Eddie Carnett: At 93 memories of a baseball player and soldier in World War II are as clear as ever

World War II veteran and retired major league baseball player Eddie Carnett holds the unique distinction of being one of only a handful of players to make their debut as a pitcher and later return to play full time as a position player. Others on this short list include Smokey Joe Wood, Lefty O'Doul, and someone named Babe Ruth. While Carnett did not put up Ruthian-like numbers, he was an excellent mentor, teaching Warren Spahn his pick-off move and tutoring Bob Feller on how to throw a slider.

Eddie Carnett / Author's Collection

Carnett is one of the few living members of the legendary Great Lakes Naval baseball team. On this Memorial Day in 2010, he recalled his entrance into the Navy 65 years ago.

"I'm pretty old, I'll be 94 pretty soon," Carnett said via telephone. "I went to Great Lakes in 1945, 65 years ago today. I was 28, heck I was an old man in the service! It was very interesting. Bob Feller was our manager, Walker Cooper was our catcher, I played first base, and Johnny Groth was in center field. Pinky Higgins was there too. We were all big league ballplayers."

A few days into his service, Carnett played in an exhibition game against the Detroit Tigers. He recalled an entertaining exchange between Hall of Fame manager Mickey Cochrane and pitcher Schoolboy Rowe over the decision to pitch that day.

"In fact, on June 6th we had an exhibition game; the Detroit Tigers came into Great Lakes and I hadn't been there too long," he recalled. "I remember Mickey Cochrane was the manager, and before the game, Schoolboy said [to Cochrane], 'Skip, it's kinda cold out there today.' Cochrane shot him a look and said, 'It's pretty warm over in the South Pacific.' Rowe quickly said, 'Give me the damn ball skip!' Rowe and Virgil Trucks pitched and we beat them. In fact, we beat every big league club we played."

In 1944 while playing with the Chicago White Sox, a visit to a Philadelphia area hospital proved to be a sobering experience for Carnett about the realities of war.

"We went around and played quite a few exhibition games across the country," he said. "We went into the Valley Forge Hospital in Philadelphia with all of the guys from the White Sox. All of the guys from Normandy were sent back shot up. I never seen such a bloody mess in my life. That was when they went across the channel and got shot up.

"One big kid, his idol was Hal Trosky. The nurse told me he had both eyes shot out, he had a bandage over his face so I didn't know that. Trosky was in a batting slump, and the kid got up and said, 'I can see ol' Hal Trosky now.' He just stood there perfect in Trosky's stance, and Trosky got white as a sheet. Trosky then said, 'It takes a blind kid to tell me what I was doing wrong.' There wasn't a dry eye in the room; he wasn't worried about his eyes, he was worried about his buddy Trosky, his baseball idol. I'll tell ya, I would have rather been over there than see what I seen coming back at Valley Forge Hospital. Those guys that came back, I'm telling you, they were shot up."

Carnett explained why many of these horror stories never reached the public consciousness.

"The public never sees any of this stuff," he said. "And I can understand why the government hides this stuff from them. I don't know whether the public can take it or not. War is hell! There ain't nothing fair about war. If I know you are going to try to shoot me, I am going to shoot you first and ask questions later."

He also acknowledged that some of the players took heat from their fellow servicemen because they were shielded from combat duty as they traveled the country playing exhibition games for the troops. A vast majority of the armed forces appreciated what they were doing.

"I was fortunate," he said. "I was in the Navy, scheduled to go out in a bunker hill and [instead] the Commodore of our Naval District wanted us to go around. We went to Fort Dix and played some exhibition games. There were a couple of soldiers that called me a draft dodger because I was playing ball. The guys over there in the Army told me not to worry and they picked those guys up and threw them out of the ballpark."

Far removed from his military service, Carnett suggested enlisting the services of the retired veterans to help put an end to battle.

"I'll tell you how to stop war," he said. "Take guys like me, 80-90 years old and put us in the service, on the front lines, and after four or five shots, you know what we're going to say, 'What in the hell are we doing here?'"

While the current administration may not be knocking down his door anytime soon, Carnett is glad to be around to continue to tell his story.

"I had a lot of good friends in baseball and I miss them," he lamented. "I love the fans. A lot of my buddies lost their lives, the only thing I lost was money and my big league career. That was fine; I came back alive."

