The United States struggled to return to normalcy in 1946 after the surrender of Japan in September 1945 ended World War II.

• Baseball welcomed back over 500 former big leaguers who had served their country in the Army and Navy.
  
• Only a handful of members of 1945 NL and AL rosters would retain their spots for the following year. Most would return to the minor leagues, lifting the play at that level also.

The New York Yankees welcomed back their former stars led by Joe DiMaggio.

• Joe McCarthy entered his 16th season as the team's manager, an unprecedented stretch during which the Yanks had won eight pennants and seven World Series.
• The most intriguing question at spring training was whether 1945 AL MVP 2B George "Snuffy" Stirnweiss would retain his starting position or even make the squad at all. After all, he had led the AL in runs (107), hits (195), triples (22), stolen bases (33), batting average (.309), and slugging percentage (.476) against the weakest opposition of the war years (1942-45).
  Stirnweiss, a football star at the University of North Carolina, had been rejected for military service because of a severe stomach ulcer.
• The other big question plagued every club: Could the returning veterans regain the form on the mound or at the plate that put them in the big leagues in the first place?
• Among the former Yankee starters who returned were: 2B Joe Gordon, SS Phil Rizzuto, LF Charlie Keller, CF Joe DiMaggio, and RF Tommy Henrich.
• McCarthy's crew had been overpowering teams in the Citrus League in Florida, leading some writers to install them as favorites for the AL pennant.

Joe DiMaggio, Joe McCarthy, Larry MacPhail

The Yankees scheduled a two-game series at Pelican Stadium in New Orleans against the Crescent City's AA team for Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31.

• Anticipation for the series increased when, four days before the Bombers were scheduled to arrive, Times-Picayune sports editor Bill Keefe revealed in his column that Word comes ahead of the New York Yankees that the entire first string crew, including Joe DiMaggio and all the other fence-busters, will be on hand Saturday and Sunday to meet the Pelicans.
• The Yankees split their squad for the final weeks of the exhibition season. The contingent coming to New Orleans, the "St. Petersburg squad," included all the projected starters except 2B Gordon as well as pitchers Spud Chandler, Joe Page, Johnny Murphy, and others.
• McCarthy would manage the team assisted by coaches John Schulte and Red Rolfe.
• Local fans were disappointed that Bobby Brown, the Tulane University medical student who signed with the Yankees in February for a $35,000 bonus, would play on the Bradenton Yank Team

The Pelicans, in their first year as a farm club of the Red Sox, were led by first-year player-manage Johnny Peacock, a 10-year major league C with the Red Sox, Phillies, and Dodgers.

• Peacock said, I wasn't here last year, but I gather from the players that our club is somewhat better this year. Last year, the Pels were fourth in the league. Because of the general improvement everywhere in baseball, we will have to be at least a third better than we were last year to hold our own. I think we will.
• The pitching staff, one of the best in the Southern Association in 1945, included five veterans - George Turbeville, Roy Sanner, Jesse Danna, Pete Hader, and Fred Wells.
• The infield consisted of Paul Fugit at 1B, bespectacled Vernon Thoele, acquired from Toronto, at the keystone sack; Mel Rue at SS, and Bobby Richards, recently out of the service, at the hot corner.
• Outfielders included base-stealing Tom Astbury, Paul Bruno, and Chuck Holly between them in center.
• Marcus Carrola would catch with Manager Peacock providing relief.
• The Pelicans warmed up for the Yankees by pounding out 16 hits against the Minneapolis Millers of the American Association Thursday night to win 9-5.

The Yankees arrived by air late Friday evening for the weekend games, both of which started at 3 PM.

• One of the first arrivals was the one and only DiMaggio, who told reporters that the training in Panama and Florida proved beneficial and that the time he spent in the service did not affect his game. He didn't mention the fact that he spent much of his enlistment playing baseball.
• Earlier in the day, Pelican GM Charlie Hurth announced that a capacity crowd was assured for Sunday's contest but tickets remained for the Saturday clash.
• 39-year-old Bill Dickey would not play in either game because he had departed for his home in Little Rock to nurse the shattered big right toe he sustained the week before in Florida.
• McCarthy would start Joe Page, beginning his third season with the Yanks as both a starter and reliever.
  The 6'3" 200 pound southpaw had nearly lost a leg in a car accident at age 18. The compound fracture of his left fibula required multiple surgeries that kept him in the hospital for five months. He worked in the mines in Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh and played semi-pro ball until he attracted the attention of Yankees scout Bill Haddock. Joe's leg injury resulted in a 4-F classification that kept him out of the military.

