1957 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E American League 0 2 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 6 10 0 National League 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 5 9 1
Date	July 9, 1957
Venue	Busch Stadium
City	St. Louis,Missouri
Managers	Casey Stengel (NYY) Walter Alston (BKN)
Attendance	30,693
Ceremonial first pitch	None
Television	NBC
TV announcers	Mel Allen andAl Helfer
Radio	NBC
Radio announcers	Bob Neal andHarry Caray
← 1956 Major League Baseball All-Star Game 1958 →

The1957 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 24th playing of the midseason exhibitionbaseball game between theall-stars of theAmerican League (AL) andNational League (NL), the two leagues comprisingMajor League Baseball. The game was held on July 9, 1957, atBusch Stadium inSt. Louis, Missouri, the home of theSt. Louis Cardinals of the National League. The game was marked by controversy surroundingCincinnati Redlegs fansstuffing the ballot box and electing all but one of their starting position players to the game. The game resulted in the American League defeating the National League 6–5.

Six runs were scored in the final inning, three by each team, for an exciting ending as the American League eked out a 6-5 victory.

The game's scoring began in the second inning with aMickey Mantle single,Ted Williams walk andVic Wertz base hit, followed by walks toYogi Berra andHarvey Kuenn that put the AL on top, 2-0. The score remained that way until the sixth, when aMoose Skowron double and Berra single made it 3-0.

Scoring twice in the seventh, the NL closed the gap with a two-run double byGus Bell, pinch-hitting forFrank Robinson. In the ninth, the AL appeared to seal the victory with a two-run double byAl Kaline and RBI double byMinnie Miñoso for a 6-2 advantage.

Stan Musial walked andWillie Mays tripled to begin the bottom of the ninth. AfterErnie Banks delivered a run-scoring single, with its lead trimmed to 6-5, the AL brought inBob Grim to face pinch-hitterGil Hodges, who lined out to left field to end the game.

When fan voting to determine the game's starters was completed, no fewer than sevenCincinnati Redlegs players (Ed Bailey,Johnny Temple,Roy McMillan,Don Hoak,Frank Robinson,Gus Bell andWally Post) had been elected to start in the All-Star Game, a record that still stands. The only non-Redleg elected for the National League wasSt. Louis Cardinal first basemanStan Musial, who had only narrowly beaten his Reds counterpartGeorge Crowe. Although Cincinnati had the second-best offense in the majors (they would score 747 runs that year, surpassed only byMilwaukee), most baseball observers felt they obviously did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game.

An investigation was launched byCommissionerFord Frick, which found that the majority of the ballots cast had come from Cincinnati; in fact,The Cincinnati Times-Star newspaper had printed up pre-marked ballots with the Cincinnati starting lineup on them, and distributed them with each day's paper to make it easy for Redlegs fans to vote often for their favorite players.^[1] Meanwhile,Burger Beer, a Redlegs sponsor, had printed 250,000 similar ballots and distributed them to local bars, and stories emerged of bartenders refusing to serve alcohol to customers until they filled out a ballot.

Subsequently, Frick suspended fans' voting rights, and appointedWillie Mays of theNew York Giants andHank Aaron of theMilwaukee Braves to substitute for Bell and Post. Bell was kept as a reserve (he would bat for Redlegs teammate Robinson in the seventh and slap a two-RBI double), while Post was injured and would have been unable to play in any event. Hoak and McMillan were each dismissed from the game after a single at-bat, in favor of futureHall of FamersEddie Mathews andErnie Banks, respectively. Temple batted twice before giving way to another future Cooperstown resident,Red Schoendienst. (Bailey caught the whole game, but was pinch-hit for in the bottom of the ninth.)

Managers, players, and coaches picked the teams until fan voting rights were restored in 1970. To avoid a repeat of this incident, MLB officials evenly distributed the 26 million ballots for that year to 75,000 retail outlets and 150 minor and major league stadiums, while a special panel was also created to review the voting.

Despite these (and other subsequent) measures, teams and media outlets still tell fans to vote for their favorite players instead of the best players; while the voting for the All-Star Game has remained a popularity contest, it is to a lesser extent than in 1957.

Players initalics have since been inducted into theNational Baseball Hall of Fame.

• Baseball Almanac

• Major League Baseball All-Star Game
• 1957 Major League Baseball season
• Baseball competitions in St. Louis
• Major League Baseball controversies
• 1957 in sports in Missouri
• July 1957 sports events in the United States
• 1950s in St. Louis

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from November 2013