"Historian Leeke . . . offers a meticulous and informative account of the Chemical Warfare Service, an army unit hastily formed when the U.S. entered WWI to catch up to the conflict's extensive reliance on new weapons like flamethrowers and poison gas. . . . [The Gas and Flame Men is] an enjoyable and distinctive blend of war story and sports chronicle. It will appeal especially to baseball history buffs."—Publishers Weekly
"An extraordinary chronicle of both military history and baseball history. . . . A choice pick for baseball enthusiasts, as well as public and college library history collections."—Paul T. Vogel, Midwest Book Review
"Readers who enjoy military literature or baseball books will want a copy of this book."—Guy who Reviews Sports Books
“Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, Eppa Rixey, and Branch Rickey—all members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Gas and Flame Men during the Great War. Jim Leeke knows the connection between baseball and the war better than anybody. He’ll keep you turning pages as he tells their stories, and more.”—Jan Finkel, 2012 recipient of SABR’s Bob Davids Award
“Jim Leeke scores again with The Gas and Flame Men, delivering a fascinating account of America’s World War I response to German chemical warfare and the important part a group of Major League Baseball stars and other key sports figures played in it.”—Rick Huhn, author of The Chalmers Race: Ty Cobb, Napoleon Lajoie, and the Controversial 1910 Batting Title That Became a National Obsession
“To steal a baseball term, The Gas and Flame Men is an out-of-the-park grand slam. No one knows more than Jim Leeke about the intersection of America’s national pastime and the Great War. A wonderful story you won’t want to put down.”—Mitchell Yockelson, author of Forty-Seven Days: How Pershing’s Warriors Came of Age to Defeat the German Army in World War I
