Detroit Tigers Greatest All-Star Game Memories

As Motor City Bengals editor Matt Pelc noted Thursday, the Detroit Tigers have had 244 players represent them in the oldest, most competitive game of it’s type in all of professional sports.

The All-Star Game was born as a promotion idea. After the boom years of the 1920’s baseball was taking a financial beating from the Great Depression while the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair organizers were searching for an event to help boost attendance.

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Arch Ward, sports editor for the Chicago Tribune proposed a one-time “Game of the Century” featuring the best players the American and National Leagues had to offer. To help boost interest he arranged for fans to vote for each league’s representatives.

Of the 18 players on each roster, eight National and 12 American League players, seven in their starting lineup, were eventually inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The game was played on July 6 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. The American League won 4-2 with a two-run home run by Babe Ruth as the game’s highlight. The game was so popular that it was played again in 1934 and has served as the symbolic halfway point of the baseball season ever since.

Now it’s time to enjoy how the Tigers have enriched the history of the Midsummer Classic.

Next: The First In a Long Line