Carnett is featured in the following books about World War II and baseball:

Hardball on the Home Front: Major League Replacement Players of World War II - Craig Allen Cleve

Bluejackets of Summer: The History of the Great Lakes Naval Baseball Team 1942-1945 - Roger Gogan

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Book Review: The Negro Leagues Revisited: Conversations with 66 more baseball heroes

The Negro Leagues Revisited: Conversations with 66 More Baseball Heroes

Brent Kelley
McFarland Publishing, 2010
389 pp.

"The Negro Leagues Revisited" is Brent Kelley's follow-up to his successful collection of Negro League interviews "Voices from the Negro Leagues". Originally published in 2000, McFarland is celebrating its 10 year anniversary by releasing it in paperback form. Sadly, as of this writing less than one-third of the 66 players interviewed for this collection are deceased. The interviews span the careers of Negro League players from the 1920's through the 1960's.

Even though many of the legends are no longer with us, Kelley has managed to capture an important time in both baseball and American history by letting these men who played in the Negro Leagues tell their stories of competing in an era of segregation. Many are unaware that the Negro Leagues had a collection of veterans that made the league run in addition to the likes of Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard.

He brings to life the voices of such colorful players as Buck O'Neil, "The Human Vacuum Cleaner" Bobby Robinson, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe, Andy "Pullman" Porter, and Buster Haywood who was Hank Aaron's manager in the Negro Leagues. Listen and enjoy their tales of traveling the United States and the Caribbean playing against all of the greats of baseball. It's a compelling look into the lives of the men who for most of their career, played in obscurity solely due to the color of their skin.

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Gaylord Perry and George Foster give back at Long Island youth baseball clinic

Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry and former National League MVP George Foster led a group of retired Major League baseball players that delivered an enriching baseball clinic at Hofstra University on May 22nd, 2010.

Sponsored by the MLBPAA and the RPS Treiber Agency Group, over 200 children aged 6-16 attended the clinic. For many of the participants, they were able to have direct instruction from former Major League baseball players.

The baseball alumni sent a clear and consistent message: play hard, have fun, and take care of your education. Perry looked forward to bringing smiles to the faces of both the kids and their parents.

"I enjoying seeing the excitement in the kids and the parents," he said. "The parents saw us play in their day during our day, so they knew what we did, but the young kids are out here to have fun, play ball, and learn a few things. I want to give them confidence that they can do the job."

A return to New York brought back fond memories for Perry who played there with the Yankees towards the end of his career.

"I was fortunate enough to really get my start here in 1964 against the Mets," he said. "I pitched 10 innings in relief, winning in 23 innings. In 1980 I finished the season with the Yankees. They had a very good club, and in 1982 I won my 299th game in Yankee Stadium, so New York is very special to me."

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Morrie Martin | Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher and World War II hero dies at 87

Morris "Morrie" Martin, a left-handed pitcher and World War II veteran died May 24, 2010, at the age of 87 due to complications from cancer. Martin made his debut in 1949 with the Brooklyn Dodgers and compiled a career record of 38-34 over the course of ten major league seasons with the seven different teams.

A World War II hero, Martin nearly lost the use of one of his legs and was buried alive in Germany after a bombing. In an interview I conducted with Martin in 2008, he explained how his intuition helped him escape death.

"We were in a house and the house was bombed," Martin said. "We were in the basement, two other guys and myself. This bomb hit at night and just flattened the house upstairs. Just flattened it! We had no contact with nobody. It was just us three down there. They had been bombing the town all day and I said, 'I'm going in this basement to sleep tonight because it has steel reinforcement bars.' They went with me and that's what happened. We finally dug ourselves out in the daylight. We could follow a little pin light and it kept getting bigger and bigger and finally, we dug ourselves out. Two or three days later we caught up with the outfit and they wondered where the hell we came from."

At the Battle of the Bulge, he suffered a bullet wound to his thigh where gangrene set in. It would take 150 shots of penicillin to save the leg from amputation. Martin persevered after the potential career and life ending injury to make a quick return to baseball.

"The injury made it take longer to get in shape," he said. "I just had to work harder to get that leg in shape. I did a lot of running and it finally came around. I played no baseball during World War II. Coming back [in 1946], I won 14 and lost six, and made the All-Star team. My arm was fine, it came naturally; I just needed to get that leg to catch up."

Now with his legs firmly under him, Martin made a rapid ascent to the big show. His budding stardom began by earning the Cuban Winter League MVP for the 1948-49 season, putting him in the same company as Martin Dihigo, Willie Wells, and Minnie Minoso. That spring, Martin cracked Brooklyn's roster and embarked on a ten-year major league career that ended in 1959 with the Chicago Cubs.

