SEPT: THE BASEBALL GURU ARTICLE FROM

ONEMOREINNING

OCT. 6, 1933

THE GAME OF THE CENTURY

IN FOUR PARTS: PART THREE

THE MAN EVERYONE CAME TO SEE

 

   The showcase of the first all star game was The Bambino, The Sultan of Swat, The Colossus of Clout. He was the jewel on that baseball diamond, outshining the greatest collection of baseball players ever assembled for one game!

   There was an astounding twenty two future Hall of Famers on the field that day, but in the long run, after all was said and done, it was Babe Ruth, The Sultan of Swat, who owned the game and the hearts of the fans and players alike.

   In the third inning Ruth majestically smashed a Wild Bill Hallahan pitch inside the right field foul pole to give Connie Mack’s American League what would prove to be a 4-2 win.

   It was a blistering, hot day and yet the fans rose and gave the Babe a roaring acclimation. It was fitting! It was the only way to play the first All Star Game and a better script could not have been written. He was to play for just one more full year after that and then finish up with his dismal, embarrassing year with Boston in the National League.

   His legend permeated that first All Star Game and of course he did not disappoint……he rose to the occasion.

 

The ALL STAR’S M & M BOYS:  CONNIE MACK & JOHN Mc GRAW:

   Connie Mack made no secret of it. As the first ever manager of the American League All Stars, he would go with the best players he had of a squad that had the best the AL had to offer. As a consequence he ended up using just thirteen of the eighteen players on the team. Great players like Jimmy Foxx, Bill Dickey, Tony Lazzeri, Wes Ferrell, and Oral Hildebrand sat on the bench and never entered the game. McGraw on the other hand, although he would have given anything to win, also had a sense of how historic this game was. He made sure that everyone on the team did get a chance to appear in the game.

   They were perfect choices to manage their respective teams. Mack, at the age of 71 was considered one of the great minds in the game. McGraw, who was 60 at the time, was thought to be a leader and motivator of men beyond peer. After thirty years of leading the New York Giants, McGraw had finally retired from the game he so dearly loved. It took a very special moment like this to get him off the back porch of his Pelham New York home and back to managing if only for one day. Mack would continue to manage after this game and didn’t retire until well into the 1950S.

   Next to Babe Ruth, Mack and McGraw were besieged by autograph hunters. What was interesting was that the players were just as persistent in their requests for autographs as were the fans. Legends collecting legends.

  

PRESENTING THE FIRST ALL STAR AL AND NL TEAMS:

American league: 

BEN CHAPMAN:LF    CHARLEY GEHRINGER:2B   BABE RUTH:RF    LOU GEHRIG:1B    AL SIMMONS:CF/LF    JIMMY DYKES:3B    JOE CRONIN:SS    RICK FERRELL:C    LEFTY GOMEZ:P    SAM WEST:CF    EARL AVERILL:CF    JIMMY FOXX:IB    BILL DICKEY:C    TONY LAZZERI:INF    WES FERRELL:P    ORAL HILDEBRAND:P    LEFTY GROVE:P    ALVIN CROWDER:P

National league:

PEPPER MARTIN:3B    FRANKIE FRISCH:2B    CHUCK KLEIN:RF    CHICK HAFEY:LF    BILL TERRY:IB    WALLY BERGER:CF    DICK BARTELL:SS    JIMMY WILSON:C     PAUL WANER:CF    BILL HALLAHAN:P    HAL SCHUMACHER:P    LEFTY O’DOUL: LF    PIE TRAYNOR:3B    GABBY HARTNETT:C    TONY CUCCINELLO:INF    LON WARNEKE:P    CARL HUBBELL:P

 

NEXT WEEK:PART FOUR/THE GAME