Soldiers and Sluggers: The Co-Existence of Baseball and War in America

The White House/Getty Images

When President Barack Obama stood up in the eyes of the nation Tuesday night and advocated a 30,000-man surge in troop force for the ongoing war in Afghanistan, all Americans ought to have taken pause to measure the gravity of the moment.

There will be no draft; Obama was clear on that point. As it has been since the end of the Vietnam War, all military service will be voluntary.

As such, it seems highly unlikely that any high-profile baseball players will go overseas to fight, either in Afghanistan or in Iraq.

Barring a hero in the vein of Pat Tillman, Major League Baseball will likely conduct business as usual next season, as though no war were going on halfway around the world. It just isn't in the nature of the modern professional athlete, whose millions provide security and the luxury of the pretense of normalcy.

Once upon a time, though, the league was not so insular. In two previous wars (World War II and the Korean War), the Major Leagues lost multiple superstar players to military service.

Bob Feller became the first Major Leaguer to volunteer for the armed services after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Ted Williams, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio, and untold others of lower profiles would follow him overseas in that conflict.

Just over a decade later, the United States' conflict with Korea drew Willie Mays (pictured with Obama in July) away for all of the 1953 season. Whitey Ford, Don Newcombe, and Williams (again) also answered the call to patriotic duty.

These men never got the big money now allocated to big-leaguers. They also lived in an era far more concerned with the virtues of patriotism and honor, rather than excess and celebrity.

Still, it is strange to reflect that not so long ago, dozens of America's most prominent public figures voluntarily ran to the battle, in defense of their country.

To be clear, I will not blame the players across the Majors and Minors who elect to stay home and go to work next spring. Nor, for that matter, do I blame the hundreds of NFL and NBA players who will make the same choice, any more than I would blame any other working professional. After all, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote to then-Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis in the wake of the Pearl Harbor attack, "I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going ... they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work." 

Keeping the players here, however, should not deter us from staying mindful of the reality of war.

Business does not always have to be business as usual, and in this case, it should not be. In one or another way, baseball should work to promote awareness and aid for disabled veterans, families of deployed military personnel, and the plight of innocent Afghanis whose lives will be thrown into even greater turmoil in the coming months, before (we hope) eventually improving.

Fly-overs are a shallow but not empty tribute. Camouflaged uniforms, such as the ones the San Diego Padres have occasionally worn over the past few years, are a step better.

Perhaps MLB could create a patch or emblem to be displayed prominently during broadcasts or on uniforms for the 2010 season.

At any rate, the surge gives us renewed opportunity to remember and appreciate the too-often forgotten sacrifice made by so many courageous members of our nation's military, and the cause for which they will fight. We ought not to waste that chance. 

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