Chevrons and Diamonds

In September, 2021, we embarked upon a small project to research the players behind the autographs adorning a team-signed Seattle Rainiers baseball that we had acquired weeks earlier. The original owner of the baseball, a Seattle resident and ardent fan of the hometown Pacific Coast League club, obtained 20 signatures from team members over the course of the 1953 and 1954 seasons.  Like so many professional baseball clubs in the years following World War II, the Rainiers roster featured many wartime veterans of the armed forces.

In researching each Rainiers team member and documenting the wartime service of each player for our article, Rainiers Ink: World War II Veterans Converge in Seattle, one story stood out. Left-handed pitcher Gene Bearden, a knuckleball pitcher who was a 20-game winner during his 1948 rookie season with the World Series champion Cleveland Indians, had reportedly survived the sinking of his ship, the light cruiser USS Helena (CL-50), when she was sunk following a Japanese torpedo attack on July 3, 1943, during the Battle of Kula Gulf. Seeking to uncover as many details as possible regarding Bearden’s severe injuries sustained during the attack, his survival and his lengthy road to recovery to make a successful return to the game, we commenced research, using every possible tool at our disposal.

There is no shortage of newspaper articles, ranging from the 1940s to the present, that tell Bearden’s story. In addition to conventional press coverage in print, one can find countless recountings of the same story shared online by Bleacher Report,[1] Only In Arkansas,[2] Encyclopedia of Arkansas,[3] the American Legion,[4] the Baseball Hall of Fame,[5] The United States Navy Memorial,[6] and even on the veteran’s social media site Together We Served[7]. One can find Bearden’s World War II story on the site that is dedicated to him and managed by his grandson.[8] Bearden’s story is often retold and reported as it is one of the most harrowing, uplifting and compelling narratives regarding a ballplayer who served during World War II.

Motivated by a desire to dig deeper into Bearden’s story in order to uncover further details and shine a spotlight on what he endured, we turned to official records from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Census and state records. We sought out official reports pertaining to the Battle of Kula Gulf and the post-sinking muster reports of the USS Helena’s crew showing survivors, wounded-in-action, killed-in-action, and missing-in-action. We pored over the ship’s muster reports for the preceding months, hoping to document Bearden’s career path through the Navy.

As we sifted through official documents, it became clear that something was awry. Not only was there an absence of detail that we were seeking, but no records existed that supported Bearden’s USS Helena account. His name was not among any of the Navy’s reports before or after the ship’s battle in the Solomon Islands. With that dead end, we shifted our focus towards Bearden’s specific service, using digitized documents available through Fold3.com and Ancestry.com. Four digitized U.S. Navy muster sheets ranging in date from May 29, 1943, to September 30[9][10][11][12] of the same year listed Bearden as a member of the crew of the U.S. Navy submarine chaser USS SC-1330 from its commissioning on May 29 through the end of September. The ship, built in Boston, Massachusetts, and homeported in Mayport, Florida, was never deployed beyond the coastal region of the southeastern United States and Caribbean waters during the war. How could Bearden have been in the Solomon Islands aboard the USS Helena at the same time as he was serving aboard the Florida-based sub chaser?

Turning to wartime newspapers, we found multiple references to Bearden in box scores and game summaries published in 1944 for the Mayport Naval Section Base “Bluejackets” baseball team. Another reference to Bearden’s ballplaying for the Bluejackets was penned in 2017 by Mayport Naval Station librarian Joe Pickett, who sourced his material from the wartime Mayport Naval Base’s newspaper, the Mayport Dispatch. Pickett documented Bearden’s addition to the 1943 Bluejackets roster after the season was underway and coinciding with the arrival of the SC-1330 to the base. “Most of the players on the team were on hand when the Blue Jackets started spring training on April 2, 1943. Some of the players had been replaced by people who played professional ball before the war. The new men in the line-up wee Henry Eugene “Gene” Bearden, William Ratteree, Rip Baldwin, Oscar Mattox, O’Shea Boyd, Ralph Buxton, Morris Long, Ralph Davis, Al Butler, Wilbur McCullough, Henry Kirkpatrick, Lonnie Pickett, Joe Nelson and Forrest Smith.”[13]

