July 11, 1950: Red Calls His All Star Shot

     On July 11, 1950, Red Schoendienst led the National League to a 4-3 victory , with a 14th inning blast that sailed into the upper deck of the left field stands at at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Enos Slaughter also represented the Redbirds in the contest, and drove in the first run of the game with a second inning triple that brought Jackie Robinson into score. Slaughter then scored himself after Hank Sauer from the Chicago Cubs knocked him in with a sac fly. The American Leaguers cut the 2-0 lead in half with a run in the third, then took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on an RBI by Ted Williams. The game sailed into the ninth with the American League on top, however, Pittsburgh's Ralph Kiner led the inning off with a solo shot that would eventually send the game into extra innings. It was the first time in the history of the midsummer classic the game would go into overtime. With the score still knotted up in the 14th, Red started telling former teammate Walker Cooper that he was going to park one in the upper deck. More or less joking when he said it, Schoendienst was not known for his power, in fact he hit just seven home runs during that whole season, but on that day that joke became a reality, as Ted Gray of the Detroit Tigers served up the ball that Red was looking for, and with one swing of the stick he became an All Star hero.

Other than Schoendienst and Slaughter, Marty Marion and Stan Musial represented the Cardinals at the All Star game in 1950. If you would like to check out the roster of greats check this out: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/asgbox/yr1950as.shtml

Check out the box score here: http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ALS/ALS195007110.shtml

Note: the baseball almanac link also provides a box score, but baseball reference is far more detailed.