Mark Hanson stands with Ukraine

Pitcher, won 68 games in his career, was shot down over the Sea of Denmark, swam 4 hours to land, was captured by Germans, held prisoner for 9 months at the infamous Stalag Luft III. Watched his comrades murdered for trivial offenses at the Stalag. Once, when some prisoners were playing a softball game & the ball landed between two barbed wire fences. Any prisoner who crossed over the first fence would be shot. One of the prisoners walked up to a German guard & politely said in German, “Don’t shoot, I am only going to retrieve the ball.” The guard nodded that it was all right, but the moment the prisoner stepped over the fence the guard shot & killed him. When the British liberated the prisoners, the German guard was pointed out, and the British shot him. Struck out 481 batters in his career, walked 684, and finished in the top 10 in MVP voting twice. Phil Marchildon Legend