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.
Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, are proud
to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in
sports--books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and
college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport
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Whether you are a New York Yankees fan or hail from Red Sox nation;
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Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to
publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other
publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
