100 years ago in The Record
Thursday, Dec. 5, 1918
A few weeks ago, Troy baseball legend Johnnie Evers threatened to quit his post as overseas athletic director for the Knights of Columbus if he wasn’t allowed to visit local troops in Europe. Today, The Record reports that Evers is on his way home. Long regarded as the game’s best second-baseman, Evers won two World Series titles with the Chicago Cubs and one with the Boston Braves. He went to Europe earlier this year to organize baseball leagues for American troops and teach the game to their French allies. Mrs. Evers has received a cablegram announcing that her husband left France on board the steamship Lorraine last Monday. She expects to meet him in New York City on December 12 or 13. Our sportswriter speculates that “Now that winter is coming on apace, with the Government sending home our troops as fast as possible and with the rest of the forces camping on German soil, there probably wasn’t anything for the Trojan to do.
he writer notes that Evers will arrive in time for the National League annual meetings next week. “It would not be surprising if the secret of Evers’ unexpected return is some tempting offer,” he writes, explaining that “a very good offer to pilot a big league club next season” was wired to Evers immediately after the war ended on November 11.
Elsewhere in today’s paper, a letter Evers wrote several weeks ago to former Troy alderman Matt Larkin describes some of his war experiences and his impatience with his supervisors.
Commenting on the deaths of local soldiers, Evers writes that “Up where I have been I have seen so much of it that death is an every-minute occurrence. One gets used to it.”
Evers “made several trips right into real action with the shells bursting all around and aerial battles overhead. At night the noise is terrific. Have had my bed in all places and under all conditions with plenty of large rats for company and no lights.”
It’s unclear whether it’s K of C officials or military authorities who are “kicking here because I take too many chances by going up where I did instead of going south where it is warm and play some baseball.”
Evers’ letter is undated, but at that time he was “trying hard to get them to let me go up and see the 27th division, our own Troy boys…. If they don’t let me go you can expect to see me before long in America.” He claimed then to be willing to join the army in order to meet the local troops.