WWI/The Great War

[ErikV]

I'm aware that Shoeless Joe Jackson and his teammate, Lefty Williams were called into service in the middle of the 1918 season. They both worked in the shipyards and played ball in the military. Evidentially, their "military service" was frowned upon by some, including their boss, Charles Comiskey.

[Cat]

Sam Rice served in both WW1 and the War of Veracruz.

[prewarsports]

I find it fascinating how few Baseball players served during World War 1 (even former players)and how many Football stars served during the Great War. Several College Football Hall of Famers served and died during the War or were gassed like Mathewson and died shortly afterwards. Johnny Poe the great Princeton back of the 1890's was a Rough Rider with Teddy Roosevelt in the Spanish American War and then died as a hero in World War 1. There are many others as well like Garrett Cochran and Charlie Barrett (both died) and even Fritz Pollard the NFL Hall of Famer (did not die) and Hobey Baker the Football great and Hockey Hall of Famer (He did die). I am not sure of the reason behind it, maybe because so many Football stars were Ivy Leaguers and it was more expected from that social class at that time, but I have no real reason why.

Rhys Yeakley

[jbsports33]

Scott is right even though I am a Red Sox fan, there was a lot surrounding the Red Sox that year and maybe they would not have won the WS if some went off to World War I - great topic to discuss

Jimmy

[PolarBear]

There's a book called "The Original Curse" that speculates the Cubs threw the 1918 series. Haven't read it but it looks interesting.

[tbob]

Munitions Found on the Lusitania
Wednesday December 24, 2008
On May 7, 1915, the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat during World War I. Of the 1,959 people on board, 1,198 died in this disaster. When the U.S. heard that 128 of the dead were Americans, they were furious. Although the Germans had claimed that the Lusitania was a valid military target because it had been war materials, popular belief at the time was that it was solely a passenger vessel. The sinking of what seemed a completely neutral ship, spurred the U.S. to enter into World War I against the Germans.
Recently, divers explored the wreckage of the Lusitania, situated eight miles off of the coast of Ireland. In the hold of the Lusitania, the divers found approximately four million rounds of U.S.-made Remington .303 bullets. The discovery supports Germany's claim that the Lusitania had been used to shuttle war materials. The find also supports the theory that the second explosion on the Lusitania was caused by munitions on board rather than a second torpedo from the U-boat.

The book Seven Days to Disaster by Colin Simpson explores the hidden munitions argument. Colin Simpson claims that LUSITANIA received a secret modification as well--the installation of twelve 6-inch guns. His principal sources for this are a German named Curt Thummel who served briefly as a steward on LUSITANIA while secretly in the employ of the German military attache in the United States, Franz von Papen. Thummel reported to the German consulate in New York that he had seen four guns on LUSITANIA. Another German, Gustav Stahl, filed an affidavit after the sinking claiming that while helping a friend load baggage on LUSITANIA he had seen concealed guns.
Finally, we have a mysterious "lady whose family to this day forbid her name to be mentioned, possibly because one of them in due course became a President of the United States." Her letter, found in Secretary Lansing's private papers, claims that while she was having tea in London with Clementine Churchill, Admiral Fisher stopped in. She asked the Admiral for help in getting a passage to New York. Fisher told her that she should travel on LUSITANIA or OLYMPIC, because both had a concealed armament. She took LUSITANIA and inquired of a steward about the concealed guns. "The steward, realizing her connections, showed her how the decks could be lifted to reveal the gun rings and confided that it would take about twenty minutes to 'wheel the guns into position.'" While in Simpson's book this woman's story is only one of several on LUSITANIA's armament, in a letter to Life magazine, quoted by Bailey and Ryan, this becomes his accepted version: the guns "were stored in the forward part of the shelter deck, which was sealed off from the rest of the ship by the Admiralty. If the need arose, the guns could be wheeled out of their hiding place and mounted on their rings in 20 minutes.'"

We will probably never know the real truth about the concealed guns but the fact that Lusitania AT LEAST carried 4,000,000 bullets and other explosives (this is uncontroverted) hardly qualified the ship as the luxury liner filled only with safe cargo and passengers that the British would have had everyone believe.

[bmarlowe1]

"In the hold of the Lusitania, the divers found approximately four million rounds of U.S.-made Remington .303 bullets. The discovery supports Germany's claim that the Lusitania had been used to shuttle war materials. The find also supports the theory that the second explosion on the Lusitania was caused by munitions on board rather than a second torpedo from the U-boat."

-------

The rifle bullets were on the cargo list. None of what you said proves what caused the large explosion.

[howard38]

Of course it is debatable but I disagree w/the impact of the Zimmerman telegram. The immediate cause of our entry into the war was the sinking of several American merchant ships by the German navy. This was made inevitable by Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare well before the telegram was made public.