The Keesler Field News

On The Sports Line
BY SGT. ROBERT O. FISHEL

Keesler Field's high-flying Commandos, winging their way through the South as one of the best service ball clubs, won the Mississippi State Semi-Pro Baseball championship last week at Hattiesburg after a delay caused by weather conditions.

Sgt. Les Wilson's club received nation-wide publicity after taking its 21st win of the season against only three defeats. THE SPORTING NEWS, bible of baseball, recognized Keesler's success with a brief review of the team in a recent issue.

The champion Commandos, like the world champ New York Yankees, win ball games on power hitting and tight pitching. Like the Yanks, the Keesler nine can count on any man in the lineup to spark a sudden rally that will turn a close contest into a rout. Corp. Bob Spackman, Sgt. John Carey and Corp. Paul Dyke may represent the first line of offense, but there is trouble for opposing pitchers all the way through the batting order.

It was just last Wednesday that Sgt. Bob Mendes, Keesler's hustling shortstop and one of the team's weaker hitters, sparked the Commandos' attack as the team won the title. After considerable work on his batting form with Sergeant Carey as instructor, Sergeant Mendes appears to have found his batting eye.

Apparently it is necessary to explain at regular intervals to sports critics the reasons for encouraging athletics in the Army. It seems some people believe that fighting a war is a simple matter, that any young man in reasonably good physical condition can be sent across to engage the enemy. Men fighting for the welfare, safety and very existence of their country must, as we all know, be conditioned both mentally and physically. Competitive sports, a necessary element in normal American life, is a great conditioner for men preparing to do battle.

Sports promote the essential attributes of teamwork, self-sacrifice and loyalty around which we rally in time of stress. For many generations, sports have served as a common bond between young and old, rich and poor.

A DYNAMIC DEMOCRACY, FOR WHICH WE ARE FIGHTING TODAY, SPRINGS FROM THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE AND FINDS EXPRESSION IN POLITICAL THEORIES. NOWHERE IS THIS SPIRIT MORE PREVALENT THAN IN COMPETITIVE ATHLETICS.

The recent All Star game at Cleveland between picked players of the American League and the Service team under Lt. Mickey Cochrane proved again that athletics is not over-emphasized in the Army and Navy. American League pitching was far too sharp for batting eyes dulled by months of devotion to another task. Likewise American League bats were too potent for pitching arms that have grown somewhat rusty in the service of a cause greater than baseball.

The night before the big service game, Parks Johnson interviewed members of Lieutenant Cochrane's team on the Vox Pop network radio show. It was obvious to anyone listening that the former major league greats now in the Service maintained an interest in baseball, but had their minds on the bigger game at hand.

Seaman 2nd Class John Rigney, former Chicago White Sox hurling ace now at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station, summed up the situation perfectly when he told Johnson he was gladly taking a cut from some $66 per inning with the White Sox to $66 a month in the Navy.