AL won in 1943 without help from Yankees

Bill Center, longtime sportswriter for U-T San Diego, is an employee of the Padres.

In addition to Bob Feller, who enlisted in the Navy the day after Pearl Harbor, he lengthening list of Major League players entering the military included such past All-Stars as Ted Williams, Joe DiMaggio, Larry French, Pete Reiser and Johnny Mize.

But that wasn't the hottest topic as the National and American League All-Stars gathered at Shibe Park in Philadelphia for the first night game in All-Star Game history.

Angered by criticism that he favored his own New York Yankees when filling out the starting lineup in the first six All-Star Games he managed, Joe McCarthy did not play any of the five Yankees on the American League team that defeated the National League 5-3 on July 13, 1943.

It marked the only time in history that a Yankee did not appear in an All-Star Game.

That, however, didn't stop the American League from winning for the eighth time in the 11-season history of the series.

The National League took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Chicago Cubs third baseman Stan Hack and Brooklyn Dodgers second baseman Billy Herman opened the game with back-to-back singles off American League starting pitcher Dutch Leonard of the Washington Senators. Hack scored on a sacrifice fly by St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Stan Musial, who was making the first of his 24 straight All-Star Game appearances.

But the game turned in the bottom of the second when second baseman Bobby Doerr of the Boston Red Sox hit a three-run homer off Mort Cooper after the Cardinals' National League starter had issued back-to-back walks.

The host American League built their lead to 5-1 before Pirates outfielder Vince DiMaggio went to work. DiMaggio entered the game as a pinch-hitter and went 3-for-3 with a triple, a homer and two runs scored.

Hack also had three hits and Herman had two as the National League out-hit the winners 10-8. Doerr and left fielder Dick Wakefield of the Detroit tigers each had two hits for the American League. Wakefield's hits included a RBI double off Cooper, who allowed four runs on four hits in 2 1/3 innings.

Leonard allowed one run on two hits over three innings. Hal Newhouser of the Tigers followed with three scoreless innings.