Baseball and the Great War

When I was a child we lived in Concordia, Kansas, and every November 11 the city would have a Veterans Day parade. In those days it was still called Armistice Day. This memory has always stuck with me for several reasons. There would be a football game that day which my father would take me to. Those were the first football games I ever attended and sparked my love for the sport.

The city also had a parade, which went down West 6th Street. We’d walk down and stand in front of the Brown Theater, since we only lived a couple blocks away. All these years later, I remember those parades. Leading the parades would be the High School band playing patriotic songs followed by the World War I guys.…