The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR and America at the Crossroadsby Randall Sullivan (Grove Atlantic Books, 2026).
Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game will be held July 14at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia as part of a nearly weeklong schedule of baseball-related events. The game coincides with the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and Major League Baseball has jumped aboard the celebration with full gusto.
In the days leading up to the All-Star Game there will be two other All-Star themed games, the player draft and the ubiquitous Home Run Derby. The All-Star Game has come quite a distance from its original format and creation by The Chicago Tribune and its sports editor, Arch Ward.
The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR and America at the Crossroads, by Randall Sullivan is the story of that first game, held July 6, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. How Comiskey Park became the venue is an example of the deep attention and detail that Sullivan provides in his historical account. The Tribune lobbied Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis to hold the game in Chicago as part of the 1933 World’s Fair. Once Landis approved, a baseball park needed to be selected. In true Chicago fashion, a coin toss was conducted. In truer Chicago fashion, Ward’s favorite team, the Chicago White Sox won the flip, and Comiskey Park was the site for the game.
In fairness, Comiskey would allow 50,000 fans to attend, while Wrigley Field only seated 35,000. Please recall that in 1933, there were no radio or television broadcasts and no night games.
Were Sullivan’s book simply an account of a baseball game that has now existed for nearly a century, it would be enjoyable for baseball fans. But The First All-Star Game is far more than a book about baseball. This is a book about politics, both national and local. This is a book about a world soon to be facing another world war, as well as a nation and world struggling to rise from the doldrums of economic disaster. Outstanding historical writing often places one event in the context of a larger world. Randall Sullivan has accomplished precisely that task and woven baseball and the world into an enjoyable and provocative historical account.
The story begins with an iconic moment in baseball lore and includes an addendum that I learned for the first time. On Oct. 1, 1932, then-New York Gov. Franklin Roosevelt and Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak sat together in a box at Wrigley Field for Game 3 of the World Series contest between the New York Yankees and the Chicago Cubs. Roosevelt threw out the first ball. The two teams disliked each other, and taunting between the dugouts was heavy.
Soon, one of the most legendary moments in baseball history occurred. In the fifth inning, Babe Ruth hit a massive home run. Even today, 94 years after the home run, baseball fans still debate whether it was “the called shot.” For his part, FDR never weighed in on that debate. He did applaud and laugh as Ruth circled the bases.
Roosevelt’s rise to political power coincided with the rise of Ruth in the world of sports. In the decades of the 1920s and 30s, baseball was still the preeminent American sport. This was the era when baseball was seeking recovery from the scandal of the 1919 World Series. A new baseball commissioner was selected by owners, and the game itself was changed. Home runs became a major element of the game.
Sullivan’s accounts of how commissioner Landis ruled baseball provide valuable context. Those accounts also remind us that Landis kept Major League Baseball for whites only. At the same time, Sullivan includes a great deal of historical information regarding the Negro League and its players, including Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Oscar Charleston. Although Landis and other baseball luminaries kept the leagues segregated, there were many barnstorming games between all-star squads of Major and Negro League players. Ruth played in many, despite the commissioner’s threats of fine or suspension.
Sullivan provides readers with a broad cast of characters, including many politicians and historical figures, in The First All-Star Game. Baseball Hall of Famers Mel Ott, Lefty Grove, Lou Gehrig, Micky Cochrane, Lefty Gomez and Carl Hubbell, just to highlight a few, play prominent roles in the book through extensive biographical essays. Historical figures such as Charles Lindbergh and Chicago Mayor Bill Thompson and several notorious criminal figures of the era also appear. The weaving of these figures into this history offers substantial insight into the role baseball has played in our nation’s history. Baseball may no longer be our national pastime, but its history can never be denied.
Whether you read The First All-Star Game as a lover of baseball or as an American history enthusiast, you are in for a thoughtful and provocative reading journey. What better way to spend your reading time this summer? After all, you can’t watch baseball all the time.
Retired judge Stuart Shiffman of Springfield frequently reviews books on a range of subjects for Illinois Times. His reviews also appear on Bookreporter.com, The American Bar Association Judges Journal and other publications.
This article appears in July 2, 2026.
