Review - The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FEDR, and America at the Crossroads
Author: Randall Sullivan
Rating: 2.75 stars / 5 stars
Favorite Quote: “Babe was younger than FDR by more than a decade, but as Roosevelt emerged into the noon sunshine of his career, Ruth was approaching the twilight of his own.” Sullivan, Randall. The First All-Star Game: Babe Ruth, FDR, and America at the Crossroads. Atlantic Monthly Press, 2026, e-book ed.
Review: Thank you to the Netgalley Platform and the publisher, Atlantic Monthly, for the free e-ARC that I received in exchange for an honest review.
Alright, the premise of this book was fascinating - how the All-Star Game came about because of the specific socio-political and economic conditions that existed at the time. The problem was the execution. There are certain parts that worked really well, but overall it was too long, the thesis was never proven (that the attempted assassination of FDR led to the All-Star Game - a fascinating first line, but unsupported by the rest of the text), and the “focus” of the book - the first All-Star Game - barely made an appearance until a quarter of the way through the book.
Let’s talk about what’s working. Sullivan clearly did his research. He is well-versed in the political landscape of FDR’s time as president as well as the history of baseball. Both are fascinating. And there are some tenuous connections. The author did quite a bit to humanize the different players - sometimes ad nauseum - but largely this book paints a portrait of flawed, hard-working individuals, who, from a variety of backgrounds, landed in the MLB. Even though there was obviously a significant focus on Babe Ruth (as there was at the time), Sullivan made sure to provide full pictures of the other players mentioned as well.
There’s also a bit of humor in the book. (While I don’t encourage physical violent, the passage about kicking umpires was comedic and apparently true for the time.)
But let’s talk about what not’s working - baseball existed during the uncertain times of the 1920s/1930s. That’s true. But at times, trying to connect the history of the country to the history of baseball seemed contrived. From the opening line, readers are led to expect a significant intertwining between the two. The reality is, however, that baseball was a business that operated during this time, as so many other businesses did.
The book was also at times sexist and fatphobic in its descriptions of players and women tied to those players. And even though the offer made a concerted effort to discuss the Negro League, he didn’t follow writing guidelines to refer to players as “Black” rather than using a lowercase “b.”
Overall, I learned a lot reading this book - but most of it wasn’t about the first All-Star Game. So if that’s what you’re looking for - you might want to look elsewhere.
About that Quote: The author very much wanted to root the history of baseball in the shifting dynamics of a country in crisis. Most of these connections were stretched to the edges of credulity (I cannot get over that first line that was frankly misleading), but here was a line that showed the author’s attempt.
FDR remained an important and critical figure in that age of modernity. Babe Ruth, already mythologized, was becoming a legend - but a legend of the past. It was moments like these where the author was the most successful in achieving his goal.
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