1943 East-West Game

After dropping six straight East-West Games, the West won the 1943 East-West Game in a 2-1 pitching duel that featured only ten hits and two hits. In a sharp contrast to their nineteen errors in the prior four games, the West played error-free ball. They were matched on that end by the East, though some sportswriters opined that East 3B Howard Easterling did make an error.

The game featured the best crowd in East-West Game history, with 51,723 fans coming to Comiskey Park on August 1. The West got on board in the second when Neil Robinson drew a walk from Dave Barnhill, was bunted over by Buck O'Neil and came home on a hit by Tommy Sampson. In the 4th, Willard Brown singled off Johnny Wright, then stole second. He moved to third on an out. O'Neil grounded to East 1B Buck O'Neil, who threw home, but not in time to get Brown. After that, Wright, Bill Harvey and Leon Day shut out the West the remainder of the contest.

In the meantime, the West pitchers were putting on a display. Satchel Paige fanned four in three shutout innings, giving up just a Josh Gibson walk, then Gread McKinnis pitched three innings with only one hit allowed, a 6th-inning single by Rabbit Martinez. Theolic Smith, back from Mexico for one year, tossed shutout ball in the 7th and 8th, then retired the first two in the 9th. He went 2-2 on Leonard, but Leonard then took him deep to right to make it 2-1. Gibson and Easterling singled and the potential winning run was aboard for the East. Frank Duncan replaced Smith with Porter Moss. Facing pinch-hitter Vic Harris, the East manager, the submarining Moss got a fly to center to end it.

Alec Radcliffe (in his 9th East-West Game, but first in four years) and Ted Radcliffe of Chicago became the first brothers to play for the same team in a East-West Game.