Red Stars

Not since 1919, when it was host to the scandalous Black Sox Series, had Cincinnati put on a baseball game to equal last week's sixth annual All-Star game, grown since 1933 from a side show of Chicago's Century of Progress to Baseball's No. 2 event of the year. Cincinnatians from beer-garden waiters to socialites were excited over the game. For among the picked National League players were five Cincinnati Reds, an unprecedented number for the league's perennial tail-enders and a larger representation than that of any other club. Even more unprecedented was the fact that two of them were rookies, and one, 22-year-old Johnny Vander Meer, who had skyrocketed to fame a few weeks earlier when he won two no-hit, no-run games within five days, was to pitch the first three innings.

But young Vander Meer, who proved he was no flash in the pan by continuing his winning streak until he had nine victories in a row, was by last week accustomed to the spotlight. With more poise than many a seasoned oldtimer, he stood up to American League sluggers like Jimmy Foxx, Charley Gehringer, Joe Di Maggio, Joe Cronin, Bill Dickey, faced only ten batters, required only 31 pitches, allowed only one hit (single). With Pitcher Bill Lee of the Cubs, the National Leaguers, who scored a run in the very first inning, continued to humble the highly favored Americans, who had beaten them every year except 1936 and had jocularly referred to them as "minor leaguers." Even when the Americans finally succeeded in getting the bases loaded in the seventh, Tiger Rudy York, homerun specialist, proceeded to strike out. In fact, the American Leaguers, at the last possible moment, just escaped the stigma of being the only team ever to be shut out in an All-Star game. Score: 4-to-1.

While the front office was counting up the gate receipts ($38,000), most of which goes to indigent ballplayers, Cincinnati's townsfolk were heaping praise on the grizzled head of William Boyd McKechnie, mild-mannered manager of the amazing Reds. Not only was Starting Pitcher Vander Meer credited with the victory, but Catcher Ernie Lombardi, rookie First Baseman Frank McCormick and Outfielder Ival Goodman turned in creditable performances.

Most baseballers agree that Bill Mc-Kechnie, 50-year-old Methodist churchman, has done the most astounding managerial job in the major leagues this year. Signed last winter to manage last year's last-place Reds, Bill McKechnie transformed them from a 40-to-1 shot in April to a pennant possibility at midseason. On the Fourth of July, traditional halfway mark in the pennant race, the Reds last week were in fourth place, but were leading the National League in club batting average, had the leading pitcher (Vander Meer), leading batter (Lombardi), leading homerun hitter (Goodman, whose 20 homeruns so far are more than any player in Cincinnati's history ever made in a whole season).

All Ohio was hoping last week for a World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Cleveland Indians, who were leading the American League (in a tie with the New York Yankees) on the Fourth. Level-headed experts, however, still favored the Yankees and Giants to meet in another subway series in New York City next October. If the Reds, who were seven games behind the league-leading Giants last week, should come home in front, Bill McKechnie, who won pennants for the Pirates (1925) and Cardinals (1928) during his 15-year career as big-league manager,* will be the first manager ever to win a pennant in three different cities.

*During that time McKechnie developed six of the 15 other managers now functioning in the major leagues: Charley Grimm, Pie Traynor, Joe Cronin, Frank Frisch, Jim Wilson, Burleigh Grimes.

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