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 1930s All-Star Games Photo Gallery
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It’s All-Star Week:

Let’s Take a Look Back!

With All-Star Week upon us, it’s always fun to take a look back at some of the earliest games of this series.  Remember that the first game was played at Comiskey Park on July 6, 1933, in front of 49,200 fans with the American League winning  4-2. The winning pitcher of the first game was Yankee Lefty Gomez and the loser was Cardinal Bill Hallahan. Gomez also drove in the first run, a single scoring Jimmy Dykes. Lefty Grove was retroactively credited with a save.

No surprise, the star of the game was Babe Ruth, hitting the first All-Star home run, a two-run blast in the bottom of the third inning. He also made a great catch in the eighth up against the scoreboard in center. Frankie Frisch also hit a home run for the National League.

In the featured photo above, we see the American League team photo from the first All-Star game. Player identifications are at the end of the post.

A Little All-Star Game Background

The idea for an All-Star game was the brain-child of Arch Ward, the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune. It was originally Ward’s intention that the game be a one-time event to boost morale during the Great Depression; but, as we know, it soon became an annual event, the greatest All-Star game of any professional sport. Because of the intense rivalry between the two leagues, the game grew to hold great significance. 

Last year during All-Star week, I wrote about the classic 1941 All-Star game. This was the game won on a two-out, three-run walk-off homer by Ted Williams off the Cubs’ Claude Passeau, giving the American League a 7-5 victory. Ted once described this hit as the biggest thrill of his baseball career. Of course, this was back in the days before interleague play when the rivalries between the two leagues actually meant something.

The 1940 All-Star Game

I’ll continue this tradition by writing about another All-Star game from days past: the 1940 All-Star game. It was played 83 years ago today, on Tuesday July 9, 1940, at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis in front of 32, 373 fans. The game was played in a crisp 1:53. This was the eighth game in the All-Star series. The American League had been dominating—with lineups stacked every year with some of the game’s greatest hitters—by winning six of the first seven games.

While this game did not have the ninth innings dramatics of the 1941 game, it did have some outcomes worthy of note. The National League won the game 4-0, as five National League pitchers—Paul Derringer, Bucky Walters, Whit Wyatt, Larry French, and Carl Hubbell—combined to give up only three hits, while walking two, and striking out eight. It was the first-ever All-Star game shutout.

Fans arriving late to the game would have missed most of the action, as Boston Bee outfielder Max West hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first to provide more than enough firepower for the Senior Circuit’s eventual victory. West’s blast into the right-centerfield stands came off the Yankees’ star pitcher, Red Ruffing, after Arky Vaughan and Billy Herman had led off with singles.

Amongst all the big-name stars, West, a career .251 hitter with 77 home runs and 380 RBIs, was an unlikely hero. This was his only All-Star appearance (and his only at-bat, as he was removed from the game due to an injury) in his seven-year career. Was he in the All-Star lineup only because each team had to have a representative? Looking over the nondescript Bees’ roster, it’s entirely possible. They eventually finished the year in seventh place with a 65-87 record, ahead only of the perennial cellar-dwelling Phillies, who finished at a dismal 50-103.  

Checking out the starting lineups for the game, we see some of the biggest names from the era:

American League, managed by Joe McCarthy:

Cecil Travis 3B, Ted Williams* LF, Charlie Keller RF, Joe DiMaggio* CF, Jimmie Foxx* 1B, Luke Appling* SS, Bill Dickey* C, Joe Gordon* 2B, Red Ruffing* P.

National League, managed by Bill McKechnie:

Arky Vaughan* SS, Billy Herman* 2B, Max West RF, Johnny Mize* 1B, Ernie Lombardi* C, Joe Medwick* LF, Cookie Lavagetto 3B, Terry Moore CF, Paul Derringer P.

*Hall of Fame. Other future Hall of Famers in attendance were: Bob Feller, Lou Boudreau, and Hank Greenberg.

Umpires for the game were: Beans Reardon, George Pipgras (former Yankee), Bill Stewart, Steve Basil. Among the many announcers were Hall of Famers Red Barber and Bob Elson.

One interesting fact is that Joe McCarthy was the nominal American League manager since the Yankees had won the 1939 American League pennant. But the game was actually managed by Joe Cronin. Apparently, some baseball higher-ups thought “McCarthy had the honor too many times.” (1) Not sure whose decision this was.

1933 American League All-Stars Identifications

Top Row, L-R: ?; Bill Conroy, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Oral Hildebrand, Connie Mack (Mgr.), Joe Cronin, Lefty Grove, Art “Sharkey” Colledge, Bill Dickey, Al Simmons, Lefty Gomez, Wes Ferrell, Jimmy Dykes, Ephraim “Sharkey” Colledge. Bottom Row: L-R: Trainer, Eddie Collins, Tony Lazzeri, Alvin Crowder, Jimmy Foxx, Art Fletcher, Earl Averill, Ed Rommel, Ben Chapman, Rick Ferrell, Sam West, Charlie Gehringer, ?.

(Ephraim and Art “Sharkey” Colledge were brothers and long-time White Sox clubhouse attendants. No one ever called them by their real names. Both were known as “Sharkey”).

Let’s hope this year’s game has as many memorable moments as some of the earlier games in this classic series!

Gary Livacari 

Information: Excerpts edited from the 1933 and 1940 World Series Wikipedia page. Footnote (1) from Baseball Almanac, 1940 World Series page.

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