Player	Position	Former
Rip Baldwin	C
Henry “Gene” Bearden	P/1B	Savannah/Augusta (EL)
O’Shea Boyd	CF
Al Butler
Ralph Buxton	P	Oakland (PCL)
Ralph Davis	3B	Amateur
Henry Kirkpatrick
Morris Long	SS	Sanford (BIST)
Oscar Mattox
Wilber McCullough	P	Johnson City (APPY)
Joe Nelson	P
Lonnie Picket
William Ratteree	C	Wilmington (ISLG)
Forrest Smith

In his article, Pickett wrote, “The Blue Jackets, the 1944 Jacksonville City League champions, had ringers that the other teams may not have been aware of. Bearden and (Harry) Grubb were under contract to the New York Yankees.”[14] As Bearden stated that he was hospitalized in Florida from 1943 to 1945, one must question how he could be playing baseball in 1943 and 1944 for the Mayport team as it competed in both the Jacksonville City League and regional military Victory League? [15]

Player	Position	Former
Bill Baker	LF
Rip Baldwin	C
Henry “Gene” Bearden	P/1B	Savannah/Augusta (EL)
Gabriel “Joe” Becerra	UT
O’Shea Boyd	CF
Ralph Buxton	P	Oakland (PCL)
Jack Culveyhouse	UT	Semi-Pro
Ralph Davis	3B	Amateur
Al Fagetti		Siloam Springs (ARMO)
Lewis Givens	P
Harry Grubb	P	Norfolk (PIED)
Morris Long	SS	Sanford (BIST)
Wilber McCullough	P	Johnson City (APPY)
Tip Murphy	MGR
Joe Nelson	P
William Ratteree	C	Wilmington (ISLG)
Charlie Stone	UT
Louis Vick	RF
Bernard Walsh	2B

As our research expanded, instead of uncovering answers, we found ourselves asking more questions. Were we dealing with two people with similar or the same names? Was there a clerical error that led to Bearden’s name being listed on the USS SC-1330 muster sheets? If Bearden served aboard the USS Helena, was he somehow omitted from all the ship’s official 1943 muster records? Was there another similarly named former professional baseball player; a tall left-handed pitcher, playing baseball at the same base during the same time that Bearden was healing and re-learning how to walk?  

Our research expanded beyond Bearden’s war years as we turned to 1945, when he was reportedly discharged. Newspaper accounts documented his release from the Navy in early January due to a medical disability. Other than his entry into the service, this was the first piece that aligned Bearden’s stated story to the press and with what was documented in Navy records. Weeks after his discharge, Bearden signed a contract with the Yankees organization and reported to the minor leagues for spring camp. As the 1945 season got underway, there were no reports of Bearden’s incredible recovery from the shattered leg and crushed skull sustained in the USS Helena sinking. Aside from the late-season Newark Star-Ledger article published on September 9, the press did not seem to take notice of the incredible transition from near-crippled ex-sailor to dominant minor league pitcher. With the global circulation of the news surrounding the September 2 Japanese signing of the Instrument of Surrender, perhaps Bearden’s incredible tale got lost in the shuffle?

At this point, it had become clear that Gene Bearden, the Cleveland Indians star rookie pitcher who had a magnificent 20-win season, a sudden-death playoff win over Boston, a World Series Game Three victory and a Game Six save did not serve aboard the USS Helena. The stories surrounding his escape from the sinking ship were either the result of exuberant, patriotic journalists caught up in the euphoria of Bearden’s pitching dominance or a fabrication.

Nearly a month after we published our article regarding the Seattle Rainiers team ball, our article, “A Sinking News Story: World Series Hero Gene Bearden, a Sub-Chaser and the Loss of the USS Helena” was released, documenting our findings along with questions regarding the origins of the USS Helena story. In response to our Bearden article, a reader responded to us with an email with attached clippings from the 1945 Newark Star Ledger and the 1948 Cleveland Plain Dealer. On September 6, 1945, the Newark Star-Ledger ran a story, “Bears Get Bearden, Navy Vet,” soon after he was traded to the Newark club from Binghamton. Introducing the newly acquired pitcher, the Newark paper also introduced the USS Helena survival story. “Bearden was in frequent action while serving as a machinist’s mate. He was aboard the cruiser Helena which was torpedoed and sunk in the Kula Gulf with heavy loss of life.”[16] The story continued, “After a year’s hospitalization, he {Bearden) was assigned to the Elliot and again was fished out of the Pacific when an aerial torpedo sent the destroyer to the bottom,” the paper said. “Bearden was hardly scratched except for both legs broken in several spots and a severe back injury.”

