Play Book Tag discussion

The Cloudbuster Nine: The Untold Story of Ted Williams and the Baseball Team That Helped Win World War II by Anne R. Keene - 4* - My Review

This book documents the history of the World War II Navy flight training center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which also housed the titular baseball team before they shipped out. It focuses on Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, Johnny Sain, Buddy Hassett, and a number of other baseball players of the time. The author is the daughter of the Cloudbuster Nine team’s batboy, who eventually became a minor league player but never made the majors, and a portion of the book is dedicated to her father’s experiences and disappointments. One minor distraction is that it contains a number of anecdotes about famous people that have little (or nothing) to do with the Cloudbuster Nine or baseball (e.g., side trails about future Presidents and astronauts. But overall, I found it an enjoyable read that contains lesser-known information about the connections between baseball and the players’ military service experiences in WWII. Definitely worth reading for those with an interest in baseball or WWII history.