$115.00 CAD
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Rare RPPC postcard photo of baseball game between the crews from the American Atlantic Fleet played at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station Cuba
These games were part of the Navy’s recreational and morale-building activities during fleet winter training deployments in the Caribbean
Labeled on photo ‘Ball Game Guantanamo Bay Cuba’
Post marked ‘U.S.S. MISSIS(SIPPI) APR 8 A.M.1911’ mailed to Miss Thelma Berry Middle Town Ohio.
Missing stamp. Some toning
USS Mississippi (BB-23) was a Mississippi-class Battleship, launched September 1905, commissioned in 1908, decommissioned July 1914. It was Mississippi-class (alongside USS Idaho) and had a crew of ~800 officers and enlisted.
The 1911 visit to Cuba’s purpose was for winter training and fleet maneuvers in Guacanayabo Bay and other Cuban waters. The U.S. Navy regularly deployed battleships to the Caribbean for gunnery practice and readiness drills during peacetime. The Fleet’s role was part of the Atlantic Fleet’s readiness operations, often alongside other pre-dreadnought battleship
“The Navy and baseball have a very close connection with each other,” stated National Museum of the United States Navy Historian and Curator Gordon Calhoun. “Particularly in the first half of the 20th Century, and even going back to the late 19th century. Sailors love baseball. I believe that the Navy helped baseball establish roots in other countries like Cuba, Panama, and Japan. The game itself may have been introduced by other people but the constant exposure of Sailors playing baseball helped the game to develop and helped those countries and people love the game as much as we do.”
Fleet tournaments were played in Hawaii for the Pacific and in Cuba for the Atlantic Fleets. Fleet championship tournaments and ship competitions soon became a measure of command excellence.
https://allhands.navy.mil/Stories/Display-Story/Article/2512337/americas-pastime-and-its-naval-history/
