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The Game Must Go On: Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray, and the Great Days of Baseball on the Home Front in WWII
On December 7, 1941, as the battleships of Pearl Harbor smoldered, one of the most powerful athletes in America, Detroit Tigers MVP Hank Greenberg, made a tumultuous decision-to leave the baseball field for the field of war.
His decision left baseball's place during the war uncertain as more and more ballplayers, famous and unknown alike, put off their careers to go into the fight. President Roosevelt was faced with a difficult decision: stop all of professional baseball for the good of the victory, but, in doing so, risk losing a vital part of morale. He decided that, whatever it took, THE GAME MUST GO ON.
This is the story of American baseball history during World War II-of both the players who left to join the war and of the ones who struggled to keep the game alive on the home front. Taking the place of the big shots turned soldiers, sailors, and combat pilots were misfit replacement players. While Greenberg represented the player who served, Pete Gray symbolized the player who stayed. He was a one-armed outfielder who overcame insurmountable odds to become a professional athlete.
John Klima drops us straight into 1941-1945. Culminating in the 1945 pennant race where Greenberg and Gray's paths memorably crossed, Klima shows us how World War II made the country come of age and took baseball with it. This is the story of how the games we play changed because of the battles we fought.
His decision left baseball's place during the war uncertain as more and more ballplayers, famous and unknown alike, put off their careers to go into the fight. President Roosevelt was faced with a difficult decision: stop all of professional baseball for the good of the victory, but, in doing so, risk losing a vital part of morale. He decided that, whatever it took, THE GAME MUST GO ON.
This is the story of American baseball history during World War II-of both the players who left to join the war and of the ones who struggled to keep the game alive on the home front. Taking the place of the big shots turned soldiers, sailors, and combat pilots were misfit replacement players. While Greenberg represented the player who served, Pete Gray symbolized the player who stayed. He was a one-armed outfielder who overcame insurmountable odds to become a professional athlete.
John Klima drops us straight into 1941-1945. Culminating in the 1945 pennant race where Greenberg and Gray's paths memorably crossed, Klima shows us how World War II made the country come of age and took baseball with it. This is the story of how the games we play changed because of the battles we fought.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published May 5, 2015
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457 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
January 28, 2016
A lot of interesting information and stories about baseball during WWII and baseball players who fought in WWII. The author had a lot to try to bring together into a book. A 5 for the information and a 3 for the organization, but a 2 for writing. A huge amount of repetition. How many different ways can you say that the war caused a manpower shortage in baseball? Lots of odd choices of words and turns of phrase. The book was not well written, and I'm surprised there was not an editor who improved the writing. I'm glad I read it, but it could and should have been better written and edited.
October 21, 2015
I grew up hearing how the Cubs made it to the '45 series because the other teams didn't have their good players, but I never heard the full story. Interesting read. Most captivated by the story of Pete Gray. Would read more by this author.
August 16, 2015
As Germany and Japan continued aggressive expansion in their respective theaters, war loomed inevitable for the United States. Once we made our formal entry after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on 12/7/41, there was no assurance that baseball would continue until the conflict was resolved. Fortunately, FDR was a big baseball fan and was receptive to the behind-the-scenes lobbying by Washington Senators' owner Clark Griffith. FDR gave the " Green Light" for the game to continue in 1942 and approval would be renewed in the succeeding years, although it would certainly be a different game, composed of players who were below the usual high caliber. It should also be noted that while one of the stated reasons for the Green Light was to sustain morale on the home front, it also was a vital psychological anchor point for soldiers serving overseas. The troops may have differed on many issues of regional and cultural preference but baseball provided common ground and they followed the game with enthusiasm. In that era, baseball dwarfed all other sports in popularity and though the rosters may have been depleted, it retained its hold on the public.
