With all the recent commentary surrounding the recent MLB All Star team voting and selections, BBRT thought it might be time to focus on a topic more likely to generate consensus – the best hitting and pitching performances ever in an All Star game, and some of the targets the players who take the field at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park on Tuesday July 14 can shoot for. For a look at BBRT’s 2015 All Star ballot, click here.
Now, I’s sure there are those that would maintain the selecting the greatest-ever All Star Game performances form the batter’s box and the pitching mound might be a matter for considerable debate. But, hear (read) me out and I believe we’ll be able to agree.
Best All Star Game Performance – from the Batter’s Box
Ted Williams, Boston Red Sox, 1946
When home-town hero Ted Williams trotted out to left field at Fenway Park on July 9, 1946, Boston fans could not have imagined what kind of day The Splendid Splinter had in store for them – and for the four National League pitchers he would face that day. Expectations, however, were pretty high. Williams came into the game hitting .347, with 23 home runs, 82 runs scored and 71 RBI in 79 regular season games. Compared to the day he was about to have that would look like a slump. Here’s how Williams’ day went.
In the first inning, batting third and facing the Cubs’ Claude Passeau, Williams drew a walk and then scored on a home run by the Yankees’ Charlie Keller.
In the bottom of the fourth, leading off against new NL hurler Kirby Higbe of the Dodgers, Williams homered to give the AL a 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, with Higbe still in the game, Teddy Ballgame came up again – this time with one out the Senators’ Stan Spence on third and the Browns’ Vern Stephens on second. This time, Williams delivered a run-scoring single.
In the bottom of the seventh, this time facing the Reds’ Ewell Blackwell with none on and two out, Williams singled again.
Finally, in the bottom of the eighth – facing the Pirates’ Rip Sewell and his Ephus pitch – with Stephens and the Browns’ Jack Kramer on base, William capped of his day with a three-run homer.
The AL won 12-0 that’s day – and Williams’ final tally was: four-for-four, plus a walk, two home runs, four runs scored and five runs driven in. In the process, Williams set or tied the following All Star Game single-game records: runs scored (four – Williams still stands alone); total bases (ten – Williams stands alone); runs batted in (five – later, 1954, tied by the Indians’ Al Rosen); base hits (four – tying the Cardinals’ Ducky Medwick, 1937, and later matched by the Red Sox’ Carl Yastrzemski, 1970); home runs (two – tied, in 1954, by the Indians Al Rosen).
Want a topper to clinch this as the best-ever All Star Game hitting performance? Williams was coming off three years away from big league pitching (1943-45), serving in the Marine Corps.
Best All Star Game Performance Ever – On the Mound
Carl Hubbell, New York Giants, 1934
In just the second-ever All Star Game, Giants’ southpaw Carl Hubbell turned in a pitching performance for the ages – arguably the best ever in All Star competition. Hubbell, on his way to a 21-win season (the second of five straight 20+ win campaigns) , came into the game with a 12-5, 2.76 ERA regular-season stat line. Hubell had struck out 58 hitters in 156 1/3 innings pitched to that point, but he was about to make the strikeout a much bigger part of his game.
The game was played on July 10, 1934 at New York’s Polo Grounds – with screwball-specialist Hubbell starting for the NL and Yankee Lefty Gomez starting for the AL. Facing an AL line up stacked with some of the game’s greatest hitters, Hubbell got off to a rocky start, giving up a lead-off single to Detroit’s Charlie Gehringer, followed by a walk to the Senators Heinie Manusch. Then the fun began, as Hubbell set down five straight future Hall of Famers – all on strikeouts – the Yankees’ Babe Ruth, Yankees’ Lou Gehrig, and Atheletic’ Jimmie Foxx to close out the first. Then the White Sox’ Al Simmons and Senators’ Joe Cronin to open the second. Hubbell then gave up a single to Yankees’ Bill Dickey, before whiffing Lefty Gomez (who also made the Hall of Fame) to end the inning. After an uneventful third inning – two fly outs, a ground out and walk – Hubbell left the game credited with three scoreless innings, two hits, two walks and six strikeouts – all six future Hall of Famers (although Gomez made it as a pitcher).
Hubbell’s six strikeouts remain the All Star Game single-game record – tied in 1943 by the Reds’ Johnny Vander Meer (2 2/3 innings pitched); 1950 by the Giants’ Larry Jansen (5 innings pitched); and 1967 by the Cubs’ Fergie Jenkins (3 innings pitched). Given the place in history of Hubbell’s six victims, BBRT considers this top (or at least most memorable All Star Game mound performance. Oh yes, the AL won the game 9-7, and how did those strike out victims fare When not facing Hubbell? Against the rest of the NL All Star staff, they went seven-for-sixteen, with four doubles, five runs scored and three RBI.
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Now here, with a much appreciated assist from the stat-packed baseballreference.com, are a few All Star targets for today’s stars to shoot for:
- Innings pitched in a single AS Game: Yankees’ Lefty Gomez – 6 (1935)
- At bats in a single AS Game: Willie Jones, Phillies – 7 (1950)
- Doubles in a single AS Game: two, nine players (Most recently, the Brewers’ Jonathan LeCroy in 2014. No surprise, LeCroy had a league-leading 53 doubles that season.)
- Triples in a single AS Game: Rod Carew, Twins – 2 (1978) – leading off the first and third innings, both off the Giants’ Vida Blue.
- Stolen Bases in a single AS game: Two by five players. (Most recently, the Cubs’ Starlin Castro, 2011.)
How about a few career records:
- AS games played, career: Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial – 24. Note: There is some confusion here since, in some years, there were two All Star games. Aaron holds the record for seasons on an All Star game team (21), and total All Star Game rosters made (25). Mays and Musial each played in 24 AS Games in 20 All Star seasons.
- AS Game hits, career: Willie Mays – 23
- AS Game doubles, career: Dave Winfield – 7
- AS Game triples, career: Willie Mays and Brooks Robinson – 3
- AS Game home runs, career: Stan Musial – 6
- AS Game RBI, career: Ted Williams – 12
- AS Game walks, career: Ted Williams – 11
- AS Game stolen bases, career: Willie Mays – 6
- All Star Game runs scored, career: Willie Mays – 20.
- AS Game wins – Lefty Gomez – 3
- AS Game appearances: Roger Clemens – 10
- AS Games started: Lefty Gomez, Robin Roberts, Don Drysdale – 5
- AS Game saves: Mariano Rivera – 4
- AS Games innings pitched: Don Drysdale – 19 1/3
- As Game strikeouts: Don Drysdale – 19
Note: It’s hard to pick AS Game career leaders in such areas as ERA and batting average. (How many at bats or innings pitched do you use to qualify?) However, here are two BBRT nominations. If you use 20 at bats as a standard, your batting average leader is Charlie Gehringer at .500 (ten-for-twenty in six AS games, plus nine walks). If you use ten innings pitched as a qualifier, only Mel Harder can boast a 0.00 ERA (13 innings).
So, there a look at the All Star Game record book – hope you enjoy the game.
I tweet baseball @DavidBBRT
