Help identifying Hearst US Allstar jersey to player (1958?)
 

Thanks in advance for any expert advice, suggestions or opinions regarding the red jersey below.

I recently acquired a Dodge-Davis manufactured US All Stars flannel jersey (red flannel shown below with tackle-twill lettering) and believe it may have been worn during one of the annual Hearst Sandlot Classic US All Star games played after 1956 through the mid '60s in New York City (US All Stars vs NY All Stars).

The blue heavy flannel (shown below with felt lettering) was definitely worn during the 1956 game and was also made by Dodge-Davis. There are no year tags on either jersey. A few images on the web indicate the US All Star jersey styles changed each year during 1956-1960. One 1958 image (poor quality/low pixels/couldn't enlarge it without it being blurry) depicts Mgr. Oscar Vitt (on left) wearing what could be the same style as the red one shown below (no piping along collar, light shade of b&w lettering and top of cap might indicate red instead of blue color).

I cannot locate any images of games beyond 1960. Images from the '56 and '58 games appear to be only years between '56 & '60 the US team jersey did not have collar piping with the type of lettering (in jerseys shown below).
__________________________________________________ _________

Any additional images from a Hearst All Star game matching the style of the red jersey could be helpful solving the mystery. ***Also, a 1958 roster indicating the players' uniform numbers could be most helpful. The red jersey has # 9 on back.

Thanks for the help.
Bob

Looks like his says J.A All Stars

Kevin,

Guy on right side of photo is mgr of the J.A. (New York) team.
Guy on left side wearing the darker uniform is Oscar Vitt, mgr of the US team.

Hearst Sandlot Classic
 

I have been doing research on the Hearst Classic for some time.

Although, I have the complete rosters for each year, I do not have the players numbers. For that, one would need to go to the New York Journal American. By the way, the 1958 U. S. team included Ron Santo, Paul Popovich, and John Bocabella. Oscar Vitt was the U. S. Manager and George Stirnweiss was the J-A manager.

I try to get down to New York from Connecticut, periodically to do research. IfI track down who number 9 was, I will let you know.

Alan Cohen

Thank you Alan.

I enjoyed reading your Hearst Classic articles the past year. They are so informative and a terrific read.

I've never seen any images from games after 1960. There must be some out there, somewhere.

Thanks again.
Bob

More recent pictures of Hearst Games
 

The Baltimore News-Post had pictures of Ron Swoboda (1962) and Jim Spencer (1963). The San Antonio Light had a picture of Davey Johnson and Jerry Grote (1961). Journal-American pictures are housed at the University of Texas, but nobody has done made a serious attempt to catalog. In the BRJ article, we used a picture of the 1962 U. S. All-Star outfield. These days, I am concentrating on 1948 in San Francisco.

Alan

1946 Hearst Diamond Pennant Series (Hearst Sandlot Classic)
 

I have not been able to positively identify the year of the red US All Star jersey shown in an earlier post (still looking for a 1958 program and images from that year's game—thanks in advance for any leads).

Meantime, recently came across this 1946 US All Star flannel from the inaugural Hearst Diamond Pennant Series (aka Hearst Sandlot Classic).

Herb Adams was the starting pitcher that day at the Polo Grounds (August 15, 1946) for the US All Stars. He no hit the NY All Stars over the 3 shutout innings that he pitched while wearing the jersey. Adams would later play for the Chicago White Sox during 1948-1950 before serving time in the Korean War.

Hall of Famer Ray Schalk was coach of the US team that year. While "Rabbit" Maranville led the NY All Stars. Picture shows southpaw Herb Adams to the right of Schalk.

Net54 member Alan Colen has numerous informative and well written articles on the 20 year history of the Hearst All Star Classic that can be found online.

Hearst Sandlot Classic
 

Images from 1946 are great. I have a copy of the 1962 program. I will check about 1958. I have spoken with Len Merullo, who played in the game, as well as his son Matt, who played with the White Sox. Matt had a picture of the U. S. All-Stars that was taken at the hotel. Not sure if he has a program. I touched base with the Yankees to see if they had anything (games played at Stadium from 1959 through 1965), but they didn't keep the programs.

Alan

Hearst U.S. All Stars
 

Thanks Alan,
Are you able to post any of the newspapers images you've mentioned?
I found a copy (image attached) of the 1958 roster (#9 is John Matthews). Santo was #11.

Attachment 386087

Alan,
Another Hearst Sandlot image from 1952 with Joe DiMaggio, Jersey Joe Walcott, and Tony Kubek--far right)

1953 Hearst Program. I picked it up because the Globetrotters played that year vs a group of US NBA Stars. Nice program has history of past games and Rosters and couple nice shots of Maranvill and C. Gehringer. Who managed the youngsters that year.
One tidbit I gleaned was the "Lou Gehrig Trophy" presented to the games MVP was in 1951 given to a young man named Al Kaline..
Pictures if The Globetrotters and both the US and NY teams. But no pics of the NBA stars...?

Hearst Sandlot Classic
 

I was able to take pictures of a copy of this program. The person who had the program was Jimmy McElroy a longtime figure in sandlot baseball in Brooklyn. One of the Globetrotters, Reece Tatum, was a pretty good baseball player in his day. I am not sure if he ever played baseball at the Polo Grounds.