1943 "fantasy baseball" auction funded $124 million war bond drive

Organized Baseball raised billions of dollars in
war bonds sales during World War II to
raise its patriotic profile.

            An unusual form of fantasy baseball was created during World War II when the “War Bonds League” was formed. Participants bid on players from the three New York major league teams and followed their on-field performance. Instead of winning money based on the players’ performance, however, the fantasy leaguers paid in more money for each base hit, pitcher’s win, etc.

            It was all a plan to sell war bonds.

            As I wrote on this blog on Feb. 2, Organized Baseball -- from Yankee Stadium to the Class E Twin Ports League; owners, players and clubhouse boys alike -- relied on the forbearance of the Federal government to stay alive during World War II.

To assure they retained positive public sentiment, there was no group more diligent in their efforts to financially support the U.S. war effort than professional baseball.

The United States did not finance World War II in the manner in which recent administrations have done, by deficit spending. WWII was largely funded on a pay-as-you-go system by selling Series E bonds to the public under the Treasury Department National Defense Savings Program.

The plan was brilliantly conceived to prevent rampant inflation during a period when full employment collided with rationing of even the most basic goods and services by taking money out of circulation.

Series E bonds were sold in denominations from $25 to $10,000. Buyers paid 75% of the bonds’ face value. They were redeemable in 10 years, paying only a modest 2.9% annual rate of return.

The government urged citizens to put 10% of their pay into war bonds, and the American people responded with patriotic fervor. About half of the population, more than 85 million people, bought $185.7 billion in war bonds at a time when the median household income in America was about $2,000.

The suggestion to sell war bonds by auctioning local ballplayers originated with John H. Callen, assistant administrator of the New York War Saving Staff of the Treasury Department.    The War Bonds League auction was conducted June 8, 1943, at a luncheon in the ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, sponsored by the Treasury Department and the New York and Brooklyn chapters of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.

Dodgers outfielder Dixie Walker,
on this 1940 team-issued photo,
was also "The Peoples Cherce" in
the War Bonds League fantasy
auction, bringing $11 million.

The event was attended by some 1,500 businessmen, industrialists, bankers, etc., from Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn, as well as officials of all three New York teams and National League President Ford Frick.

The principal auctioneer was former New York City Mayor Jimmy Walker. He was assisted by broadcasters Red Barber of the Dodgers and Mel Allen of the Yankees.

            The auction was broadcast live by New York radio station WJZ over the Blue Network, of the American Broadcasting System.

In a feature in the June 17, 1943, issue of The Sporting News, Harry Cross of the New York Herald-Tribune reported that the ballplayer auction resulted in bond sales pledges of $123,850,000, reportedly a new record for a one-day war bond sales event.

            Cross wrote, “Brooklyn money and Dodgers boosters dominated the unusual gathering. The unbridled enthusiasm of the Brooklyn War Bond bidders reflected the kind of aggressive interest which marks Ebbets Field fans.”

            The Brooklyn backers drove the price of six Dodgers players higher than that garnered by any of the Yankees or Giants. The highest bid was $11,250,000 for Bums’ outfielder Dixie Walker, followed closely by Arky Vaughan at $11,000,000. Those bids were more than double that of any other player in the auction.

            Bragging rights for Walker were purchased by the Brooklyn Club, a social organization in the borough, while Vaughan’s “buyer” was Esso Marketeers, the public relations and promotions arm of Standard Oil.

            The Sporting News published this list of the player auction results and the sponsors who won the bids.

BROOKLYN DODGERS -- $56,500,000

            Dixie Walker                Brooklyn Club                            11,250,000

            Arky Vaughan             Esso Marketeers                        11,000,000

            Dolph Camilli               Bowery Savings Bank                  5,000,000

            Billy Herman                C.J. Devine & Co. (leading Wall St. dealer in government securities)                                                                                                                   4,000,000

            Augie Galan                Dime Savings Bank                      4,000,000

            Buck Newsom             Borden Co. (the “Elsie” dairy company)                                                                                                                                                             3,750,000

            Albie Glossop              Bowery Savings Bank                  3,500,000

            Rube Melton                Socony-Vacuum (world’s third largest oil company)                                                                                                                                           3,000,000

            Freddie Fitzsimmons   John Cashmore (Brooklyn Borough President)                                                                                                                                                    3,000,000

            Mickey Owen              Brooklyn Junior Chamber of Commerce

                                                                                                2,500,000

            Joe Medwick               Kuhn, Loeb and Co. (investment banking firm)

