Cooperstown Chances examines the Baseball Hall of Fame case of one candidate each week. This week: Cecil Travis.
Who he was: Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, Major League Baseball went to war.
The vast majority of active major leaguers drafted by the military served on USO All-Star teams, playing in front of servicemen in games designed to boost morale. But some players had more dangerous duty.
Hank Greenberg, who’d just completed a year of peacetime military service that cost him most of the 1941 season, promptly re-enlisted and flew on reconnaissance missions over Burma.