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Today pretty much every sport has an all star game, but baseball created it. The year was 1933. It was the Great Depression. People were suffering and baseball, like everything else, was suffering. Attendance was down
considerably. Edward Kelly, the mayor of Chicago at the time, wanted to come up with a major sporting event to go alongside the World's Fair. So he approached the Tribune and the sports editor, Arch Ward, came up with the idea of a baseball game between the best players of each league, the American League and the National League. It was seen as a boost for major league baseball, a one-time morale-boosting event during the Great Depression. Ward came up with the idea of letting the fans vote, which generated more interest. 500, 000 fans voted, pretty good participation in the days long before the internet. So two teams were put together by team managers and the fans, much like they are today. The game was played on July 6 at Comiskey Park. The NL had their own uniforms that read "National League" while the AL wore their own team uniforms. (Personally, I think they should wear AL/NL uniforms for the game and not their teams'. If fans don't know what team each player is actually on, why are they even watching?) It might surprise people that Ruth didn't receive the most fan votes. Future HOF Al Simmons did. Ruth was 38 and in the twilight of his career. That didn't stop him from being the "MVP" (if they'd had one) of the first All Star Game, however. In his second at bat, he hit a home run, the first home run in the history of the All Star Game. Fitting. He also wowed the crowd with a great, up against the wall, catch late in the game. Not bad for a 38 year old Ruth. He was the main attraction, but not the only attraction. This first game had 18 starters, 11 of which became Hall of Famers. This was a matchup that you could not see during the regular season. There was no interleague play in those days. American League teams had to win a league pennant to play against National League teams and vice versa. And even then, that only happened once at the very end of the season. That first game was such a success that they decided to do it every year and rotate the venue....
And here we are.....
Tonight the leagues are tied at 43 wins in the All Star Game. There are nine first-time All Stars in their 30s this year—Rangers outfielder Shin-Soo Choo, 36; Indians catcher Yan Gomes, 30; Blue Jays lefty J.A. Happ, 35; Brewers reliever Jeremy Jeffress, 30; Lowrie, 34; Braves right fielder Nick Markakis, 34; Red Sox 1B Mitch Moreland, 32 ; Astros righty Charlie Morton, 34; and A's righty Treinen, 30. After reading about the reactions these players had to be selected for the game tonight, I realize how important it is and how much it means to them and to the fans. I'd been down on the All Star Game lately. I thought it was just a popularity contest and deserving players were left out, and that's a fair point. That happens. Some fans aren't completely obsessed with baseball and watch games no matter who's playing. They only watch their team. They only know the players that through the years become well, stars. Sometimes those are the players that end up at the All Star game, even if their first half of the season hasn't been... stellar. They became stars and so they're there. Kids (and grown up kids) will watch the stars of the game come together to battle each other like superheroes in Captain America: Civil War. And that's pretty cool.
The 1933 National League Squad
The 1933 American League Squad