The narrative is presented through the lens of a star - Hank Greenberg, who like Bob Feller, Ted Williams, and many others would don a new uniform during the war as they served in the military; and Pete Gray, the one-armed outfielder who was one of the many minor leaguers who would get their rare opportunity for a brief tour in the big leagues as the roster spots were vacated by reigning stars; and the tragic story of manager Billy Southworth Sr. and his son Billy Jr.. Billy was on the cusp of entering the majors but would pay the ultimate cost when he died in a plane crash. No championship could assuage the father's grief. The war touched their lives and millions more, elevating some as they fulfilled their aspirations while dashing the hopes of others who would never regain their playing form after making the sacrifice for their country.
Looming in the background was the issue of race. As long as Judge K. Landis was baseball commissioner, the racial wall barring blacks from entry into the major leagues would remain intact. However, Landis conveniently died as the war inched toward a conclusion and he would would be replaced by Happy Chandler who harbored no such reservations. The much familiar tale of Jackie Robinson would then ensue and the trickle of minority players would become a flood, altering the landscape of the game forever.
Unlike the usual sweep through cultural history on the topic, Klima probes deeper and speaks to some of the great ironies of the game vis a vis the war. Landis detested FDR but was reliant on the president's approval to sanction the continued play. Owners would have a stranglehold on the power buttons of the game and may have couched their rhetoric with a patriotic flavor but used the war as an excuse to suppress salaries and used the media machinery to publicly flog players who refused to accept reduced pay, portraying them as ingrates. As they demonstrated when they raided the Negro Leagues for talent in the post-war, the owners were hardly destitute and had prospered handsomely during the war. They continued to accumulate ample funding reserves while others operated on constrained budgets. The first agitation for unionization was beginning to surface. It would take another two decades before the players would be a significant negotiating power bloc, but collective bargaining would come, and the war had helped plant the seeds. The very tight-fistedness of the owners would ultimately prove to their detriment.
Hardly your usual baseball book, you visit the scenes of Billy Southworth Jr. on bombing missions in Europe, ache with Pete Gray as he overcomes the liability of having only one arm and defying his detractors as he finally achieves his dream of earning a spot on a major league roster, though it proves to be a bittersweet experience. And of course, there is Hank Greenberg, a victim of relentless and vicious abuse because he was Jew playing in a game where Jews were a rarity. How ironic that in a war fought to eradicate such ugly racist ideologies, he would be subject to such rancor. But he would serve and witness the war in all its horror, though he always downplayed his role and experiences in the military, and he would return with his skills impaired. But he regained enough of his form at just the right time as the Tigers were in a riveting pennant race with the Senators and Greenberg brings the story to a smashing conclusion.
Nonfiction that reads like a novel, informative and compelling.
The narrative is presented through the lens of a star - Hank Greenberg, who like Bob Feller, Ted Williams, and many others would don a new uniform during the war as they served in the military; and Pete Gray, the one-armed outfielder who was one of the many minor leaguers who would get their rare opportunity for a brief tour in the big leagues as the roster spots were vacated by reigning stars; and the tragic story of manager Billy Southworth Sr. and his son Billy Jr.. Billy was on the cusp of entering the majors but would pay the ultimate cost when he died in a plane crash. No championship could assuage the father's grief. The war touched their lives and millions more, elevating some as they fulfilled their aspirations while dashing the hopes of others who would never regain their playing form after making the sacrifice for their country.
Looming in the background was the issue of race. As long as Judge K. Landis was baseball commissioner, the racial wall barring blacks from entry into the major leagues would remain intact. However, Landis conveniently died as the war inched toward a conclusion and he would would be replaced by Happy Chandler who harbored no such reservations. The much familiar tale of Jackie Robinson would then ensue and the trickle of minority players would become a flood, altering the landscape of the game forever.
Unlike the usual sweep through cultural history on the topic, Klima probes deeper and speaks to some of the great ironies of the game vis a vis the war. Landis detested FDR but was reliant on the president's approval to sanction the continued play. Owners would have a stranglehold on the power buttons of the game and may have couched their rhetoric with a patriotic flavor but used the war as an excuse to suppress salaries and used the media machinery to publicly flog players who refused to accept reduced pay, portraying them as ingrates. As they demonstrated when they raided the Negro Leagues for talent in the post-war, the owners were hardly destitute and had prospered handsomely during the war. They continued to accumulate ample funding reserves while others operated on constrained budgets. The first agitation for unionization was beginning to surface. It would take another two decades before the players would be a significant negotiating power bloc, but collective bargaining would come, and the war had helped plant the seeds. The very tight-fistedness of the owners would ultimately prove to their detriment.
