Mays, Williams, Musial, Robinson, Berra and many other baseball players of the 30’s and 40’s served in the military, esp. during WW2.
How many baseball players today (American citizens or want-to-be’s) have been in the service and how many have been in combat? Just asking.
We also must remember the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Coleman, United States Marine Corps, who served in WW2 and Korea. A fighter pilot, he was awarded two Distinguished Flying Crosses and 13 Air Medals for his flying prowess. He is the only MLB player who saw combat in two wars. (Ted Williams served in WW2, but did not experience combat until Korea.) Coleman is in the HOF as a broadcaster — “You can hang a star on that one!” — but as a Yankees 2nd baseman, he was the 1949 AP rookie of the year, the 1950 World Series MVP, and went to six World Series with New York, winning four. He was soft spoken, but a man’s man.