The early all-stars

the long version

In the midst of the Great Depression, attendance was slipping at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair (then known as the Century of Progress Exposition). The Fair's sports chairman, Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward, had a solution - stage a one-time only baseball game at Comiskey Park, pitting the very best players in the American League against the very best the National League had to offer. He called it the All-Star Game, but little did he know that it would become the sport's cherished midsummer classic. In Brent Kelley's The Early All-Stars, 17 all-stars from the 1930s and 1940s reflect on their careers and how the game was played then. Many also discuss the state of the game today and how modern players stack up against their contemporaries.