Rays To Honor St. Petersburg’s Fallen Police Officers

ST. PETERSBURG, FL—The Tampa Bay Rays will “retire” the official radio call signs of the three St. Petersburg police officers killed in 2011, the first officers lost in the line of duty in St. Petersburg in more than 30 years.  The ceremony will take place at Tropicana Field prior to the Rays-Orioles game on Friday, […]

Ultimate Sacrifice Baseball Card Set Part 2

Last week I talked about the idea of creating a set of baseball cards for the 142 professional players who lost their lives serving with the military during WWII. I was pleased to receive such an overwhelmingly positive response and it would seem many of you believe it would be a great idea to produce […]

Ultimate Sacrifice Baseball Card Set

Of the 142 professional baseball players who lost their lives during World War II, I doubt any of them ever appeared on a baseball card. This got me thinking about how nice it would be to create cards for each of them and I have to admit I have taken my inspiration from Gary Cieradkowski’s […]

Bill Hosie: Young Canadian Ballplayer Killed in WWII

Over the past ten years or so, I have scoured countless newspapers from the 1930s looking for references to ballplayers who were killed while serving with the armed forces during World War II. In addition to the 141 former professional players that I’ve uncovered I have found reference to hundreds of semi-pro, college and high […]

139 Ballplayers Died in Service in World War II

Names such as Bob Feller and Ted Williams instantly spring to mind when we think of dedication to service during the war years, but little is heard of the minor league players who also served. While the majority of big leaguers enjoyed an almost normal existence (albeit for $21 a month service pay) playing baseball […]

Remembering Baseball’s Dead of World War II on Memorial Day

We don’t celebrate Memorial Day in Scotland. We have a day for military veterans in November called Remembrance Day, just like you have Veterans Day, but nothing at this time of year. I think we should. So, until our government listen to my advice and make it happen, I’m going to share yours. Obviously, when […]

Baseball’s Dead of World War II

There has never been a baseball book like Baseball’s Dead of World War II.  (Baseball historian Bill Swank) A few years ago I began compiling biographies on professional baseball players who lost their lives in military service during World War II. At the time I had around 25 names to work with . . . […]