What to Happen During WWII?
As war began to look increasingly inevitable and building up the army was a necessity, a popular question that was asked was whether or not the baseball players should enlist or not. The more popular opinion among Americans was that they should not, and their beloved game should be kept exactly how it was. "For the morale of the soldier and the morale of America itself, 'keep 'em playing'," was a quote said by Private Clifford P. Mansfield that became one easily recognizable and agreed upon by fellow baseball lovers. Although, a minority of Americans were in favor of sending these presumably "fit" men to defend and fight for our country rather than play on a baseball field, one man made it clear baseball was here to stay, and that mean was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
Roosevelt's Green Light Letter
On January 15, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote what is known as his "Green Light Letter", which was a letter to the Commissioner of Major League Baseball summing up how he felt about the situation. President Roosevelt was a big baseball fan, making eight opening day appearances throwing out the first pitch; a presidential record (Bazer). As it turns out, the President felt baseball should go on, because America needed it; stating, “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before.” Basically, he was saying that with all the work the American people would have to put in during the war effort, they would need something for a feel of normalcy, and what better than their "national pastime!" With the support from the president, baseball was from there on out looked at as something the people could always rely on to be there because nothing could stop it; not even world war (Baseball Almanac).
On January 15, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote what is known as his "Green Light Letter", which was a letter to the Commissioner of Major League Baseball summing up how he felt about the situation. President Roosevelt was a big baseball fan, making eight opening day appearances throwing out the first pitch; a presidential record (Bazer). As it turns out, the President felt baseball should go on, because America needed it; stating, “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before.” Basically, he was saying that with all the work the American people would have to put in during the war effort, they would need something for a feel of normalcy, and what better than their "national pastime!" With the support from the president, baseball was from there on out looked at as something the people could always rely on to be there because nothing could stop it; not even world war (Baseball Almanac).
"Baseball is part of the American way of life. Remove it and you remove something from the lives of American citizens, soldiers and sailors." -Private John E. Stevenson
The Results
Along with future Hall of Famers, many other quality major league players enlisted or were drafted, significantly lowering the quality of play. Average players were now stars, and scrubs who were destined to be career minor leaguers received opportunities to play significant roles on big league clubs. Although attendance decreased by about one million during 1942 and 1943 seasons to 7,465,911, the 1944 season saw a return to pre-war attendance levels and by 1945, the last war season, the league had an all time high attendance of 10,841,123. This contradicts the popular belief that the war severely lessened the popularity of baseball when in actuality when it was all said and done the popularity was even higher than before. When it was all said and done more than 500 major leaguers and 2,000 minor leaguers were apart of the armed forces, and the league and the fans missed them for sure (Roberts).
As you can see in the charts above on the sides, the attendance skyrocketed after the war's end. The middle chart shows how home run production decreased once many of the league's stars entered the war. Without many of its top players, baseball lost some of its excitement, but when the players returned, the excitement was back and people filled the seats to watch.