HOW A SINGLE AFTERNOON HELPED
GIVE RISE TO THE MLB ALL-STAR GAME
Available July, 2026
One Day in September
Baseball, Brotherhood, and the Birth of the All-Star Game
Scott D. Reich
Available July, 2026
On a crisp September afternoon in 1917, as the country waged war and the national pastime faced questions about its purpose, baseball paused to reconsider what it stood for. At Fenway Park, the game’s greatest stars—many of them rivals, some near the end of their careers, others just emerging—took the field together in an exhibition played not for standings or championships, but for a colleague who had died, and for a cause larger than the game itself.
Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, Tris Speaker, Walter Johnson, Connie Mack—and more. One newspaper called it “the greatest baseball show on earth.”
What unfolded that day was more than a benefit or a curiosity. It was a moment of recognition—among players, fans, and the sport’s leaders—that baseball could be something more than competition. It could be a shared stage. A public trust. A civic ritual capable of carrying the weight of a nation.