Hardly your usual baseball book, you visit the scenes of Billy Southworth Jr. on bombing missions in Europe, ache with Pete Gray as he overcomes the liability of having only one arm and defying his detractors as he finally achieves his dream of earning a spot on a major league roster, though it proves to be a bittersweet experience. And of course, there is Hank Greenberg, a victim of relentless and vicious abuse because he was Jew playing in a game where Jews were a rarity. How ironic that in a war fought to eradicate such ugly racist ideologies, he would be subject to such rancor. But he would serve and witness the war in all its horror, though he always downplayed his role and experiences in the military, and he would return with his skills impaired. But he regained enough of his form at just the right time as the Tigers were in a riveting pennant race with the Senators and Greenberg brings the story to a smashing conclusion.
Nonfiction that reads like a novel, informative and compelling.
September 23, 2015
In 1941 no one would dispute the fact that baseball was "The" national pastime. But few realize just how closely World War 2 and baseball were interconnected. John Klima does a wonderful job of taking us through the war and its impact upon our game and its players. Unsung heroes of the war courageously and selflessly gave up promising careers like Billy Southworth, Buddy Lewis, and little known Phil Marchildon. The tender and touching story of Southworth Jr and his major league manager father of the same name is heart wrenching. Then there was the great Hank Greenberg, who after serving a stint in 1940, re-inlisted the day after Pearl Harbor and missed the prime of his baseball career. (But he wouldn't trade it for 500 home runs). And there was the wholesale loss of manpower to stock the game so that so- called "has beens" and "bums" had to be used as replacements. In 1945 two severely handicapped men played in the majors. One was Bert Shepard, who lost a leg as his plane crashed, and the other was Pete Gray. The latter lost his arm at a young age in a farm accident, yet because of the manpower shortage, he attained his dream of playing professional ball with the Browns. Those players and just regular young men who served needed to fight for their nation's symbols and baseball was one of them. FDR gave the green light, at the constant urging of Clark Griffith, to Commissioner Landis because the country needed the game to distract families from their hardships and lost loved ones. It's a great story of courage and determination of our greatest generation. Klima also demonstrates how the game was forever changed by the war. Depleted players led to the draft and bonus babies, and thereafter by integration and international signings.(I was particularly interested in Klima's cynical take on Branch Rickey's motivations for integration. Rickey foresaw that even after the war would end, many players would be too old to play again. So, he envisioned ravaging and "stealing" players from the Negro Leagues for little or no money to build a farm system.) In summary, a long but satisfying look at the war years from the perspective of baseball.
July 10, 2015
In a year filled with excellent baseball books being published, this one on the status of the game during World War II is the best one I have read yet. Full review is posted here:
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
http://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/201...
March 1, 2024
A really excellent account of major league baseball during the war years. It focuses on three people: Tigers star hank Greenberg, Pete Gray the St. Louis Browns' one-armed outfielder, and Billy Southworth Jr. son of the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals. I enjoyed it very much and learned a lot that I didn't ever know before.
September 21, 2020
Interesting story about my Tigers during the war. Enjoyed this.
October 18, 2015
A very good book by author John Klima on baseball in the years of World War II between 1941 and 1945. Klima focuses on three main people in this book, Hank Greenberg, the slugger for the Detroit Tigers that lost nearly four years of baseball due to fighting in the war; Pete Gray, an outfielder with just one arm that was a replacement player with the St. Louis Browns and inspired millions; and Billy Southworth Jr., the son of the St. Louis Cardinals manager that gave up a promising baseball career to join the war and fly planes. Very, very good writing style and very good research. A couple times the stories were so moving I had a tear in my eye. The author does a good job of weaving stories about baseball at the time and what was going on in the war at the time.
