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AP -- July 7th, 1920 AP -- July 7th, 1921 Sunny Detroit was the venue for the second
DERBY All-Star Game. The first All-Star Game was a close affair
that ultimately was won by the National League. They hoped to
continue their winning ways in 1921, but the American League
team looked poised and ready when the National Anthem was sung
and “Play Ball” was called. Urban Shocker started the game for the
American League, who was looking to bounce back from their loss
in the 1920 All-Star Game. The top of the first was packed with
action! After singles by Ross Youngs and Rogers Hornsby, Ty Cobb
hit a deep sacrifice fly to right field which scored the first
run of the game. Red Faber started the game for the National
League and strolled to the mound with an early 1-0 lead.
Unfortunately, with one out, George Sisler hit a deep fly to
left center that rolled around the wall resulting in a triple.
Harry Heilman hit a slow roller that was enough to score Sisler
and tie the game up. The National League brought in Walter Johnson
in the second, who clearly was not used to coming out of the
pen. After walking the first two batters he saw, he allowed a
double to Joe Sewell that just went past the diving Ty Cobb in
right. Hank Severeid added a second run in the inning on a
fielder’s choice and the score was 3-1 to the American League
after the second inning.
Wilbur Cooper was sent to the mound in the third inning,
attempting to thwart to left-handed bats coming up in the bottom
of the 3rd.
Unfortunately, Babe Ruth had other plans. The league MVP lofted
a solo homerun into the right field bleachers to make it 4-1 in
favor of the American League.
Burleigh Grimes was called on in the 4th,
hoping to stop the bleeding, but he was also unsuccessful in
holding the American League scoreless. A leadoff single by Joe
Sewell looked harmless enough, but after a two easy outs and a
passed ball, George Sisler strode to the mound and knocked in
Sewell for his second RBI of the day. But that wasn’t enough for
the American League. Harry Heilman drove a double to left center
in the clutch to score Sisler and get his second RBI of the
afternoon. After a scoreless fifth inning, Eppa Rixey was
the man in charge of keeping the American League at bay. But,
after an error by Ty Cobb, the red hot George Sisler came to the
mound and knocked another double, scoring Eddie Collins to make
it 7-1. Babe Ruth drove in Sisler with a double of his own to
finish the inning. The hit parade continued off Dutch Leonard in
the sixth with Joe Sewell scoring off a single by Johnny Bassler
after hitting a triple of his own. Rosy Ryan was called on to finish off the
baffled National League and allowed only a token single. The
National League was defeated 9-1 to even the All-Star Game
series at one each. For his part, George Sisler was named the
All-Star MVP by going 4-5 with a double, triple and two RBIs. AP -- July 5th, 1922 The All-Star Game
series is all tied up at one a piece for the distinguished
leagues. The American League is looking for revenge from the
drubbing they received last year in Detroit. This year the teams
face off in St. Louis with veteran Walter Johnson getting the
start for the National League, while newcomer Dazzy Vance starts
for the American League. Both Johnson and Vance pitched two solid
innings each before they handed the ball off to the bullpen. But
whereas Eppa Rixey continued in Walter’s footsteps and pitched a
scoreless third. Urban Shocker got through two outs when Tris
Speaker smoked a double to right center. NL MVP Rogers Hornsby
stepped up and laced a run scoring single in the clutch to left
field. But that was not enough for the NL. Ken Williams hit a
solid single to right advancing Hornsby to third and with the
runners on the corners, Bing Miller drove a bases clearing
triple to make it 3-0. After a scoreless top of the fourth from Waite
Hoyt, Sad Sam Jones was brought in by the American League. Jones
surrendered a leadoff walk to Ray Schalk that looked harmless
enough. Unfortunately, clutch hitting continued by the National
squad. Johnny Mostil dribbled a single, extending the inning to
get to Tris Speaker. Tris did not disappoint as he laced a
two-run double making the score 5-0. Bullet Joe Bush was brought in for the
Nationals and through a few walks and wild pitches, got himself
into a bases loaded, one-out jam. Jake Daubert almost got a
single past first, but it ended up being scored as a Fielder’s
Choice scoring a run. Still second and third with two outs for
Harry Heilmann, but he sent a grounder right to Cotton Tierney’s
waiting glove at third to end the inning.
The bottom of the 5th added some more runs for the
National League. Herman Pillette was brought in and promptly
allowed a single to leadoff hitter, Ken Williams. Williams
wasted no time in swiping second base. Pinch hitter Jimmy
Johnston came in a knocked a single that scored Williams.
