Vote Early, Vote Often, Vote Redlegs: Cincinnati Fans Dominate the 1957 All-Star Game Balloting

In the run-up to the 2015 All-Star Game, Kansas City Royals fans caused a stir when early rounds of announced vote totals showed a potential American League lineup dominated by their hometown team. Over the course of the remaining weeks of balloting, other fan bases had time to mobilize and counteract the early trends. Though enough votes were cast to keep four Royals in the lineup, the AL starters represented a cross-section of talent from across the league. In 1957 there was not enough time for other fan bases to prevent a lineup dominated by one team. Cincinnati fans submitted a deluge of last-minute votes for their hometown Redlegs that required intervention from baseball’s commissioner and caused fans to lose the ballot for over a decade.

The process for selecting the starting lineups for the All-Star Game had varied since the game’s inception in 1933. Conceived by Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward as a game for the fans, the first several All-Star Games included elements of fan voting with slight changes from year to year. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, suspecting voting irregularities, eliminated fan voting in 1938 and turned over responsibility to the managers. That practice continued until the fan vote returned in 1947, overseen by Ward and the Tribune. After Ward’s death in 1955, Commissioner Ford Frick’s office assumed responsibility for vote tabulation for the 1956 contest when the Tribune declined continued participation.

The rules of the 1957 balloting followed the same process as the 1956 game: The players with the largest number of votes at each position comprised the starting lineup and would play at least three innings. Cincinnati fans had made their preferences known when they voted five Redlegs into the NL starting lineup for the 1956 All-Star Game. Although there was some grumbling about the Redleg-dominated lineup, no changes were made to the voting process. In fact, Frick brushed aside the gripes: “[E]verybody had a chance to vote, so there should be no squawks. Nobody is on the National League team who doesn’t belong on it.”1 Frick confirmed on May 3, 1957, that his office again would handle the vote tabulation with the assistance of radio and television to promote and collect the ballots.

In Cincinnati, the Times-Star newspaper served as the official collector of ballots for forwarding to the commissioner’s office. Despite later complaints about ballot stuffing, there were no rules against the practice. Fans could vote as often as they wanted by writing in their choices for the eight starting positions and signing the ballot. The Times-Star threw itself into active promotion by printing a daily ballot during the voting period. This ballot also listed the names of the Redlegs players and encouraged fans to vote early and often. Additionally, Burger Brewing Company, which sponsored Reds broadcasts, circulated 350,000 ballots to Cincinnati bars and arranged for pickup and return to the Times-Star.2 It became apparent that Cincinnati’s boosterism was atypical, and the approach drew negative reactions. Tommy Holmes of the New York Herald-Tribune wrote, “The fan poll . . . suffers from a varied approach. . . . But in Cincinnati, the newspaper involved is conducting an unabashed and nauseating shill for Cincinnati players.”3

Voting commenced on June 2 for a period scheduled to run until June 27. Early returns showed several Redlegs in the running for starting positions, but there were no indications of what was to come. In fact, Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Lou Smith predicted that, among Redlegs players, only catcher Ed Bailey and left fielder Frank Robinson would win the fan voting.4 Tallies released on June 18 showed five Redlegs either leading or among the leaders at their respective positions. To illustrate the scale of coming surge, St. Louis’s Stan Musial led all NL players at this point with 28,288 votes and the Enquirer printed only the names of those players with at least 3,000 votes.5 Support for first baseman George Crowe, center fielder Gus Bell, and right fielder Wally Post did not clear this meager threshold. Indeed, Bailey and Robinson led at their positions. Shortstop Roy McMillan had a narrow lead over St. Louis’s Alvin Dark and Milwaukee’s Johnny Logan, while second baseman Johnny Temple and third baseman Don Hoak trailed their respective rivals from Milwaukee, Red Schoendienst and Eddie Mathews.

As the deadline approached, these trends appeared to be holding. Results released on June 24 showed that Musial remained the most popular choice among all NL players, with 55,380 votes, and his closest rival in the first-base vote, Brooklyn’s Gil Hodges, polled only 9,141.6 Musial’s support among all major leaguers was exceeded only by the AL’s Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle, with each above 60,000. Among Redlegs players, Bailey and Robinson had clear leads over the competition, but McMillan had fallen behind Dark. Temple trailed Schoendienst by about 11,000 votes and Hoak sat about 9,000 votes behind Mathews.7 Willie Mays and Hank Aaron led by clear margins for the center-field and right-field spots, respectively. Crowe, Bell, and Post were nonfactors in the voting at their positions. If Cincinnati supporters were to engineer a takeover of the NL All-Star team, their efforts were not showing up in the count.

