[metsgeek]

Originally Posted by fhomess

"He talked a lot about his time with the Washington Senators," Overender reported. "Especially his two World Series titles and teammate Carl Kahle. He said he liked Kahle as a teammate, but now isn't so sure he can return to the team. 'Maybe it's best I retire' he would say. 'This war's shown me one thing, that baseball doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things. I don't think there's much chance I'll return unless something big changes my mind.' I recall reading in the papers how Wolter would refer to Kahle as 'Dutch' since that was his nickname around baseball, but he never called him that during my time with him in the war, and I'm pretty sure it was intentional. As far as I know, he doesn't know that Kahle never enlisted. Wolter would go on to talk about how he's got quite a bit of money saved up and that he might start a publishing business. Books were the other thing he'd always talk about when we had a few moments. He said he was hoping the publishing business would allow him to collect dutch manuscripts from the 14th and 15th century."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For those of you who are curious, Wolter, who is based off of my grandfather, never did live in the United States, spending his whole life in the Netherlands. He was a part of the Dutch resistance to the German occupation, and as long as he lived, never forgave the Germans for what they did during the war. So in that sense, I don't mean to offend anyone with the way he reacts to Carl Kahle in the above story, but that's probably how he would've felt. It's definitely not a view I hold personally. Wolter owned a publishing company and when he passed away in 1994, his extensive collection of Dutch literature was sold at auction, per his wish. I'm very disappointed some of those manuscripts didn't stay in the family, but that's the way those things go.

No offense taken. It's a realistic response. There actually was a bit of a backlash against anyone with a German surname left in the States, whether or not they sympathized with the Nazis (which he most certainly did not. According to my father, he cursed Hitler every day for ruining Germany). Grandpa Carl was called "Dutch" because of his blond hair and blue eyes (like many others nicknamed Dutch in that era), but he didn't have any Dutch lineage in him.