Ace: Canada's Pitching Sensation and Wartime Hero

Steven R. Hewitt teaches history at the University of Saskatchewan.

Phil Marchildon is one of Canada’s many forgotten baseball heroes. For
most of the 1940s, Marchildon, a native of Penetanguishene, Ontario, was
the ace of the pitching staff for the American League’s Philadelphia
Athletics, a team that would later resurface in Oakland. Included in the
book are the former major leaguer’s reminiscences of this era of
baseball. There are many interesting observations by Marchildon about
Connie Mack, president and manager of the Athletics; Joe Dimaggio, Bob
Feller, and Ted Williams, who were all frequent opponents; and
Marchildon’s own teammates.

Like many of his generation of baseball players, Marchildon chose to
enlist. Unlike many of them, he chose a particularly dangerous path: the
Royal Canadian Air Force. Marchildon the tailgunner recounts his
military training and, in a particularly riveting section, his combat
missions, which ended with the bomber’s being shot down over Europe
and Marchildon’s capture by the Germans. He spent the rest of the war
in a POW camp, and in 1945 returned to North America to resume his
baseball career.

Co-author Brian Kendall often neglects to provide background for
particular Marchildon memories. Without the greater context, this book,
although very enjoyable, rarely rises above being a collection of
amusing anecdotes.