Star of Stars

It was not as unforgettable as Old Pete Alexander's winning strike with the bases loaded in the deciding game of the 1926 World Series. But last week, at the ninth annual All-Star game in Detroit, 55,000 fans saw another classic climax to a classic baseball game.

The All-Star game between picked National and American Leaguers is a mid summer exhibition for charity (this year, for the U.S.O.) and Briggs Stadium last week was cramful of stargazers, toting cameras instead of telescopes, eager for a squint at baseball's shining ones.

They got an eyeful: Cleveland's Wonder Boy Bob Feller (who had already won 16 games this season) fanning four of the nine batters he faced and allowing only one piddling hit in his allotted three innings; Yankee Joe Di Maggio (who had just hit safely in 48 successive league games)* getting a double in the eighth and being driven home by the bat of his little brother Dominic (Red Sox); Pittsburgh's Veteran Arky Vaughan (who had been out of the Pirate lineup for two weeks because of a bruised heel) socking two home runs in two successive innings, both times with a man on base, to put the National Leaguers in front, 5-to-3.

That was the score after the first half of the ninth inning. Only three more outs and the Nationals could crow for the second year in a row. Gaunt, grim Claude Passeau, the Cubs' star righthander, ambled to the mound. The first American popped out. The second, Indian Ken Keltner, rapped a grounder, beat it out for a hit. Yankee Joe Gordon singled cleanly to right field, moving Keltner to second. Washington's Cecil Travis walked on a 3-2 pitch, filling the bases.

Up stepped Di Maggio the Magnificent. Right into a double play he smacked, but was saved when Second Baseman Billy Herman's throw to first was wide. Wow! Fans fanned themselves, counted heads. Keltner had scored. Travis was out. Gordon was on third. Di Mag, grinning like a Cheshire cat, was on first.

Then to bat came gangling Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox' Terrible Ted. Two out, two on. The packed stands were cathedral-still. The count went to two balls and one strike. Then came a fast one, letter-high. Crack! The roof of the right-field stands got an awful bang. Gordon, Di Maggio and Terrible Ted trotted home to snatch the game, 7-to-5, for the Americans.

"Boy. wasn't it a pip?" yelled young Williams, only three years out of the bushes and just conceited enough to know that he has few peers at batting. At the season's halfway point last week, Williams, whose batting swing has been characterized as "loose as a goose," was leading both major leagues with a batting average of .405--48 points better than Di Maggio's.

"Tension?" said Terrible Ted, after being smothered with kisses. "Naw, there ain't no tension for me hitting in the clutch. Why should I tighten up? Jeepers, I'd like to have the bases loaded every time I come up. And say, don't forget, there's some tension on the pitchers too."

*By week's end, Di Maggio had stretched his record-breaking batting streak to 54 games.

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