Mighty Ruth (Among Others) Strikes Out
Carl Hubbell Puts The All Star Game on The Map
Baseball's now-familiar All Star Game was launched as a supplement to the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. Dreading an anemic turnout in that depth-of-Depression year, the Fair's sponsors welcomed the initiative of the local press to stage a contest that summer between the best players of the National and American Leagues. The AL won, 4-2, and, appropriately, the fabled Babe Ruth hit a home run.
While it was not immediately clear that the baseball "sideshow" would become an annual event, there was enough interest to try a second game, this time at New York's Polo Grounds in July 1934. Selected as the N.L.'s starting pitcher was Carl Hubbell of the Giants, who would be working on his home field. Hubbell, the previous year, had begun what was to be a run of five consecutive 20-victory seasons and an eventual ticket to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was best known for a screwball that broke away from batters.
But Hubbell's opening efforts were far from auspicious. He yielded a single and a walk to the first two hitters and now would have to face Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx. Ruth, the holder then of all season and lifetime home run records, was already fading and would hit a personal low of 22 home runs that year. But Gehrig was still in the ascendancy and would bat .363 with a personal high of 49 home runs that season. And Foxx, who had set the home run record for right-handed hitters at 58 only two years earlier, would bat .344 with 44 homers in 1934. Undaunted, Hubbell employed his screwball to strike all three out.
With thousands of fans agog from that feat, Hubbell began the next inning by striking out Al Simmons, a former batting champion who would also hit .344 that year, and Joe Cronin, a lifetime .301 hitter, before allowing another man on base. His five consecutive victims, all future Hall of Famers, included three of the greatest sluggers of all time and a fourth who had once hit .390. The A.L.'s ultimate 9-7 win was decidedly anticlimactic.
Baseball records have come and gone since that day in 1934. None of Babe Ruth's unassailable records stands today. Gehrig's 2,130 consecutive game streak was broken by Cal Ripken almost six decades later. Foxx's standard has been far left behind. And in 1970, Tom Seaver struck out 10 consecutive batters, although admittedly not in an All Star game.
Although Hubbell's accomplishment of that day has been largely forgotten, it was spoken of with awe by generations of baseball fans. Perhaps it was the background of the Depression, the big-name stars involved, the novelty of a game between the best of both leagues, or the powerful hold baseball had on much of the American public in that era.
Clearly, watching (or hearing) Carl Hubbell mow down of five of the best in baseball caught the popular imagination and helped make the All Star game a much-anticipated annual institution.
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