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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show that runs the basis of history every day of

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Speaker 1: the week. I'm Gabe Lucier, and in this episode, we're

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Speaker 1: looking at the moving story behind the first unofficial All

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Speaker 1: Star Baseball game. It was organized as a tribute to

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Speaker 1: one of the most acclaimed and well liked pitchers in

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Speaker 1: the early days of the sport, future Baseball Hall of Famer,

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Speaker 1: Addie Joss. The day was July twenty fourth, nineteen eleven.

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Speaker 1: An All Star baseball team played a benefit game for

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Speaker 1: the family of fallen pitcher Addie Joss. It was held

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Speaker 1: at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio, and saw Joss's former team,

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Speaker 1: the Cleveland Naps, facing off against a team of star

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Speaker 1: players from just about every other team in the American League.

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Speaker 1: The game succeeded in raising nearly thirteen thousand dollars for

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Speaker 1: Joss's widow and children, and although it wasn't an official

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Speaker 1: Capital Letters All Star game, it was one of the

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Speaker 1: first times that popular players from different professional teams had

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Speaker 1: joined forces on the baseball field. That idea wouldn't catch

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Speaker 1: on in earnest until twenty two years later, when the

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Speaker 1: first official MLB All Star Exhibition Game was held in Chicago.

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Speaker 1: Since then, the All Star Game, also known as the

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Speaker 1: Midsummer Classic, has become a highly anticipated annual event, a

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Speaker 1: baseball tradition whose roots can be traced all the way

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Speaker 1: back to the Addie Joss Benefit Game. Adrian Addie Joss

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Speaker 1: was born in Woodland, Wisconsin, on April twelfth, eighteen eighty.

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Speaker 1: He graduated from the Wayland Academy High School in the

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Speaker 1: nearby town of beaver Dam, and then attended Saint Mary's

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Speaker 1: College in Water on scholarship. During his time there, Joss

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Speaker 1: played on the school's baseball team, which was eventually deemed

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Speaker 1: good enough to tour on the semi pro circuit. Standing

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Speaker 1: six foot three with arms nearly as long as his legs,

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Speaker 1: Jos was given humorous nicknames like the human Hairpin, but

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Speaker 1: no one was laughing when he stepped up to the

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Speaker 1: pitcher's mound. He confounded many a batter with his signature

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Speaker 1: pitching wind up, which involved hiding the ball from view

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Speaker 1: until the last possible second so that the hitter wouldn't

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Speaker 1: quite know where to look. Moves like that earned Joss

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Speaker 1: a reputation as the best amateur pitcher in Wisconsin. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen hundred, he went pro, playing for a minor league

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Speaker 1: team in Ohio called the Toledo mud Hens. Then two

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Speaker 1: years later he was called up to the majors, signing

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Speaker 1: a contract with the Cleveland Broncos. In nineteen oh three,

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Speaker 1: the team changed its name to the Cleveland Naps in

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Speaker 1: a name of second baseman Nap Lajowey, and although that's

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Speaker 1: the last name change that Addie Joss would live to see,

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Speaker 1: the Naps had two more after his passing. The first

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Speaker 1: was in nineteen fifteen, when lajuwe was treated to a

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Speaker 1: different team and the Naps became the Cleveland Indians, and

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Speaker 1: the second was in twenty twenty one, when the team

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Speaker 1: adopted its current name, the Guardians, in response to growing

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Speaker 1: criticism from Native Americans. Addie Joss went on to pitch

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Speaker 1: nine record setting seasons for the Cleveland Naps. He helped

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Speaker 1: win one hundred and sixty games, pitched seven to one hitters,

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Speaker 1: and forty five shutouts. In nineteen oh eight, he even

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Speaker 1: pitched a perfect game in a matchup against the Chicago

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Speaker 1: White Sox with just seventy four pitches he struck out

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Speaker 1: twenty seven batters across the game's nine innings. It was

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Speaker 1: the fourth perfect game ever thrown in the history of

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Speaker 1: Major League Baseball, and as of twenty twenty four, there

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Speaker 1: have only been twenty others since then. Despite these high points,

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Speaker 1: sickness and injury dogged Addie Jos throughout much of his

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Speaker 1: professional career. In nineteen oh three, a high fever forced

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Speaker 1: him to sit out the last month of the season.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen oh four, he contracted malaria, and in nineteen

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Speaker 1: oh five, he injured his back and had to miss

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Speaker 1: several games. These incidents made Jos increasingly worried about how

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Speaker 1: he would support his family once his baseball career inevitably ended.

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Speaker 1: With that in mind, he took a job as a

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Speaker 1: sports columnist for the Toledo Newsbee after the nineteen oh

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Speaker 1: six season. He built quite a following with his writing,

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Speaker 1: and that boost and popularity allowed him to negotiate a

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Speaker 1: higher price with the Naps. He continued to write for

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Speaker 1: several other outlets in the years ahead, and during the

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Speaker 1: nineteen oh eight nineteen oh nine off seasons, he designed

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Speaker 1: a new kind of electric scoreboard, which was later in

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Speaker 1: s all at Cleveland's League Park. Jos's successes in journalism

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Speaker 1: and engineering gave him hope for a future beyond baseball,

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Speaker 1: but sadly that day would never come. Joss attended spring

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Speaker 1: training with the Cleveland Naps before the start of the

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Speaker 1: nineteen eleven season. On April third, he collapsed on the

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Speaker 1: field during an exhibition game against the Chattanooga Lookouts. Then

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Speaker 1: eleven days later, he passed away, two days shy of

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Speaker 1: his thirty first birthday. It turned out that Jos had

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Speaker 1: contracted tubercular meningitis, an infection of the tissues covering the

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Speaker 1: brain and spinal cord. His funeral was held on April

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Speaker 1: seventeenth in his adopted hometown of Toledo, Ohio. His teammates

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Speaker 1: were in the middle of a three game series in

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Speaker 1: Detroit against the Tigers, but when the players heard the

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Speaker 1: grim news, they insisted on postponing the game so that

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Speaker 1: the Naps could pay their respects to Jos and his family.

