September 16, 1940: America's 1st Peacetime Draft

September 16, 1940: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 into law, marking America’s 1st peacetime draft.

He does this even though he's running for an unprecedented 3rd term, and that it will lose him votes of draft-age men and the people who care about them. He doesn't yet know when America will have to get into World War II, but he wants us ready when we do need to face Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.

More than 16 million Americans would serve in the war, with about 10 million of them entering the armed forces through the draft. Over 400,000 of them would die in service, although not all of those would be from battle wounds and injuries: The total includes accidents and illnesses.

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September 16, 1940 was a Monday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the St. Louis Browns, 16-4 at Yankee Stadium. Vern Kennedy went the distance for the Browns, while Marius Russo didn't even get out of the 1st inning, when the Browns tagged him and then Bump Hadley for 7 runs. Johnny Lucadello hit 2 home runs. The Yankees got 6 hits, including a home run and a single by Joe DiMaggio.

* The New York Giants lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-6 at the Polo Grounds. Mel Ott hit 2 home runs, but they were solo shots.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers lost to the Cincinnati Reds, 4-3 at Ebbets Field. Bill Baker got Mike McCormick home on a sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning.

* A doubleheader was split at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Phillies won the opener, 3-2. The St. Louis Cardinals won the nightcap, 7-1.

* A doubleheader was split at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. The Cleveland Indians won the 1st game, 8-3. The Philadelphia Athletics won the 2nd game, 3-2.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 9-2 at Briggs Stadium (later renamed Tiger Stadium) in Detroit. Hank Greenberg went 2-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. The Tigers went on to win the American League Pennant, the only one not won by the Yankees between 1936 and 1943.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Chicago White Sox, 6-2 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Ted Williams went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Jimmie Foxx went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* And the Boston Bees and the Chicago Cubs had agreed on a schedule change, which was occasionally done in the era before air travel, to give players more rest. So their game that was scheduled for this day, at National League Park in Boston, was moved back to be part of a doubleheader the previous day -- the opposite procedure from a rainout. The Bees won the 1st game, 7-3. The Cubs won the 2nd game, 7-4.

This was the last of 5 seasons in which the Boston team of the National League, following a disastrous 1935 season, was known as the Bees, also renaming their ballpark. The new names never caught on, and, in 1941, the team went back to the former name, the Boston Braves, and restored the Braves Field name to their ballpark.