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On this day in New York · July 10, 1934

Hubbell Strikes Out Five Hall of Famers in a Row

For one afternoon at the Polo Grounds, a Giants screwball artist made the American League's most feared lineup look like a Sunday beer league.

Hubbell Strikes Out Five Hall of Famers in a Row
Wikimedia Commons / Carl Hubbell

The facts

Date
July 10, 1934
Location
Polo Grounds, New York City
Batters struck out in order
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, Joe Cronin
Final score
American League 9, National League 7

On July 10, 1934, at the Polo Grounds, National League starter Carl Hubbell of the Giants opened the All-Star Game by giving up a single and a walk, then settled in and struck out five of the American League's best hitters in a row: Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx to end the first inning, then Al Simmons and Joe Cronin to open the second. All five are now in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Hubbell threw three scoreless innings before Bill Dickey's single finally broke the streak, finishing his day with no runs, two hits, and six strikeouts. The American League still won the game 9 to 7 in front of more than 48,000 fans, but the score barely mattered next to what Hubbell had just done to five of the greatest hitters ever to play.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. My style of pitching was to make the other team hit the ball, but on the ground. It was as big a surprise to me to strike out all those fellows as it probably was to them.

    Carl Hubbell, recalling the performance

    Source: Baseball Hall of Fame

  2. Carl's fanning Ruth, Gehrig, Foxx, Simmons, and Cronin in succession amounted to one of the greatest pitching achievements of modern times.

    The Sporting News, quoted in a 2019 SABR game history

    Source: Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)

Why it still matters

It is still the single most famous pitching stretch in All-Star Game history, and it happened in New York: a homegrown Giant, on his home mound, freezing a lineup that never had an off day anywhere else.

Sources

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