By the spring of 1948, when the USS Helena narrative returned to the newspapers, the story took a turn toward the less grandiose, though with greater detail. The USS Elliot segment vanished, perhaps due to the ship surviving the war unscathed, having spent half of the duration as a training ship in Hawaiian waters.[17] In the May 9 rendition, Bearden’s story now mentioned that while he was complying with the order to abandon ship on the Helena, a torpedo struck the vessel, causing the ladder he was ascending to escape the main propulsion room to crumble, throwing him to the jagged and flooding keel below.[18]

“Somebody pulled me out,” Gene said. “They told me later it was an officer. I don’t know how he did it. The ship went down in about 17 minutes. All I know is that I came to in the water some time later.”[19]

In this version, Bearden spent two days in a life raft in a semi-conscious state with several other survivors and was finally rescued by a destroyer. By August 1943, he was in a Naval hospital near Jacksonville, Florida, where he was told that he would never be able to play baseball again. [20]

“I don’t know how many doctors told me that,” Gene said. “I didn’t know what to do. I learned a trade in the Navy, but baseball was the only thing I had known. Finally, I ran across a doctor who said he might be able to patch me up well enough. I think his name was Wyland. He was quite a guy. He worked with me for months.”[21]

According to the May 9 article, Bearden suffered a crushed kneecap that was beyond repair along with badly mangled ligaments. The surgical procedure to repair his leg required an aluminum cap and screw. Worse yet, Bearden’s skull had been “gouged open,” also requiring an aluminum plate. The wounds, surgery, and therapy limited Bearden’s mobility until January, 1945, when he was finally able to lay down his crutches and walk under his own power. Miraculously, he reported to Binghamton a few weeks following his first unassisted steps.[22]

It was clear that Bearden was the source for USS Helena story and that in the three years since he first went public, the details evolved. For the remainder of Bearden’s life, Bearden would alter some of the details until he refused to talk about it by the mid-1970s. All the facts surrounding the genesis of Bearden’s USS Helena story were published in Sea Stores and Tales of Survival: 1948 World Series Hero Gene Bearden’s Knuckling Narrative on October 9, 2021.

After publishing the follow-up article documenting the details of the story’s origins, we sought one final piece that would tie all our research findings together and afford us the opportunity to properly chronicle Bearden’s service history. We still had unanswered questions due to the gaps in the then available Navy documentation. In 2021 and well beyond, researchers were completely closed off from accessing the National Military Personnel Records Center as the ensuing backlog of requests for access piled up to record highs.[23] 

By early May, 2023, our request was fulfilled, and we had Gene Bearden’s entire service record in hand. Our extensive research efforts in 2021 had proven to be accurate. The USS Helena story had zero basis in fact. And while the pitcher was medically discharged in January, 1945, with more than eight months remaining in the war, his knee disability was due to a high school football injury that plagued him in 1943 and 1944 while he played baseball in Florida.

There is no doubt that Henry Hodge Eugene Bearden served his country honorably during World War II.  Nine months following his discharge and after completing an exceptionally good year in his first post-war professional baseball season, what was the motivation behind concocting the USS Helena story and telling it to the press?

The Stolen Valor Act (SVA) of 2005 made false representation of earning or having a military medal bestowed a federal misdemeanor. However, the law was struck down in 2012 by the Supreme Court because of the law’s failure to address intent. The Stolen Valor Act of 2013 amended the 2005 SVA, making it a crime to falsely claim military service, embellished rank, or earned awards with the intent to obtain money, property, or other tangible benefits. Specifically, the 2013 SVA addresses military decorations characterized as valor awards to include the Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, Air Force Cross, Silver Star Medal, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Combat Action Ribbon, Combat Infantryman’s Badge. Combat Action Badge and Combat Medical Badge. Bearden’s claim of combat wounds (sustained aboard the USS Helena during the Kula Gulf battle) and subsequent receipt of the Purple Heart Medal was false but not illegal during his life.

