July 10, 1934, 90 years ago: The 2nd baseball All-Star Game is held at the Polo Grounds, home of the New York Giants. Among the host players in the game for the National League are starting pitcher Carl Hubbell, starting 1st baseman Bill Terry, starting shortstop Travis Jackson, reserve outfielders Mel Ott and Jo-Jo Moore. Terry is also the NL team's manager, because he's the manager of the defending League (and, in this case, World) Champions.
But the American League's starting lineup is loaded:
2B Charlie Gehringer, Detroit Tigers, also their manager
CF Henry "Heinie" Manush, Washington Senators
RF Babe Ruth, New York Yankees
1B Lou Gehrig, Yankees
3B Jimmie Foxx, Philadelphia Athletics
LF Al Simmons, Athletics
SS Joe Cronin, Senators, also their manager and the AL team's
C Bill Dickey, Yankees
P Vernon "Lefty" Gomez, Yankees
Okay, Gomez wasn't a good hitter. Even by the standards of pitchers, he was lousy. Great pitcher, and a bit of a quipster, even as an old man, but a lousy hitter: "I never broke a bat until I was 73 years old, and that was by backing the car out of the garage." Still, all 9 are in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Of course, the NL starting lineup wasn't exactly a bunch of Punch-and-Judy hitters:
2B Frankie Frisch, St. Louis Cardinals, also their manager
3B Harold "Pie" Traynor, Pittsburgh Pirates
LF Joe Medwick, Cardinals
CF Hazen "Kiki" Cuyler, Chicago Cubs
RF Wally Berger, Boston Braves
1B Bill Terry, New York Giants
SS Travis Jackson, Giants
C Charles "Gabby" Hartnett, Cubs
P Carl Hubbell, Giants
All of these are in the Hall of Fame, except Berger, and he was still a .300 lifetime hitter who peaked at 38 home runs in a season, despite playing in a pitcher's park for most of his career.
Gehringer started the game with a single to center, and advanced to 2nd base on an error by Cuyler. Manush followed by drawing a walk. And the Great Bambino was coming up, with the Polo Grounds' right-field pole only 257 feet away. It was not looking good for Hubbell.
Except Hubbell, a lefthander who was one of the earliest pitchers to throw an effective screwball, struck Ruth out on 3 pitches.
Gehringer and Manush executed a double steal, giving the lefthanded Gehrig a good chance at 2 RBIs, as if he didn't already have a good chance at 3 with that close pole. But Hubbell struck him out, too.
Next up was Foxx, Ruth's fellow Marylander, and the closest thing that righthanded hitting had to a Ruth: His 58 home runs in 1932 were then the most by any player other than Ruth. They even looked a lot alike. Gomez once said, "Even his hair has muscles." And, "He wasn't scouted, he was trapped." And the left-field pole wasn't a whole lot further out than the one in right: 279 feet. But Hubbell struck him out, stranding the runners.
Frisch led off for the NL with a home run off Gomez, giving Hubbell a 1-0 lead to work with. The next batter he faced was Simmons, a dangerous hitter who once batted .392, and would fall just 73 hits short of 3,000 for his career. Hubbell struck him out. Next up was Cronin, a lifetime .301 hitter on his way to his 5th straight season of at least 100 RBIs. Hubbell struck him out, too.
Hubbell had struck out 5 men who were already legends of the game. No one could believe it.
The next batter was Dickey, a dangerous hitter, and he singled. But next up was Gomez, and, as stated, he was no hitter. Hubbell had no problem striking him out.
Six strikeouts, all of them future Hall-of-Famers, including 5 in a row. Hubbell, a World Series winner with the Giants the season before, was known as "King Carl" from then on. In the 1936 and '37 seasons, he won 24 straight regular-season decisions, helping the Giants win the Pennant each time, and earning him a new nickname: "The Meal Ticket." Of course, that's in the regular season. In the 1936 World Series, a Gehrig homer helped to make him a losing pitcher, and the Yankees won both Series.
Hubbell finished his career in 1944, with a record of 253-154. The Giants made his Number 11 the 1st uniform number retired in the National League. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1947 (a player only needed to be retired for 1 full year at that time), and died in 1988. In 1999, he was ranked 45th on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
Here's the thing, though: Hubbell wouldn't be the 1934 All-Star Game's winning pitcher. Not even after Medwick hit a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 3rd inning. The AL closed to within 3-2 in the top of the 4th.
And then, well, you know what walks can do, especially the leadoff variety. Lon Warneke of the Cubs was brought in to relieve Hubbell, and he started the top of the 5th by walking Ruth and Gehrig -- neither, intentionally.
Terry replaced Warneke with Van Lingle Mungo of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and he had nothing, allowing an RBI single to Foxx, an RBI single to Simmons, a popup by Cronin, a walk to Dickey, and a 2-RBI double to Earl Averill of the Cleveland Indians, who had pinch-hit for Gomez. He then intentionally walked Gehringer. The next batter was the new AL pitcher, Charles "Red" Ruffing of the Yankees. He was a good hitter for a pitcher, and singled home 2 more runs. It was 8-4 AL.
The NL closed to within 8-7 in the bottom of the 5th, including a steal of home plate by Traynor. But an RBI double by Cronin in the 6th gave the AL a 9-7 lead, and that's the way it ended. The winning pitcher was the Indians' Mel Harder.
July 10, 1934 was a Tuesday. Jerry Nelson, the puppeteer who operated The Count on the kids' TV series Sesame Street, was born on this day.
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