WWII baseball items

[earlywynnfan]

Right in my wheelhouse! Here are some of my faves:

Some of my team-signed balls; some have MLB players, some don't. Right above the Great Lakes ball with Mickey Cochrane (center) is one with Joe DiMag and Joe Gordon.

My display case with some of my programs, tix, photos, and a couple autos.

A binder with various papers, plus a letter from Creepy Crespi written from his Army Hospital bed and Dan Bankhead's discharge paper. Sitting on an Army trunk from a minor league player.

15 service-team baseball jerseys, including one worn by Jack Phillips (yankees.) A few service team softballs; the one from the Galapagos is my favorite.

3 others: on the left is a ball from a service game pitched by and auto'd by Red Evans. On the right is a ball brought back from a USO tour led by Birdie Tebbets (CBI items are, IMHO, the toughest.) And in the center is my pride and joy: a ball pitched by Bob Feller in 1942.

Ken

[earlywynnfan]

And as much as Scott's Vander Meer photo makes me teary, it's only a matter of time before Richard posts and really makes me cry with his Hank Greenberg letter! Someday it will be mine, Richard, someday...

Ken

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by earlywynnfan

Right in my wheelhouse! Here are some of my faves:

Some of my team-signed balls; some have MLB players, some don't. Right above the Great Lakes ball with Mickey Cochrane (center) is one with Joe DiMag and Joe Gordon.

My display case with some of my programs, tix, photos, and a couple autos.

A binder with various papers, plus a letter from Creepy Crespi written from his Army Hospital bed and Dan Bankhead's discharge paper. Sitting on an Army trunk from a minor league player.

15 service-team baseball jerseys, including one worn by Jack Phillips (yankees.) A few service team softballs; the one from the Galapagos is my favorite.

3 others: on the left is a ball from a service game pitched by and auto'd by Red Evans. On the right is a ball brought back from a USO tour led by Birdie Tebbets (CBI items are, IMHO, the toughest.) And in the center is my pride and joy: a ball pitched by Bob Feller in 1942.

Ken

Geez Ken, what a WWII collection. I had no idea. WOW!

[esiason14]

Wowsers, Ken. Now that is a collection. Just awesome.

Kyle

[Scott Garner]

Here are two pretty remarkable items that I just acquired related to Johnny Vander Meer's Naval Service in WWII:

- Vandy's Honorable Discharge Certificate from the US Navy.

- Vandy's official signed Notice of Separation from the US Naval Service dated December 1945. Note that Johnny's true last name is spelled Van Der Meer (3 words, not 2 the way he typically signed).

Pretty unique and certainly a great fit for my advanced Vander Meer collection!

[jerseygary]

During the war Gene Hermanski of the Brooklyn Dodgers (and later the Cubs) was stationed on Long Island with the Coast Guard. On weekend leave he'd play with the Brooklyn Bushwicks semi-pro team under the name Gene Walsh so he wouldn't get in trouble with the Coasties. This is probably the only known autograph of "Gene Walsh" which comes from a 1944 autograph album put together by a teenage girl in Brooklyn that I was lucky to pick up.

[esiason14]

Very interesting and very cool. I didn't know he played under an different name.

[Den*nis O*Brien]

Originated from the Ralph Winnie collection