The Pecan Park Eagle

Red Schoendienst and Bill McCurdy (L)
Cardinals Club Suite
Busch Stadium II
May 1998

In that limited time I had with Red Schoendienst

In the limited time I had with Red Schoendienst in the Cardinals Suite back in 1998, I was able to tell him how his 14th inning NL game-winning home run in the 14th inning back in the 1950 All Star Game made our entire little Houston sandlot team happy. Red answered my news with a patient smile and a two-pat light slap on the shoulder. All I needed to hear could be seen in the sincerity of the man’s eyes.

That 1950 All Star Game, which we could only “watch” over the radio in Houston during those pre-television days, kept us tied to our home radios for most of the afternoon. And when it was done, we all had some welcome steam to play us away into the darkness of a later than usual stopping point.

The 1950 All-Star Game

(Excerpted precisely from Baseball Almanac.Com)

As the All-Star game entered its third decade, the National League was tired of being baseball’s perennial loser. Trailing 12-4 in All-Star Games and losing the three previous World Series, the National League did not have the fans or American League players respect anymore.

Inspired by their poor showing in the previous decades, the National League resolved to make this year different. The 1950 All-Star Game turned out to be the first to go into extra innings, featured two dramatic home runs and produced some of the finest All-Star pitching ever. As usual, the American League was leading (3-2) in the top of the ninth. Then, Ralph Kiner led off with a long home run that tied the score and set the stage for a three-inning pitchers’ duel.

Larry Jansen pitched for the National League into the eleventh inning while giving up one hit in five innings. Allie Reynolds matched him, taking the American League into the twelfth and giving up one hit over three innings. Pitcher Ted Gray took over for the American League in the thirteenth and maintained the status quo. In the fourteenth, however, the National League fired another leadoff rocket off the bat of Red Schoendienst. He was an unlikely hero as he had sat for ten innings while Jackie Robinson played second. Entering the game defensively in the eleventh, Schoendienst stepped up in the fourteenth and homered into the left-field stands. Even more disheartening was the American League loss of Ted Williams. While making a running catch of a Kiner drive in the first inning, he ran into the wall and broke his elbow. He stayed in the game, visibly injured, and went one-for-four. Later he underwent surgery and didn’t play again until September 15. The National League had gone the distance and made a statement. Finally, they had established a momentum that would last for several years.

1950 All-Star Game 1950 All-Star Game Official Program
1950 All-Star Game Fast Facts
Game Number	17
Date / Box Score	07-11-1950
Location	Comiskey Park
Attendance (Rank)	46,127
1st Pitch	Connie Mack
M.V.P. Award	Not Awarded Until 1962
League Items	A.L.	N.L.
Starting Pitchers	Vic Raschi	Robin Roberts
Managers	Casey Stengel	Burt Shotton
Coaches	Frankie Crosetti	Jake Pitler
	Bill Dickey	Milt Stock
1950 All-Star Game Fast Facts

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Houston Baseball Affinity History Notes

15-16 years later, NL right hander Robin Roberts would start and win 8 games for the 1965-66 Houston Astros. … NL shortstop Marty Marion would earlier serve as principal owner and President of the last group to own and run the minor league Houston Buffs from 1959 to 1961 over the last three years prior to the city’s emergence as a 1962 NL expansion club.

The Schoendienst eventual game-winning homer in the top of the 14th at Comiskey Park during the afternoon of the 1950 All Star Game gave the spirit of the Pecan Park Eagles an extra boost as we went into afternoon sandlot competition a little later than usual.

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle

Tags: Hero of the 1950 All Star Game

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