Work, Fight, or Play Ball: How Bethlehem Steel Helped Baseball's Stars Avoid World War I

Work, Fight, or Play Ball: How Bethlehem Steel Helped Baseball's Stars Avoid World War IDescription By William Ecenbarger Hardcover In 1918, Bethlehem Steel started the worlds greatest industrial baseball league. Appealing to Major League Baseball players looking to avoid service in the Great War, teams employed ringers like Babe Ruth, Rogers Hornsby, and Shoeless Joe Jackson in what became scornfully known as safe shelter leagues. In Work, Fight, or Play Ball, William Ecenbarger fondly recounts this little known story of how dozens of

the devastating frequency of death

and in the wake of devastating news

December 1917

was created almost overnight

and the environment during the war

including multiple full-views and detail shots

and continue to appear

July 1914 tells the gripping story of the month that changed the course of the 20th century

going on to excel in active duty and even to dogfight the Red Baron—and live to tell the tale

on some of history's oldest battlefields

and housewives—answered their nation’s call

both were outsiders – as soldiers unfit to fight