Stevedore Softball

I got a lot of writing done this weekend. One of the things I added was a bit about the battalion softball team. In 1946 there was a competition among all the American units stationed in Europe. The 519th’s Historical Data Report was proud to report that their team did quite well:

“…from the various companies a Battalion softball team was organized and when the preliminary rounds of the Com Z softball tournament started the 519th was enetered. The 519th successfully defeated all local contenders to the crown and emerged Port Area No, 3 champions. Through another series of games they became the Chanor Base representative for the Com Z tournament at Merseille. The entire team flew from Brussels to Merseille in a C-47 where they met teams from the various Base Sections, representative of hundreds of teams on the Continent. The 519the team, after winning its first two games in this tournament, eneded the campaign finishing runner-up. This hard-working aggregation reflected fine spirit and credit upon the Battalion as a whole.”
The guy in the top photo looks like it might be John Larock. Robert F. Lipke is in the bottom shot. I know a lot of professional ball players were drafted during the war. I wonder what has been written about these baseball games in WWII. Has anyone read When Baseball Went to War, by Todd Anton?