SECOND WORLD WAR REMEMBRANCES WITH THE ATHLETICS

By Dave Jordan

The heroics of World War II were very much in the minds of many in the large crowd which showed up at the Day’s Inn in Horsham on Sunday, October 18. The headliners were Lou Brissie and Hall-of-Famer Bob Feller, both distinguished veterans of that conflict, Brissie in the Army (with which he was severely wounded in the Italian campaign) and Feller in the Navy. There were many fans, young and old, who were happy to line up for their autographs and a chance to talk with the retired hurlers. Along with the two great pitchers, though, was an amazing collection of memorabilia belonging to Tony Zanzinger of Huntingdon Valley.

Zanzinger, a staff sergeant in the 101st Airborne Division, was involved in the division’s parachute jump into Normandy early on D-Day, the jump into Arnhem for Operation Market Garden, the defense of Bastogne in the Battle of the Bulge, and finally the capture of Hitler’s retreat at Berchtesgaden. His collection of items from the times covered more than seven tables and ranged from the sheet music of popular songs like “Mr. Five By Five” and “The Trolley Song,” photos of Frank Sinatra and other matinee idols of the day, post cards and books, to entrenching tools, medals, maps of the area around Bastogne, seashells from Omaha Beach, uniforms, old newspapers declaring both the beginning and the end of the war, and even a piece of the wall pried off of Hitler’s Reichschancellery in Berlin. Truly a mind-boggling gathering of items from an historic era now sixty-five years in the past.

Feller was happy to sign copies of his book, Little Blue Book of Baseball Wisdom, and Lou Brissie, long one of the favorites of the A’s Society, signed copies of Ira Berkow’s biography of him, The Corporal Was A Pitcher. Also signing his book was local writer Mike Sieleski, whose work, Fading Echoes, tells the story of two high school football stars from Doylestown, Bryan Buckley of Central Bucks West and Colby Umbrell of Central Bucks East, whose football rivalry changed when both found themselves fighting in Iraq.

With everything else going on around us, though, we were happy to welcome as always two stalwarts we always enjoy, Spook Jacobs, the old A’s and Pirates second baseman, and former Phillies infielder Don Hasenmayer. And our own Max Silberman was outfitted in his veteran’s regalia, lending another appropriate military touch to the day’s festivities.