However, I felt this book was missing something - the World Series. Klima talks about the seasons, but then gets to the World Series and after going a few chapters to describe a season, descbribes the World Series in just a paragraph. One instance where I thought this book would be better adding a chapter to each year 1941-1945 and talking about each World Series. To me, that was a glaring omission. Also the intro at the start of the book threw me off a little and just rubbed me the wrong way. In the intro the author says that nobody that reads baseball books reads books on WWII and vice versa. Well, I for one, do that all the time. And there HAS been books about both the war and baseball at that time. Mike Seidel's book on Joe DiMaggio in 1941 comes to mind as one. Holloway's book on Ted Williams called the last .400 hitter is another one. Granted these were in 1941 when the U.S. wasn't involved in the War, but the rest of the world was still fighting the tough battle. Klima's book may be one of the best I've read, but hardly the only one.
Still, a must-read for baseball fans and people who read a lot about WWII. I look forward to reading Klima's book on the Milwaukee Braves soon.
However, I felt this book was missing something - the World Series. Klima talks about the seasons, but then gets to the World Series and after going a few chapters to describe a season, descbribes the World Series in just a paragraph. One instance where I thought this book would be better adding a chapter to each year 1941-1945 and talking about each World Series. To me, that was a glaring omission. Also the intro at the start of the book threw me off a little and just rubbed me the wrong way. In the intro the author says that nobody that reads baseball books reads books on WWII and vice versa. Well, I for one, do that all the time. And there HAS been books about both the war and baseball at that time. Mike Seidel's book on Joe DiMaggio in 1941 comes to mind as one. Holloway's book on Ted Williams called the last .400 hitter is another one. Granted these were in 1941 when the U.S. wasn't involved in the War, but the rest of the world was still fighting the tough battle. Klima's book may be one of the best I've read, but hardly the only one.
Still, a must-read for baseball fans and people who read a lot about WWII. I look forward to reading Klima's book on the Milwaukee Braves soon.
June 14, 2015
This book took me completely by surprise. I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting; I bought it because there is very little history about this period in baseball. What I got was a masterfully woven tale of a society and a sport trying to survive during a time when all the rules had been blown to smithereens, and career trajectories went haywire. Baseball, which at that time was indeed the national pastime, provided a desperately-needed sense of continuity in a world that had fallen apart. While that was accomplished with marginal talent playing on decaying baseball diamonds who endured a brutal schedule of endless doubleheaders in a game attempt to work around government travel and supply restrictions, the game was critically important both to those on the home front and those fighting for the cause. Mr. Klima does a fine job interweaving harrowing tales of war with the progress of the baseball seasons in a free-flowing style that is engaging and provocative. His treatment of one-armed major leaguer Pete Gray---blowing away the myth that Gray did not deserve to be in the bigs---is both compassionate and insightful. The story of the Southworths, father and son, is equally powerful. The Game Must Go On is definitely a keeper, and one of the few books I look forward to reading again.
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July 14, 2015John Klima has written a very entertaining history of baseball during WWII by focusing on baseball during WWII. He doesn't ignore the damage done to the careers of the greats like Feller, Greenberg or Williams nor does he pretend that the quality of play was even close to what it was pre or post war. But he does tell the story of a few which makes the story relateable for the first time. The story of Pete Gray is told in a fashion that makes him much more human than other stories have. The story of Billy Southworth and his son is so heartbreaking in that it was probably repeated countless times.
I'd suggest this to fans of both baseball and WWII history
I'd suggest this to fans of both baseball and WWII history
October 18, 2015
This was better than I expected it to be. Klima does a good job focusing on the key people to tell his story - Hank Greenberg, Phil Marchildon, Billys Southworth Sr. & Jr., Pete Ward, etc. - and then does a nice job telling the story. He also mixes in some of the business side - how the game tried to keep going during the war, how it led to the Senators to aggressively recruit Latinos, how it affected the search for a new commissioner. He works in a little about Negro League baseball (it's very little, but it's in there).
It's a little odd that he barely covers the 1945 World Series - just a paragraph in the epilogue, but his tale largely ends with the 1945 AL pennant race.