It is unknown whether Bearden tangibly benefited from his claims and if he did, it was merely a matter of ethics rather than legality. Most veterans would find Gene Bearden’s narrative reprehensible, especially considering the longevity of the story, how pervasive it was and that it was never verified by any government official, journalist, or major league official.

One of the most notable stolen valor cases in the last few decades involved the sitting Chief of Naval Operations (CNO), Admiral Michael Boorda, who had risen from the lowest to the highest rank in the Navy. Not long after his 1994 CNO appointment, questions were raised about the validity of the “V” (for valor) devices that he wore on his Navy Achievement and Navy Commendation ribbons. It was determined that he was ineligible to wear the devices and he ceased wearing them by 1995.[24] The damage to his reputation was done and caused many of the officer community to question his character despite his popularity among the enlisted community. In 1996, Boorda typed two separate (unsigned) notes before taking his own life in the garden of the Washington Navy Yard quarters.

One might question our motive for taking corrective action nearly twenty years after Gene Bearden’s March 18, 2004, passing. While many who take actions against those who lie about their service or wear decorations not earned do so with considerable venom and public shaming, our objective is merely to correct the record. Our efforts are not done to effect shame or to defame this Navy veteran who served his country honorably, but to correct the narrative that continues to be perpetuated. However, we have questions that will likely remain unanswered.

Bearden played baseball in 1943 and 1944 on the Mayport Navy Section Base team alongside several men who played professionally before and after the war. With the base and civilian press coverage, it would have been obvious to Bearden’s teammates that he was a former professional ballplayer. Former Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Ralph Buxton pitched with Gene in both Mayport seasons and resumed his career in Oakland in 1946. When Bearden was sent the Oaks that spring, the two were reunited and spent two seasons together before Gene was called to Cleveland’s spring training camp in 1948. Bearden remained with the major league club for his stellar rookie season. When Bearden’s USS Helena story broke throughout the United States,[25] what prevented Buxton from speaking out or challenging his former teammate’s narrative? When Buxton returned to the major leagues with New York in 1949 and faced Cleveland in relief of starter Vic Raschi,[26] one must wonder if the two former teammates had a post- or pre-game conversation.

At a time when a person’s word was taken at face value, Bearden leveraged the horrors endured by combat veterans and wounded warriors into nearly eight decades of national sympathy and praise if not personal gain.

We took a significant corrective step with the hope that when subsequent references are made regarding Gene Bearden’s World War II record, his honorable domestic naval service in Florida is what future generations will know.

A principal reference for major league baseball player backgrounds is the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) Baseball Biography Project. The stated goal is “is an ongoing effort to research and write comprehensive biographical articles on people who played or managed in the major leagues, or otherwise made a significant contribution to the sport.” These bios, roughly 4,000 words in length, provide a full-life look into their subjects. Once a biography is written and submitted for publication, it is vetted, fact-checked and edited. “All biographies are written by members of SABR and all have been peer-reviewed for style and accuracy.”[27] At the time when Gene Bearden’s original SABR biography was authored by Ralph Berger, the Project’s process was not as mature and rigorous.

Since Bearden’s original biography was published, it has served as a source of record for countless publications that exalted him as a heroic World War II figure. Upon discovering the fallacies in Bearden’s tale, we have taken steps to shed light upon the issue by publishing a series of articles on Chevrons and Diamonds. When our principal researcher and author M. Shawn Hennessy revealed the Bearden findings to SABR Biography Project Committee head Bill Nowlin, Bill requested he draft and submit a replacement.

Recognizing the need for greater detail and specificity regarding Bearden’s naval service, we hired a professional researcher to access the National Military Personnel Records Center to obtain a copy of Bearden’s service record. With the 114-page document in hand and drawing upon dozens of additional sources, Hennessy embarked upon writing Bearden’s replacement biography.

After rigorous vetting, fact-checking, and editing, a new and accurate biography has replaced the previous work and hopefully will serve as a source for subsequent Gene Bearden-related publications. Unfortunately, nothing can be done to correct existing printed materials.

