Flying high

Game 1 of the 1943 World Series pauses for a moment 81 years ago today as a B-17 Flying Fortress flies over Yankee Stadium.

Exactly eight months and one day later – on June 6, 1944 – Major League Baseball postpones all of its games as Allied forces reach Normandy on D-Day and forever shift the balance of power in World War II.

The B-17, like the one that flies over Yankee Stadium 81 years ago today, is a heavy bomber that plays a pivotal role in winning the war.

Of all of the past and then-current major leaguers to serve in World War II, only two – Elmer Gedeon and Harry O’Neill – die during combat.

Gedeon, an outfielder with the Washington Senators in 1939 – is piloting a B-26 bomber when shot down and killed over France on April 20, 1944.

Less than 11 months later, on March 6, 1945, O’Neill – a catcher in 1939 with the Philadelphia Athletics – dies in Japan during the Battle of Iwo Jima.