Life, 1919-04-03 · page 8 of 60
Life — April 3, 1919 — page 8: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This Life magazine page satirizes baseball during WWI using two illustrations labeled "MY LEAGUE" and "ME, TOO, WOODROW." The left figure represents professional baseball; the right caricature is labeled to reference President Woodrow Wilson. The accompanying text criticizes Wilson for "usurping all the privileges of the Umpire"—a metaphor for excessive executive power—and jokes that the game cannot proceed due to "Bolshevik darkness" (likely referring to the Russian Revolution and post-war communist fears). The satire suggests Wilson has taken over baseball's authority like an autocratic umpire, preventing normal play. The piece ironically urges readers to "Play Ball, America!" and subscribe to Life magazine despite these wartime disruptions, while noting half a million soldiers overseas want access to the publication.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Play Ball, America! “MY LEAGUE” “ME, Too, WoopRoWw ” So long as we must wait until Mr. Wilson has usurped all the priv- ileges of the Umpire, and the game is not yet called on account of Bolshevist darkness, let us be cheerful about it: and become regular subscribers to ye There are half a million men in the Army of Occupation overseas, and every man wants Lire, the real American paper. Send them a subscription. 2 _ To American Expeditionary Force men, Open only to aew subscribers; no sub Soldiers, Sailors and Marines, $5 a year, pak i md br tgs if no local foreign address be given. : To the fleets and armies of our Allies 7 LIFE, 17 West 31st Street, New York 5 hi c 38 $6.04. sees ie eseestatoe 4 One Year, $5.00. (Canadian, $5.52; Foreign, $6.04.)