Baseball in Wartime - Doug Gillette

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Doug Gillette

Date and Place of Birth: May 19, 1911 Central Village, Connecticut
Date and Place of Death: April 1995 Arizona
Baseball Experience: Minor League
Position: Pitcher
Rank: Corporal
Military Unit: 116th Infantry Regiment, 29th Infantry Division US Army
Area Served: European Theater of Operations

Doug Gillette's professional baseball career began back in 1932 with the Grand Island Islanders of the Nebraska State League. That season the 5-feet-9 right-hander posted a 16-8 won-loss record with a 2.78 ERA. The following season (1933) he was with Sioux Falls in the same league where he was 10-14. In 1934 he was 7-3 with Greensburg of the Penn State Association and ws 3-1 with the same club in 1935. Gillette's professional career then came to an end when he was released by Greenburg, but his playing days were far from over.

Military service beckoned in 1942 and Corporal Gillette was stationed in England with the 116th Infantry Regiment of the 29th Infantry Division. The 116th Yankees were a dark horse entry in a tournament to find the European Theater baseball champions in September 1943. Known as the ETO World Series, 20 teams, from as far afield as Northern Ireland, ascended on Eighth Air Force Headquarters at Bushy Park, London for the four-day event, and the 116th Infantry Yankees, with Doug Gillette on the mound, defeated Fighter Command, 6-3, in a thrilling final.

Gillette lived in Pembroke, Massachusetts after the war. He later moved to Arizona where he passed away in 1995.

Thanks to Everett G Reed for help with this biography.

Added February 9, 2005. Updated June 20, 2008.