                                                                                                2,000,000

            Whitlow Wyatt             J. P. Stevens and Co. (textile industry giant)

                                                                                                2,000,000

            Kirby Higbe                 Bonwit-Teller (upscale 5^th Avenue department store)                                                                                                                                           1,500,000

NEW YORK YANKEES -- $17,300,000

            Joe Gordon                 National Bronx Savings                3,500,000

            Johnny Murphy           Roosevelt Savings, Brooklyn        3,300.000

            Bill Dickey                   Bronx “Syndicate” (group of fans from neighborhood around Yankee Stadium)                                                                                                    2,000,000

            Roy Weatherly Alexander’s Department Store (discount chain in metropolitan N.Y.)                                                                                        1,500,000

            Charlie Keller              Eastern Airlines                            1,250,000

            Johnny Lindell             Socony-Vacuum                          1,250,000

            Nick Etten                    J. P. Stevens and Co.                1,000,000

            Ernie Bonham             Eastern Women’s Headwear Assn. (millinery manufacturers trade group)                                                                                                            1,000,000

            Hank Borowy               Bonwit-Teller                                 750,000

            Frank Crosetti             American Woolen Co. (huge military materials contractor)                                                                                                                                     750,000

            George Stirnweiss       J. P. Stevens and Co.                    500,000

            Spud Chandler            General Outdoor Advertising (world’s largest marketer of billboards)                                                                                                                       500,000

NEW YORK GIANTS -- $15,050,000 

            Carl Hubbell                Esso Marketeers                          3,000,000

            Mel Ott                        4 for 3 Club (social club)              2,000,000

            Dick Bartell                  War Savings Staff                       2,000,000

            Babe Barna                 Irving Savings Bank                    1,500,000

            Ernie Lombardi            North River Savings                    1,500,000

            Sid Gordon                  International Business Machine   1,250,000

            Billy Jurges                  1^st Boston Corp.                       1,000,000

            Bill Lohrman                Bonwit-Teller                             1,000,000

            Ace Adams                  Norman Liberman                        750,000

            Mickey Witek               Taxi Industry                              500,000

            Cliff Melton                  Socony-Vacuum                         350,000

            Buster Maynard           J. P. Stevens and Co.                 300,000

            In addition to the successful player surrogate purchases of $88,850,000, the underbidders and others at the luncheon pledged an additional $35,000,000.

           But the auction bidding was not the end of the fund-raising effort. The sponsor of each player pledged to buy additional bonds based on the on-field performance of their players from June 15 through the end of the 1943 season.

            Announced performance pledge amounts were:

                        Single              $2,500

                        Double             $5,000

                        Triple               $7,500

                        Home Run       $10,000

                        Pitcher’s win    $25,000 (later, $35,000)

                        Pitcher’s shutout         $50,000

            As an example of the performance payout, The Sporting News cited the Dodgers-Giants game on June 15, at which War Bonds League players brought in some $90,000 in bond pledges.

            Brooklyn lost that game at the Polo Grounds, 5-6. Dodgers players in the WBL had six of the team’s eight hits, all singles. Vaughan had three hits, Herman had two and Galan had one, worth $2,500 each ($15,000 total).

            For the Giants, participating players had nine of New York’s 11 hits. Bartell, Witek, Melton and Lombardi had singles. Lombardi also chipped in a double. Ott doubled and homered and Jurges and Melton each homered, bringing the position players’ count to $50,000 in pledges. Ace Adams got the win ($25,000).

            More casual fans of the players were also welcomed to buy bonds with points credited to that player’s “team.”

            When the season was over, $7,325,000 in war bonds had been sold based on on-field performance. Dixie Walker was again the top earner, with $257,000 in sales attributed to his game play.

            In all, the three New York teams combined to account for nearly a billion dollars in bond sales -- $947,300,000 – during the 1943 season.

P.S. An interesting side note published in TSN said that the sponsor of the June 8 auction lunch, Benrus Watch Co., paid $2,000 to host of the event. The company invited all New York baseball writers to a pre-lunch meeting. Only a few attended . . . and each received a $100 watch.

"War Bond Game" was $800MM extravaganza

Seven of the 12 living Hall of Famers appeared in the "Tableau
of Yesterday" at the War Bond Game in 1943. At top, from left, are:
Duffy Lewis, Eddie Collins, Roger Bresnahan, Connie Mack, Bill Klem,
Red Murray and George Sisler. Front row, from left: Honus Wagner,
Frank Frisch, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson and Tris Speaker.