The commissioner’s office noted an increase in voting in the final week of balloting. When the Times-Star reported the count from the Cincinnati area, however, the effects of the Cincinnati campaign proved uniquely overwhelming. The Times-Star telegraphed to Frick’s office figures showing over 500,000 ballots had been collected from the Cincinnati area. A shocked Frick asked NL President Warren Giles to check out the Times-Star’s tabulation operation, and Giles replied with his satisfaction about its accuracy.8 Preliminary figures showed the extent of Cincinnati’s efforts. The Times-Star reported over 465,000 votes for each of Hoak, Temple, McMillan, Bailey, and Robinson.9 Additionally, Bell garnered about 379,000 votes from Cincinnati locals and Post received about 313,000.10 Crowe benefited from a surge of about 220,000 votes, but Reds fans showed some impartiality in casting about 200,000 votes for Musial in the late surge.11 It was not yet clear how these figures factored into the overall count, but it seemed likely that the NL lineup would be overwhelmed by the Cincinnati vote. Frick opined that “it would be terrible for eight Redlegs to be in the starting lineup,”12 and told Giles that the votes would be rebalanced. Frick reasoned, “In an effort to be entirely fair to all fans, and with no reflection on the honesty or sincerity of the Cincinnati poll, a restudy of the ballots has been made on the percentage of ballots cast in all cities.”13

Based on this study, Frick announced changes to the NL lineup on June 28, one day after the deadline and in advance of the original scheduled release on July 1. After consulting with AL President Will Harridge and NL President Giles, Frick decided to act. Without announcing the actual vote totals, Frick assumed an all-Redlegs NL lineup. The commissioner replaced Bell with Mays in center field, Post with Aaron in right field, and Crowe with Musial at first base. The other five Redlegs players maintained their starting positions. Frick argued that those five players were either leading or contending in the balloting before the mass of votes from Cincinnati; thus, they remained in the lineup. Frick deemed Crowe, Bell, and Post too far out of the running nationally before the late surge. “I took this step in an effort to be entirely fair to all fans,” Frick said.14 Co-opting Giles into his decision, Frick added, “The National League, while recognizing this rule, feels that the overbalance of Cincinnati ballots has resulted in the selection of a team which would not be typical of the league.”15

Some Redlegs fans did not appreciate Frick’s rebalancing of the votes. Patrons at the Z-Bar, which collected over 10,000 votes, made an effigy of the commissioner and drove it behind a truck around Cincinnati.16 One fan boasted of his effort, “I voted 800 times, and I worked hard to get the vote in.”17 Another’s comments reflected the politics of the 1950s: “This isn’t Russia and no one man like Frick should make the decisions.”18 A lawsuit was contemplated. Redlegs fan and former high-school baseball coach Harry “Bonny” Washer threatened legal action in federal court. Washer asserted that Frick’s action “was an affront which can’t be taken lightly by any Redleg fan who voted for any of the players summarily dismissed from the All-Star team.”19 Washer dropped the idea of suing Frick the following week largely to avoid embarrassing or distracting the still pennant-chasing Reds.20

As for the Redlegs, their reaction was muted compared with that of some of their fans. General manager Gabe Paul disagreed with Frick’s action, noting, “[t]he votes were cast fairly and the rules were adhered to. If a candidate for public office was elected because the supporters of his rival did not get out the vote, I am sure his election would be considered valid.”21 Together with Reds manager Birdie Tebbetts, he urged for some sort of reward or memento for the dropped players. Tebbetts downplayed the players’ possible disappointment but offered, “I think, however, in all fairness to these boys, that they be named honorary members of the All-Star team.”22 Bell found Mays a worthy substitute, “because he’s had a better year so far than I have … I’m not exactly burned up about being replaced by Willie.”23 NL All-Star and Brooklyn manager Walter Alston later selected Bell as a reserve player. Post reasoned, “I’m not disappointed because I don’t deserve to be there the way I’m hitting.”24 Indeed, Post’s batting average had fallen from .280 on June 1 to .231 by the All-Star break.

When Frick announced the voting results on July 1 in conjunction with naming the AL lineup, the impact of the Cincinnati efforts became clear. Robinson and Bailey received the most votes, 745,689 and 737,851 respectively. These figures were almost triple the number of votes received by the AL’s leading vote recipients, Williams (255,969) and Mantle (253,010). Robinson and Bailey’s figures also swamped their respective runners-up, Wally Moon and Hal Smith, both of St. Louis. Similarly, McMillan, Temple, and Hoak won their races by margins greater than 500,000 after trailing during the final week. Mays and Aaron indeed required Frick’s action to secure starting positions in the game. Bell defeated Mays by 471,295 votes to 302,575 in the center-field race, while Post bested Aaron by the smaller yet decisive margin of 445,457 to 335,918 for the right-field spot. Musial was the only player who did not require Frick’s intervention. With the late Cincinnati tally showing substantial support for the St. Louis first baseman, Musial won the ballot outright with 362,792 votes to Crowe’s 272,655. Crowe may have been the only Redleg to lose his race, but his tally exceeded those of all non-Cincinnati major leaguers except Aaron, Mays, and Musial.

