Ted Williams and the Cloudbuster Nine

h8mfy

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Forgive me for increasing the thread count but as we all await news on JDM, etc., but this seemed like a book you all might like, about a new book (blurb excerpted below). Anne Keene, the author, found her dad's scrapbook though she'd never heard the story of his brush with baseball's greats, and after some research, wrote The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team Who Helped Win World War II. Mods, please move as appropriate.

"Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain were among a cadre of fighter-pilot cadets who wore the Cloudbuster Nine baseball jersey at an elite Navy training school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a child, Anne Keene's father, Jim Raugh, suited up as the team batboy and mascot. He got to know his baseball heroes personally, watching players hit the road on cramped, tin-can buses, dazzling factory workers, kids, and service members at dozens of games, including a war-bond exhibition with Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium. With the help of rare images and insights from World War II baseball veterans such as Dr. Bobby Brown and Eddie Robinson, the story of this remarkable team is brought to life for the first time"

Details here

https://www.annerkeene.com/work

Full disclosure - my wife is FB (but not real) friends with the author's sister, and while she was telling me this story last night, I immediately thought it sounded like a SoSH thread. Hope I am not violating any protocols by sharing it.
 

terrynever

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Those were prime baseball years lost forever. Ted Williams might have finished with 650 career homers if not for WW II. He was ages 24-26 in the three years he lost (1943-45). 650 homers in an unfriendly ballpark for a lefty hitter. Probably equivalent to the Babe's 714 in a short porch.

Great and forgotten time in baseball history.
 

mwonow

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Those were prime baseball years lost forever. Ted Williams might have finished with 650 career homers if not for WW II. He was ages 24-26 in the three years he lost (1943-45). 650 homers in an unfriendly ballpark for a lefty hitter. Probably equivalent to the Babe's 714 in a short porch.

Great and forgotten time in baseball history.
Don't forget a couple of additional years for Korea.

My dad went to his grave believing that if Ted was in sight of 714, he would have hung on for one more year - and that without the two wartime stints, he would have been.
 

terrynever

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Don't forget a couple of additional years for Korea.

My dad went to his grave believing that if Ted was in sight of 714, he would have hung on for one more year - and that without the two wartime stints, he would have been.
Yeah, probably 50 HRs lost there. Ted only got 12 ABs in 1952 and came back in August 1953 to torch pitchers for 37 games, and 13 HRs. Ted's baseball stats are still stunning. Only one season with an OPS plus under 160. At age 41 when his neck was killing him.
 

terrynever

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There's a great sculptor from Pawtucket named Armand LaMontagne who did the wood statues of Williams, Bird and Orr back in the 1980s and 1990s that ended up in various Hall of Fames in Cooperstown and Boston.
I once interviewed Armand, who lived in Scituate, RI in a big stone house that he built with his own hands. His stories of having Ted Williams in his studio, talking about hitting a baseball, were awesome. Armand was a guy almost Ted's size who played first base in high school and hit lefty, so naturally Ted made him get into a hitting stance, and then gave his analysis.
Williams, if he liked someone, would totally invest himself in that person. Armand was totally afraid that Ted, always the perfectionist, would not like the sculpture. Ted stopped in during the sculpting and looked it over but he liked Armand, and loved the job he did. They would pop in for lunch at a pizza shop down the road, and people almost shit themselves whenever he walked in. Armand told me that. Ted would act like he didn't care but he loved the respect he got from working-class people.
Later, Armand would do these paintings of Ted from still photos. He was fascinated by the man. Armand was just devastated when Ted got old. It is really hard to describe how one man could inspire such love in other men. But Williams had the same effect on the big shots of his era, John Glenn, Chuck Yeager, et al.
Williams had an aura about him that even we fans could see on the field, but in real life he just dominated a room. Everyone stared at him. He played golf unannounced one day at Pawtucket CC and every member found an excuse to get out on the course and bump into Ted, or meet him in the bar.
I guess we have heroes like that in today's world. But none of them flew 38 missions in a jet fighter during a war, or crash-landed, or flew missions with John Glenn. And then hit a homer in August on his first game back from the Korean War. Or said FU to the fans and the media. And was still loved forever.
Nobody ever made a movie about Williams. Who could have played him?
 