After a scoreless sixth and top of the
seventh, Herb Pennock was handed the ball for the American
League to hold the score at 6-1. Pennock allowed a leadoff walk
to pinch hitter Irish Meusel. It didn’t work out well last time
and it didn’t work out well this time. Meusel advanced to second
on a deep grounder to the second baseman, and then advanced to
third on a wild pitch when Bubbles Hargrave got a clean single
making the score 7-1. Rosy Ryan was asked to hurl for the American
League in what looks like the final inning of hitting for the
National League. Ryan was able to get Ty Cobb to fly out to Babe
Ruth for the first out, but then he got into trouble. Tris
Speaker, having already gone 3-3, walked. Hornsby got his second
hit of the game with a single. Ken Williams saw the struggling
Ryan on the mound and didn’t take the bat off his shoulders,
earning his own walk and loading the bases. Ross Youngs was
brought in to pinch hit, and got a sac fly RBI for his troubles.
After a single from Jimmy Johnston re-loading the bases, Ryan
found his form and made first baseman Lu Blue look fooling for
the inning ending strikeout. Bill Sherdel strode to
the mound with an 8-1 lead and got all three batters he faced to
hit baseballs harmlessly to the defenders on the field,
completing the revenge of 1921.
Eppa Rixey got the win with his
scoreless inning of work, while Urban Shocker was hit with the
loss. Tris Speaker was 3-3 with two doubles, a walk and two RBIS
as he takes home the MVP trophy. As much offense as the National
League provided, it was the pitchers who allowed only 5 hits and
one run that deserved some of the credit as well. They really
stepped up during this Mid-Summer Classic to earn the win and
give the National League a 2-1 series lead. AP --- July 7th, 1923
On July 7th, 1923, the best baseball players in the
Dynasty Retro Baseball League found themselves at newly-opened
Yankee Stadium for the fourth All-Star Game in league history.
The National League leads the series 2-1, but the story has been
the blowouts the past two seasons. Each League had a convincing
win in the last two years. Starters Sad Sam Jones and Walter
Johnson, starting his second consecutive All-Star Game, hope to
keep these potent lineups at bay this afternoon. Sad Sam Jones pitched a flawless first inning,
but Walter got into trouble early. Max Carey lead off with a
walk and immediately stole second. After a Frisch fly out and
Heilman advancing Carey to third on a ground out, Walter allowed
Babe Ruth to have first base on an intentional walk, hoping to
get Jack Frournier for the third out. Unfortunately, Walter
uncorked a wild pitch to allow Carey to score the initial run of
the game. Fournier then hits a sharp line drive single to right
field scoring Babe Ruth. Pie Traynor ropes the ball to Left for
another run scoring single. Zack Wheat, smelling blood in the
water drives a gapper to Right Center for another run scoring
double. The 2-out rally ends at four runs with Severeid flying
out to Tris Speaker in center. Waite Hoyt comes on to pitch the second for
the National League and immediately feels the impact of the hot
American League hitters. Joe Sewell walks to lead off and Max
Carey follows it with a two run homer! After the second inning,
the National League leads 6-0 and it looks like another rout in
the All-Star Game. After two scoreless innings, Sad Sam Jones
gives way to teammate, Dazzy Vance for the third inning and
provides another smooth inning for the American League. Bullet
Joe Bush pitches the first scoreless inning for the National
League and after the third inning the score remains 6-0 in favor
of the Junior Circuit.
After a scoreless top of the 4th pitched by Pete
Alexander, Eppa Rixey is called on by the National League and
gets into trouble early allowing a single to Severeid and
Sewell. Rixey is able to get hot-hitting Max Carey to line out
for the first out, but the pressure got to him and he slipped
one past the catcher for the second run scoring Wild Pitch of
the game. Frankie Frisch wastes no time and slaps the ball to
left for another run. Frisch ends up on third after the second
error on Ivan Meusel for the day. Harry Heilman decides an 8-run
lead is not safe, and drilled the ball over the frustrated
Meusel for a homerun. Babe Ruth hits a rare triple and scores on
a single by Jack Fournier and after the extended 4th
inning, the American League leads 12-0. After a few calm innings by both teams, though
no matter what the National League manager can muster with
lineup changes they cannot seem to get any offense going, Babe
Adams pitches to Zach Wheat, who drives a towering flyball out
of the stadium for a solo homerun making the score 13-0.
