1933 American League All-Star Team Signed Baseball....

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The first and greatest Junior Circuit squad!

1933 American League All-Star Team Signed Baseball. "We wanted to see the Babe," admitted "Wild Bill" Hallahan, a St. Louis Cardinals pitcher during a period when interleague play was confined to the Fall Classic. "Sure, he was old and had a big waistline, but that didn't make any difference. We were on the same field as Babe Ruth." Though the Bambino's best days were behind him, his peerless skills dulled by age and hard living, it could be argued that his greatest contributions to the sport of baseball came in the closing pages of his playing career. From a "big picture" standpoint, we'd have to assign the 1934 Tour of Japan, which served as a primary catalyst for the game's international growth, the top ranking in this narrative. But the Babe's participation in the very first All-Star Game takes the silver medal, in our estimation.

Dreamt up by sports editor Arch Ward as an exhibition in conjunction with the "Century of Progress" exposition celebrating Chicago's centennial, the inaugural All-Star Game provided thousands of Midwesterners with their first taste of Major League competition, drawing curious families who were making their first pilgrimage to the big city. Many historians consider this event the first salvo in the battle for western expansion of the Major Leagues, a dream that would finally be realized a quarter century later.

Presented for your consideration is one of the very few known team balls from the victorious side in this inaugural All-Star Game, an Official American League (Harridge) sphere bearing seventeen autographs, the bulk of the signers now immortalized in the Baseball Hall of Fame: Ruth, Gehrig, Dickey, Lazzeri, Gehringer, Cronin, Gomez, Simmons, Foxx, Grove, Averill, Rick Ferrell and more. A later Hank Aaron signature is very light on the "American League Ball" stamping. A light coating of shellac has preserved the bulk of the signatures at a 7/10 or superior level. Full LOA from PSA/DNA.