# Lou Gehrig and the 1939 All-Star Game **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 7, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380 "2017-06-07T19:31:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/1 "2017-06-07T19:31:46Z")
In the Wikipedia article about Yankee Stadium, it notes that the Stadium hosted the 1939 All-Star Game. The article says that Yankee manager Joe McCarthy, the AL team manager in the game because the Yanks had won the league pennant the previous year, chose Lou Gehrig to play first base for the AL team. Is this not incorrect, because Lou had come to the end of the line the previous April? Why would McCarthy put him in the All-Star Game? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/2 "2017-06-07T19:44:23Z")
Honorary captain for the AL team. He did not play. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/3 "2017-06-07T19:45:24Z")
He was a reserve player in that game. He was a team captain through 1939 but never took to the field after the April 30th game. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/4 "2017-06-07T19:52:06Z")
Thanks…so who did play? ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/5 "2017-06-07T19:54:15Z")
Hank Greenberg, first baseman for the Detroit Tigers. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/6 "2017-06-07T20:04:01Z")
> [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](#): > > Hank Greenberg, first baseman for the Detroit Tigers. Luckily the game wasn’t played on Yom Kippur. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2017, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/7 "2017-06-07T20:36:01Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Luckily the game wasn’t played on Yom Kippur. Now THAT would have been a neat trick! ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2017, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/8 "2017-06-10T21:25:40Z")
The American League had 10 players (excluding pitchers) in reserve and only Myril Hoag got in the game. As a pinch hitter. The National League used a few more players (they lost 3-1) but it wasn’t like today when virtually everyone gets to play ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2017, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/9 "2017-06-10T21:44:51Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > The American League had 10 players (excluding pitchers) in reserve and only Myril Hoag got in the game. As a pinch hitter. The National League used a few more players (they lost 3-1) but it wasn’t like today when virtually everyone gets to play So Joe McCarthy was the Anti-Torre wasn’t he? ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2017, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/10 "2017-06-10T22:22:01Z")
[ul][Here](http://www.baseball-reference.com/allstar/1939-allstar-game.shtml) is the box score.[/ul] [ul][In 1939](http://www.hebcal.com/hebcal/?year=1939&v=1&month=x&yt=G&nh=on&nx=on&vis=on&c=off) Yom Kippur was on September 23.[/ul] [ul][In 1939](http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/?date=1939-10-01) the MLB season ended on Sunday, October 1.[/ul] [ul][Mel Allen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Au4FpvIdc) says on the radio broadcast, at 9:38 onward, that Connie Mack had been scheduled to be the AL manager in honor of the 100th anniversary of baseball, but that Mack was ill (and listening at home to the game) so McCarthy replaced Mack.[/ul] [ul][Also on the radio broadcast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1939_Major_League_Baseball_All-Star_Game), Arch McDonald announces the batting averages as hundreds – “two hundred eighty-eight…three hundred seven…three hundred twenty-six…”. Who, if anyone, does that these days? [/ul] ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/11 "2017-06-11T05:47:50Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > So Joe McCarthy was the Anti-Torre wasn’t he? I read that a few years later McCarthy was again the AL All-Star game manager; stung by taunts that he used the Yankees to win the games, he used not one Yankee eligible for the game–and the AL still won. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lou-gehrig-and-the-1939-all-star-game/788380/12 "2017-06-12T03:19:10Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > I read that a few years later McCarthy was again the AL All-Star game manager; stung by taunts that he used the Yankees to win the games, he used not one Yankee eligible for the game–and the AL still won. Sounds like the 1943 All Star game. Glancing through the box score on baseball-reference I see about seven Yankees on the roster and none appearing in the game