Ninety years ago today — on July 6, 1933 — Major League Baseball held its first All-Star Game.
Dreamed up by Arch Ward, the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune, and held at Comiskey Park to coincide with the Century of Progress World Exposition also going on that year in Chicago, the event was supposed to be a one-time event.
But it proved to be so popular that they held another one the next year in New York. And then another one in Cleveland, the year after that.
Next Tuesday, Major League Baseball will play its 93rd All-Star Game in Seattle.
Chicago was hosting a world’s fair. Eager to attract visitors, even at the depth of the Great Depression, Mayor Edward Kelly asked Colonel Robert McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, if he could sponsor a major athletic event to coincide with the fair.
McCormick put his sports editor, Arch Ward, on the project. Arch proposed what he referred to as a “Game of the Century” but officially be named the “Midsummer Classic” — a one-time battle between the best players of each of the two major baseball leagues.
Proceeds from the game would go to a charity for retired baseball players. Ward then set out to talk team owners and the presidents of each league into participating. Everyone thought it was a great idea.
Ward became so convinced the game would be a success that he told McCormick to take any losses out of Ward’s own paycheck.
Ward had fans vote on which players to invite: He talked editors of 54 other newspapers into printing ballots. Several hundred thousand votes were cast — White Sox outfielder Al Simmons led the American League with 346,291 votes. Chuck Klein of the Philadelphia Phillies led the National League with 342,283.
On the appointed day — July 6, 1933 — 47,595 fans packed into Chicago’s Comiskey Park to watch the American League defeat the National League 4-2, with Babe Ruth’s home run in the third inning providing the margin of victory. The All-Star Game has been played every year since, except for 1945 and 2020. In four years — 1959 though 1962 — two All-Star Games were held.
This edition of Further Review was adapted for the web by Zak Curley.