It's a little odd that he barely covers the 1945 World Series - just a paragraph in the epilogue, but his tale largely ends with the 1945 AL pennant race.
March 7, 2023
This book was insightful for me about the broad effects of WW2 on who played the MLB game, and would play the game afterwards. I'd never reflected that the heaviest baseball price was paid by young players whose minor league development was cancelled by military service. They lost their careers before they started, so we've never heard of them. On the other hand, the need for talent after the war led to positives; integration of Black players starting in 1947 and expanded opportunities for Hispanic (can I still say that?) players.
On the other hand, this book was appallingly verbose, repetitive, and spent a maddening amount of time telling me with no evidence at all what individuals were thinking at times no one could have known they were thinking it.
I'd prefer to give this book a 2-1/2 rating, 5 for info and 0 for literary merit, but I can't and 2 seemed harsh.
And it's Doc Prothro, not Protho like the writer said twice.
On the other hand, this book was appallingly verbose, repetitive, and spent a maddening amount of time telling me with no evidence at all what individuals were thinking at times no one could have known they were thinking it.
I'd prefer to give this book a 2-1/2 rating, 5 for info and 0 for literary merit, but I can't and 2 seemed harsh.
And it's Doc Prothro, not Protho like the writer said twice.
December 10, 2023
I would say 3.5 stars, but I have rounded it down to 3 stars. The book has a wealth of information about wartime baseball, including about the war such as the China-Burma-India theater where Hank Greenberg and others saw action. But the book takes itself too seriously, claiming more or less to be telling the most important story ever. There's also a lot that's repetitive, saying over and over and over again things about the manpower shortage and the condition of the fields and the required doubleheaders and whatnot. It also takes a funny point of view in telling the stories of wartime pennant races in excruciating detail but then entirely skipping over the World Series. I'm glad to have read the book and to have read about Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray, and others, but I don't expect to be looking to the author's other baseball books.
November 26, 2017
A fantastic well of information about the war and some of its baseball soldiers.
The central focus is on Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray and the Southworth guys.
Underlying the entire tale is the way baseball barely survived through the war using replacement players, either too young, too old, or just simply not experienced enough.
If a person is looking for stories about all sides of war and the baseball played both at home and in the battlefields, this is it.
I read the author's note at the end, and discovered this is the first book of a sort of trilogy, so, the next book will go on my to read shelf for sure.
The central focus is on Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray and the Southworth guys.
Underlying the entire tale is the way baseball barely survived through the war using replacement players, either too young, too old, or just simply not experienced enough.
If a person is looking for stories about all sides of war and the baseball played both at home and in the battlefields, this is it.
I read the author's note at the end, and discovered this is the first book of a sort of trilogy, so, the next book will go on my to read shelf for sure.
September 29, 2021
Klima tells the fascinating story of major league baseball during World War Two. He focuses, especially on Hank Greenberg, the great slugger and an early enlistee, and Pete Gray, the first man to play in the majors with only one arm. Klima also explains how World War Two brought about many of the changes we saw in postwar baseball: integration, franchise movement, and unionization. The World War Two era in baseball tends to be overlooked, because many of the biggest stars were in the service. Klima's book indicates that this period was important in its own right, and for baseball's future.
February 3, 2022
A fantastic book about baseball during WW2. It tells just enough WW2 history for thr novice without boring us who has read frequently about it. Not only does it tells us the hardship that baseball went through but also showed what some of the players did during the war while they were in service. Since so many players went into the service, what was left wasn't good baseball for the most part but it did shape the game into what it would become.
Highly recommended, just a fascinating story and is a part of baseball history just not talked about much.
Highly recommended, just a fascinating story and is a part of baseball history just not talked about much.
May 18, 2024
The topic of the book is fascinating. Information contained within the book is extremely interesting. The problem is the disorganized drudgery of the writing. The author uses stream of consciousness, consistently drifting from topic to topic and suddenly making an appearance where he started. The book needs an outline and a respectable editor. This book is a painful read. I forced myself through it because of my interests in WWII and in baseball. Although I gleaned some interesting information, it was not worth the trip through banal quotations and repetitive opinions of the author.
