New arrival
The Cloudbuster Nine
The Sports Plus take
Ted Williams, Navy flight school and a wartime baseball team.
In 1943 a Navy pre-flight team in North Carolina fielded big-leaguers who were training to be fighter pilots, including Ted Williams and Johnny Pesky. Anne Keene tells the story through her father, Jim Raugh, the team's batboy, using his long-lost scrapbook. It's part baseball history, part World War II history and part family story, with appearances from future leaders like George H. W. Bush and John Wooden who came through the same program.
Shelf
How it reads
Moderate
Best for
- Baseball history fans
- World War II readers
- Red Sox fans
About this book
- Author
- Anne R. Keene
- Publisher
- Sports Publishing
- Published
- April 21, 2020
- Format
- Paperback
- Pages
- 408
- ISBN-10
- 1683583620
- ISBN-13
- 978-1683583622
Book description
In 1943, while the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals battled for the World Series title, another legendary team was taking the field on a scrappy diamond in North Carolina. The Cloudbuster Nine wasn't just any baseball team. They were big-league pros turned Navy fighter-pilot cadets, including Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain, training to become America's heroes.
At the heart of it all was Jim Raugh, the team's batboy. From cramped buses to war-bond exhibitions--even a game at Yankee Stadium against a Babe Ruth-led squad--Jim witnessed baseball history firsthand. He chased his own dreams as a college All-American, but life threw him a curveball: a career-ending injury that dashed his major-league dreams.
Now, Jim's daughter, Anne R. Keene, uncovers an untold story from his long-lost scrapbook, revealing memories from a sports-based training program that shaped some of America's greatest leaders: George H. W. Bush, John Glenn, Bear Bryant, and John Wooden among them.
The Cloudbuster Nine tells, for the first time, the story of this patriotic baseball team with legends like Ted Williams who played for pride, country and the war effort--and helped win World War II.
About the author
Anne R. Keene has published work in The New York Times, the Dallas Morning News, the Raleigh News & Observer, and magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post. A finalist for the Casey Award, The Cloudbuster Nine was recognized by Newsday as a "Top 12 Baseball Read for the Season." Keene began her career as a speechwriter on Capitol Hill. She is a graduate of the School of Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and lives in Austin, Texas.
Claudia Williams, who wrote the foreword, is the last surviving child of Ted Williams and the author of the memoir Ted Williams, My Father.
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