In the actual event, the AL defeated the NL, 6-5, in the July 9 contest at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Even the victorious AL team included a Cincinnati connection. The winning pitcher, Detroit’s Jim Bunning, grew up just outside of Cincinnati in Southgate, Kentucky, and attended Xavier University in Cincinnati. The six Redlegs had a minimal impact on the game, going a collective 3-for-10 with two RBIs. The greatest impact was made by the one Redleg named a reserve, Gus Bell. The center fielder accounted for both RBIs with a double.

Proposals abounded to fix the perceived problems with the existing system of fan voting. Dissatisfaction was not exclusive to the NL as there was also some unhappiness on the AL side about picks being made on the bases of geographical bias and past performance.25 In fact, AL manager Casey Stengel replaced Harvey Kuenn, George Kell, and Vic Wertz promptly after completion of three innings. The league presidents offered different solutions. Harridge argued for having the league managers select the squads, citing its prior use. Giles wanted to maintain the fan vote, and proposed providing an equal number of ballots to each major-league team for distribution in their stadiums. He argued, “Let the fans vote when they visit the ballpark.”26 In response to criticism that such a proposal limited the franchise only to those fans able to attend major-league games in person, Giles modified his suggestion. He proposed printing 1,600,000 punch-card ballots. Each of the 16 clubs would receive 100,000 ballots: 50,000 for ballpark distribution and 50,000 for distribution among minor-league affiliates.27 The estimated $50,000 cost, however, was deemed prohibitive and the proposal was shelved.

Shortly after the All-Star Game, Frick expressed his inclination against continuing a fan vote. He commented that “at this time, it seems to be highly advisable to call at least a moratorium on the fan vote.”28 The commissioner was in no hurry to rush the decision. With franchise moves in the offing, antitrust hearings in Congress, and nascent labor-relations pains, Frick said of the All-Star Game voting issue, “I wish I faced no more serious things in the next three years.”29 He deferred a decision until February 1958, when he confirmed the elimination of fan balloting. Instead, players, coaches, and managers would choose the starters from among the other clubs in their league. Each would be permitted to cast two votes from among their opponents at every position except pitcher; the players with the most votes would start the game and, in a nod to the existing system, play at least three innings. The fans would remain disenfranchised from All-Star Game voting until Commissioner Bowie Kuhn restored the ballot in 1970. Perhaps today’s fans should feel fortunate that there was enough time in 2015 to prevent one team’s fan base from overwhelming the results.

JOHN BAUER resides with his wife and two children in Parkville, Missouri, just outside of Kansas City. By day, he is an attorney specializing in insurance regulatory law and corporate law. By night, he spends many spring and summer evenings cheering for the San Francisco Giants and many fall and winter evenings reading history. He is a past and ongoing contributor to other SABR projects.

Notes

1 Bill Ford, “Change Is Made in All-Star Cast,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 29, 1957: 1.

2 Oscar Ruhl, “Cincy Fans See Red After Ump Frick Calls Out Three,” The Sporting News, July 10, 1957: 15.

3 Lou Smith, “Hacker Peddled; Kelly Possibility as Replacement,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 27, 1957: 31.

4 Lou Smith, “Sport Sparks,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 16, 1957: 61.

5 “Big Battle,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 19, 1957: 35.

6 Cincinnati Enquirer, June 25, 1957: 24.

7 Ibid.

8 Ruhl.

9 Oscar Kahan, “Redleg Vote Deluge to Bring Change in All-Stars’ Selection,” The Sporting News, July 10, 1957: 15.

10 Ibid.

11 Ruhl; Kahan.

12 Ruhl.

13 Ibid.

14 Michael Strauss, “Frick Sidetracks Three Redlegs After Avalanche of Ohio Votes,” New York Times, June 29, 1957: 12.

15 Ibid.

16 “Redleg Fans Rail Against Frick For Vetoing 3 of Their All-Stars,” New York Times, June 30, 1957: 2 (Sports).

17 Ibid.

18 Ibid.

19 “Red Fan Plans Suit in All-Star Hassle,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 1, 1957: 1.

20 “Fan Abandons Suit Against Frick in ‘Interest’ of Redlegs,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 4, 1957: 64.

21 Ruhl.

22 Ford.

23 Lou Smith, “Take Vote From Fans, Many Urge,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 29, 1957: 12.

24 Smith “Take Vote.”

25 Frederick Lieb, “Majors to End Present Plan of Fan Poll on All-Star Picks,” The Sporting News, July 17, 1957: 6.

26 Lou Smith, “Restore Red Trio to All-Star Nine, Paul Urges Frick,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 30, 1957: 53.

27 J.G. Taylor Spink, “‘Keep Fan Voice in Star Picks’ – Giles,” The Sporting News, July 31, 1957: 1.

28 J.G. Taylor Spink, “Frick Favors Player Vote for All-Stars,” The Sporting News, August 7, 1957: 1.

29 Spink, “Frick Favors.”