Editorial Content for The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR, and America at the Crossroads
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
The fact that the American League beat the National League 4-2 in Major League Baseball’s first All-Star Game was secondary to the very existence of the game itself and what it helped do for a country on the precipice of getting back to normal less than a decade before they would be thrust into another world war. That’s the focus of Randall Sullivan’s superb book, THE FIRST ALL-STAR GAME.
In 1933, America was still reeling from the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed. The country needed a change, and the people made their voices clear at the ballot box when Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to the first of his record four terms as President. As soon as he took office, FDR repealed the Volstead Act, which officially ended Prohibition. Then, through his mandated banking holidays and fireside chats, he turned his attention to getting Americans back to work.
"THE FIRST ALL-STAR GAME is not just sports history, but American history, and Randall Sullivan is more than up to the challenge of carrying that banner forward for readers to relish."
The All-Star Game might never have taken place if an Italian immigrant named Giuseppe Zangara had not attempted to assassinate the newly elected President. He was caught and eventually put to death, but the general public and politicians rallied around FDR, which eventually led to a national celebration scheduled for July 6th. Chicago's Comiskey Park would be the site of the inaugural All-Star Game. It also was a sort of recovery for that stadium, which was most famous for the Black Sox Scandal when the Chicago White Sox threw the 1919 World Series under illicit funds from gangster Arnold Rothstein.
What better way for both Chicago and the country to heal than to witness a match-up of oodles of future Hall of Famers and the biggest names in baseball?
The initial idea for the All-Star Game sprang from the mind of the Chicago Tribune’s sports editor, Arch Ward, who called it the Game of the Century. It allowed fans to see Lou Gehrig, Lefty Grove, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, Paul and Lloyd Waner, Pie Traynor, Bill Terry, Carl Hubbell, and dozens of other players. The legendary Babe Ruth took center stage and appropriately hit the first home run in All-Star Game history.
Sullivan has a knack for placing us right there, directly in the middle of all that was occurring in the nation at that time. He covers the historical and political landscape with great aplomb and brings to life many of the game’s participants to those of us who were not around to witness such a momentous occasion.
For me, the most touching part of the book is what Sullivan refers to as the Second All-Star Game, the one that took place with the best of the Negro League players, including Rube Foster, Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Oscar Charleston. Many of these athletes never got the opportunity to play in the major leagues due to segregation.
THE FIRST ALL-STAR GAME is not just sports history, but American history, and Randall Sullivan is more than up to the challenge of carrying that banner forward for readers to relish.
Teaser
1933. America was still reeling from the crash. Optimism was fading --- and baseball was in trouble, too. Owners slashed budgets, and fans stayed home. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt offered hope, but just days before his inauguration, five shots rang out --- missing the president-elect, killing the mayor of Chicago, and setting in motion a chain of events that eventually would bring together the world’s best ballplayers for the first All-Star Game. At a moment when some feared the national pastime would not survive the decade, Chicago would host the ballgame as the highlight of the 1933 World’s Fair. The city hoped to shed its reputation as a haven for gamblers and gangsters and help restore America’s standing on the world stage. But dark clouds were gathering abroad.
Promo
1933. America was still reeling from the crash. Optimism was fading --- and baseball was in trouble, too. Owners slashed budgets, and fans stayed home. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt offered hope, but just days before his inauguration, five shots rang out --- missing the president-elect, killing the mayor of Chicago, and setting in motion a chain of events that eventually would bring together the world’s best ballplayers for the first All-Star Game. At a moment when some feared the national pastime would not survive the decade, Chicago would host the ballgame as the highlight of the 1933 World’s Fair. The city hoped to shed its reputation as a haven for gamblers and gangsters and help restore America’s standing on the world stage. But dark clouds were gathering abroad.
About the Book
Acclaimed journalist Randall Sullivan tells the story of baseball in America, from its rough-and-tumble origins through the first decades of the 20th century and into the pivotal summer of 1933 --- when national crisis and a sport’s fight for survival converged in baseball’s first All-Star Game.
1933. America was still reeling from the crash. Breadlines stretched around city blocks, and shantytowns sprawled in the shadows of skyscrapers. American optimism was fading --- and baseball was in trouble, too. Owners slashed budgets, fans stayed home, and even the mighty Babe Ruth seemed to have lost some of his magic. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt offered hope, but just days before his inauguration, five shots rang out --- missing the president-elect, killing the mayor of Chicago and setting in motion a chain of events that eventually would bring together the world’s best ballplayers for the first All-Star Game.
It was a newspaperman’s idea: The Game of the Century. Put the world’s best players on one field and let the public decide who belonged there. At a moment when some feared the national pastime would not survive the decade, Chicago would host the ballgame as the highlight of the 1933 World’s Fair. The city hoped to shed its reputation as a haven for gamblers and gangsters and help restore America’s standing on the world stage. But abroad, dark clouds were gathering. Hitler was Germany’s new chancellor, and Mussolini had consolidated his power. As visitors strolled the fairgrounds, Italian warplanes flew overhead, and a zeppelin sent by the German delegation circled the city emblazoned with a swastika.
THE FIRST ALL-STAR GAME is the story of a nation and a sport at a crossroads and a sweeping look back at baseball’s early history and the America that shaped it. Deeply researched and filled with remarkable characters --- legendary players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Lefty Grove rubbing shoulders with Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone and Charles Lindbergh --- Randall Sullivan explores the history of an American obsession and captures the moment when both the sport and the nation found renewal in a single spectacle of hope.
Audiobook available, read by Johnny Heller
