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“Salute to Baseball and the Military” Photo Gallery
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Annual Veteran’s Day Tribute to Baseball and the Military:

1917 White Sox In Military Formation!

Happy Veteran’s Day!

Here’s a repost of one of my favorite “baseball and military” photos. It’s part of my annual Veteran’s Day tribute to baseball and the military. 

Don’t be fooled by those World War I-era doughboy uniforms…those guys are actually members of the 1917 White Sox, the team that was soon to become the 1917 World Series champions (see below for identifications).

The photo shows the 1917 White Sox going through military formations. With war looming over the 1917 season, only a handful of players had been drafted into the military and fewer enlisted. Those who continued to play took part in token military “drills,” as we see in the featured photo, to show their support for the war effort. It also was a way for ballplayers to avoid being seen as “slackers” – the common term at the time applied to those trying to avoid military service.

By the following year, 1918, with the war now in full swing and many of the best players in uniform, baseball suffered a shortened season and arguably the worst year of its existence. But the game survived, and all that would change with the armistice of 1919 ending the world conflict. Who knew that the Black Sox Scandal lay just ahead?

Baseball has a great connection with the military. Over the years, many major leaguers – including some of the game’s biggest stars – have served in the military, both in peacetime and during war, often sacrificing valuable years of their careers to military service.  I’ve included some of the more notable in the photo gallery above. 

If you have a comment about a favorite player with a connection to the military, just post it in the comments section below. We always enjoy hearing what you have to say!

Player Identifications in Featured Photo

L-R: Ray Schalk, Jim “Death Valley” Scott, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, John “Shano” Collins, Unidentified, Swede Risberg, Joe Jenkins, Pants Roland (Mgr.), Unidentified, Ted Jourdan, Eddie Murphy, Happy Felsch, Eddie Collins. Nemo Leibold is behind Hap Felsch, possibly Reb Russel behind Pants Roland, Eddie Ciccotte behind Ted Jourdan, and possibly Dave Danforth behind Risberg.

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Google search

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