Baseball was the most popular sports in America by the 1930s, but it was a singularly American one. Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward thought the World’s Fair in Chicago that summer would be a fine time to introduce the game to the world. But it would not do to stage just any baseball match: Ward wanted to take the best players in the league and pit them in two teams against one another.

On this day, July 6, in 1933 the first baseball all-star game was played in Comiskey Park in Chicago. The day happened to be a day off for all teams, and more than 47,000 fans gathered to watch the contest.

National League and American League managers chose the players. The only insistence was made by NL starting pitched “Wild” Bill Hallahan. “We wanted to see the Babe,” he recalled later. “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.” The Babe gave them what they wanted, driving a home run into the right-field stands, the first homer in all-star game history.