Addie Joss All-Star Game

On July 24, 1911, the first ‘all-star game’ in Major League history took place. While not recognized as an official all-star game by Major League Baseball, the game was one of the first of its kind and featured the American League all-stars against the Cleveland Naps in a benefit game for the fallen Addie Joss.

It was hard to fathom. Eleven days earlier, on the 3rd of April, the Cleveland Naps took the field for warm-ups before a scheduled exhibition game against the Chattanooga Lookouts. Cleveland star pitcher, Addie Joss, sought out an old friend of his, Chattanooga shortstop Rudy Hulswitt. While catching up with Hulswitt, Joss fainted and he was later returned to his doctor in Toledo. Now, eleven days later, baseball players and fans awoke to the news that Joss had died from tubercular meningitis, only two days after his 31st birthday.

Joss’ funeral was held on April 17th in Toledo. The funeral fell in the midst of a three game series in Detroit against the Tigers. Originally, American League president Ban Johnson ordered the Naps to play their scheduled game but after Cleveland captain George Stovall threaten to strike if Johnson didn’t postpone the game, the president relented and postponed the game. Around 11 o’clock, all twenty-five members of the Naps as well as a handful of Tiger players, arrived in Toledo for the funeral of Adrian C. Joss.

The fact that members of the opposition arrived at his funeral showed how high Joss’ character was perceived around the league. After receiving the news he passed away, Stovall said, No better man lived than Addie. Added Napoleon Lajole, In Joss’s death, baseball loses one of the best pitchers and men that has ever been identified with the game.

Shortly after the funeral, members of the Cleveland club decided to organize a benefit game for Joss’ widow, Lillian, and their two children. Players and coaches off the Naps began recruiting players off the other seven American League teams to form the opposition team that would play the Naps, July 24th in Cleveland. Jimmy McAleer, manager of the Washington Senators, gladly volunteered to lead the all-star team on the field as the skipper. He said of Joss, “The memory of Addie Joss is sacred to every one with whom he ever came in contact. The man never wore a uniform who was a greater credit to the sport than he.”

15,270 fans stuffed inside Cleveland’s League Park to watch one of the greatest ensembles of talent ever to play on the same baseball field. One of those spectators was eighteen-year old George Sisler, who had traveled to Cleveland to visit his uncle and take in his first major league baseball game. Four years later, Sisler would make the St. Louis Browns and begin a career that would eventually land him in the Hall of Fame. He said of the game: “When I saw those great players, the first big leaguers I ever had seen, I made up my mind I was going to be a big league player and, I might confess, I wanted to be on the Cleveland team.”

The talent on the all-star club was amazing and that was due to Joss’ popularity around the league. When asked if he would attend the contest by his Washington manager McAleer, star pitcher Walter Johnson replied, “I’ll do anything they want for Addie Joss’ family.” That sentiment was echoed across the league.

"It seemed as if every player in the league were anxious to show how much he loved Joss by doing something to help in making the day a success. If all the volunteers who offered their services for the Joss day could have been accepted we would have had enough players to furnish several teams. It merely went to show how universally Addie was esteemed by his fellow players. To every one who took part in Addie Joss day, whether in the spectacular role of player or the more humble province of mere spectator, must come the satisfaction of knowing that he has done his part however obscure in bringing about the day when baseball shall not be selfish nor grasping in any sense, but kind and generous and beneficent as becomes the favorite pastime of the most generous people in the world." - Cleveland Secretary E.S. Barnard (AP Wire, 07/1911)
Addie Joss

Addie Joss Benefit Game | Research by Tim Zieroth

The New York Times (July 1911)
1911 Addie Joss All-Star Game
The New York Times (July 1911)

Addie Joss Benefit Game | Historical Baseball Articles



In 2005 a panoramic photograph from the 1911 Joss Benefit game was auctioned for a massive $89,625.00. It stands as the record price paid for an unsigned sports photograph and it had actually once belonged to Frank "Home Run" Baker.

Addie Joss was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1978. Did you know he was the only player in the Hall of Fame to have the ten year rule of service waived?

Addie Joss All-Star Game Treasurer's Report

Bizarre baseball trivia alert: Ty Cobb actually wore a Cleveland uniform during the 1911 Addie Joss Benefit Game as his Detroit Tigers unifom was lost in transit!

     

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