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| CIRCA - 1918 SIZE - 33" |
MANUFACTURER - Hillerich & Bradsby Co. |
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| PRICE GUIDE - $200.-$400. Very Good - Excellent Condition. Because of rarity and the lack of a sales history, value is based on like items. |
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This Hillerich & Bradsby Co. No.
PG, Playground baseball bat, features
"ORDER NO. 1630-J, and the date 10 - 10
- 1918, inside the center brand. The
barrel end is branded with the WWI "War
Department Commission on Training Camp
Activities" logo.
Days after the U.S. entered the first World War in April of 1917,
President Woodrow Wilson created a new
Federal Agency, the Commission on
Training Camp Activities. The program
was designed to clean up the immoral
influences associated with encampments
and their surrounding communities. It
was a great concern to the American
Family, for the moral destruction of
their sons, and husbands going off to
war. The program would help surround
our troops with a healthy, cheerful
environment, and to ensure the purity
of the camp environment. Training camps
would then mold not only soldiers, but
model citizens who after the war would
return to their communities spreading
urban middle-class values throughout
the country.
Almost immediately organizations such as the Knights of Columbus the YMCA,
the YWCA, the Jewish Welfare Board, the
Salvation Army, and the American
Library Association worked to supply
recreational services and raise money
for equipment. The WWI "bat and ball
fund" was started. Shortly after the
CTCA - Commission on Training Camp
Activities was in place, Washington
Senators owner Clark Griffith launched
a plan to support our troops by raising
money to purchase athletic equipment.
mostly baseball gear, to outfit every
U.S. military training camp.
The Y.M.C.A. shipped 144,000 bats and 79,680 balls to the troops overseas
with the money raised by Griffith.
Baseball equipment including the 1918
Official National League Baseballs used
by American serviceman stationed in
Poitiers, France, featured the Y.M.C.A.
stamp. The equipment that was supplied
through the CTCA had the "War
Department Commission on Training Camp
Activities" stamp. It was reported in a
July 1918 newspaper that "more than
70,000 baseballs and 3,000 bats have
been sent to the American camps. Large
quantities of gloves, masks and chest
protectors have been given to the
sport-loving soldiers."
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War
Department Commission on
Training Camp Activities Bat |
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