Cecil Travis Of The Washington Senators: The War-torn Career Of An All-star Shortstop

by Rob Kirkpatrick

A three time All-Star, Cecil Travis was coming into his prime and already well on his way to a Hall of Fame career when he was drafted for World War II in 1941. He would spend the next four years in the 76th infantry division. When he finally returned to the game, in 1945, Travis was no longer the dominant player he had been. In the three seasons that followed his return—the last three seasons of his career—only once did Travis play in more than 75 games, and his offensive numbers plummeted. Yet his pre-war accomplishments were such that he finished his 12-year career with a .314 batting average and baseball maven Bill James put Travis atop his list of players most likely to have lost a Hall of Fame career to the war. This biography documents the dynamic career of a baseball player whose path to stardom was cut short by the onset of war. It begins with Travis’ childhood years, which he spent working on his family’s Riverdale farm in rural Georgia. It describes his demonstration of talent during high school, which earned him athletic scholarships at several universities. Next the author details the start of Travis’ professional career with the minor league Chattanooga Lookouts in 1931, his impressive rookie year with the Washington Senators, and his remaining prewar seasons in the major leagues. Travis’s time as a soldier is then discussed, followed by chapters on postwar playing decline from 1945 to 1947 and his consequent retirement from major league baseball. An epilogue provides Cecil Travis’ personal commentary on his baseball career, its untimely dissolution, the effects of the war, and his present life in Riverdale, where he raises livestock on his childhood farm.

Genres: Baseball

195 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2005

About the author

ROB KIRKPATRICK is the author of 1969: The Year Everything Changed (Skyhorse Publishing), Magic in the Night: The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen (St. Martin’s Griffin) and Cecil Travis of the Washington Senators: The War-Torn History of an All-Star Shortstop (Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press). He also edited The Quotable Sixties, and his creative writing has been published by Aethlon and Slow Trains.

As an editor for more than a decade, he has published such titles as Mark Oliver Everett’s Things the Grandchildren Should Know, John Hemingway’s Strange Tribe: A Family Memoir, G. Franco and Gwen Romagnolis’ Italy, the Romagnoli Way, Linda Cohn’s Cohn-Head: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys’ Club, Phil Pepe’s The Ballad of Billy and George: The Tempestuous Baseball Marriage of Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner, Vincent Cannato’s The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York, Mark K. Updegrove’s Baptism by Fire: Eight Presidents Who Took Office in Times of Crisis, Alex Storozynski’s The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution, Timothy M. Gay’s Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend, John Pahigian’s The Ultimate Minor League Road Trip and 101 Baseball Places to See Before You Strike Out, Sean Lahman’s The Pro Football Historical Abstract, Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon’s Haunted Baseball: Ghosts, Curses, Legends, & Eerie Events, and The Devil’s Diaries. He also conceived of and published multivolume reference sets including the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Rock History and the Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures.

Rob received his B.A. from Rutgers University, his M.A. from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and his PhD. from Binghamton University. He is graduate of the Denver Publishing Institute and also spent a summer studying at the FAMU in Prague. He taught writing and literature courses on the college level for four years and currently is a Senior Editor with Thomas Dunne Books. In his “free time,” he enjoys yoga and plays on the Bridgeport Orators Vintage Base Ball team. Rob lives in Rye, New York.

Rob Kirkpatrick is represented by Joy Tutela of the David Black Literary Agency.

Contact Rob at rob@robkirkpatrick.com.

Reviews

[Lane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good biography of a good player largely forgotten. He had a very good career with the Washington Senators and then went into the army for WWII missing almost 4 seasons. Coming back in 1945 for 15 games and the 1946 and 47 seasons, he was not the player he was before WWII. Even with the poor seasons after WWII, he still has the third highest BA for shortstops. In 1941, he had the most hits in a year when Williams hit .406 and DiMaggio hit in 56 straight games.
As a youngster growing up outside DC, this brought back a lot of memories when I discovered baseball and the Senators. Travis was well remembered by Senator fans and the baseball writers at the time. Over the years his career has come up in discussions and jt is like he was discovered again.
A good baseball book.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid bio of a top hitting infielder (SS and 3B) for the Washington Senators who lost 4 seasons to WW2. Travis is an interesting figure, and his story offers nice insight into this era of baseball, Washington Senators history, and the story of MLB players and WW2.