Randall Sullivan’s “The First All-Star Game’’ (Atlantic Monthly Press) is aptly named. It is the story of the first baseball game between the stars of the National and American leagues that was played in 1933 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.
(As you might guess we’re venturing away from golf again to spotlight some outstanding writing in other areas).
Sullivan focuses on just that first game, which was billed as “The Game of the Century.’’ It was to be a one-time thing as a highlight of the World’s Fair in Chicago but the game – as well as Sullivan’s book – have turned out to be much more than that.
Now known as the Mid-Summer Classic, this year’s 96th version of the annual game will be played July 14 with the Philadelphia Phillies hosting at Citizens Bank Park.
Sullivan certainly told the story of the first one, created by Arch Ward. Ward was the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, and had to convince the leaders of both the National and American leagues that such a game was a good idea. Not everyone thought that way. The U.S. and the sport of baseball were at a crossroads at that time.
Chicago baseball needed an image improvement after one of its two teams, the White Sox, were caught in a gambling scandal involving the fixing of the 1919 World Series. The country was reeling from more than that, with Germany’s Adolph Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini getting their nations poised for what would become World War II.
Thankfully, Sullivan wrote much more than a book about one baseball game. His turned into an historical account of a critical period in American history, and baseball had some stars – most notably Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig – who gave the sport some needed positive attention.
Sullivan, in his 496-page masterpiece, covered the national news starting with an assasination attempt on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt before weaving in the tales of more than just Ruth and Gehrig on the baseball side.
The book found space for such divergent names as Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Al Capone, Charles Lindbergh, Bonnie & Clyde, Hack Wilson, Lefty Grove, Jimmy Foxx, Bill Dickey, Charley Gehringer, Gabby Hartnett, Carl Hubbell, Mel Ott and Frankie Frisch. The list could go on and on.
I enjoy baseball, but am not a diehard fan. Still, this was a hard book to put down. A few tidbits that were particularly interesting:
Connie Mack has always been considered one of the very best managers in baseball. However, he had a losing record (3,731 wins against 3,948 losses in 53 seasons as a manager. That record, according to Sullivan, should also include 76 games that ended in ties.
Babe Ruth was at the end of his playing career when he homered in the first All-Star Game, but he was still the sport’s most popular player. Ruth grew up an adopted orphan and was extremely popular with black players who weren’t allowed in the major leagues at that time. There were plenty of exhibition games involving the top black teams, though, and Ruth was the most frequent participant among major leaguers. According to Sullivan there was widespread speculation that Ruth was of mixed race.
Gehrig and Ruth with teammates on the Yankees with widely different personalities. According to this book they didn’t talk to each other for two years after having a feud, but that ended on the day Gehrig was honored in an emotional tribute at Yankee Stadium after his playing career ended following a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Gehrig told the crowd “I am the luckiest man on the face of the earth.’’ Then Ruth, reportedly sobbing, rushed forward to embrace him.
Ruth’s career didn’t end happily, either. He badly wanted to finish it as manager of the Yankees but it didn’t happen. Before the 1935 season started Ruth asked Yankee leaders Jacob Ruppert and Ed Barrow if Joe McCarthy would return as manager. They confirmed McCarthy would stay in that role, meaning Ruth wouldn’t get it. “That’s all I wanted to hear,’’ said Ruth, who stormed out of the meeting and was given his release by the team. He passed away in 1948.
“The First All-Star Game’’ is an extremely well-researched book filled with considerable episodes of that era that had nothing to do with baseball. A book well worth reading, sports fan or not.