Arguably, Oahu featured more wartime service baseball than any other location during WWII. For decades, baseball was truly Hawaii’s game as the islands featured multiple civilian and military leagues that were highly competitive. By 1942 as former professional players entered the armed forces ranks and began to arrive on Oahu, the leagues experienced an uptick in talent and the level of play due to the service teams being bolstered. With nearly every base and command team featuring major league talent by 1944, one could infer that the armed forces teams on Oahu could compete and beat the best of the American and National Leagues.
Despite the departure of nearly 80 major leaguers in the Navy and Army to the Marianas in 1945, talent continued to pour onto Oahu from the mainland keeping the service rosters well-stocked.
In 1944 Kaneohe Bay Naval Air Station’s ball club was far more competitive as the roster featured former Dodgers pitcher, Hugh Casey and power-hitting first baseman, Johnny Mize of the Cardinals and Giants. In February 1945 Mize headed to the Marianas and Casey was shifted to the Aiea Naval Receiving Barracks team leaving the Klippers devoid of two significant star players. One-time Red Sox pitcher Joe Gonzalez took Kaneohe’s reins and former Senators infielder Sherry Robertson shored up the hot corner joining the largely intact 1944 squad for the ’45 campaign. After finishing in the middle of the pack, the Klippers honored their fans with “Klipper Day” to close out the season against the Naval Air Station Honolulu Crossroaders
Our Klipper Day program and scorecard booklet is a 14-page standard cardstock piece, printed in a brown monochrome tone. The booklet measures 8-1/2 x 11 inches and is bound together with two staples at the fold/spine. In addition to the program of events, the pages include a Crossroaders-Klippers season series recap, congratulatory notes from the base commanding officer and athletic director. Unlike most service team game programs, the Klipper Day piece includes brief manager bios and two pages of player photos. The center of the program features the two-page scorecard with rosters of each team flanking each end. To view the program in its entirety, download a printable copy.
Each team’s rosters were built around former major leaguers and surrounded by players with pre-war semi-pro or minor league experience. After his stellar 1943 season with the Cloudbusters of Navy Pre-Flight, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ensign Johnny Pesky found himself at NAS Honolulu after washing out of flight training by 1945. That September, Pesky led the Navy’s American League All-Stars in their losing effort against the Navy National Leaguers in the Navy World Series.
| # | Player | Position | Former |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Max Wilson | P | Plymouth (PIED) |
| 14 | Lou Barkley | 1B | Semi-Pro |
| 5 | Bill Barnacle | 3B | Minneapolis (AA) |
| 23 | Russ Beasley | P | Semi-Pro |
| Tom Broderick | Bat Boy | ||
| 11 | Bobby Combs | P | Giants |
| 12 | Jack Conway | 2B | Indians |
| 7 | Charlie Erb | UT | Semi-Pro |
| 4 | Manuel “Manny” Fernandez | C | Dayton (MATL) |
| 22 | Ned Harris | LF | Tigers |
| 6 | Dale Jones | P | Phillies |
| 13 | Mike Koll | P/MGR | UC Berkeley |
| Ka Lee | Bat Boy | ||
| 24 | Bill Liebe | P | Semi-Pro |
| 21 | Dee Miles | CF | Athletics |
| 19 | Jack Paepke | P/1B | Montreal (IL) |
| 2 | Johnny Pesky | SS | Red Sox |
| 25 | Jack Phipps | CF | Semi-Pro |
| 16 | Dick West | C/RF | Reds |
| 15 | Chet Zelinski | C | Semi-Pro |
Marvin Felderman, a former major league catcher with just three games to his credit with the 1942 Chicago Cubs was a mainstay for the Klippers after an outstanding season under LT Mickey Cochrane on the Great Lakes Naval Training Station’s Bluejackets squad in 1943 (see: A Full Career Behind the Plate with Just Six Major League At-Bats).
| # | Player | Position | Former |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | John “Johnny” Berry | 1B | Semi-Pro |
| 3 | Bob Cullins | UT | Semi-Pro |
| 2 | Marvin Felderman | C | Cubs |
| 18 | Joe Gonzales | P/MGR | Red Sox |
| 1 | Ralph Gosnell | C | Semi-Pro |
| 8 | Bruz Hamner | P | White Sox |
| 14 | Frank Hargrove | LF | Amarillo (WTNM) |
| 0 | F. Kaldenback | Bat Boy | |
| 15 | Irvin “Red” Meairs | SS | Santa Barbara (CALL) |
| 7 | Russ Meers | P | Cubs |
| 4 | Pete Pavlick | 2B | Giants |
| 20 | Sherrard “Sherry” Robertson | 3B | Senators |
| 9 | Gabriel Sady | C | Semi-Pro |
| 11 | Phil Seawald | P | Semi-Pro |
| 19 | Steve “Red” Tramback | CF | Oklahoma City (TL) |
| 6 | Bob Usher | RF | Birmingham (SOUA) |
| 16 | Hank Weiss | P | Rochester Red Wings |
What truly makes this program a gem are the line-up pages and their photos showing the players in their respective uniforms.
While these programs are certainly scarce, they are not impossible to find. Since we acquired our first Klipper Day program a few years ago, we have seen at least two listed for sale. We recently acquired a second copy, graciously donated to the Chevrons and Diamonds Collection by the renowned baseball artist and historian, Gary Cieradkowski (Studio Gary C).
This scorecard was listed at auction (online) in 2012.
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