King Carl's five K's an All-Star gem

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All-Star Memories

With the All-Star Game coming to Seattle, the Seattle Times begins a weekly look at memorable moments from the mid-summer classic, leading up to the 72nd game July 10 at Safeco Field.

Today: New York Giants ace Carl Hubbell strikes out, in order, future Hall of Famers Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in 1934.

Certain moments are frozen in baseball history, requiring only a shorthand reference to be conjured up in full glory, every nuance still fresh from untold retellings.

Babe Ruth's called shot. Willie Mays' catch. Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard Round the World. Don Larsen's perfect game.

The All-Star Game has certainly provide its share of signature moments - far more than any other sport's All-Star Game - from the Pete Rose-Ray Fosse collision to Reggie Jackson's light-tower home run at Tiger Stadium.

But one All-Star achievement, now nearly 70 years old, still shines brightest - Carl Hubbell's strikeouts in 1934.

Using his new-fangled screwball, Hubbell befuddled some of the greatest hitters in baseball history. Pitching in front of his home fans at the Polo Grounds in New York in the second All-Star Game, the New York Giants' left-handed ace struck out, in succession, five future Hall of Famers: Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin, in the first two innings.

Though the National League went on to lose the game, 9-7, Hubbell's achievement has become legendary. Many in baseball had been reluctant to endorse the All-Star concept when it had been proposed by Chicago newspaperman Arch Ward, fearing it would detract from the World Series. Hubbell's feat gave the event an identity and a pulse - one he sent racing.

"The moment speaks for itself," said Jim Gates, librarian at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. "The pitcher comes in and just wipes out the side - probably the best group of hitters, back-to-back-to-back, and he got them all. I think it helped draw attention to the game. Establishing the game itself as a legitimate entity was not a problem, because baseball was king. There were no competing sports at the time. But Hubbell gave them something to talk about."

Before the game, Hubbell had accepted his trophy as the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1933, when he went 23-12 and pitched the Giants to the NL pennant. He actually started the game slowly, giving up a single to Charlie Gehringer and a walk to Heinie Manush before fanning Ruth, who at age 39 was playing his final season with the Yankees.

According to one report, Ruth looked "decidedly puzzled" by the trick pitch of King Carl, as he was known.

Teammate Gehrig, who would win the AL batting title that year with his .363 average and lead the league with 46 home runs, went down swinging at a screwball around his shoetops. As he returned to the dugout, Gehrig told Foxx, who would hit 44 home runs that year, "You might as well cut. It won't get any higher."

Foxx's strikeout ended the inning, and in the second Hubbell fanned Simmons, who brought a .355 career average into the season, and Cronin, one of the greatest shortstops ever, before Yankees' catcher Bill Dickey broke the spell with a single.

"I respected every one of them, but I had no fear of any kind," Hubbell would say afterward. "I didn't think they had ever seen any screwball pitchers before."

The Dodgers' Fernando Valenzuela matched Hubbell's feat of five consecutive strikeouts in the 1986 All-Star Game, but his victims - Don Mattingly, Cal Ripken, Jesse Barfield, Lou Whitaker and Brewers pitcher Ted Higuera - didn't have quite the same cachet.

Like Hubbell, Valenzuela featured a screwball. In fact, Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda had jokingly begun to call him, "Cal Hubbellito."

Two years ago, pitching at home at Fenway Park, Pedro Martinez became the first pitcher to strike out the first four batters of the All-Star Game, and struck out five of the first six batters he faced.

But Hubbell's transcendent achievement remains king.