And Now We Turn To Baseball

Two for you from the Twittertron:

A series by Rich Radford: Two dozen sailors and a handful of officers have come to McClure Field on a Tuesday to play softball. Some have their shirts off on this steamy summer day as they toss the ball a few times to warm up before the first pitch.

McClure is a lot of field for such an informal game. It seats 3,500 and is the second-oldest brick baseball stadium in the country. Games have been played here for almost a century. Years ago, the Navy put up a series of markers to tell its history, but these days few stop to read them.

The one near the entrance on the first base side has been bleached by the sun.

“During World War II all Americans pitched in for victory. Several major league baseball players enlisted in the United States Navy and reported to Norfolk for training.”

And then you see the names.

Phil Rizzuto. Pee Wee Reese. Bob Feller. Dom DiMaggio.

In September 1943, the best baseball on Earth was being played on this field, because almost all of the day’s star players had enlisted.

And a story by Andy McCullough: CHEYENNE, Wyo. — This is the field. A sign fastened to a black chain-link fence advertises Powers Field as the home of Cheyenne Post 6 of American Legion baseball. On a Tuesday afternoon, some 1,750 miles west of the ballpark in Queens, the field hosts an 18-year-old who expects to become a millionaire before the summer ends.