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Career-shortening injury to Dizzy Dean marred 1937 All-Star Game

Bill Center, longtime sportswriter for U-T San Diego, is an employee of the Padres.

Although Franklin Roosevelt was the first U.S. President to attend an All-Star Game, the fifth edition on July 7, 1937, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C., is best remembered for an injury suffered during the game by baseball's premier attraction of the time.

On the last play of the bottom of the third inning, National League starting pitcher Dizzy Dean, 27, who had won 133 games in his first 5 1/2 Major League seasons while leading the league in strikeouts four times, was struck on his left foot by a line drive hit by outfielder Earl Averill.