History books all affirm that there was no All-Star game played in 1945 - or was there? Athletic organizers for the 14th Naval District (Pearl Harbor, Hawaii) arranged for the convergence of an impressive assortment of baseball professionals to stage a game in lieu of the traditional Mid-Summer Classic of stateside renown. To be sure, there were veterans of the Major Leagues scattered around the globe in 1945, so reasonable limitations dictated that these players would be summoned from the Pacific Theater only. A veritable panoply of diamond talent convened to play such a game, though the exact date in '45 and the final score are now unknowns. Scorecards were printed (and distributed to servicemen in attendance, of course). These were simple fold-overs with crude illustrations on the front and back, and they opened to itemize the players assigned to the opposing squads. Those assignments were consistent with the players' traditional affiliations (though a fewprominent minor leaguers were selected and assigned as well). Here, then, presented in adjacent offerings are two such programs - one of them signed by the entirety of the "American Leaguers", and the other signed by all the "National Leaguers." To our knowledge, there are no other known programs from this event that were signed to such completion. Both of these are simply delightful. Their signatures are all (with two exceptions) immediately legible; they were signed cleanly in fountain pen; and both programs open to display the totality of the autographs in a single view.

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The program is about VG with a horizontal crease traversing and a small stain in the cover's right border (but not encroaching any autograph). Alphabetically, the signers include: Tom Carey, Jack Conway, trong>Bill Dickey (not print-listed on the scorecard), Hank Feinister, Joe Glenn, Chet Hajduk, Lum Harris, Jack Hallett (not really an American Leaguer as his experience was with the Pirates), Ned Harris, Rollie Hemsley, Harry Hughes (Atlanta), Fred Hutchinson, Bob Kennedy,trong> Bob Lemon, Barney Lutz, Al Lyons, Billy Marks (Rochester), Ed McGah, Mickey McGowan ("Texas League"), Russ Messerly (?), Dee Miles, Johnny Pesky, Jack Phillips, Sherry Robertson, Schoolboy Rowe, Ken Sears, George Staller, Dick Wakefield, Delbert Warren (bat boy), Ed Weiland and trong>Ted Williams ("trong>9-10").

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