Going from battlefield to real field of dreams

Second of two parts. Read part one.

In 1943, a 12-year-old English girl watched in wonder as American soldiers played what looked to be a strange type of cricket on a field near a hospital.

She was astonished to see them “hit the ball with that little stick all over the field.” Maureen Minor never was able to make sense of the mysterious game until she too became a citizen of the United States, and baseball became her favorite sport.

But what she did quickly grasp was how much fun the young men had playing the peculiar sport, and that made her happy as well. Happiness during those troubled times was hard to come by.

International pastime

It was only natural for American soldiers and airmen to return to the game of their youth. During the spring of 1943, U.S. Army units throughout England created baseball teams that were soon vying with one another for pride and prestige.

There was a wealth of talent, some of the teams having players with major-league experience. The 116th Infantry Regiment’s Plymouth Yankees didn’t have any former pros, but plenty of players who could have been considered prospects.

Carl “Chubby” Proffitt had dreamed of playing in the “bigs,” but World War II interfered. When a guy in his outfit named Douglas Gillette started putting the Plymouth Yankees team together, the Charlottesville native was one of the first to sign up.

“Doug Gillette could pitch and catch, and was a really good all-around player,” Proffitt said. “Another really good pitcher we had was Elmer Wright.

“Another terrific player was Joe Gubernot, who was probably the fastest guy on our team. Frank Draper was another really good player.

“It was a good team, but none of us had any idea it was as good as it came to be. By the time the ETO [European Theater of Operations] World Series came around in late September, we were undefeated.

“There were 20 teams entered in the tournament, and we were ranked dead last.”

Under the radar

The people in charge of ranking the teams hadn’t been paying attention. The military newspaper Stars and Stripes had concentrated on the glamour teams with the nice uniforms and star players like Chuck Eisermann and pitcher Monte Pearson who had won 100 games in the majors.

The sports reporters completely overlooked the fact that Proffitt was knocking the hide off baseballs. It was a rare game that the Charlottesville slugger didn’t send at least one ball over the outfield fence.

Nor did the writers notice that the Plymouth Yankees’ commander, Col. D.W. Canham, had pulled his boys off regular duty a few weeks before the start of the series. This gave the players an opportunity to sharpen their skills even more.

The ETO World Series started on Sept. 27, 1943, and was over quickly. The Plymouth Yankees won the championship in a sweep, ending the season undefeated with a record of 33-0.

“When we got back to our base, someone hollered at the chaplain, who was with us, ‘Did they win?’ said Proffitt, who hit 17 home runs during the season. “He said, ‘Why, certainly they won.’

“The colonel gave everyone on the team an all-expense-paid week to London. But that was about the end of it.

“All of us were from different units from within the 116th. So we just went back to what we were doing, which was preparing for the invasion.”

On June 6, 1944, the 116th landed in Normandy, France, at a place called Omaha Beach. Three members of the Plymouth Yankees never made it off the blood-soaked sand — Elmer Wright, Frank Draper and Louis Alberigo.

“It was hard to take when we heard about the guys who didn’t make it,” said Proffitt, who earned a Distinguished Service Cross for bravery, a Silver Star, Bronze Stars for valor and two Purple Hearts during the war. He also received a battlefield commission to second lieutenant.

When Charlottesville’s most decorated living hero returned home to his wife, Olive, there was another precious keepsake among the medals in his duffle bag.

It was a small, hardwood plaque with a silver metal badge affixed to it. Inscribed on the metal were the words “ETO USA Baseball Champs 1943.” Below that were Proffitt’s name, rank, outfit and position he played.

Fate and the war ended any chance Proffitt might have had to realize his dream of playing in the pros. But he continued to play the game he loved, starring on a number of championship fast-pitch softball teams.

But fate wasn’t finished with the good-natured guy who became “a hell of a soldier.”

This past July, Proffitt and teammate Joe Gubernot were escorted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The two men were invited to the hall so a video recording of their baseball experiences in 1943 could be made. Photographs of the world-champion Plymouth Yankees, as well as the team roster, were placed in the hall’s archives.

For as long as the shine in Cooperstown exists, so will the pictures, names and short history of the undefeated Plymouth Yankees.

On a recent afternoon, one of Proffitt’s sons, Sterling, reflected on his 90-year-old father’s accomplishments.

“I’ve told Dad that they were champions when they won the ETO title,” Sterling Proffitt said as he looked at his father with admiration.

“But because of what they went on to do, they became the champions for the whole country.”

When the senior Proffitt was asked what the team’s inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame meant to him, he was momentarily at a loss for words.

Finally, he just had to laugh along with fate.

“Oh, the way things have formulated after all these years,” Proffitt said with a bemused shake of the head. “That all this should come to light now.

“I’m on cloud nine. Really, sure enough. It’s quite an honor.”

Mrs. Minor never forgot those fun-loving Yanks she watched playing baseball long ago. She closed a recent e-mail with the following words.

“Now an American citizen for many years, I can appreciate those men and the sacrifice they made on the beaches of Normandy for the liberation of myself and all of Europe, in a new and wonderful way that only time can give to those who lived through the war,” Mrs. Minor wrote.

“I will never forget the fun they had, and the astonishment of myself at being a witness.”