Tiny Osborne is called on to pitch the last chance bottom of the
8th for National League. After he loads up the bases,
getting no outs, Babe Ruth comes in a smokes a Grand Slam Home
Run to extend the lead to a laughable 16-0. Ruth now has three
career All-Star home runs. Rosy Ryan comes on to finish the game in the
ninth as the American League completes a shutout and the biggest
blow out in All-Star Game History. Whereas there were several
candidates for the MVP award in the 1923 All-Star Game, Max
Carey ignited the American League to early run scoring
opportunity and comes home with the hardware. The All-Star Game
series closes up at 2-2 after four games. We’ll see you next
summer! AP --- July 8th, 1934 Both starters went two innings and from there it was matchup city from the ample bullpen. Starting hitters got three at bats each and then the bench was put in.
The game was tied in the 3rd when the
first man out of the pen for the AL was Carl Hubbell. After
retiring Babe Herman, Arky Vaughan laced a single before Lou
Gehrig deposited the ball in the right field bleachers. The
National League added two more runs in the game, including
another all-star homerun from Gabby Hartnett off Freddie
Fitzsimmons, and ultimately won 4-0. Larry French was the
lucky pitcher of record for the win while Hubbell took the
loss.
Gehrig was 3-3 with the go ahead
homerun while adding a 1st inning double and a single in the
5th before being taken out. The Iron Horse was named the
1934 All-Star MVP and drove off with a 1934 Ford Truck Model
F-5. This is Gehrig's second all-star game MVP award as he
also received high honors in 1928.
AP --- July 8, 1935
The score held until the fourth when Sunday Ted Lyons was called
on for the National League, but immediately got into trouble
giving up a solo homerun to Jimmie Foxx. The American league got
four more singles resulting in a 6-3 score after the 4th, but
the trouble for the NL didn't stop there. In the bottom of the
5th, two critical errors and some timely hitting, including a
double from Mel Ott, resulted in a 6-5 score and a close game to
be managed by each dugout.
The National League immediately answered in the top of the
sixth. Following a leadoff walk by Paul Waner and a single by NL
MVP Arky Vaughan, Hank Lieber laced a single to extend the lead
to 7-5 in favor of the visitors.
The NL stars threatened again in the top of the eighth, but the
extensive bullpen from the AL held them in check. Johnny Murphy
was on in the bottom of the ninth and, after a leadoff single
from Billy Rogell, was able to retire the side and earn the save
for the National League. Babe Herman was named the MVP of the
1935 All-Star Game with three timely hits and three RBIs on the
afternoon. AP --- July 8, 1936 It’s a beautiful day for an All-Star Game at
Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. The best of the National and
American League line up to play for bragging rights for their
respective leagues. The National League would strike first
against Carl Hubbell. Hubbell would get his first two outs
easily, but after Triple Crown contender Lou Gehrig sneaked a
single past Jimmie Foxx, Wally Berger wasted no time and
launched a two-run home run into the right-center field
bleachers.
Lefty Grove looked like he was cruising through two innings
until Jimmie Foxx crushed a solo shot to get the game to a
one-run lead.
More excitement was
quickly provided to the sellout crowd when in the top of the 3rd,
three singles were hit in a row off Van Mungo, the last of which
resulted in an RBI for Charlie Gehringer to bring the game
back to a tie. Mungo flirted with danger by walking Jimmie Foxx
to load the bases with two outs when Joe Medwick approached the
plate. He had grand visions, but Mungo gave him four in the dirt
to walk in a run. Bill Dickey followed up with a single and the
AL lead the NL, 4-2.
The score stayed the
same until the bottom of the 5th when
Dizzy Dean took his turn on the bump and immediately got into
trouble with a walk to Gabby Hartnett and a single to Tony
Lazzeri. Arky Vaughan laced a single scoring Gabby, but Lazzeri
got impatient on the base paths and was thrown out at home for
the first out of the inning. Gehrig had a shot to drive him in,
but put up a can of corn to rookie sensation Joe DiMaggio to end
the inning at 4-3 in favor of the Junior Circuit.
Wally Berger, Wally
Berger, Wally Berger! He lead off the bottom of the 6th with
a solo home run, his second of the game, against Hal Schumacher
to tie the game. But Schumacher settled down to retire the side
and keep the game tied.
Waite Hoyt got the
ball in the top of the 7th and
got into hot water immediately giving up a single to Hal Trosky
and double to Earl Averill when Beau Bell cleared both of them
with his own double to the gap!
Everything seemed quiet until with one out, Rube Walberg was put
in to face "just a couple of lefties.” Well, teammates Gehrig,
Goslin and Waner loaded the bases and the ball was given to
Johnny Allen to clean up the mess with only one out on his side.
