Sports Stars Visiting Troops: Now and Then.

As the History Junkie readies to settle in for another Thanksgiving Day of overeating and a Lions loss, the combination brought to mind the relationship between sports stars, holidays and our troops.

Over the years, our nation’s professional athletes have been very good about visiting our servicemen and women overseas, often in war zones, typically courtesy of the USO.  Though I don’t know for sure, I suspect this practice began in World War II.  A particular photo comes to mind of a group of baseball heavyweights sharing Christmas dinner with soldiers at the front lines.

Baseball icons (far side of table, left to right): Frankie Frisch, manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates; Mel Ott, player-manager of the New York Giants; Bucky Walters, pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds and Dutch Leonard, pitcher for the Washington Senators share Christmas dinner with soldiers of the 90th Infantry Division at Cattenom, France - December 25, 1944 (U.S. Army Signal Corps, Courtesy National Archives).

During the Vietnam War, Albion, Indiana soldier, Danny Weber served with the 13^th Combat Aviation Battalion at Can Tho.  On November 7, 1967, Weber,  an avid sports fan, wrote home about one such memorable visit.  “Last Sunday, three baseball players came to our service club and showed some baseball pictures.  They were Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds, Joe DiMaggio from the Yankees and Bob Fishel from the Yankees.  …It was pretty good all around.”

It would be easy to say that the current crop of sports stars aren’t as supportive of our troops, but I’m not sure that is the case.  I remember Drew Brees and Osi Umenyiora from the NFL visiting soldiers in Iraq a few years back.  I also heard this summer about David Beckham spending time with British troops in Afghanistan.

How about it?  Are the professional athletes of today properly supporting those who keep this country safe and make it possible for them to earn the big bucks that they do?  Enlighten us all.