The 1940s were years of change in the world of baseball. Minor league free agents were introduced to the game in 1940 by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis; Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 and player after player left to join the war effort with players both below and well above draft age completing the rosters; 1946 marked the first time that two National League teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and Brooklyn Dodgers, were tied for first place, forcing a best two-out-of three series; 1947 brought racial integration, with Jackie Robinson taking the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers; and the American League saw its own tie for first place in 1948 between the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox, which was played out in a one-game playoff. This work focuses on 27 players of the 1940s, guys—like Gene Thompson, Elmer Valo, Damon Phillips, Joe Cleary, and Cliff Chambers—who witnessed these changes and firsts personally. The players interviewed for this work had different experiences in the major leagues—some experienced long careers and benefited from the changes while others did not—and they come from diverse backgrounds as well.

Brent Kelley, a retired equine veterinarian from Lexington, Kentucky, is the author of numerous McFarland baseball books.

Brent Kelley
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 334
Bibliographic Info: 61 photos, bibliography, tables, index
Copyright Date: 2001
pISBN: 978-0-7864-0975-4
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8104-0
Imprint: McFarland

“fascinating…informative…strongly recommended…entertaining…memorable”—Midwest Book Review; “revisits the game before and after the war…players who witnessed the events first hand, many who have never offered their oral histories”—Sports Collectors Digest; “good…interesting”—The Diamond Angle.