First Game: Saturday, March 30, 1946

Bill Keefe started his Picayune article on the game this way:

Though kept from getting many hits for the simple reason that two Pelican pitchers weren't able to get the ball close enough to the plate to be hit by anything short of a wagon tongue, the New York Yankees did combine a few healthy swats with bases on balls Saturday afternoon and downed the locals 10 to 1 before a capacity crowd at Pel Stadium.

• If the 9,819 fans - the largest crowd to see the Yankees throughout spring training - came to see DiMaggio hit one out of the park, they were disappointed. However, he did smash two singles and walk twice against Turbeville, a former Philadelphia Athletic, Pete Hader, Jim Shea, and Vernon "Trader" Horn.
• Tommy Henrich, who played for the Pelicans from 1935-36 when they were part of the Cleveland organization, swatted a double and a single. The two-bagger bounced off the wall into the overflow crowd in RF. Nick Etten also had a double but the biggest hit honors went to Phil Rizzuto for his triple.
• The other former Pel (1937), Oscar Grimes, went 0-for-3 with two of the 15 free passes Pelican pitchers issued.
• Meanwhile, Joe Page pitched seven scoreless innings, yielding just one hit, a single by Mel Rue in the 6th. Ken Holcombe finished up and allowed an unearned run in the 9th. James Dawson wrote in the New York Times that Page's spring performance meant that McCarthy's dream of a workable, dependable left-hander is about to be fulfilled.
• When talking to reporters afterward, McCarthy referred to Henrich playing in New Orleans. You people will find Henrich much bigger than when he played with your Pelicans, and he gets more power now. Local reporters also asked Marse Joe about Tulanian Brown, who was with the Yankees "B" squad. Bob Brown can't miss. He's a good boy and a good ball player. Plenty savvy. He's plenty smart. He can hit for distance, and he'll soon be hitting even better. Since Joe was known to believe that a young player could learn more playing minor league ball than sitting on a major league bench, he was asked if Brown would be sent down. Not necessarily, Joe replied. I won't decide on my ball club until later in the practice seasons, and fellows we've brought with us here on the "A" squad do not necessarily rate above players on the "B" or Brandenton team.
• That night, McCarthy hosted a feast at Arnaud's Restaurant for the New York writers who had been with the club through its training in Panama and Florida. The idea came from new GM Larry MacPhail, who hadn't made the trip to the Big Easy.

Second Game: Sunday, March 31, 1946

An even bigger crowd - 13,201 - watched a much closer game.

• Roy Sanner, a former Dodger who worked the first four innings, and Jesse Danna, an ex-Giant who threw the next three, held the Bombers to four runs after the Pels hit lefty Bill Wight for two in the first. Three successive singles, the last a freak bunt that eluded C Ken Silvestri, preceded two infield outs that sent runners home.
  Danna graduated from Jesuit High School in his native New Orleans. He also attended LSU.
• Fred Wells, who took the hill for the last two innings, made the mistake of giving DiMaggio a fat one that he deposited over the LCF fence to increase the lead to 6-2. Joe had actually been nicked by Wells's first pitch, and umpire Tiny Tessereau from the Ohio State League waved Joe to 1st. But Joe elected to stay at the plate, to the delight of the crowd. The roundtripper was his 14th of the spring. Wells explained afterward, He golfed that pitch when it was just about a foot off the ground. But what difference does it make where you pitch to guys who are like that?
• That allowed the Yanks to survive the two runs the home team plated off Cuddles Marshall in the bottom of the inning.
• Joltin' Joe also delivered a single and a ground rule double in four at-bats. Rizzuto, Grimes, and C Ken Silvestri had two hits apiece. Snuffy Stirnweiss had the odd line of 3 runs scored without a hit in three at-bats. On Silvestri's 5th-inning double into the crowd, a spectator was injured when Juan Sanchez crashed into him trying for a catch. The game was delayed while the fan was assisted off the field.
• The umpire at 1B, Charley Berry of the American League, set off the fans down the RF line in the 5th when he called Stirnweiss safe at 1st on what looked like a completed DP. When Berry turned to argue back with the fans, several local scribes expressed fear for his safety.
• When DiMaggio almost into the overflow crowd to pull down Tom Astbury's long fly that ended the game, Joe had to race for the clubhouse to elude a swarm of autograph seekers who chased him across the field.
  Many locals remembered Joe's last appearance in New Orleans March 30, 1940, when he clouted two doubles and a triple in four trips.
• Joe Trimble of the New York News was asked whether the Yankees would be back in 1947. Sure, we'll be back next year. Don't see how the Yanks can afford to pass up this town when it outdraws any place on the spring tour.
• The Yankees left for Beaumont TX for a clash with the Texas League club managed by Jim Turner, who would become the Yanks' pitching coach a few years later.

The Pelicans would play the Cardinals the following Saturday, then the Dodgers the next day.