Monday, December 1, 2014

Baseball players in war production

Last week the Society of Tennessee Archivists shared a link to Photogrammar.  From the Yale site:
Photogrammar is a web-based platform for organizing, searching, and visualizing the 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the United States Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWI).
I was able to search photos that were organized by region, down to the county level.  Then I found the search box.   Baseball.  Bingo!

Here are a few shots of players that assisted in the the production efforts for WWII.

Three major leaguers put the diamond behind them and get to work for Uncle Sam in the California Shipbuilding Corporation. Vernie Stephens (left), former shortstop with Saint Louis Browns, George Stovall, retired manager of the Cleveland Indians, and Vince DiMaggio, of the Pittburgh Pirates, are currently employed as warehousemen at the California shipyards.

Outfielder Vince DiMaggio, of the Pittsburgh Pirates, has been working at the California Ship Building Corporation since last October. He's one of the many former athletic stars who are helping to smash the Axis by building the equipment needed by America's fighting men.
 
Pitching in to stop the Axis short, shortstop Vernie Stephens, former Saint Louis Browns star, has been a warehouseman for California Ship Building Corporation since early last fall.


"Frenchy" Uhalt, center fielder with Hollywood Club, puts his gloves aside to work in the research department at Douglas Aircraft.