Allen got Odell Hale to strike out swinging, and froze Johnny to
get out of the jam! Hal Trosky didn’t believe a two-run lead was enough and started off the top of the 9th with a solo homerun off Brooklyn’s Johnny Murphy, making it 7-4. Later in the inning, Earl Averill scored on a Dolf Camini sacrifice fly making the score 8-4 going into the bottom of the 9th..
Red Lucas was called
upon to close out the game for the American Leaguers and
wouldn’t have to work too hard with a nice clean bottom of the 9th resulting
in a win for the American Leaguers.
Hal Schumacher,
initially thought might become a goat, gets the win for the AL.
Waite Hoyt absorbs the loss. Homeruns came from Wally Berger
(2), Jimmie Foxx (1) and the game MVP Hal Trosky (1). Trosky
started the fateful 7th inning
and put the nail in the coffin with his 9th inning
blast. 1937 All-Star Game Yankee Stadium was packed with the
Bronx’s finest with some of their not-so-finest lining the
bleachers in right field as well. But if they wanted offense,
they did not get it in the first five innings of the 1937
Midsummer Classic. The “Leftys” in Grove and Gomez, along with
Carl Hubbell and Bob Feller, held all bats to limited hits and
no runs. It was not until the 5th inning
when Charlie Root was entered the game and one pitch later
George Selkirk launched a solo homerun to give the lead to the
National League, which would hold until the final frame.
No runs were scored for the remainder of the game when Robin’s
standout closer Johnny Murphy was called on to put an end to the
game. He struck out Luke Appling, but Joe DiMaggio reached on an
error. Bob Johnson pinch hit, but had a lazy fly out for the
second out of the inning. Then, “The Man Nobody Knows” became
nameless no longer with one mighty swing of his bat. In front of
the sellout crowd, catcher Bill Dickey, previously 0-4 in the
game, crushed a two-run home run for a walk-off win in the 1937
All-Star Game!
After the team finished shaking hands, the Kansas City backstop
was all smiles. “That was pretty neat!” was all Dickey could
muster for the gathered press. He may be a household name after
this performance. Now after being named All-Star Game MVP, he’ll
have to work on his press quotes. 1938 All-Star Game
Forbes Field played
host to the 1938 All-Star Game where Johnny Vander Meer and Carl
Hubbell were set to match up in the 19th installment
of this mid-summer classic exhibition. Both Hubbell and Vander
Meer struggled to pitch clean innings, but Vander Meer broke
first allowing two bases loaded walks to give the American
League a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
The top of the fifth inning provided the next excitement for the
Pittsburgh fans. Thornton Lee was called on to pitch for the
National League and allowed a base hit by wordsmith Bill Dickey
following an Arky Vaughan error, when Harlond Clift strode up to
the plate. He cleared the bases with his own home run to extend
the American League lead to 5-0.
The National League was in trouble again in the top of the
seventh when Lou Fette allowed the bases loaded – and the
American League did not hesitate when Hank Greenberg took Fette
yard for a grand slam! The American League had a commanding lead
of 10-0 after seven innings.
Ernie Lombardi gave the NL squad a bit of life with a two-run
homer off Mort Cooper, but only a few token runs were scored at
the end of the game and the AL finished off the NL, 11-3.
Athletic Carl Hubbell earned the win while Johnny Vander Meer
absorbed the loss. With his definitive home run, Harlond Clift
earns his first All-Star Game MVP Award.
1939 All-Star Game
The final All-Star Game of the 30’s decade was played on the
south side of Chicago at Comiskey Field on a bright and sunny
day. Bob Feller and Bobo Newsom both made their first ever
All-Star game starts and would survive their two innings of work
without incident. And that would be how the game would run until
the fifth inning.
The American League would enter the fifth inning with only one
hit thus far, but after a single from the pesky Bill Dickey,
Harlond Clift was back at it with his second homerun in as many
All-Star games to earn a lead for the junior circuit, 2-0.
The National League were able to conjure just four hits all
afternoon. Schoolboy Rowe was called on in the ninth to finish
off the game and the American League was able to secure their
fourth consecutive All-Star Game victory. Harlond Clift earned
his second MVP award given his bat secured the only offense in
the game. Mort Cooper earns the win while Paul Derringer was
tagged with the loss. Schoolboy Rowe earned the save.
With the AL’s four straight wins, the all-time series record
stands all even at ten wins per league. |