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Speaker 1: First American League president Van Johnson tried to force the

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Speaker 1: Naps to play anyway, but after Cleveland captain George Stovell

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Speaker 1: threatened to strike, Johnson backed down and the game was

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Speaker 1: postponed on the morning of April seventeenth. All twenty five

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Speaker 1: of Addie Joss's teammates attended the service at the Woodlawn

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Speaker 1: Cemetery in Toledo, and because Jos was such a respected

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Speaker 1: figure in the baseball world, a few Detroit Tigers players

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Speaker 1: attended as well. A short time after the funeral, members

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Speaker 1: of the Cleveland team decided to set up a benefit

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Speaker 1: game for Joss's widow, Lillian, and their two children, Ruth

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Speaker 1: and Norman. Although Major League baseball was still in its infancy,

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Speaker 1: other players had already died before Joss, and a few

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Speaker 1: of them had benefit games played in their honor, but

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Speaker 1: the one for Addie Joss would be different. Instead of

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Speaker 1: having the late players team face off against an established rival,

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Speaker 1: it would feature a composite team made up of all

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Speaker 1: star players from multiple different clubs. The Naps invited players

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Speaker 1: from the seven other American League teams to play against them,

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Speaker 1: and every team except the White Sox and the Highlanders,

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Speaker 1: whose travel schedules prevented their attendance, was represented. Among the

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Speaker 1: talented players who took to the field in Cleveland were

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Speaker 1: nine future Hall of Famers Nap Lajuway, Walter Johnson, Ty Cobb,

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Speaker 1: Tris Speaker, Eddie Collins, Sam Crawford, Bobby Wallace, Cy Young

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Speaker 1: and Frank home run Baker. The game was scheduled for

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Speaker 1: July twenty fourth, nineteen eleven, at Cleveland's League Park. In

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Speaker 1: a touching show of solidarity, the owners of the Cleveland

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Speaker 1: Club leased out the ballpark for free that day, and

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Speaker 1: all of the participants, from the players to the ticket

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Speaker 1: takers to the grounds crew, volunteered to work without pay.

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Speaker 1: The shows of generosity didn't there either. Some players who

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Speaker 1: couldn't attend in person sent donations to the Joss family instead,

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Speaker 1: and others reserved box seats for above value prices and

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Speaker 1: then left them empty for fans to use. In total,

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Speaker 1: fifteen thousand, two hundred and seventy two people attended that day,

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Speaker 1: resulting in a profit of twelve thousand, nine hundred and

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Speaker 1: fourteen dollars, the equivalent of more than four hundred thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars in today's money. It was a life changing sum

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Speaker 1: and every penny of it went to helping the Joss family.

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Speaker 1: As for the game itself, it was a little bit

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Speaker 1: of a letdown. The whole thing lasted just an hour

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Speaker 1: and thirty two minutes, and although the Naps held their own,

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Speaker 1: they couldn't stand up to the combined mite of the

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Speaker 1: All Stars, who wound up walking away with a five

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Speaker 1: to three victory. Afterward, Cleveland Secretary E. S. Bernard issued

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Speaker 1: a heartfelt statement summing up the event. It seemed. He wrote,

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Speaker 1: as if every player in the league were anxious to

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Speaker 1: show how much he loved Jos by doing something to

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Speaker 1: help in making the day a success. If all the

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Speaker 1: volunteers who offered their services for the day could have

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Speaker 1: been accepted, we would have had enough players to furnish

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Speaker 1: several teams. It merely went to show how universally Addie

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Speaker 1: was esteemed by his fellow players. To everyone who took

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Speaker 1: part in Addie Joss Day, whether in the spectacular role

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Speaker 1: of player or the more humble province of mere spectator,

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Speaker 1: must come the satisfaction of knowing that he has done

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Speaker 1: his part, however obscure, in bringing about the day when

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Speaker 1: baseball shall not be selfish nor grasping in any sense,

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Speaker 1: but kind and generous and beneficent, as becomes the favorite

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Speaker 1: pastime of the most generous people in the world. Due

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Speaker 1: to his untimely passing, Addie Joss fell one season short

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Speaker 1: of the ten season eligibility requirement induction into the Baseball

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Speaker 1: Hall of Fame. However, thanks to the petitioning of Jos's

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Speaker 1: descendants and his fans, the Era committees decided to make

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Speaker 1: an exception. In nineteen seventy eight, the ten year rule

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Speaker 1: was waived for the first and only time, and Addie

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Speaker 1: Joss was allowed to take his rightful place in the

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Speaker 1: Baseball Hall of Fame. I'm Gabe blues Gay and hopefully

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Speaker 1: you now know a little more about history today than

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Speaker 1: you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with

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Speaker 1: the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and

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Speaker 1: Instagram at TDI HC Show, and if you have any

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Speaker 1: comments or suggestions, feel free to send him my way

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Speaker 1: by writing to this Day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks

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Speaker 1: to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks to

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Speaker 1: you for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow

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Speaker 1: for another day in History class the Picter Picter Pick

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Speaker 1: the per