Warren Giles had seen enough.
Nearly 40 years ago, on the afternoon of July 11, 1950, the National League president entered the visitors` locker room at Comiskey Park to address the troops before the start of the 17th annual All-Star Game.
The National League team had lost four straight Midsummer Classics by a combined score of 30-10, and American League hitters were treating Warren Spahn fastballs and Rip Sewell eephus pitches with equal amounts of disrespect. The series stood at 12-4 in favor of the AL, and as the embarrassed boss of what many fans perceived to be the ”minor” league, Giles felt he had to go the George S. Patton route to ensure a victory.
”Just before the game, Warren Giles comes into the locker room,”
recalled Mets broadcaster Ralph Kiner, an outfielder on the `50 NL team.
”Giles says to us: `This is serious. We`ve got to get the National League to win this game. Don`t play it like it`s just an exhibition game.` ”
More Top Picks Google Pixel Watch 2
Spurred on by the speech of the man who signed their baseballs, or perhaps just due for a win, the NL went on to tie the game in the ninth on Kiner`s upper-deck home run against Art Houtteman. Five innings later, in the top of the 14th, Red Schoendienst hit a solo shot to give the NL a 4-3 win.
”That was really the turnaround,” said Kiner. ”The National League started taking over and dominating the game after that.”
Thirty-three years later. Same city. Same event. Same ballpark.
AL manager Harvey Kuenn is in the White Sox locker room, giving his squad a pregame talk. Going into the 1983 game, the AL had lost 11 in a row, 19 of 20 and 29 of 36 (two games were held each year from 1959-62, and one game, in `61 in Boston, ended in a tie because of rain) since the ”turnaround”
game of 1950.
”Harvey had a meeting with the team,” said Cubs coach Joe Altobelli, then the Baltimore manager and third-base coach for the AL. ”He said: `Go out there and have some fun. This is a game where people come out to enjoy themselves. Don`t worry about the outcome. Just have a good time.` ”
The AL did just that, thanks in part to a third-inning grand slam by eventual MVP Fred Lynn, breaking the all-time All-Star runs scored record in a 13-3 rout.
”Those are the kind of games,” Altobelli said, ”that you wished would last a lot longer.”
Unless, of course, your name was Atlee Hammaker (6 hits, 7 earned runs in two-thirds of an inning).
– – –
Of the 60 previous All-Star Games, five have been in Chicago: the inaugural event at Comiskey in 1933 (a 4-2 AL win), the above-mentioned 1950 and `83 games, and the Wrigley Field games of 1947 (a 2-1 AL win) and `62 (a 9-4 AL win).
Once again at Wrigley, on the evening of July 10, the game that only three years ago served a poker chip in the drawn-out ”No Lights at Wrigley” controversy will finally come to pass.
If the present voting leaders don`t change, two starters from that `83 All-Star Game on the South Side will be starting next week when the North Side takes the national spotlight. One is perennial winner Ozzie Smith of St. Louis. The other is Cub right-fielder Andre Dawson, who was then with Montreal.
Because these games are meant to create lasting memories, you might think Dawson would have some vivid ones of that `83 affair in Comiskey.
”No, I don`t remember anything about that game,” he said.
Nothing at all?
”No. (Pause.) Except that someone stole my jewelry.”
In the locker room?
”Yeah.”
Never mind.
Harvey`s Lou Boudreau, the pride of Thornton High, helped the AL steal a one-run win in the 1947 game at Wrigley. But Boudreau said there was no criminal intent involved.
With a man on third in the top of the ninth, Boudreau made a great play on an infield chopper off the bat of Enos Slaughter, nipping Slaughter at first to seal the win for the AL and earn a hearty handshake in the dugout from AL manager Joe Cronin.
”There was a lot more rivalry between the leagues back then,” said Boudreau. ”We didn`t go out there just to show our ability. That`s the difference of our leagues and the leagues now in modern times.”
– – –
Cub fans should have seen it coming. When the Cubs played host to their first All-Star Game, in 1947, they finished in sixth place, 16 games under .500. In `62, the year of their second game, they wound up in ninth, 44 games under .500. After winning the division title in 1989, all looked rosy as the 1990 All-Star Game loomed on the horizon. Instead, they have struggled near the bottom of the East Division standings.
– – –
Luke Appling sends his regrets to his many fans south of Madison Street. Appling said he probably won`t be able to make it to the 61st All-Star Game.
”My legs are hurting,” the 83-year-old former Sox shortstop said from his Georgia home. ”I tore up both of my knees in old-timers games.”
Nicknamed ”Old Aches and Pains,” Appling scored the AL`s first run in its 2-1 victory in `47. His bat control was, putting it mildly, unbelievable. ”If there was a good pitch that he didn`t want,” wrote New York Times sports columnist Arthur Daley in Appling`s heyday, ”he artistically spoiled it by fouling it off. Statisticians estimated that the club saved $1,400 in baseballs while `Aches and Pains` was recovering from a broken leg.”
More Top Picks Best Vacuums For Pet Hair
It doesn`t seem like so long ago that Appling, at the age of 75, hit a home run in the Cracker Jack Old-Timers game in Washington, D.C.
He shrugged that one off.
”Oh, that was six or seven years ago,” Appling contested, as if to answer the ”What have you done for me lately” crowd.
Appling was asked by AL President Bobby Brown to be an honorary AL coach, but said he bowed out for health reasons. When he made it up for the `83 game at Comiskey, he wowed late Mayor Harold Washington.
”My cup runneth over,” said Washington of his meeting with Appling.
”He was one of my boyhood heroes. And I can tell you after I talked to him for five minutes, I felt 50 years younger.”
Appling`s absence is Chicago`s loss.
”Chicago`s a great town,” said Appling. ”I enjoyed every moment there. Over the years, people have asked me, `Don`t you wish you had played somewhere else where you could have made more money?` I said, `Not necessarily.` ”
– – –
There are many questions to be answered at Wrigley Field next week: Can Jose Canseco hit the Japanese beer sign on Waveland Avenue? If an American Leaguer pokes one into the bleachers, will anyone throw it back? Do Cub fans have to cheer if Darryl Strawberry hits a homer? Will the Shawon-O-Meter be turned back to .000 for the day?
And, lastly, how will the Wrigley fans behave?
Back at the 1933 inaugural ”Game of the Century” at Comiskey, Chicago fans were nothing less than ”the most sportsmanlike crowd ever gathered for such an important event,” according to The Tribune:
”South Siders shouted with approval and glee when some American Leaguer produced a hit or a brilliant bit of fielding. North Siders clamored when the hero was a National Leaguer. . . . Those familiar boos so frequently heard were at a minimum. This crowd of yesterday apparently sensed the occasion as a precursor of more such games to follow in other years and lent its best behavior.”