205 - Baseball at War: Working and Playing Ball in the Bethlehem Steel League w/ William Ecenbarger

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author William "Bill" Ecenbarger is our guess this week to discuss his latest book, "Work, Fight, or Play Ball: How Bethlehem Steel Helped Baseball's Stars Avoid World War I" (Temple University Press 2024). The book chronicles how Bethlehem Steel's "safe shelter" industrial league in 1917 and 1918 helped Major League players like "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Dutch Leonard and a young Babe Ruth avoid the draft and military service during World War I.

In part two, Craig and Rex discuss the possible real-life "Natural."

William Ecenbarger's website

Sources, Part Two:
Rob Edelman, "Eddie Waitkus and “The Natural”: What is Assumption? What is Fact?" (sabr.com accessed June 17, 2024)
Jack Bales, "The Show Girl and the Shortstop: The Strange Saga of Violet Popovich and Her Shooting of Cub Billy Jurges" (sabr.com accessed June 17, 2024)

Errata: Homestead Gray Luke Easter hit the first home run into the center field bleachers at the Polo Grounds in 1948. Easter went on to play for Cleveland in the American League. Leon Cadore (Brooklyn) and Joe Oeschger (Boston) battled 26 innings to a 1-1 tie on May 1, 1920. Game time: 3 hours, 50 minutes. 3Com held the naming rights for the old Giant ballpark at Candlestick from 1995 to 2002 (the Giants left for what is now Oracle Park after the 1999 season).

Episodes Mentioned:
189 - Baseball, Chemical Warfare and The Great War w/ Jim Leeke
186 - "I've Got Babe Ruth" The Old Ballparks Project, Part 3
184 - Class Warfare in Detroit!: The Old Ballparks Project, Part 2
148 - Baseball Is the Story of America w/ Derick McDuff
127 - The Old Ballparks Project, Part I

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Music: "Warrior of Light" by ikolics (Premium Beat)    
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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 4:30 America goes "Over There" in 1917.
• 5:51 Baseball at War: Work, Fight of Play Ball
• 9:27 The Bethlehem Steel League
• 15:15 American Life in 1917-18
• 19:18 Bender, Alexander, Mathewson, Kennedy and Grant
• 25:46 Aftermath: Babe Ruth's Emergence and the Black Sox Scandal
• 26:39 New Projects
• 28:28 Watching Baseball at The Polo Grounds
• 32:27 "The Natural," Eddie Watikus and Billy Jurges