shepherded it from gestation to the finished product, all the while providing guidance and encouragement.

Pat Kelly, photo archivist at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum at Cooperstown, New York, for his assistance in tracking down and providing us with some excellent photographs.

Ted Leavengood, well-known baseball historian and Clark Griffith biographer, for steering us to a deeper and more accurate understanding of the legendary Washington franchise owner.

William B. Mead, St. Louis native and author of Even the Browns and Baseball Goes to War: Stars Don Khaki, 4-Fs Vie for Pennant, for permission to quote from his unique history and memoir of the period.

JoAnn Morse, administrative officer of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, for assistance during our search for photographs and information about the Roosevelt family.

Amanda Rodriguez, of the Minnesota Twins baseball organization, for finding and sending us photos of several Washington Nationals players while simultaneously engaged in the demanding work of assisting the Twins host the 2014 All-Star Game at Target Field.

Mark Schlueb, of the OrlandoSentinel, for keeping us apprised of the citys plans for the antiquated and rarely used Tinker Field even as the demolition ball prepares to take down the Nats old spring-training site.