January 16, 2018
This book describes many specific stories about baseball during WWII. It takes stories about baseball and puts them on a timeline with some events of the war. The book describes when Hank Greenberg left baseball to go to war. This book describes how baseball kept going during the times of the war. I haven't finished it, but I am really enjoying it because I find it very interesting.
December 15, 2023
Good book with lots of detailed information about the War, the men who left Major and Minor League baseball to fight and the effect both had on the National and American Leagues from 1941 through 1945. Sad that the owners used the players as they did and how the players were treated - both replacement and returning. A detailed look into how the country and game handled/survived World War II.
January 26, 2019
Excellent book, there were several references to Hank Greenberg hitting home runs into the blue seats in the outfield of Detroit's ballpark. Every Detroit Tiger fan knows that those seats were a deep, rich GREEN until the late 1970s.
December 4, 2019
Interesting subject matter but I must agree with fellow reviewer James that this is a very poorly written book. I also feel that the book was poorly edited if it was. It seems that Hank Greenberg was the only star who left the game for military duty. Hopefully someone else will write a better book
September 6, 2021
Needed a tighter editor. Too many repeated phrases, sometimes on the same page, a factual error here or there (the Tigers first won then lost the same first game of a late season doubleheader) … detracted from what was a really good narrative.
July 4, 2017
An interesting book about WWII and baseball ... or perhaps about baseball and WWII.
December 29, 2020
I really enjoyed the book . Just learning about the brave baseball players who went to war and what they went through is something everyone should know. I know our fathers were serving also and I wish I asked more about them when I had the chance.
Read
April 8, 2023to-read
December 28, 2025
A beautiful look at the people, personalities, and politics of pro baseball in World War 2. Klima tells these stories with a clear love for the sport and its people.
April 24, 2016
John Klima tells the story of baseball in the war years, focusing in particular on the stories of Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray, Billy Southworth Sn and Jnr, and Bob Feller, with a wide supporting cast of those that went to war and those that stayed in or joined the game. As well as detail the story of the game at home, he also details the experiences of the players serving in the army and navy both in the states and on the battlefield. The result is an engaging tale of personal trials and an enterprise under pressure. Klima tells the wider story by weaving together a set of intersecting narratives concerning individuals, teams and the business of baseball as they unfold between 1941-1945. The result is a wealth of information and an interesting tapestry of stories. However, the text suffers from a fair amount of jumping between different themes and individual/institutional tales, as well as too much repetition, and would have benefitted from a serious edit. Nonetheless, The Game Must Go On is a fascinating and accessible read about a turbulent period in baseball history that reshaped the post-war game.
December 7, 2015
Hank Greenberg has been a name I've been familiar with ever since I fell in love with the Detroit Tigers as a young kid in the early 1980s. This book provided me with a whole new love and respect for this player and war veteran. It also introduced me to other wonderful WWII players, like Pete Gray, that I don't think I would've ever realized played the game. Though the author sometimes gets a little too caught up in describing baseball to the likes of war, "The Game Must Go On" is a great look into how baseball suffered and survived during WWII. Thanks to this book, there are even more things I'm interested in as far as WWII baseball is concerned. That alone is worth the read.
August 8, 2015
Interesting history of the time when more and more players were enlisted or drafted, ultimately leaving the major leagues with a severely thinned-out group of athletes to draw from. I liked learning the history and the author sets things up well but Klima's writing style (somewhat ornate/full of details often including speculation about people's mental state, suffused with Golden Age nostalgia) was not completely up my alley.
January 28, 2016
Very interesting book on war-time baseball during WWII. I would rate this higher, but there was absolutely no discussion on the 1945 Chicago Cubs, who won the most games that year and were barely beaten in the World Series. Hey, if they had won the championship in 1945, it would currently be only 71 years since their last championship. Oh well, as I was born in 1951, I still wouldn't have been alive when the Cubs were World Champions!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews