Ballfield to Battlefield and Back, From FDR to JFK
Released in 2009, our DVD “Stars Of Baseball, 1945-1953” features some of the top players of the era including George Case of the Washington Senators. Case, a six-time American League base stealing champ, himself took home movies of other major leaguers during his playing days – in COLOR! A teammate of George’s was two-time A.L. batting champion Mickey Vernon, another home movie fan who also was taking color movies during his playing career which ended in 1960 with the World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates. Before he passed away in 2008, Mickey decided to also do what Case had done before he died – narrate his film so that all players would be positively identified for posterity.
Recently George’s son, George Case III, collaborated with Jim Vankoski of the Mickey Vernon Sports History Museum (Chadd’s Ford, PA) to put together the vintage films of both players on a new DVD! The two decided it was appropriate to tie the films to the WWII era of major league baseball as both believe there is still today a very strong connection of major league baseball and the military, with most of the players shown in the DVD also serving in WWII. Because of this and the era, the one hour DVD is titled, “Ballfield To Battlefield And Back, From FDR toJFK”. With its obvious Washington connection, presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy are shown at the ballpark, as well as Hall of Famers Honus Wagner (coach, spring training), Babe Ruth (Babe Ruth Day 1947), Hank Greenberg, Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Feller, Jackie Robinson, Yogi Berra, Stan Musial, Warren Spahn, Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays and more than 70 other major leaguers who served in our Armed Forces.
Doak Ewing, president of Rare Sportsfilms, Inc. recently reviewed the new release and says, “I was critical of the much-hyped DVD set “When It Was A Game”. The color images were fine, but very few players were identified because the producers did not make the effort to contact someone who knew baseball to identify them. The strength of “Ballfield To Battlefield” is that the actual voices of Case and Vernon are identifying the images and in many instances making a comment about the player being shown! If you are interested in color movies of major league baseball from 1939-1962, then “Ballfield To Battlefield” is a ‘must have’ for you”, Ewing says.