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Rogelio Martinez, 91, Cuban baseball legend and Washington Senator

Former Cuban pitcher and Washington Senator Rogelio "Limonar" Martinez died Monday at his home in Connecticut at the age of 91 after suffering a fall that caused severe internal bleeding.

A legend in the Matanzas province, Martinez was just the seventh pitcher in Cuban baseball history to pitch a no-hitter, spinning the gem while a member of the Marianao club in 1950 against Almendares.

He briefly made two appearances for the Washington Senators in 1950, posting an 0-1 record with a 27.00 ERA. Martinez at the time was plagued by knee injuries which would affect him for the rest of his career and into retirement.

He lived for many years in Queens, New York after moving from Cuba in 1962 with his family. He was inducted into the Cuban Sports Hall of Fame in 2003. He spent the last few years of his life living in Connecticut with his daughter.

More Information -
He died a legend of Cuban Baseball - El Nuevo Herald (Translated)


Limonar Martinez Dies - Jesus Alberto Rubio (Spanish)

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Jose Lima, former All-Star pitcher dies at 37 of a heart attack

With the passing of Jose Lima, "Lima Time" is officially over at the age of 37. The colorful right-hander died of an apparent heart attack on Sunday.

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Ted Kazanski recalls his magical moment in the wake of Angel Pagan's feats

Earlier this week, Angel Pagan of the New York Mets made baseball history against the Washington Nationals, being the first player in 55 years to hit an inside the park homerun and start a triple play in the same game. The last player to accomplish that feat was shortstop Ted Kazanski of the Philadelphia Phillies on September 25, 1955 against the New York Giants on the final game of the season at the Polo Grounds.

The 76-year-old Kazanski who lives in Northern Michigan, was reached via telephone Friday evening to discuss his memorable day in Manhattan. Ironically, he remembers the triple play much clearer than the home run.

Ted Kazanski / 1954 Topps

“I remember the triple play because it ended the season," Kazanski said. "It was the last play of the season and I think it was the last game that Leo Durocher managed the Giants. I remember that part of it. They got the first two men on. [Joey Amalfitano singled and Whitey Lockman walked.] We were winning the game 3-1. I think Bobby Hofman pinch hit. I was playing closer to second base for a possible double play. He hit a line shot right at me, I flipped to Bobby Morgan and he threw to first [Marv Blaylock] and the season was over! I don't remember the home run too much. The left and right center gaps were a mile away.”

The New York Times detailed his inside-the-park homerun as a result of a crash between Willie Mays and Dusty Rhodes.

“Kazanski's round-tripper was an inside-the-park affair that was somewhat of a gift. Kazanski drove deep to left center. Mays raced over and caught the ball, but Dusty Rhodes ran into Willie. The ball, Mays and Rhodes hit the ground and Kazanski crossed the plate.”

Even more prominent than the triple play from that game, were his memories of a teammate that had fallen asleep despite all of the commotion. Saul Rogovin was a pitcher for the Phillies who would later become a standout teacher at Brooklyn's Eastern District High School, where he mentored future major league pitcher Frankie Rodriguez. Rogovin was out cold as his team ran off the field.

“The thing I remember the most about that day is Saul sleeping in the bullpen," he said. "He was a funny guy, a great guy. Saul had narcolepsy, you know, where you fall asleep anytime. So that day, Saul is in the bullpen. Bang, the triple play happens, the season's over! We're all running off the field. You had to go all the way to center field and up the steps in the Polo Grounds to the clubhouse; that's where our clubhouse was. People were running onto the field. Meanwhile, we're all in the clubhouse showering and Pete the clubhouse guy looks out on the field and says, 'Holy ----, Saul is still out there in the bullpen sleeping!' So they had to send the batboy out there to tell him the season's over. That was a classic, I'll always remember that. He was still sleeping in the bullpen!”

Kazanski said that his efforts went with little media coverage, as compared to the coverage of Pagan's play.

“Every time I turned on Baseball Tonight, they showed his play," he said. "In our day, I don't even think they made a big deal of it in the newspaper.”

Kazanski played six seasons in the majors from 1953-58, and another six in the minors, retiring after the 1964 season at 30 after multiple surgeries on his left shoulder. This is the second time this season one of Kazanski's feats has been in the papers. In April, Atlanta's Jason Heyward became one of only ten major leaguers to have 4 RBIs in their major league debut. One of those other ten was Kazanski who collected four in his first game on June 25, 1953.

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