It happened in the 1934 All Star Game.
Here’s a brief synopsis of one of baseball history’s most legendary moments. Enjoy. We never know if or when something this big is ever going to happen again. And sometimes, as is the case here, we had to wait a number of years to fully appreciate the greatness of Carl Hubbell’s accomplishment on this particular day. We would be reminded six times. Once for the time that Carl Hubbell entered the house of the baseball gods at Cooperstown, and five other times for each of the other future Hall of Famers who joined him in this milestone day as failed resistant participants at the second All Star Game in 1934.
I have to add this personal note. When Carl Hubbell died at age 85 in 1988 in a Greater Phoenix area traffic accident, I was really taken back by the very thought of it. – Is that any way for one of the greats of our game to go out? Yeah, I know. Our baseball “gods” are really as mortal as the rest of us. I only wished it could have been a gentler launch for old Carl. He deserved something better than a t-bone hit propulsion into eternity.
That’s. OK. We love him anyway. And his memory always will be connected more to dates in the 1930s than it ever will be to anything that happened in 1988.
Here’s the story account:
Top of the 1st, AL Batting, Carl Hubbell Pitching for the NL. No Score, Game Starting
# 1) Charlie Gehringer of Detroit opens the game with a single to center; he advances to 2nd base on the same play when an E-8 mishandling of the ball by center fielder Wally Berger of the Reds makes it possible.
# 2) Heinie Manush of the Senators then coaxes a walk to place runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs – and things not looking good for Hubbell of the Giants and the NL.
# 3) Lightning strikes the 1st time. Hubbell screwballs Babe Ruth into a strikeout for his first K of the day.
# 4) Gehringer and Manush pull off a double steal to 3rd and 2nd during Lou Gehrig’s time at bat, but Hubbell then derails “The Iron Horse” with his second consecutive K of a future HOF god.
# 5) Hubbell retires the side with no harm done by striking out Jimmie Foxx of the Athletics for his 3rd straight K-kill of a baseball immortal. (Wait a minute! How do you kill an immortal?)
Inning Tab: 0 runs, 1 hit, 1 error, 2 LOB. Score: AL All-Stars 0, NL All-Stars 0.
Bottom of the 1st, NL Batting, Lefty Gomez Pitching for the AL, Score 0-0
# 1) Gomez of the Yankees gives up a HR to deep RF by Frankie Frisch of the Cardinals; NL Leads, 1-0.
# 2) Pie Traynor of the Pirates grounds out 4-3 for the first out.
# 3) Gomez fans Joe Medwick of the Cardinals for out # 2.
# 4) Kiki Cuyler of the Cubs grounds out 6-3 to retire the side.
Inning Tab: 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 LOB. Score: AL All-Stars 0, NL All-Stars 1.
Top of the 2nd, AL Batting, Carl Hubbell Pitching for the NL, NL All Stars Leading, 1-0.
# 1) Hubbell strikes out Al Simmons of the A’s; his 4th straight K of a future Hall of Famer in this game.
# 2) Hubbell fans Joe Cronin of Washington for his 5th and final Hall of Famer in a row – and out 2 in the inning.
# 3) Bill Dickey singles, saying “no thanks” to the idea of becoming the 6th future Hall of Famer to fall before the Hubbell screwball on this day in baseball history.
# 4) Hubbell strikes out mound rival Lefty Gomez to retire the side. Gomez technically is the 6th future Hall of Famer in total to be fanned by Hubbell today, but Lefty didn’t get there as a hitter, so it hardly counts and, besides, it wasn’t connected with the first five, anyway.
Inning Tab: 0 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 LOB. Score: AL All-Stars 0, NL All-Stars 1.
Hubbell Summary
Carl Hubbell would leave the game for a pinch hitter to start the bottom of the 3rd with a 1-0 lead and no real damage to him on the day. He gave no runs and 2 hits in 3 innings, striking out 6 and walking 2. The NL would a 3-spot to their 1-0 lead in Hubbell’s inning of departure, but it would not hold up over time. The AL would go on to win the game by 9-7, but the final score would not be what history remembered about this day. Even though he wasn’t involved in the final decision, Carl Hubbell would be remembered as the pitcher who once struck out Babe Ruth and four other future great Hall of Fame hitters in a row in the 1934 second game contest in All Star Game history.
Here’s a link to an enjoyable page of facts and stats about the memorable Hubbell game:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/allstar/1934-allstar-game.shtml
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Bill McCurdy
Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher
The Pecan Park Eagle
The Pecan Park Eagle 
July 12, 2017 at 5:37 am |
Can’t forget, as I was there, that Fernando Valenzuela tied Hubbell’s All Star record of 5 straight strikeouts in the 1986 game played at the Astrodome. At 21 years of age he followed starter Dwight Gooden and struck out reigning MVP Don Mattingly, Cal Ripken Jr, and Jesse Barfield to end the fourth, Then in the fifth he got Lou Whitaker looking and fanned pitcher Teddy Higuera swinging. Kirby Puckett then grounded out to end the inning.
Not quite the impressive list of HOF hitters but still an impressive feat none the less. Fernando went on to lead the league with 20 complete games that season. Yes, twenty! Gives you an idea of how much the game has changed in the last 30 years. He was a career 51-17 with a 2.17 lifetime ERA in 84 starts at the All Star break that year and still just 21.years old.