The Yankees' Stars at War: 1945 Military Service

By the spring of 1945, the Yankees had been playing without their best players for three full seasons. Joe DiMaggio was in the Army Air Forces. Phil Rizzuto was in the Navy. Tommy Henrich was Coast Guard. Red Ruffing -- a 40-year-old man missing toes on his left foot from a childhood mining accident -- was serving in the Army Air Forces overseas. The franchise that had won seven pennants in eight years couldn't field a single player from its pre-war starting lineup.

This wasn't unique to the Yankees. Roughly 500 major leaguers served during World War II, and every team took hits. But the concentration of star-level talent the Yankees lost was staggering. The 1941 championship club had been stacked with future Hall of Famers and All-Stars. By 1945, most of them were wearing a different uniform entirely.

DiMaggio: Three Prime Years Gone

DiMaggio enlisted after the 1942 season and didn't return until 1946. He was 28 when he left, 31 when he came back -- three years in the dead center of his athletic prime. Before enlisting, he'd won two MVP awards (1939 and 1941), owned the 56-game hitting streak, and established himself as the defining player of his generation.

He spent most of his service stateside, playing on military baseball teams that drew thousands of servicemen as spectators. These weren't casual pickup games -- they featured legitimate major-league talent and kept players' skills from rusting completely. But military baseball wasn't the American League, and three years away from top-level competition took a toll that the box scores couldn't measure.

(The lost seasons haunt DiMaggio's career totals. He finished with 361 home runs and 1,537 RBI. Add three prime-level seasons and those numbers look very different.)

Rizzuto: The Kid Who Left and the Man Who Came Back

Rizzuto entered the Navy after the 1942 season at age 25. He'd made the All-Star team that year and was emerging as one of the best shortstops in the league -- quick hands, smart baserunning, a glove that played everywhere on the infield. The Navy didn't care about any of that.

He served for three years and reportedly endured difficult conditions that shaped him in ways that went beyond baseball. When he returned for the 1946 season, he was 28 years old and had to rebuild his timing against pitchers who hadn't spent three years throwing to servicemen. He'd eventually win the AL MVP in 1950, which raises the question of what his career arc would have looked like without the gap.

Henrich, Ruffing, and the Supporting Cast

Tommy Henrich -- "Old Reliable" -- enlisted in the Coast Guard after 1942. He was 30 years old, a clutch hitter and steady outfielder who'd been one of the most dependable run producers in the lineup. He'd lost three years and came back at 33, yet still played well enough to help the Yankees win the 1947 pennant.

Ruffing's service was the most remarkable of the group. He was nearly 40 when he enlisted, and he'd lost toes in a coal mining accident as a teenager in Illinois -- an injury that had forced him to completely reinvent his pitching mechanics early in his career. That he passed a military physical at all was something. That he served willingly, at an age when most ballplayers are retired, said everything about the man.

Joe Gordon, Charlie Keller, Spud Chandler, Bill Dickey -- the list went on. The had won the World Series despite the absences, running on depth and the brilliance of . By 1944 and 1945, the depth was gone too. managed through all three wartime seasons with whatever the organization could scrape together.

The Roster That Was Left

What remained in 1945 was a team built around Snuffy Stirnweiss and Nick Etten -- two capable wartime players who wouldn't have been everyday starters on a healthy Yankees roster. The supporting cast included Mike Garbark behind the plate, Don Savage at third, and a rotation anchored by Bill Bevens after Hank Borowy was sold to the Cubs in July. These were professional ballplayers doing their best in an impossible situation, playing for a franchise whose identity was defined by men who were thousands of miles away.

The 1944 team went 83-71. The 1945 club went 81-71. Neither team finished above third. The dynasty that had dominated baseball from 1936 through 1943 was on ice, waiting for the war to end.

Coming Home

Germany surrendered in May 1945. Japan surrendered in August. By the time the Yankees played their final game of the season on October 2, the war was over and the return of the stars was no longer a hope -- it was a certainty.

DiMaggio came back in 1946 and hit .290 with 25 home runs. Good, but not DiMaggio-level. The readjustment took time. Rizzuto returned to shortstop. Henrich picked up where he'd left off in the outfield. The Yankees improved to 87-67 in 1946, and by 1947, DiMaggio won the MVP, the club won the pennant, and the franchise was back where it belonged.

The three lost years will always sit in the middle of Yankees history like a gap in a bridge. What the 1941 dynasty might have accomplished without the war is a question with no answer. What the returning veterans did accomplish -- five straight World Series titles from 1949 through 1953 -- suggests the talent was real and the sacrifice was just a delay.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many seasons did Joe DiMaggio miss for military service?

DiMaggio missed three full seasons -- 1943, 1944, and 1945 -- while serving in the Army Air Forces. He was 28 when he enlisted after the 1942 season and 31 when he returned in 1946. Those were prime years that would have added significantly to his career totals of 361 home runs and 1,537 RBI.

Which Yankees players served in World War II?

The major losses included Joe DiMaggio (Army Air Forces), Phil Rizzuto (Navy), Tommy Henrich (Coast Guard), Red Ruffing (Army Air Forces), Joe Gordon, Charlie Keller, Spud Chandler, and Bill Dickey. The Yankees lost more star-caliber talent to military service than almost any other franchise, which explains the team's decline from seven pennants in eight years to back-to-back non-contending finishes in 1944-1945.

Did the Yankees win the World Series during World War II?

The Yankees won the 1943 World Series, defeating the Cardinals in five games, despite already missing DiMaggio, Rizzuto, and Henrich. That was the last championship of the wartime era. The club finished third in 1944 and fourth in 1945 as the remaining depth eroded. They didn't return to the World Series until 1947.

What happened when Yankees stars returned from military service?

DiMaggio, Rizzuto, Henrich, and others returned for the 1946 season. The readjustment wasn't immediate -- DiMaggio hit .290 with 25 homers, solid but below his pre-war level. The Yankees went 87-67 and finished third. By 1947, the veterans had fully readjusted, DiMaggio won the AL MVP, and the Yankees won the World Series.