Related articles:

• Rainiers Ink: World War II Veterans Converge in Seattle – September 21, 2021
• A Sinking News Story: World Series Hero Gene Bearden, a Sub-Chaser and the Loss of the USS Helena – October 2, 2021
• Sea Stores and Tales of Survival: 1948 World Series Hero Gene Bearden’s Knuckling Narrative – October 9, 2021

End Notes:

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[1] Leroy Watson, Jr., “Forgotten Stories of Courage and Inspiration: Gene Bearden,” (https://bleacherreport.com/articles/160125-forgotten-stories-of-courage-and-inspiration-gene-bearden) Bleacher Report, April 21, 2009 (accessed May 23, 2023).

[2] Jim Yeager, “Arkansas’s Gene Bearden, World Series Hero,” Only In Arkansas (https://onlyinark.com/sports/arkansass-gene-bearden-world-series-hero, January 2, 2002), (accessed May 23, 2023).

[3] “Gene Bearden (1920–2004),” Encyclopedia of Arkansas (https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/gene-bearden-13338/), March 27, 2021 (accessed May 23, 2023).

[4] Post 304 PIO, “Navy Vet Survived Sinking of ‘Fighting Ship that Went in Harm’s Way’ to Win World Series,” American Legion, April 6, 2022 (accessed May 23, 2023).

[5] Paul Dickson, “Remarkable Character,” (https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/baseball-history/remarkable-character) National Baseball Hall of Fame (accessed May 23, 2023).

[6] “Henry Eugene “Gene” Bearden,” The United States Navy Memorial (https://navylog.navymemorial.org/bearden-henry-1 accessed May 23, 2023).

[7] Bearden, Henry, MMFN, Together We Served (https://navy.togetherweserved.com/usn/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=AssignmentExt&ID=1539412; accessed May 23, 2023).

[8] Gene Bearden (www.genebearden.com) (accessed May 23, 2023).

[9] USS SC-1330, May 29, 1943, U.S. Navy Report of Changes, Ancestry.com (accessed May 23, 2023)

[10] USS SC-1330, May 29, 1943, U.S. Navy Date of Commissioning, Ancestry.com (accessed May 23, 2023)

[11] USS SC-1330, June 30, 1943, U.S. Navy Muster Roll of the Crew, Ancestry.com (accessed May 23, 2023)

[12] USS SC-1330, September 30, 1943, U.S. Navy Muster Roll of the Crew, Ancestry.com (accessed May 23, 2023)

[13] Joe Pickett, “The Mayport Blue Jackets Play Ball,” Florida Times-Union/Jacksonville.com (https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/2017/09/27/mayport-blue-jackets-play-ball/64876769007/), September 17, 2017 (accessed May 23, 2023).

[14] Joe Picket.

[15] Joe Picket.

[16] “Bears Get Bearden, Navy Vet,” Newark Star-Ledger, September 6, 1945: p.17.

[17] “Elliot (Destroyer No. 146),” Dictionary of Naval Fighting Ships (DANFS)/Naval Heritage and History Command (https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/e/elliot.html), (accessed May 23, 2023).

[18] “Bearden’s Secret Is Out: Torpedo Can’t Stop Him,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 9, 1948: p.C1.

[19] “Bearden’s Secret Is Out: Torpedo Can’t Stop Him.”

[20] “Bearden’s Secret Is Out: Torpedo Can’t Stop Him.”

[21] “Bearden’s Secret Is Out: Torpedo Can’t Stop Him.”

[22] “Bearden’s Secret Is Out: Torpedo Can’t Stop Him.”

[23] Erin Mansfield, “Veterans wait months for records needed for benefits. What’s the holdup at National Archives?,” USA Today (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2023/02/27/veterans-records-dd-214-national-archives/11321460002/), February 27, 2023 (accessed May 23, 2023).

[24] Findings/Board for Corrections of Navy Records (https://boards.law.af.mil/NAVY/BCNR/CY1998/06956-98.pdf), June 24, 199: p.15

[25] Grayson, Harry, “Bearden, Loaded with Plates, Winning,” The San Bernardino County Sun, May 20, 1948: p.26.

[26] Cleveland Indians vs New York Yankees, September 18, 1948 (https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA194909180.shtml), Baseball Reference.com, accessed May 30, 2023.

[27] “SABR Baseball Biography Project,” (https://sabr.org/bioproject), accessed June 6, 2023