Hall of Famers served in World War I Gas & Flame Division

On August 27, 1918, Christy Mathewson resigned as Cincinnati Reds manager to accept a commission as a captain in chemical warfare branch of the United States Army. An excerpt from the article:

"During the course of the war, 227 major leaguers served the United States through various branches of the Armed Forces. Several Hall of Famers, including Christy Mathewson, Branch Rickey, George Sisler and Ty Cobb, answered the specific call issued by the Chemical Warfare Service.

At least one may have paid the ultimate price as a result.

As the war instensified overseas, Major League Baseball owners, complying with the wishes of the federal government, reduced the 1918 season from 154 games to 128. But they resisted the draft, arguing that baseball should be considered an “essential industry,” one that buoyed the spirit of democracy, so their players would be exempt from conscription.

Secretary of War Newton D. Baker did not agree. On July 20, he decreed that “players in the draft age must obtain employment calculated to aid in the successful prosecution of the war or shoulder guns and fight.”


Future Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson resigned from his post as Cincinnati Reds manager late in the 1918 season to join the U.S. Army's Gas & Flame Division. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)

As a result, many players sought employment in defense industries stateside, where they were able to continue playing ball safely on company teams. The 38-year-old Mathewson, whose 373 career pitching victories and 2.13 ERA over 17 seasons would make him a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s inaugural Class of 1936, was too old to be drafted but still felt compelled to join the cause on the front lines.

In late August 1918, the skipper of the Cincinnati Reds resigned his post and became Captain Mathewson, shipping to France for training with the new Gas & Flame Division.

Percy Haughton, perhaps best known as Harvard’s football coach, resigned as president of the Boston Braves in July to join the division as well, and convinced St. Louis Cardinals president Branch Rickey, 36, to enlist. Rickey was commissioned as a major and put in charge of the division.

Rickey in turn recruited St. Louis Browns standout first baseman George Sisler, whom he had managed at the University of Michigan and with the Browns. Sisler, 25, looked up to Rickey as a mentor and was quickly persuaded to join the elite corps. After finishing the season, Sisler was commissioned as a second lieutenant and assigned to Camp Humphries in Virginia.


At 36 years old, Branch Rickey enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II and was commissioned a major in the Gas & Flame Division. (National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)

Ty Cobb, the Detroit Tigers’ 31-year-old star, had been granted a deferment since he had a wife and three children dependent upon him, but he refused to remain on the sidelines.

“I feel mean every time I look at a casualty list,” Cobb said. “I feel I must give up baseball at the close of the season and do my duty by my country in the best way possible.”

The following month, he signed up for the Gas & Flame Division, explaining that, “Christy Mathewson and Branch Rickey are in Chemical – they are guys I like and are friends.”

Commissioned a captain, Cobb finished the season with the Tigers, collected his 11th American League batting title with a .382 average, and joined Mathewson, Rickey and Haughton with the 28th Division at the Allied Expeditionary Forces Headquarters in Chaumont, France, 120 miles south of Paris, on Nov. 2, 1918.

Ty Cobb - Baseball Hall of Fame Biographies, 0:46
The men of the Gas & Flame Division were charged with advancing across no-man’s land under cover of an artillery barrage, spraying liquid flames from tanks strapped to their backs and tossing gas-filled bombs like grenades into enemy trenches. They were still undergoing training when Cobb arrived. He and his baseball mates served as instructors, conducting realistic readiness drills, one of which sent soldiers into airtight chambers where actual poisonous gas was released.

One day the drill erupted into chaos. Several men – including Cobb and Mathewson – missed the signal to snap on their masks. Cobb finally managed to get his mask on and groped his way to the door past a tangle of screaming men and thrashing bodies. “Trying to lead the men out was hopeless,” he said. “It was each one for himself.”

Eight of his comrades died that day, their lungs ravaged by the gas. Eight more were crippled for several days. Cobb felt “Divine Providence” had spared his life, but Mathewson was not as fortunate.

“Ty, I got a good dose of the stuff,” he told Cobb. “I feel terrible.”

Armistice was declared on Nov. 11, 1918, before the division engaged in actual combat with the enemy. Rickey returned to the States in time to spend Christmas with his family. Since the fighting was over, the War Department gave Major League Baseball permission to return to its normal operations in 1919. Rickey resumed his role as president of the Cardinals, managed the team for seven seasons and built it into a champion with his famed farm system. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967."