Organized Baseball -- from Yankee Stadium to the Class E Twin Ports League; owners, players and clubhouse boys alike -- relied on the forbearance of the Federal government to stay alive during World War II. 

To assure they retained positive public sentiment, there was no group more diligent in their efforts to financially support the U.S. war effort than professional baseball.

There was no end of fund-raising exhibition games and player appearances at bond-sale rallies.

The largest single event in that effort was the All-Star War Bond Game of Aug. 26, 1943, at the Polo Grounds in New York, sponsored by the New York Journal-American newspaper.

When the event was initially proposed it was expected that sales of $100 million worth of war bonds would be realized. When the dust had settled from the last out of the all-star game, it was reported that $800 million in bond sales and pledges had been made. (In today's dollars, that's about $11 billion!)

The purchase of war bonds was the price of admission to the event. Unreserved seats could be had for $18.75 (the price of a $25 bond). Nine thousand reserved seats were available to those buying a $1,000 bond. the 50 front row boxes around the stadium were priced at $1 million each. Sales of advertising in the program and around the stadium and sales of the program enhanced the revenue stream. 

Maybe I'm ignorant about such fund-raisers, but I don't see where the reported $800 million in bond sales came from, based on the above figures. However, that's the total that was widely reported at the time. 

The principal feature of the day's activities was an exhibition game between the War Bond League All-Stars and an assemblage of major and minor leaguers then in military service billed as Camp Cumberland. 

The War Bond League team was comprised of players from the New York Yankees, New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers. They were nominally selected by the newspaper's readers and managed by then-Dodgers skipper Leo Durocher, filling in for an ailing Mel Ott.

The Camp Cumberland All-Service team had been pulled together from military bases all over the Eastern U.S. by Lt.-Col. Larry MacPhail, former Dodgers president, who was Assistant to Under-Secretary of War Robert Patterson. The service team was managed by Capt. Hank Gowdy, the only major leaguer to serve in both World Wars. (Camp Cumberland, near Harrisburg, Pa., was part of a military complex that included a top secret, black-ops type, interrogation site for high-value German and Japanese prisoners.)

More than 38,000 attended the game and saw 10 future Hall of Famers in action. Among the current major leaguers who played were Arky Vaughan, Joe Medwick, Joe Gordon, Billy Herman, Paul Waner, Ernie Lombardi, Bill Dickey and Carl Hubbell. 

The army team featured Capt. Hank Greenberg and Enos Slaughter, along with such stars as Billy Hitchcock, Pat Mullin, Elmer Valo, Danny Murtaugh, Birdie Tebbetts, Sid Hudson and 1942 Cardinals World Series pitching hero Lt. Johnny Beazley.

In all, 43 players participated on the field.

The current all-stars defeated the military men 5-2, though the servicemen outhit the major leaguers 14-9.

While the exhibition game was the main attraction, another baseball feature seemed to capture the attention of the public and the sporting press. 

Prior to the ballgame, what the Journal-American called the "Tableau of Yesterday" was presented, featuring seven of the 12 then-living Hall of Famers and several more who would be inducted in future years.

Decked out in their old uniforms (including Eddie Collins in an old-style pillbox hat), the all-time greats took their familiar places around the field to the roar of the crowd.

Walking to the mound was Walter Johnson. His battery mate was Roger Bresnahan. At first base was George Sisler. The keystone sack was manned by Eddie Collins. At the hot corner was Frankie Frisch. And, of course, Honus Wagner was the shortstop. Left to right in the outfield were Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker and Red Murray. Umpire Bill Klem took up his post behind the plate and Connie Mack assumed the manager's position.

The cheers from the crowd redoubled as Babe Ruth strode to the plate. Swinging at the Big Train's pitching, the Bam sprayed hot shots around the infield, fouled one off his foot, then lofted a home run into the right-field stands, just 260 feet away.

Besides the baseball activities, the crowd was entertained by a bevy of Hollywood film stars, radio and recording artists and actress Carole Landis, who logged more miles than any other entertaining troops during the war and was one of the most popular pin-up girls among G.I.s. Former N.Y.C. major Jimmy Walker introduced the entertainers, including James Cagney, Ethel Merman, Milton Berle, Cab Calloway and Fred Waring.

There are a number of souvenirs from the game available to collectors today. 

Certainly the most attractive is the 65-page 10" x 12" program. Among its features were pages dedicated to each of the Hall of Famers, including a photo, career summary and a box score of their first major league game. In nice condition, the program is a $150-250 item today.

