How Do We Assess 1942-45 Wartime Baseball Records

[David W]

Not all the good players were gone all 4 years. Musial only missed 1 year for example, while his teammate Slaughter missed 3.

So I think the last years of 1944 and 1945 were more suspect, in that more and more players were drafted or enlisted.

Hal Newhouser went 54 and 18 in 1944 and 45, won 2 MVP's, had 2 other outstanding years and was put in the Hall of Fame with a mediocre record other than that.

I agree Mickey Vernon and Cecil Travis may have made the Hall without missing years, Vernon missed 2 years and easily 300 hits. Ironically, the 2nd most comparable player to Vernon is Enos Slaughter, who got in the HOF, I assume because of his dash to the plate in the 46 series, and being given credit apparently for 3 lost WW2 seasons, while Vernon and Travis seemingly get no credit

On another note, Willie Mays missed most of the 52 and all of the 53 season in the military. Conservatively it cost him 50 homeruns, probably more. He might have broken Ruth's record before Aaron.

[D. Bergin]

What about guys who's Major League opportunities were all but killed by the conflict.

I just ran across a guy named Les Fleming in the Indians farm system. He only had one full season in the majors in 1942. Pretty damn good year to.

Then it looks like he got shipped off and was never the same on a major league level after that.

Check out his minor league stats. They are somewhat eye-popping. Not only was he a power guy, but he hit for high average and was an OBP machine who walked far more often then he struck out. What's sad was he had actually proven he could hit major league pitching his one full year in the league. He was still tearing up the minors when he was 40 years old.