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charlieoscar

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And then hit a homer in August on his first game back from the Korean War.
April 30, 1952, bottom 7th -- 2-run HR
August 6, 1953, bottom 9th trailing 6-7 PH with runners on 1st and 3rd and popped out to 1st
August 9, 1953, bottom 7th trailing 2-5 PH with no one on and homered

I either heard/saw the games on radio/tv.
 

terrynever

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April 30, 1952, bottom 7th -- 2-run HR
August 6, 1953, bottom 9th trailing 6-7 PH with runners on 1st and 3rd and popped out to 1st
August 9, 1953, bottom 7th trailing 2-5 PH with no one on and homered

I either heard/saw the games on radio/tv.
I submit to your seniority, sir! I was six in 1953 and watching Lucy on TV.
 

charlieoscar

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I submit to your seniority, sir! I was six in 1953 and watching Lucy on TV.
TV reception could be kind of weird back in that period. Many fewer stations to interfere with each other and almost all on VHF, which carried much farther than UHF signals. With the right atmospheric conditions you might get signals from stations quite far away, like seeing I Love Lucy in Spanish from a station in Puerto Rico in NH. Radio, too. I listened to broadcasts of radio games at night on AM from all 16 MLB clubs (although St. Louis was iffy).
 

terrynever

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TV reception could be kind of weird back in that period. Many fewer stations to interfere with each other and almost all on VHF, which carried much farther than UHF signals. With the right atmospheric conditions you might get signals from stations quite far away, like seeing I Love Lucy in Spanish from a station in Puerto Rico in NH. Radio, too. I listened to broadcasts of radio games at night on AM from all 16 MLB clubs (although St. Louis was iffy).
We used to put aluminum foil on the rabbit ear antenna that sat on top of the tv, just to pull in WPIX from NY, 60 miles away. Can't forget the big antennas on the roofs of every house in the community.
 

Brohamer of the Gods

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There's a great sculptor from Pawtucket named Armand LaMontagne who did the wood statues of Williams, Bird and Orr back in the 1980s and 1990s that ended up in various Hall of Fames in Cooperstown and Boston.
I once interviewed Armand, who lived in Scituate, RI in a big stone house that he built with his own hands. His stories of having Ted Williams in his studio, talking about hitting a baseball, were awesome. Armand was a guy almost Ted's size who played first base in high school and hit lefty, so naturally Ted made him get into a hitting stance, and then gave his analysis.
Williams, if he liked someone, would totally invest himself in that person. Armand was totally afraid that Ted, always the perfectionist, would not like the sculpture. Ted stopped in during the sculpting and looked it over but he liked Armand, and loved the job he did. They would pop in for lunch at a pizza shop down the road, and people almost shit themselves whenever he walked in. Armand told me that. Ted would act like he didn't care but he loved the respect he got from working-class people.
Later, Armand would do these paintings of Ted from still photos. He was fascinated by the man. Armand was just devastated when Ted got old. It is really hard to describe how one man could inspire such love in other men. But Williams had the same effect on the big shots of his era, John Glenn, Chuck Yeager, et al.
Williams had an aura about him that even we fans could see on the field, but in real life he just dominated a room. Everyone stared at him. He played golf unannounced one day at Pawtucket CC and every member found an excuse to get out on the course and bump into Ted, or meet him in the bar.
I guess we have heroes like that in today's world. But none of them flew 38 missions in a jet fighter during a war, or crash-landed, or flew missions with John Glenn. And then hit a homer in August on his first game back from the Korean War. Or said FU to the fans and the media. And was still loved forever.
Nobody ever made a movie about Williams. Who could have played him?
Armand also did the statue of Roger Williams at Roger Williams University. Since we don't know what Roger looks like, he used Ted's face.
 

charlieoscar

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We used to put aluminum foil on the rabbit ear antenna that sat on top of the tv, just to pull in WPIX from NY, 60 miles away. Can't forget the big antennas on the roofs of every house in the community.
We had an antenna on something like a utility pole in the neighbor's land on the hill in back of our house...about 800 feet of cable. My father won a tv in a raffle on Patriots' Day in 1950 in Concord, MA (one of his sisters lived there). It was about a 90 mile/3 hour drive in those days and the telephone was ringing when we pulled up outside our house. He had to turn around and drive back down to pick it up. A few years of three snowy Boston stations until NH added a couple.
 

terrynever

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We had an antenna on something like a utility pole in the neighbor's land on the hill in back of our house...about 800 feet of cable. My father won a tv in a raffle on Patriots' Day in 1950 in Concord, MA (one of his sisters lived there). It was about a 90 mile/3 hour drive in those days and the telephone was ringing when we pulled up outside our house. He had to turn around and drive back down to pick it up. A few years of three snowy Boston stations until NH added a couple.
Oh, how we suffered as kids in the early 1950s. No color until Bonanza, right?
 

charlieoscar

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Oh, how we suffered as kids in the early 1950s. No color until Bonanza, right?
Sometime early in my high school years two of my classmates' family bought a color tv and Stan and Eddie said come over after school and see it, something with a wheel spinning to provide the color. Terrible!
 

