James Trimble III

James "Jimmy" Trimble (October 10, 1925 – March 1, 1945). Trimble grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland where he was an All-Star on his high school baseball team. He enjoyed his time playing baseball and watching the Washington Senators games at Griffith Stadium.

Trimble attended St. Albans Prep School in Washington, D.C., and he was known for being a great athlete at any sport that he played. He enjoyed playing football during the off season in which he was the captain of his football team. Trimble's love was for baseball and he had the ability to throw and captivate the stunned onlookers with his tremendous fastball and paralyzing hard breaking curveball. Trimble never was defeated on the mound at St. Albans and pitched three no-hitters in his short career. He was considered one of the finest prospects during his time. In his personal life, Trimble was named by the writer Gore Vidal as the love of his life; the two met as classmates at St. Albans and were boyhood friends. The writer later dedicated his second novel, The City and the Pillar to "JT"; Vidal confessed in his memoir Palimpset that the initials were indeed Trimble's. They were lovers and while at St. Albans, their relationship was not exposed so they were not expelled.

Trimble's throwing ability caught the attention of Senators owner, Clark Griffith. Griffith invited Trimble to a tryout with the Washington Senators during his senior year in May 1943. Griffith was so impressed by Trimble's mighty throwing style that he wanted to sign Trimble on the spot. Due to the fact that Trimble was only 17 years old, his mother insisted that he finish school before he could play baseball. To accommodate Trimble's mother's wishes, Griffith signed him to a $5,000 bonus contract and agreed to pay for the four-year scholarship at Duke University that was one of the top baseball powerhouse in the country. Trimble would play under the great coach Jack Coombs, who was a retired major league pitcher.

While attending Duke University, at the age of 18 Trimble was disqualified from officer training school because of defective sight in one eye. He declined to use his political contacts in Washington to get a waiver, and instead opted to enter the Marine Corps as an enlisted man. Private Trimble attended basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina. While attending Camp Lejeune, Private Trimble caught the attention of his superiors with his pitching ability. Pvt. Trimble was offered to pitch for the Camp Lejeune baseball team for four months and pick up the rank of corporal. If Pvt. Trimble had accepted this offer it would have kept him from being deployed into the battle field for the duration of his military career. Pvt. Trimble refused, stating that he joined the Marine Corps to fight the war against the enemy.

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