Baseball and World War II: A Study of the Landis-Roosevelt Correspondence

James A. Percoco

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
7 (Summer 1992). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 1992, Organization of American Historians

Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis questioned if professional baseball should be played while the nation was embroiled in war. On 14 January 1942, Landis wrote to President Roosevelt seeking his advice. Roosevelt responded the next day with what has become known as "the green light letter," offering Landis his personal opinion that baseball should continue even though the nation was at war. Roosevelt suggested that the benefits of the game would provide a much-needed morale boost to those on the homefront and to American service personnel overseas.

At the conclusion of this lesson, students should demonstrate some ability to:

1. Describe the important role of sport in American life and culture.

2. Use primary source documents as a tool for the study of history.

3. Explain one aspect of the American homefront during the Second World War.

4. Discuss the role of the President in relationship to daily American life.

5. Discuss the relationship between sport and the Second World War for spectators and participants.

One of the most interesting periods in United States sport history is the period between 1942 and 1945 when professional baseball played an important role on the homefront and around the world. With the entry of the United States into the Second World War, baseball teams endured tremendous short-term changes. Many baseball stars such as Hank Greenberg, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, and Ted Williams were drafted or volunteered for military service. In most cases, those stars became players for army or navy baseball teams that played to entertain service personnel. Others, like Bob Feller, found themselves in the midst of combat against the Japanese or the Germans.

A hodgepodge assortment of players, both young and old, filled the vacuum left by those who served in the armed forces. Fifteen-year-old phenom Joe Nuxhall pitched for the Cincinnati Reds; Pete Gray, a one-armed outfielder, suited up for the St. Louis Browns; and former slugger Jimmie Foxx came out of retirement to play for the Philadelphia Phillies. These players kept the game alive in the big league cities, as did their counterparts on the minor league circuit, and provided lighthearted entertainment for millions of fans.

Black Americans did not fail to notice that the white major league teams preferred to employ schoolboys, overaged journeymen players, or the physically handicapped over able-bodied and incredibly talented black men. Nevertheless, the Negro Leagues continued to play and draw respectable crowds during the war years. In addition, Philip Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, organized the professional All-American Girls' Baseball League (1943-54)--the only time women have played professional baseball in U.S. history. Principally from the Midwest, teams such as the Rockford Peaches, Kalamazoo Lassies, and Grand Rapids Chicks provided an interesting chapter in the annals of wartime baseball. Both black and women's organizations contributed to the diverse history of the national pastime by serving the nation in a valid and valuable capacity--promoting patriotism and emphasizing American values of teamwork and victory.

During the war, the tradition of playing the national anthem prior to the start of games began. Team owners and both major leagues felt that it was appropriate to honor America while reminding fans of our soldiers and sailors overseas. Homefront baseball also saw an increase in the number of night games so that working-class Americans could frequently attend, a point to which Roosevelt alluded in his response to Landis.

Perhaps World War II's greatest effect on baseball was in the area of desegregation. With the Axis Powers defeated by black and white soldiers who fought a war against totalitarian governments, the hypocrisy of professional baseball's segregated status was pushed into the spotlight. It seemed evident that a nation supposedly committed to the ideals of equality could not long condone the fact that a color barrier divided its preeminent sports institution. In late 1945, when United States Army war veteran Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers' top farm club, the Montreal Royals, the first crack in organized baseball's wall of racial apartheid appeared. As one chapter in the history of America's pastime closed, another chapter had begun.

Note: This one-period lesson may be presented as part of a teaching unit on the U.S. homefront during World War II or as part of a unit on baseball and American life.

1. Make copies of both letters for the class.

2. Distribute to students the letter from Landis to Roosevelt. Ask students to read the letter.

3. Have students write a letter from Roosevelt to Landis in response to Landis's concerns. Then have the students share their letters with the class.

4. Tell students to assume that Roosevelt had supported the suspension of baseball during the Second World War, and have them draft editorials either supporting Roosevelt's position or opposing the suspension of baseball. Ask students to read their editorials to the class.

5. Distribute to students a copy of Roosevelt's "green light letter."

6. After students have read Roosevelt's response to Landis, have them hypothesize about the following:

• If baseball had been suspended, in what other ways could Americans have filled their leisure time in the summer?

• What possible messages would the wartime suspension of baseball have sent to the American public or the Axis powers?

• How valid are Roosevelt's arguments regarding the continuation of baseball during the war? What role did baseball play in the war effort in Roosevelt's views?

1. Assign students to research baseball as played during World War II.

2. Ask students to explore the Negro Leagues and the impact of World War II on the integration of baseball.

3. Have students research the professional All-American Girls' Baseball League and the impact of World War II on women's sports.

4. Have students research the impact of recent wars on American sport.

Gilbert, Bill. They Also Served: Baseball and the Homefront, 1941-1945. New York: Crown Publishers, 1992.

Goldstein, Richard. Spartan Seasons: How Baseball Survived the Second World War. New York: Macmillan, 1990.

Jensen, Peggy Dahlberg, "Loving the Peaches," Rockford Magazine, July 1989, 34-38.

Meade, William. Baseball Goes to War. Washington: Farragut Publishing, 1985.

Seymour, Harold. Baseball: The People's Game. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.

Tygiel, Jules. Baseball's Great Experiment: Jackie Robinson and His Legacy. New York: Ransom House, 1983.

This lesson has been developed with the assistance of the Education Branch of the National Archives.

James A. Percoco teaches American Civilization and Applied History at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Virginia. He has contributed several articles to the Magazine of History.