When the United States officially entered World War I in 1917, it was woefully underprepared for chemical warfare, in which the British, French, and Germans had been engaged since 1915. In response, the U.S. Army created an entirely new branch the Chemical Warfare Service. The army turned to trained chemists and engineers to lead the charge--and called on array of others, including baseball players, to fill out the ranks. piThe Gas and Flame Meni is the first full account of Major League ballplayers who served in the Chemical Warfare Service during World War I. Four players, two club executives, and a manager served in the small and hastily formed branch, six of them as gas officers. Remarkably, five of the seven--Christy Mathewson, Branch Rickey, Ty Cobb, George Sisler, and Eppa Jeptha Rixey--are now enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. The son of a sixth Hall of Famer, player and manager Ned Hanlon, was a young officer killed in action in France w