Greatness Together: The First MLB All-Star Game

On May eighteenth, nineteen thirty three, Major League Baseball announced the very first professional All Star Game featuring the best players in the league, to be held in Chicago as part of the Chicago World's Fair, Changing sports forever, starting the boom of the All Star Game. Learn all about today on Dayly Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day now. Prior to nineteen thirty three, there was no All Star Game of any kind in the United States, no matter of the sport. It wasn't something that was thought of. But in nineteen thirty three, we were just now starting to come out of the depression. Many places were still hardened up, and baseball was still something people love to experience it and you could experience it on the radio for free, which was a great aspect. And with the Chicago World Fair coming, it was a chance for Chicago to show off everything there was great about America. And the Chicago Tribune was a big part of the Chicago Fair, as the newspaper was one of the biggest newspapers in Chicago, and Arch Ward was the sports editor for the Chicago Tribune. And he had the idea to put nine players and managers from the National League versus nine players and managers from the American League and call it the game of the century. So he was able to get meetings with the president of each baseball league. First with William Hodge of the American League, who thought it was a great idea and would push it for his teams to be a part of it. And William Vveck was the president of the Chicago Cubs, who had a great relationship with Ward, and he loved the idea as well and would present it to the other owners of the teams. And when they presented the idea the American League, every team was on board. There was, but the National League had some people that were unsure. First there was the Giants and the Braves, as each league had tentatively said, let's do it on July sixth. We don't have very many games going on and it's during the World's Fair. But the Giants and Braves at the time each had a double header scheduled for that moment, But after other owners talked to them, they proposed that they could actually postpone that doubleheader for a different time, and the Cardinals owner Sam and Brayden turned down the idea was the only negative one to the actual idea, as he thought it would take away from what the players would do for their own teams. But he actually had a separate meeting with Ward himself, as he discussed that if this could continue in the future, then All Star Games could benefit each town as it didn't have to always be played in Chicago. It could be played in different locations and that gave the Cardinals owner like Breden, enough for him to change his mind, and everyone agreed that on July sixth, nineteen thirty three, they would hold the very first All Star Game in Chicago Kaminski Park, where the Chicago White Sox played now. In order to get this done, they also wanted to have people vote for who they wanted to play in the game, and to do this would be very difficult at the time. There was no computers and so they had to find a way to do this, and the Tribune was able to connect with fifty five other papers across the country to print fan ballots for the fans to pick the players they wanted, and they would send this in to the newspaper and they would collect who was all voted to be part of this Game of the century that they called it, and ended up that White Sox outfielder Al Simmons and Washington shortstop Joe Cronin led the votes for the American League, getting over over three hundred and forty six thousand each, and on the national side, the Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Chuck Klein was the leading vote getter with over three hundred and forty thousand as well. This voting system captured the American public's curiosity. This allowed them to be a part of the game even if they couldn't be there. They got to vote in their favorite players, and the final roster for each team had eighteen players each and they did have a few close votings where the managers actually picked who would play. Now, one thing about this was the players would not actually get paid for this, but they would get paid indirectly. See all the proceeds for the game would go into the Association for Professional Baseball Players of America, which is still around to this day, which helps players who are out of the game or struggling financially due to injuries or other factors that may come up in their lives. That were not foreseen. So this got the players to want to play for this because not only would it help them out indirectly, but it could help out other players that may not be having as much success as them, as most of these players were the best players in the league getting paid the best. Now, for the managers, they actually chose to have John McGraw, who just retired a year earlier from the New York Giants, be the National League manager, and for the American League they had Connie Mack, who was managing the Athletics, run the American team. Now, on this day, there would be no other games played, as this is a common thing, and they also agreed that if the All Star Game was to get rained out, they would cancel all the games they had after so that the rainout could be played the next day. But the weather was perfect on this day and they had roughly forty nine thousand people come to the game, and they didn't raise the ticket prices. It was the same price as you were going to see a White Sox game at Kaminski Park any other day, but you were only allowed to buy four tickets at a time because they wanted everyone to have a chance to see this historic event and didn't want someone with a lot of money to buy up all the tickets. They wanted fans that were actually fans of the game to be there. And they ran this Underworld Series rules, which meant no spectators would be allowed on the field, because some locations at this time would allow overflow onto the field in the foul territories to get as many people there, but they didn't want to have that. They wanted this to be only the All Stars out on the field. And another thing they did is they did at the time the American League in the National League had different baseballs. It said that the American League was a bit lively year and you could hit it farther than the thicker National League ball. And the first half they would use the American ball for the first four and a half innings. In the second four and a half innings they would use the National League ball. And they allowed the teams a day to get used to these differences in the balls, and at one fifteen pm, the home plate umpire bill dying of the American League's yelled play ball, and they started the very first All Star Game where the National League actually wore special Navy blue uniforms that said National League in Navy felt letters over their jersey and a Navy blue cap with an IN and an L on it, as the American League just wore the their home jerseys so they could tell the two teams apart, and starting the next year, the National League would whar their home jerseys and the American League would whar they're away jerseys. And the game was a really good, hard fought game where the pitchers were all trying and the hitters and fielders were all trying. There was only one error in the fifth inning, where first baseman Luke Gerrick dropped a flop fly, but didn't matter because the American League went on to win four to two, with the winning two runs being a home run by the legendary Yankee player Babe Ruth. And the of the thirty six All Stars, twenty of them would later be in the Baseball Hall of Fame, including the managers and the two umpires, And after the game, McGraw went to the winners locker room the next long time rival mack On winning the very first All Star Game, and the game was so successful it has been continued to be played every year after and every pro Sports League after this has put together their own All Star Star event, following in the footsteps of Baseball's Midsummer Classic. And this was a great idea, but it took a lot of convincing to do. This wasn't an idea thought of by anyone involved in baseball. It was a writer, someone that was not associated with Major League Baseball at all. But he had a vision and a dream and he made that come true by stepping out and contacting people that could make this happen. And it did. Our towards vision became a reality, and that has given us some of the most iconic moments in baseball history, all because he had an idea and he actually did something about it. And if you want to do something to help us here, please subscribe or follow wherever you're at so you don't miss any episodes, because the best way you can support us is by continuously listening. And come back tomorrow for more daily sports history.