Less common is the scorecard that included the names of all the players scheduled to play in the exhibition game. It's about $75-125 now.

Ticket stubs from the event are popular and surprisingly plentiful in the market today. The smaller unreserved seat stub is worth $50-100, while the larger, more ornate, ticket to the $1,000 reserve seats can bring double that.

While they were not sold at the game. Posed press photos of the players from the "Tableau of Yesterday" are plentiful and popular with collectors. You could spend a couple of hundred dollars for a Type 1 original print, or $10-20 for the a recent reproduction

.

WWII pilots sought pro ball caps

Baseball caps from pro teams were highly sought by pilots and
crew during World War II.  T/Sgt. Bob Caron, tail gunner on the
Enola  Gay, wore a Brooklyn Dodgers cap on the mission to
bomb Hiroshima.

In my reading of microfilm of The Sporting News from 1944-45, I’ve noticed several items indicating that baseball caps from professional teams were highly prized by U.S. pilots.

Besides the prestige of wearing a cap formerly worn by a ballplayer, there was a practical side. Pilots found that the peaked visors of a baseball cap provided better protection from the sun’s glare than did the standard-issue headwear. Also, the professional ballcaps fit more snugly than Uncle Sam's version, giving the pilot and crew a better fit for their headsets.

Billy Southworth, Jr., (right) shown here with Bob Hope, wore a St. Louis
Cardinals baseball cap for much of his distinguished WWII flying career.

The trend was said to have started with Billy Southworth, Jr., son of the St. Louis Cardinals manager. The younger Southworth had played his way up to the top rungs of the Cards' minor league chain between 1936-40. He became a highly decorated bomber pilot in World War II, often wearing a Cardinals' cap in cockpit. He died in 1945 in a stateside plane crash.

Anybody who had a contact within a professional baseball organization from whom caps could be procured earned instant admiration from the flight crews.

Typical of the items carried by TSN of this subject was this short piece from the “In The Service” column of the April 27, 1944, issue.

White Sox Caps to Pay

Another Visit to Japan

            Chicago, Ill.—Back in the winter of 1913-14, when Charley Comiskey and John McGraw took their respective White Sox and Giants on a trip around the world, White Sox caps were worn by Tris Speaker, Sam Crawford, Herman Schaeffer and Urban Faber when they played in Tokyo, Yokohama and other Japanese cities. Some American airmen, wearing White Sox caps, now hope to pay another visit to Nippon’s big cities in the not-too-distant future.

            At the request of the former White Sox pitching star, Captain Ted Lyons of the Marines, Jimmie Dykes, Chicago manager, sent two dozen Sox caps to Ted in a fighting sector in the Southwest Pacific. They are to be used by fighting pilots from the base. For good measure, Dykes included Ted’s old White Sox shirt, with the familiar “16”on the back, the number which endeared Lyons to Chicago fans for 20 seasons with the Hose.

I don’t have it at hand, but I recall a 1945 TSN article about a “lucky” Brooklyn Dodgers cap worn by a B-17 pilot in Europe.

Wearing the Brooklyn cap, the pilot had brought his ship and crew through an unusually high number of bombing missions. He was hospitalized with some internal ailment or other and was visited by his crew prior to their next mission. He forgot to give the cap to the pinch-hitting pilot. The plane and its crew of 10 were lost.

Another noteworthy case of WWII pilots requesting pro ball caps was related by St. Louis Cardinals manager Billy Southworth in 1943. 

He received a request for St. Louis Cardinals caps from the commander of a Marine fighter squadron in the Pacific. The commander said that if Southworth would provide the caps, he and his pilots would shoot down one Japanese fighter for each cap received. 

Southworth sent the caps and later learned that the unit had splashed 48 Zeros by early 1944. The flying leathernecks' unit was Maj. Pappy Boyington's "Black Sheep Squadron."

The impetus for bringing this posting to fruition was an episode of Pawn Stars that I watched last night. Somebody was trying to get an inordinate amount of cash for a couple of autographed photos related to the Enola Gay and its crew.

I noticed that the one of the B-29 crew (it wasn’t pilot Col. Paul Tibbets) was wearing a Brooklyn Dodgers cap on that Aug. 6, 1945, mission that delivered the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima.

The airman wearing the Dodgers cap was T/Sgt. Bob Caron, the plane’s tail gunner. It was appropriate he had the cap since he was a 1938 graduate of Brooklyn Technical High School.