timduhda1

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My buddies and I were lucky enough to meet Mr Williams many times as we grew up in Hampden, Maine. Mr. Williams had a good friend named Bud Leavitt who was a local sports writer with the Bangor Daily News and they would get together to fish. We were always playing ball and Mr. Williams would sign baseballs for us. We, being young kids, would always use the balls instead of saving them. Mr. Williams always had time to come out and speak to us. Little did we know that we were learning from the greatest hitter of all time. Too bad is son, John Henry didn’t have his talent as he couldn’t even make the University of Maine team.
 

charlieoscar

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...Too bad is son, John Henry didn’t have his talent as he couldn’t even make the University of Maine team.
It didn't seem to get any better as he got older.

"He signed with a minor league squad affiliated with his father's old team, the Boston Red Sox. Last year, he went hitless in six at-bats for Boston's Gulf Coast League affiliate before cracking three ribs running into a rail chasing a foul ball."
http://www.espn.com/minorlbb/news/2003/0614/1568196.html

The next season he went 0 for 7 in the independent Northern League before being cut on May 28th. He then signed with a club in the unaffiliated Southeastern League and went 0 for 5 before getting his first hit, a soft pop-up that fell in behind the shortstop.
 

Al Zarilla

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Sometime early in my high school years two of my classmates' family bought a color tv and Stan and Eddie said come over after school and see it, something with a wheel spinning to provide the color. Terrible!
For a while, my uncle had the only electrical appliance store with TVs in town and he would always bring one of the latest models home. He had just set up one of the very early color models and invited us over to watch it. He’d carefully adjust the tint, usually in people’s faces close up, until it was just right. Sit back down (no remote of course) and 3 minutes later the faces had all drifted to green. Cuss a little, jump up again to fix it. The color would never stay right. Good old vacuum tubes!

I don’t remember the color spinning wheel, but it could be the fog of time.
 

charlieoscar

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I don’t remember the color spinning wheel, but it could be the fog of time.
That was one of the early methods, and one that didn't last. I do remember green faces on other sets, though, from back in that era.

Good old vacuum tubes!
One things about vacuum tubes was that you could repair your own radios and televisions instead of throwing them away and buying a new one--planned obsolescence (Volkswagen once had an ad saying something along the lines of, No sense in having a picture of this year's model because it looks just like last year's).
 

Monbonthbump

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Thanks for the thread, fellow lurker. I have put the book on my Amazon wish list since it is not available until May 1. For those who may be younger, I will mention other critical pieces on my Williams' shelf: 1. Halberstam's "The Teammates", 2. Updike's special hardback edition of "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" published in 2010, and ,of course, Bradlee's massive "The Kid". And , in a pathetic attempt to make another $5, my own book of poetry on Amazon, "High Five: A Cancer Survivor's Poetic Journey", has several Red Sox poems.
 

Al Zarilla

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One things about vacuum tubes was that you could repair your own radios and televisions instead of throwing them away and buying a new one--planned obsolescence (Volkswagen once had an ad saying something along the lines of, No sense in having a picture of this year's model because it looks just like last year's).
That's right. Go down to the grocery store (or Radio Shack) with a little bag full of tubes and they didn't even charge you for use of their tube tester! 12AX7, 6L6! I don't think I ever failed to be able to fix a TV that way; in other words, it was always a tube. Gotta admit the latest TVs are super sweet though.

Edit. unless it was the main tube of course.
 
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AZBlue

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I received this message from a friend (an 85-year-old doctor who attended the UNC Medical School in the late 40's) who read the Keene story:

"My sister-in-law worked at Chapel Hill Pre-Flight. One of the tests required of all consisted of a solid round wheel like object. On its edges were pictures of all the world's military aircraft. As the wheel spun slowly, one had to identify them. It was then spun faster to test ability to quickly identify aircraft under the most difficult circumstances. The only one to ever get them all right at the highest speed was.........Ted Williams."
 

Monbonthbump

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Thought this would be a great day to return to this thread. I just started reading this book and it appears to be an excellent purchase with many previously unpublished photos of Ted, Pesky, and other major leaguers who played for the "Cloudbuster Nine" which was a team of naval pilot cadets based in North Carolina at UNC while they trained for combat in WWII. Appears to have been meticulously researched by the author, whose father was the bat boy for this team which would have otherwise been forgotten by historians. I can already recommend it after only having read the first few chapters. Fun Memorial Day fact: the president of UNC in 1942 was the brother of Archibald "Moonlight" Graham of baseball (and "Field of Dreams") fame.