cuba 2.0, publicación digital del PDC-Cuba

Abner Doubleday likely did not invent baseball, but the sport’s connection to the military is still strong.

Baseball and the United States military have been closely intertwined since the days of the Civil War, both in myth and reality. Even if the game wasn’t really invented by Major General Abner Doubleday (ahem, Mr. Selig), a hero of Fort Sumter, the hundreds of baseball players who served their country have cemented the bond between these two cherished institutions. So, what better time than Veterans Day to commemorate the game’s contribution to our armed forces by compiling an All Star team of players who served?

Listed below is a decorated team of Veterans made up of men who were both enshrined in the Hall of Fame (other than Ralph Houk, whose credentials as a manager and impressive service record merited an exception) and saw active military duty abroad. Their selection is based on a balanced consideration of on-field exploits and military service, and by no means is intended to slight the heroic and honorable sacrifice of every former major leaguer who served their country.

Among the resources used to compile the information below, the following are highly recommended reading on this Veterans Day: Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame, Stars and Stripes "Baseball in the Military", and Gary Bedingfield’s Baseball In Wartime website.

It makes a difference when you go through a war, no matter which branch of the service you’re in. Combat is an experience that you never forget. A war teaches you that baseball is only a game, after all—a minor thing, compared to the sovereignty and security of the United States. I once told a newspaper reporter that the bombing attack we lived through on the Alabama had been the most exciting 13 hours of my life. After that, I said, the pinstriped perils of Yankee Stadium seemed trivial. That’s still true today. – Bob Feller, quoted from U.S. Naval Institute’s Proceedings 

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