Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library

The Cloudbuster Nine, the untold story of Ted Williams and the baseball team that helped win World War II, Anne R. Keene ; foreword by Claudia Williams

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 321-340) and index

contains biographical information

illustrationsplatesportraits

index present

non fiction

The Cloudbuster Nine

bibliography

996403572

Anne R. Keene ; foreword by Claudia Williams

the untold story of Ted Williams and the baseball team that helped win World War II

"In 1943, while the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals were winning pennants and meeting in that year's World Series, one of the nation's strongest baseball teams practiced on a skinned-out college field in the heart of North Carolina. Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain were among a cadre of fighter-pilot cadets who wore the Cloudbuster Nine baseball jersey at an elite Navy training school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a child, Anne Keene's father, Jim Raugh, suited up as the team batboy and mascot. He got to know his baseball heroes personally, watching players hit the road on cramped, tin-can buses, dazzling factory workers, kids, and service members at dozens of games, including a war-bond exhibition with Babe Ruth at Yankee Stadium. Jimmy followed his baseball dreams as a college All-American but was crushed later in life by a failed major-league bid with the Detroit Tigers. He would have carried this story to his grave had Anne not discovered his scrapbook from a Navy school that shaped America's greatest heroes including George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, John Glenn, and Paul "Bear" Bryant. With the help of rare images and insights from World War II baseball veterans such as Dr. Bobby Brown and Eddie Robinson, the story of this remarkable team is brought to life for the first time in The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II"--Dust jacket flap

Prologue: Babe's Yanklands versus the Navy pilots, July 28, 1943 -- Foreword / by Claudia Williams -- Part I--MAY 11, 1943. The "baseball squad" ; The comeback kid ; Ration-league baseball -- Part II--The trunk. A trunk holding secrets ; The size of the dream ; My new friend Ted ; A dream team ; A train to Durham ; The last living player ; A batboy's perspective ; Ted who? -- Part III--The world's most difficult training program. The pre-flight spark ; Tom Hamilton, the fighting American ; Winning the one big game -- Part IV--The right stuff. The right stuff culture ; Caldwell Hall--the theory of flight ; The fathers of survival training -- Part V--Graham's field of dreams. When the Navy marched into Chapel Hill -- Part VI--Playing baseball military style. Walking billboards for baseball and that ain't all ; The season continues ; Babe's last at-bat--the Yanklands -- Part VII--Graduation. Ted's next station ; A Cloudbuster reunion in Hawaii ; The nine--after the war and the .5 percent ; Extra innings -- Part VIII--Always a baseball player. The love of the game ; Longing for the old leaguer -- Epilogue: Forever a batboy