Hubbell Achieved Fame in All-Star Game

Hall of Fame pitcher Carl Hubbell says he never needs a calendar to tell when major league baseball’s All-Star game rolls around each year.

Reporters from around the country call early every July in hopes of getting the 83-year-old Hubbell to reminisce about the 1934 All-Star game and how he struck out five consecutive American League batters--Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin.

“There are some things in baseball that happen that live on forever. I thought this might pass on like everything else, but the news media keeps this alive,” Hubbell said. “It has lingered on . . . and I am proud of it.”

The 6-0, 170-pound Hubbell was known as “King Carl” and the “Meal Ticket” when he pitched for the National League’s New York Giants from 1928-43.

A left-hander with pinpoint control and a wicked screwball, Hubbell compiled a 253-154 record with a 2.97 lifetime earned-run average.

The All-Star Game on July 10, 1934, at New York’s Polo Grounds was the second one ever played “and it was on a trial basis to see if it would keep going,” Hubbell said. “The owners really didn’t want to have it.”

However, Hubbell’s performance caused a national stir and the game caught on. His feat against five future Hall of Famers is now legendary, but not to him.

“I had just turned 25 at the time and I had never played against any of those fellas before and had never even seen them play. I respected every one of them, but I had no fear of any kind,” said Hubbell, who grew up on a cotton and pecan farm in Meeker, Okla., and seldom saw a newspaper. “I knew they had hit home runs off of much better pitchers than me who had better fastballs and curveballs than me, but I didn’t think they had ever seen any screwball pitchers before. I figured I had everything to gain and nothing to lose.”

Hubbell recalled “being a little bit too pumped up and trying too hard” as he gave up a leadoff single to Charlie Gehringer and a walk to Heinie Manush before facing Ruth.

“With two men on and nobody out, you try to strike out the next man and I tried to do that with Ruth and I did (on a called third strike),” Hubbell said. “Then Gehrig comes up and I was trying to get him to hit the ball on the ground somewhere and hope for the double play.”

Gehrig swung and missed at a third strike as the runners executed a double steal. Foxx also went down swinging to end the first inning. Simmons and Cronin both struck out on 1-2 pitches in the second inning before Bill Dickey snapped the string with a single. Lefty Gomez then struck out to end the inning.

“That’s the only time I ever did that in my career -- strike out five in a row. The situation never came up again requiring me to do that,” Hubbell said. “I never tried to strike a batter out unless it was necessary. I had the control and I went right to work on the hitter and tried to get him out on the first pitch or the second pitch. That enabled me to save myself and I think I proved that by pitching in so many extra-inning games.”

Hubbell said his fondest major-league memory was during the 1933 pennant race when he notched an 18-inning, 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals and didn’t walk a batter.

That year, Hubbell won the league’s Most Valuable Player award with a 23-12 record and 1.66 earned run average and had his annual salary raised from $16,000 to $17,500.

He was MVP again in 1936 with a 26-6 record and 2.31 ERA. He retired in 1944, two years before the players’ pension fund started, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1947.

These days, Hubbell lives on Social Security and $600 a month he receives from the San Francisco Giants as a part-time scout and instructor.

The effects of a stroke in 1977 has left his speech slurred. A widower, Hubbell resides in a tiny apartment here where he sits poolside by day listening to ballgames on the radio and spends his nights watching American Legion or minor league baseball games in person.

Years of throwing the screwball has left his left hand sticking out from his side with the palm upturned like a maitre d’ looking for a tip.

“I had calcium deposits in the elbow. But back then, we never had trainers who knew how to take care of an arm,” said Hubbell, who pitched 10 shutouts in 1936 and threw 46 consecutive scoreless innings. “I did an awful lot of pitching. I started every fourth day and I did some short relief in between. Pitchers don’t do that anymore.”

One modern-day pitcher Hubbell said he is keeping tabs on is Boston Red Sox right-hander Roger Clemens, who was 14-0 at one stage this season.

“I was getting a little bit uneasy about that. I’ve got the (major league) record for 24 straight games without a loss. I didn’t know how far he was going to go,” Hubbell said. “But back when I played, they didn’t make so much to-do about things. Right now, any kind of record makes the headlines. Back then, you could do anything in the world and you might not even get a line in the paper about it.”