It began in 1925.
The Sporting News issued its first post-season all-star team. The publication has changed in many ways over the decades since it began handing out post-season awards, but today it still is honoring baseball’s top performers. Josh Donaldson of the Toronto Blue Jays was the Sporting News Player of the Year in 2015.
There were 11 players on that first all-star team from both leagues 90 years ago. Of the eight position players and three pitchers, nine of them are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
This is second in a series of three posts as the outfielders are highlighted. All three were eventually inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rightfield: Kiki Cuyler of the Pittsburgh Pirates finished second in the National League Most Valuable Player voting in 1925 behind Rogers Hornsby of the St. Louis Cardinals, who won the triple crown.
Cuyler led the league in triples with 26, while hitting .357 with 18 homers and 102 RBI to lead the Pirates to a victory in the World Series over the Washington Senators. Cuyler played 18 seasons in the major leagues with the Pirates (1921-1927), Chicago Cubs (1928-1935), Cincinnati Reds (1935-1937) and Brooklyn Dodgers (1938).
Cuyler, who played in the World Series with the Cubs twice, was an all-star in 1934 and led the NL in stolen bases four times. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1968.
Centerfield: Max Carey of the Pirates was near the end of his career in 1925 when he helped his team to the world championship.
Carey led the NL in stolen bases for the 10th time in his career with 46 at the age of 35, while batting .343 with five homers and 44 RBI.
Carey played 20 seasons with the Pirates (1910-1926) and Brooklyn (1926-1929) and in different years in his career he also led the NL in games, runs, triples and walks.
At the time he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1961, Carey was on the top of the NL career stolen base list with 738.
Leftfield: Goose Goslin of the Washington Senators led the American League in triples in 1925 with 20.
Goslin topped the Senators with 18 homers, 118 RBI and 27 stolen bases as he led them to their second straight pennant.
The Senators won the World Series in 1924 before falling to the Pirates the following season.
Goslin played 18 seasons in the big leagues and was with the Senators three different times in his career from 1921-1930, 1933 and 1938. From 1930-1932, he was with the St. Louis Browns before returning to help the Senators to the AL title in 1933.
Goslin played for the Detroit Tigers from 1934-1937 and was part of two more AL crowns and a World Series title in 1935. Like Cuyler, Goslin joined the Hall of Fame honor roll in 1968.
Pitchers Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators, Eddie Rommel of the Philadelphia A’s and Dazzy Vance of Brooklyn along with A’s catcher Mickey Cochrane will be featured in the final installment of this series.