The Nats and the Grays: How Baseball in the Nation's Capital Survived WWII and Changed the Game Forever

by David E. Hubler, Joshua H. Drazen

On a chilly Sunday, December 7, 1941, major league baseball’s owners gathered in Chicago for their annual winter meetings, just two months after one of baseball’s greatest seasons. For the owners, the attack on Pearl Harbor that morning was also an attack on baseball. They feared a complete shutdown of the coming 1942 season and worried about players they might lose to military service. But with the support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the national pastime continued.

The Nats and the How Baseball in the Nation’s Capital Survived WWII and Changed the Game Forever examines the impact of the war on the two teams in Washington, DC—the Nationals of the American League and the Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues—as well as the impact of the war on major league baseball as a whole. Each chapter is devoted to a wartime year, beginning with 1941 and ending with the return of peacetime in 1946, including the exciting American League pennant races of 1942-1945. This account details how the strong friendship between FDR and Nationals team owner Clark Griffith kept the game alive throughout the war, despite numerous calls to shut it down; the constant uncertainties the game faced each season as the military draft, federal mandates, national rationing, and other wartime regulations affected the sport; and the Negro Leagues’ struggle for recognition, solvency, and integration.

In addition to recounting the Nationals’ and the Grays’ battles on and off the field during the war, this book looks beyond baseball and details the critical events that were taking place on the home front, such as the creation of the GI Bill, the internment of Japanese Americans, labor strikes, and the fight for racial equality. World War II buffs, Negro League historians, baseball enthusiasts, and fans of the present-day Washington Nationals will all find this book on wartime baseball a fascinating and informative read.

Genres: Baseball, Sports

447 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 16, 2015

Reviews

[Lance · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the most part, this was a very good read on the two baseball teams in Washington DC who were playing during World War II - the Washington Senators, also known as the Nationals (but not used as frequently) in Major League Baseball, and the Washington Grays of the Negro Leagues. The book does a good job of interweaving discussion about the politics and battles of the ward and the challenges both teams faced in trying to maintain rosters of players as men were drafted to the military or ordered to work for the war effort. The famous "Green Light" letter is discussed, as is each year's debate as to whether baseball should continue while the war is going. For fans who enjoy books on baseball during this time frame, it comes recommended.

[Mattie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A history of the Nats & Grays during the WWII years in Washington, interwoven with a concurrent overview-level of the war from the Washington perspective. Interesting and well told.

The exploitation of the Negro league teams for financial gain of the white MLB owners - particularly the Nats' Clark Griffith is sad (and morally unjustifiable, of course). Sobering to contemplate that it was partially a consequence of the hit MLB took during the war years due to the depletion of talent as the leagues talent went off to serve. Or, perhaps more accurately, the depletion of talent during the war years provided a convenient excuse for the owners not to have to think too hard about their own behavior. Not baseball's best moment.

Also interesting is the tension between MLB (as an institution), individual players, and official Washington on where baseball stands in the face of major historical crises. On the one hand it's a game, and there is a sense that when push comes to shove a game is not all that important. On the other, professional sports do provide entertainment, an outlet and allow a sense of normalcy to prevail even in times of crisis. How is that balance struck? This was a question that remains relevant today.

So, overall thoughtful and interesting. And some fun recaps of pivotal games and plays. I thought it could have been edited a bit better. And I would like to have known more about the apparently relatively good race relations in the stands at Griffith Field.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book, even though its cover states “How Baseball in the Nation’s Capital Survived WWII”, the book reads more as a World War II history, with some baseball mixed in. As someone with interest in both, I didn’t mind that much, although I was more interested in the baseball aspect.
The author relied on a good amount of repetitive information, both within and among chapters, which became rather annoying as I worked my way through the book.
What I found most interesting was the excuses that baseball executives (Clark Griffith main among them) gave for refusing to integrate big league baseball during the war, when 80% of pre-war major leaguers were serving the country. Instead, they employed older players, amputee white players, and white Cubans of lesser ability.