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Covering the Baseball All-Star Game and sharing bits of history

Image Credit: MLB

FORT WORTH, TX — Today I am in Fort Worth, Texas, which is about a 26-minute drive from Arlington, Texas, home of the Texas Rangers Globe Life Field, where the All-Star game will be played on Tuesday night. Apparently, Fort Worth has many more of the amenities and hotels for the throng of media and tourist coming to experience this 94th All Star weekend. This is not a problem since MLB provides shuttle busses running every half hour to and from the stadium.

This is not my first All Star, but it is the first that I’ve attended in Texas. I am glad that the effects of Hurricane Beryl that has left about a million residents without electric power in Houston at a time that they are also suffering from extreme heat is not affecting this part of Texas. Though the temperature yesterday and today is at the high 90’s, my Uber driver yesterday told me, “This is Texas and extreme heat is normal.” So, I’m settled in to try and give our readers a little bit of the behind-the-scenes happenings of MLB’s crown jewel.

Image Credit: MLB

As usual, the All-Star game and the popular Home Run Derby will be getting a lot of publicity, but we in Latino Sports like to also give information that perhaps other sports agencies don’t cover. So today I want to share a bit of history of the All-Star game and its history. I love history and I am sure that many readers would also like to learn about the history of the mid-summer classic.

The First All-Star Game by Jerome Holtzman, First Official Historian, MLB

It was in 1933, the year of the Chicago Centennial. The city was strangling in the grip of the Depression. Municipal governments were on the brink of bankruptcy, but a remarkable number of Chicago businessmen invested for a gala, “Century of Progress,” which evolved into the famous Chicago “World’s Fair.” Ed Kelly, then the mayor of Chicago, approached his friend, Colonel Bertie McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, early in 1933.

Kelly thought it would be appropriate if a sports event could be arranged as an adjunct to the Chicago World’s Fair. “We’ve got the man you want right here,” McCormick replied. And ten minutes later Tribune Sports Editor Arch Ward was in McCormick’s office. Colonel McCormick had some doubts. “What if nobody shows up?” Ward was certain he could fill Comiskey Park, the home of the White Sox, and told the publisher, “You can take the losses out of my paycheck.” “If you’re that confident we’ll underwrite it,” McCormick said.

Six months later, baseball’s first All-Star Game, matching the best players in the American and National Leagues, was born. The “Game of the Century,” as it was billed, was scheduled for July 6th — a day when eastern teams traveled west and vice-versa — and Comiskey Park was chosen over Wrigley Field by a coin toss. It was played in ideal weather and drew a paid crowd of 47,595. Twenty-four future Hall of Famers comprised the first rosters, but few grasped the magnitude of the event.

Hall of Famer Joe Cronin, the AL’s starting shortstop, said 50 years later, “Although much is being made today of the fact that we played in the 1933 All-Star Game, we also considered it a great honor then because we thought it would be the one and only All-Star Game.” Appropriately, Babe Ruth hit the first All-Star Game home run, a two-run smash that led the American League to a 4-2 victory. “That’s a grand show,” said Commissioner Judge Landis, who immediately decreed that the All-Star Game become an annual affair.

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3 Comments

3 Comments

  1. William Coppola

    July 13, 2024 at 2:34 pm

    Wonderful thoughts on Texas &; the AS game. The history lesson was a fun read. BTW, 1934 was Babe Ruth’s last year with the Yankees.

  2. Luis R. Morales

    July 13, 2024 at 3:30 pm

    Francisco Lindor without any hesitation or doubt should be in the All Star selection representing the New York Mets. He’s a great hitter,fielder,base runner and throwing arm like a rifle. His hustling is non stop always.

  3. Santos Negron

    July 13, 2024 at 5:17 pm

    great article great piece of history

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