East-West Game

The All-Star Game of the Negro Leagues, the East-West Game was first played in 1933, inspired by Arch Ward. The contests were held annually through 1962. As there was usually a midwestern Negro League and an eastern one, the east-west breakdown was a logical way to divide teams in a fairly even manner. The East-West Game was the most prominent match-up in the Negro League schedules. During the 1930s, players from teams that were playing independently of league structure were voted to starting squads. The game was created when Negro League talent was thought to be at or near major league level, and continued well into the period when only a handful of barnstorming teams played at a minor league level. The end of the East-West game is generally considered to also mark the death of the Negro Leagues.

Thirty-six games were played in the 30 consecutive seasons that the game was active. Twenty-eight games were played at Chicago's Comiskey Park, four at New York's Yankee Stadium, while one each were played at the Polo Grounds, Washington's Griffith Stadium, Cleveland's Municipal Stadium and Kansas City's Municipal Stadium. Some of the East-West Games held outside of Comiskey Park were not consistently referred to in the media as the East-West Game - for instance, the eastern matches from 1946-1948 were officially called "Dream Game"s though some referred to them as East-West Games.

Results

Year	Site	Winner	Score	Loser	Winning Pitcher	Losing Pitcher
1933	Comiskey Park	West	11 - 7	East	Bill Foster	Sam Streeter
1934	Comiskey Park	East	1 - 0	West	Satchel Paige	Bill Foster
1935	Comiskey Park	West	11 - 8	East	Sug Cornelius	Martin Dihigo
1936	Comiskey Park	East	10 - 2	West	Leroy Matlock	Sug Cornelius
1937	Comiskey Park	East	7 - 2	West	Barney Morris	Hilton Smith
1938	Comiskey Park	West	5 - 4	East	Hilton Smith	Edsall Walker
1939 1st game	Comiskey Park	West	4 - 2	East	Ted Radcliffe	Roy Partlow
1939 2nd game	Yankee Stadium	East	10 - 2	West	Bill Byrd	Smoky Owens
1940	Comiskey Park	East	11 - 0	West	Henry McHenry	Gene Bremmer
1941	Comiskey Park	East	8 - 3	West	Terris McDuffie	Hilton Smith
1942 1st game	Comiskey Park	East	5 - 2	West	Dave Barnhill	Satchel Paige
1942 2nd game	Municipal Stadium (Cleveland)	East	9 - 2	West	Gene Smith	Gene Bremer
1943	Comiskey Park	West	2 - 1	East	Satchel Paige	Dave Barnhill
1944	Comiskey Park	West	7 - 4	East	Gentry Jessup	Carranza Howard
1945	Comiskey Park	West	9 - 6	East	Verdel Mathis	Tom Glover
1946 1st game	Griffith Stadium	East	6 - 3	West	Bill Byrd	Vibert Clarke
1946 2nd game	Comiskey Park	West	4 - 1	East	Felix Evans	Bill Byrd
1947 1st game	Comiskey Park	West	5 - 2	East	Dan Bankhead	Max Manning
1947 2nd game	Polo Grounds	West	8 - 2	East	Ford Smith	Rufus Lewis
1948 1st game	Comiskey Park	West	3 - 0	East	Bill Powell	Rufus Lewis
1948 2nd game	Yankee Stadium	East	6 - 1	West	Max Manning	Vibert Clarke
1949	Comiskey Park	East	4 - 0	West	Bob Griffith	Gene Richardson
1950	Comiskey Park	West	5 - 3	East	Connie Johnson	Raul Galata
1951	Comiskey Park	East	3 - 1	West	Kelly Searcy	Vibert Clarke
1952	Comiskey Park	West	7 - 3	East	Dick Phillips	Groundhog Thompson
1953	Comiskey Park	West	5 - 1	East	Sam (Buddy) Woods	Willie Gaines
1954	Comiskey Park	West	8 - 4	East	Hank Mason	Andy Carpenter
1955	Comiskey Park	West	2 - 0	East	Isaiah Harris	Jo Misky Cartledge
1956	Comiskey Park	East	11 - 5	West	Willie Harris	"Ace" Robinson
1957	Comiskey Park	West	8 - 5	East	Gene Williams	Joe Elliott
1958 1st game	Comiskey Park	East	4 - 3	West	Willie Smith	Aubrey Grigsby
1958 2nd game	Yankee Stadium	East	6 - 5	West	Willie Harris	Marion Cain
1959	Comiskey Park	West	8 - 7	East	Pete Mumford	James Gilmore
1960	Comiskey Park	West	8 - 4	East	Calvin Grant	Herbert Paymon
1961	Yankee Stadium	West	7 - 1	East	Satchel Paige	Pete Gilliam
1962	Municipal Stadium (Kansas City)	West	5 - 2	East	Sherman Cottingham	Robert Hollaway

Sources and Further Reading

• Chicago Tribune and Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, New York Times, and Kansas City Star for games 1954-1962
• Dan Cichalski: "The story of how the Negro Leagues' East-West All-Star Game came to be", mlb.com, February 6, 2024. [1]
• Larry Lester: Black Baseball's National Showcase, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 2002

Related Sites

• Baseball History Daily article on 1935 East-West Game