Jack Cavanaugh, "Season of '42"; RESCHEDULED 8/22
Jun 6 2012
RESCHEDULED 8/22
Before hundreds of major leaguers went off to war, they enjoyed a final season in the sun. In '41 there was Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak, Ted Williams hit .406, and the New York Yankees beat the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series, it was a golden time for baseball. 1942 was overshadowed by WWII, but baseball had a a great season. Gripped by war in Europe and in the Pacific, America found the strength to maintain some semblance of normalcy at home through its pastime…baseball. Season of ’42 takes an in-depth look at how the 1942 season shaped the image of America and its resolve, and how America’s affect shaped the image of baseball during a time of need, and community action.
Big league baseball would seem to have been a hard sell in 1942. World War II was not going well for the United States in the Pacific and not much better in Europe. Moreover, the country was in drastically short supply of ships, planes, submarines, torpedoes, and other war materials, and Uncle Sam needed men, millions of them, including those from twenty-one through thirty-five years of age who had been ordered to register for the draft, the age range of most big league baseball players.But after a “green light” from President Roosevelt, major league baseball played on in 1942 as it would throughout the war. It turned out to be an extraordinary season, too, spiced by a brash, young, and swift St. Louis Cardinal team that stunned the baseball world by winning the World Series. The 1942 season would be overshadowed by war, though, with many people wondering whether it was really all right for four hundred seemingly healthy and athletic men to play a child’s game and earn far more money than the thousands of young Americans whose lives were at risk as they fought the Germans and Japanese abroad.
In Season of ’42, veteran sportswriter Jack Cavanaugh takes a look at this historic baseball season, how it was shaped and affected by the war and what, ultimately, it meant to America.
Location:
- Street:
- 768 Boston Post Rd.
- City:
- Madison ,
- Province:
- Connecticut
- Postal Code:
- 06443
- Country:
- United States
