“Things to Come” (December 12, 1941)
by William “Bill” Crawford (1913-1982)
19 x 21 in., ink and crayon on Glarco Illustration Board
Coppola Collection

A frequent contributor to the sport’s page, Crawford’s editorial cartoons often mixed the effect of WWII on professional sports issues.

In 1927, Babe Ruth captivated the country by swatting home runs out of ballparks. In Popular Science Monthly, with his typical prescience, Thomas Edison’s warned that the country would face a “rubber famine” in a second world war since America’s enemies would cut off supplies. “Lacking rubber, we would have to revert to balls stuffed with feathers or cork.”

The Japanese did cut off rubber supplies after seizing critical parts of SE Asia at the onset of World War II.

Indeed, four days after the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States banned the use of crude rubber in any items deemed non-essential to the war effort—including baseballs and other sports equipment.