The Cloudbuster Nine

In 1943, while the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals battled for the World Series title, another legendary team was taking the field on a scrappy diamond in North Carolina. The Cloudbuster Nine wasn’t just any baseball team. They were big-league pros turned Navy fighter-pilot cadets, including Ted Williams, Johnny Pesky, and Johnny Sain, training to become America’s heroes.

At the heart of it all was Jim Raugh, the team’s batboy. From cramped buses to war-bond exhibitions—even a game at Yankee Stadium against a Babe Ruth–led squad—Jim witnessed baseball history firsthand. He chased his own dreams as a college All-American, but life threw him a curveball: a career-ending injury that dashed his major-league dreams.

Now, Jim’s daughter, Anne R. Keene, uncovers an untold story from his long-lost scrapbook, revealing memories from a sports-based training program that shaped some of America’s greatest leaders: George H. W. Bush, John Glenn, Bear Bryant, and John Wooden among them.  

The Cloudbuster Nine tells, for the first time, the thrilling story of this patriotic baseball team with legends like Ted Williams who played for pride, country and the war-effort—and helped win World War II.