A WORLD SERIES IN NOVEMBER?—BRRRR!

By Edwin Cooney

Sure it’s November, but it’s really and truly World Series time—honest! So, what does a November World Series say about you, me, and this land that we love? Can a World Series ever reflect what America is capable of feeling or doing? The answer is that the World Series, in one way or another, always reflects what Americans are all about.

If the 2009 “Fall Classic” goes as late as Thursday, November 5th, it will pass the record of November 4th set in 2001. Ironically, just as that World Series took place on the latest date in world series history (up to now) due to the events of 9/11, it was also a war which was the reason for the earliest start of the World Series.

As the 1918 season got under way, America was at war (as it had been in 1917) with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey -- otherwise known as “The Central Powers.” The American “Expeditionary Force” was fighting in France and the outcome was by no means certain. Back on May 23, 1918, the War Department under War Secretary Newton D. Baker issued a “work or fight” order. That meant that every able-bodied male must either be fighting in France under General “Black Jack” Pershing or be working in a war industry-related factory by July first. Film actors were exempted, but baseball players were not.

Fan attendance at baseball games was down except strangely enough in Pittsburgh. Amidst considerable squabbling, team owners decided in mid-summer to end the season on Labor Day, September 2nd. Thus, 124 American League and 103 National League players spent much of 1918 in new and unaccustomed uniforms. All 227 major leaguers who enlisted or were drafted did survive, but one former major leaguer would make the “supreme sacrifice.”

On Thursday, September 5, 1918, as 19,274 fans greeted the Red Sox and Cubs in Chicago for the opening World Series game, Americans were sufficiently mindful of “the war to end all wars” to start a tradition. In the middle of the seventh inning of pitcher Babe Ruth’s complete game shutout of the Cubs, a military band played the “Star Spangled Banner”. It has been played before every game since. Ballplayers were sufficiently appreciative of their civilian status that Fall so they avoided a near strike over the reduced amount of money being offered by the owners as World Series compensation. Series losers would get approximately $600 and winners about $1,200 -- approximately half what they’d been receiving -- and the players were not in the least happy about it. A player’s strike was only narrowly averted.

The 1918 World Series was over by September 11th. The Red Sox were “World Champions” for the fifth time in 15 years -- and for the last time for the next 86 seasons. On Saturday, October 5th, about the time the series would normally have begun, Captain Edward Leslie Grant (“Harvard Eddie” they called him) was killed in action in France’s Argonne Forest. Captain Grant, a native of Franklin, Massachusetts and a Harvard graduate, played ten years as a left-handed batting infielder (mostly at third base) in the majors with the Indians, Phillies, Reds and, finally, with the New York Giants. If baseball’s small but vital sacrifice wasn’t noticed by many, it must be remembered that Eddie Grant was only one of 116,708 men who was sacrificed to “…make the world safe for democracy.”

So one has to wonder: what does this year’s late (and perhaps snow-driven) World Series say about you and me? Scheduling and financial considerations appear to have more to do with 2009’s November World Series than any national emergency. Despite our involvement in both Iraq and Afghanistan (as far as this observer knows), no current or former major league ball player is risking life or limb on a foreign battlefield. The $600 and $1,200 1918 World Series checks might equal the tips that bat boys receive from this year’s World Series participants. Attendance in 2009, despite the recent economic downturn, was satisfactorily high.

A November World Series might say any number of things about 2009 Americans:

It may show that we’re a longsuffering people since we put up with baseball day in and day out for seven long months. It might demonstrate a vulnerability to national obsessive indulgence. On the other hand, November baseball might indicate to a potential enemy how tenacious we can be should they dare mess with us.

Author Doris Kearns Goodwin remembers attending the World Series in Brooklyn with her father during the 1950s wearing merely a light sweater against the October chill. My guess is that she’ll be sitting indoors wearing her sweater during this year’s series. One thing is certain though: hell won’t freeze over as quickly as a November World Series! BRRRRR!!!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY