World War II Chronicle: February 8, 1944
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Today’s front page reports that President Roosevelt has decorated Marine fighter pilot 1st Lt. Kenneth A. Walsh with the Medal of Honor. The president also presented the Medal of Honor to 2nd Lt. Gerry H. Kisters for valor on Sicily, as well as the Distinguished Service Cross (awarded by Chief of Staff George C. Marshall). Kisters was drafted as a private in 1941 and has since earned a battlefield commission. He is home recovering from multiple bullet wounds and is the first soldier to earn the nation’s two highest valor awards…
Looks like the Washington Nationals will need a new catcher: Jake Early is off for induction into the Army after an All-Star campaign last year. Early will become an artilleryman and fights in the Battle of the Bulge. He tells The Sporting News in 1946, “If you think catching knucklers is hard work … it’s nothing to firing those 105s when you’re knee deep in mud, and when you’re playing for keeps with every shot. It’s easier than trying to hit a Jerry tank when a miss may cost the lives of some of your buddies up ahead…”
Page three features stories on the impressive aerial and artillery bombardment of the Kwajalein Atoll… American soldiers are now within 300 yards from the abbey atop Monte Cassino, overlooking the Rapido River (page five). The Allies believe that the Germans are using the abbey to not only store stolen art but as an observation post…
George Fielding Eliot column on page six… Sports on page 11, featuring a Grantland Rice column about Babe Ruth, since it was the Bambino’s 50th birthday yesterday. You’ve probably heard that the Babe copied Shoeless Joe Jackson’s swing, well here’s Grantland Rice actually quoting him. Rice also talks about hanging out with Ruth the night before he famously called a home run against the Cubs in the 1932 World Series. He asked Ruth what was going on that night and Ruth said he had to drive 50 miles to visit with a sick kid. And that he’d plug the sportswriter if he said anything about it — apparently Rice feels safe to share the story 12 years later…
A holdout last year, Lou “The Mad Russian” Novikoff will be back with the Chicago Cubs this year as he has already signed his contract. The wildly popular Novikoff — he has his own cheering section in the Wrigley bleachers — sat out 28 games last season before he came to terms with owner Philip Wrigley.
Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 8 February 1944. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1944-02-08/ed-1/