The Game For The Fans

The controversy of sitting out the All Star Game

The Game For The Fans

Back in the good old days — back when people actually cared about the All Star Game — there was an annual tradition of controversy surrounding players who refused to participate for whatever reason.

That tradition goes way back. It goes back to the creation of the game itself, in fact.

We tend to overlook this. We like to look back on the past with rose tinted glasses, imagining that things were perfect back in those days, back when everybody played the game for the love of the game or something like that.

Here’s a good example of the discussion they used to have:

From The Pittsburgh Press, June 19, 1949, page 41

That article alone should disabuse you of any notion you may have had of players only playing for the love of the game.

Feller missing the 1948 All Star Game was a big deal, by the way. This comes from The Midsummer Classic: The Complete History of Baseball’s All-Star Game, which is easily the definitive work on the subject:

Page 90

There was also a bit of gamesmanship on the part of the Cincinnati Reds, who urged the American League to fine Feller:

Page 90

While I don’t believe any fine was levied in the end, this does give you an idea of what the mood was at the time.

Interestingly enough, it doesn’t seem that the All Star Game voting for 1948 included pitchers. Here are the final tallies as published by The Chicago Tribune:

From Chicago Tribune, July 7, 1948, page 29

It seems that the pitchers were left up to the manager (or the league itself) to choose. The National League elected to only choose 6 pitchers that year:

From Chicago Tribune, July 8, 1949, page 49

In fact, it seems that it was the league presidents who made the final decision:

From Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1948, page 25

And it wasn’t until July 10th — only 3 days before the game itself — that the Indians announced that Feller wouldn’t play:

From The Plain Dealer (Cleveland), July 11, 1948, pages 1-C and 2-C

The next time you read about greedy players who don’t want to make the fans happy, keep this example in mind.