Chevrons and Diamonds

Sampson NTC Broadside: March 27- April 2, 1944

December 23, 2025

2–3 minutes

Station Baseball

The Navy’s rapidly increasing demand for manpower prompted leadership to expand its capabilities to train recruits. The longstanding facilities at San Diego, Great Lakes and Norfolk were incapable of accommodating the enormous increase of recruits flooding into the ranks prompting the Navy to add training facilities in other parts of the country.

Sampson Naval Training Center (NTC) opened on the shores of Seneca Lake in Romulus, New York in 1942. With athletics playing a central role in morale and physical fitness of military personnel, Sampson NTC soon fielded teams in baseball, football, basketball and other competitive sports. By 1943, Sampson’s baseball team was competing against regional service clubs and its roster featured former professionals including Nick Tremark, Tom Carey, Rocco English, Bill Mock, Tony Ravish and Sherry Robertson.

As spring loomed on the 1944 horizon, baseball at Sampson was set to return and the station-wide call was made to amass a significant talent pool from which to build a strong team. The new club would feature some of the best from the professional ranks who were now serving in the Navy.

This broadside demonstrates the 1944 Sampson ball team’s foundation as the call for baseball talent was broadcast across the station. The amazing roster that was built from the pool could have competed with any major league club that season.

“Baseball practice will start indoors. Unit and time will be announced in the Orders of the Day and in the next issue of Sportscast.

Any men who have had organized baseball experience on a college level, class ‘D’ or better, and who are interested in a tryout for the station baseball team are instructed to apply in the following manner:

Officers and Ship’s Company – Call W. & R., Ext. 102.
Recrutits – Contact the Athletic Coordinator in your Drill Hall.”

Attracting talent from the officer’s ranks, ship’s company (personnel permanently assigned to Sampson NTC) and recruits, the dominating roster of players that would be assembled would leave one astonished to consider the caliber of players who did not make the team. “W. & R.” is Welfare and Recreation, the Navy’s equivalent of the Army’s Special Services branch.

Other Sampson Naval Training Center activities on the docket include the unit “smokers” boxing competition with specific units liested. The ship’s company (sailor’s permanently assigned to Sampson) bowling league schedule and regimental indoor track meets fill out the balance of the broadside’s promotions.

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