America was meanwhile fighting World War I in Europe. Enlistments and the military draft began depleting big-league rosters that summer as Shore joined [Manager Jack] Barry and teammates
Chick Shorten,
Duffy Lewis, and
Mike McNally in enlisting in the Naval Reserves. Shore ended the season at 13-10 with one save as the Red Sox finished second to Chicago. The Sox volunteers then reported for duty in November.
Barry assembled a powerhouse First Naval District ballclub at the Charlestown Navy Yard. Unofficially called the Wild Waves, the team played Harvard, other local colleges, and various military teams.
Del Gainer,
Herb Pennock and
Jim Cooney of the Red Sox signed on, as did
Arthur Rico and
Henry Schreiber of the Boston Braves.
Rabbit Maranville of the Braves also played for a while before shipping out on the battleship USS
Pennsylvania. Shore pitched while assigned as a yeoman in the district paymaster’s office.
The North Carolinian took the mound on May 5 as Barry’s Navy nine faced an Army team from Camp Devens skippered by Red Sox teammate
Harold Janvrin. The free game before 40,000 fans at
Braves Field was “high grade,” declared the
Globe, with Shore “pitching in world championship form” in a 5-1 victory. But Barry’s team soon became an embarrassment of riches for the Navy, which began shipping out players. (It eventually would disband the team altogether, citing “exigencies of the service.”) Several teammates left for sea duty, but Shore remained in Boston. He pitched another gem against Camp Devens at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on June 9, defeating Braves’ prospect Rube Rube Cram 2-1 in ten innings.
Shore was then assigned to officers’ school at Harvard. He received an ensign’s gold stripe in December 1918, becoming the only big-leaguer to earn a Navy commission during the war (although five weeks after the Armistice).
