THE JUNGLE LEAGUE

The Greensboro Warriors, an after college town baseball team were unbeatable. They were packing their bags to leave the family farm for big city Major League careers when war was declared. They thought their baseball dreams were shot. They shipped out to Fort Bragg for jungle warfare training and were frightened to learn of the Japanese's propensity for torture. But they were excited to learn of the Overseas Leagues; President Roosevelts plan to reorganize the Major Leagues on all the largest domestic military bases to form touring teams to tour all the theaters of war, all over the globe to play the troops for moral. The Warriors deployed to New Guinea and months went by in very hard fighting and the Overseas Leagues never showed up. The style of warfare and the intensity of the fighting made it impossible for baseball to organize on that island for most of the war. So, they had to play pick-up games in the rain using homemade equipment while getting shot at by snipers. Being denied the moral of the Overseas Leagues made them bitter and thereby made them better than they already were. Then, one day everything changed. They got liberty and took a flight to the Island of Manila to visit some wounded buddies. They bumped into a top Navy touring team on the hospital recreation diamond. After being insulted and told to leave the Warriors forced a 4-run match. Word of the embarrassing butt kicking by an unlikely looking bunch of Army grunts got back to the Major League's top superstar who was stationed in Honolulu. He arranged a flight and he and his team, the All-Stars arrived on New Guinea with a crew of See-bees. They carved a diamond out of that Jungle and a game it was.