Many a vintage baseball flannel has surfaced within the hobby that can be traced back to being sent down to the minors…but what about those sent to another league all together?
A number of years back I bought a rather large collection of Cincinnati Reds Newsletters. The publication was called “News of the Reds.” This assortment covered the mid 1930s the late 1950s. As a military man, the ones I found particularly interesting where the ones spanning the World War II era. Game schedules were changed to accommodate a war time economy, servicemen were admitted to games for free, and foul balls were returned by patrons so they could be donated to the Special Services for use by “the boys overseas.”
The most interesting of these articles came in the form of a letter in the May 9th, 1943 issue in the form of letter from Navy Lieutenant J.M. Crowley, Navy Department, U.S. Naval Air Station, Glenview, Illinois. His letter was to Mr. Warren Giles of the Cincinnati Reds thanking him for..yep..you guessed it…uniforms.
LT. Crowley went on to write:
“Dear Mr. Giles,
You are certainly a man of action. What a surprise! To say that so generous a gift is appreciated by the department, the team, and the men at Glenview would be an understatement.
The 12 uniforms arrived on April 30, and had not old Jupiter let go on Sunday to wash out our opening game, we might have had a Red at second, short, and left field.
Our boys, only two of whom had ever played professional baseball, got a big kick out of looking over uniforms worn in the 1940 World Series by such world champions as Walters, McCormick, Frey Derringer, etc.
Mr. Giles, let me express the appreciation of our commanding officer, the personnel of the station, and my sincere thanks for your thoughtfulness.
With sincere personal regards.
Yours very truly,
LT. J.M. Crowley”
Having played baseball in the middle of the Iraqi dessert with an axe handle and a ball made from socks and tape in March of 1991, I can appreciate the gesture…If anyone at Steiner’s is reading this and they are looking for a unit to send items to in Iraq or Afghanistan, please drop me a line and I will put you in contact with some of these guys playing in a different league.
Dave
That's a great piece. It reminded me of an article I came across when researching ABA basketball (my passion).
Not baseball, and not the armed forces, but...
FROM THE JANUARY 1973 ABA FAN CLUB NEWSLETTER : "In the spring of 1972, the ABA received a letter from Hersey Boyer, No. 23594, who called himself the Inmate Basketball Commissioner of C Block at Attica Prison in upstate New York. Hersey was requesting help for the prison basketball league. The ABA answered the call by sending two red, white and blue basketballs. Then, with the league purchase of the Pittsburgh and Floridians franchises, the league came into possession of a number of uniforms and the chance to give further aid. The uniforms of the Pittsburgh Condors, sweatsuits and all, were sent to the prison. While the Condors no longer existed, their uniforms lived on."
Today, I think there are less than five Pittsburgh Condors jerseys in existence!
