Arch Ward was a dynamic sports editor who had a vision of baseball's best playing each other in a dream game.

It seemed like a natural, especially back in 1933, when Chicago was scheduled to be the host for the World's Fair. But, Ward had to work very hard to get baseball owners to agree to hold the game on an experimental basis.

As legendary sportswriter Shirley Povich wrote, "Baseball's club owners stumbled into the all-star game business 60 years ago. It wasn't their idea at all. They were dragged into it, kicking and screaming, by Arch Ward, the powerful sports editor of the Chicago Tribune.

"Ward and his newspaper concocted the idea of a major league all-star game as an added facet of that city's 1933 World's Fair that might best be known otherwise for Sally Rand's fan dance.

"The tradition-encrusted owners were squeamish about interrupting their baseball schedule in mid-summer to try something that had never been tried before. An unbroken season was regarded as sacred. Reluctantly, they buckled and consented to play the game, but on a one-year basis only. Appease Chicago and get it done with.

"However, when New York, as the host of its own 1934 World's Fair, demanded the same treatment, the owners saw the advantages of baseball in a new national spotlight, and renewed the all-star game. So popular, so celebrated were the first two games that the owners could not turn their back on it."

It's no wonder why the mid-summer classic went over so well. Future Hall of Famers packed the rosters of the teams for the first game at Comiskey Park in 1933.

For the National League, the Giants' John McGraw served as manager. Pepper Martin, Frankie Frisch, Bill Terry, Carl Hubbell, Gabby Hartnett and Chuck Klein were just some of the stars for the NL.

In the American League dugout, you had Connie Mack as manager and Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons as players.

You also had the man most of the fans, and even many of the players, had come most to see - Babe Ruth.

"We wanted to see the Babe," said NL starting pitcher "Wild Bill" Hallahan. "Sure, he was old, and had a big waistline, but that didn't make any difference. We were on the same field as Babe Ruth."

As he did so many times throughout his legendary career, Ruth delivered. His home run in the third inning, with Charlie Gehringer on base, provided the winning margin in the AL's 4-2 win.

The homer - the first in All Star history -- came off Hallahan, who still did not revise his statement of awe about the Bambino.

Ruth, 38, and two years away from retirement, also made a great catch to rob the Reds' Chick Hafey of a possible extra base hit in right field.

The Americans scored their first run in the second, thanks in part to Hallahan, who lived up to his nickname with five walks. Ruth took Hallahan deep, just inside the right field foul pole, for a 3-0 AL lead in the third inning.

Frisch countered for the NL with a two-run homer in the top of the sixth off General Crowder for a 3-2 score. But, the Americans added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth and shut down the Nationals the rest of the way, in part because of the efforts of Lefty Grove, who pitched in relief.

Another Lefty - Lefty Gomez - earned the win. Ruth and Jimmy Dykes had two hits each for the AL. Frisch and Terry had two hits each for the NL.

Attendance figures differ, according to sources. One put the crowd at 47,595. Another set it at 49,200. Suffice it to say, the first All Star Game was a big success - in attendance and performance on the field.

The second game, at the Polo Grounds in 1934, was just as much a success. New York, host of the World's Fair that year, could not be out-done by its Midwest rival city.

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Ironically, a game that ended 9-7, in the Americans' favor will always be known best for a pitching feat by the NL starter.

Lefthander Carl Hubbell, who started the game by letting the first couple batters reach base, struck out Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Simmons and Joe Cronin in succession.

"I could play second base for 15 more years behind that guy," Frisch said of Hubbell. "He doesn't need any help."

The Nationals built a 4-0 lead, but couldn't hold it once Hubbell left the contest. The Americans scored two in the fourth and exploded for six runs in the fifth to go on to the 9-7 win.

Frisch, who also homered in the 1933 game, hit another for the NL. Joe Medwick also homered for the NL.

Van Mungo, a pitcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers, took the majority of the punishment from the AL. Simmons had three hits to lead the winners. Ruth, the hero of the first All Star game, went 0 for 2. He would retire a year later.

Of the 18 starters in the game, only the Braves' Wally Berger did not make the Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, a MVP of the game was not selected until 1962. Ruth and Hubbell would likely have earned the honor in the first two games.

Certainly, the All Star Game was well on its way to becoming the midsummer classic after the first two games, in the two biggest cities in the country.

Gregg Hoffmann is a veteran journalist and author of "Down in the Valley: The History of Milwaukee County Stadium." Hoffmann also is the prime author of "Milwaukee's Mid-summer Dream," from which this story was adapted. That book is available via OnMilwaukee.com and the Milwaukee Brewers. The next All Star edition of the BCR will be posted Thursday and deal with the first ASG in Milwaukee.