East–West All-Star Game
The East–West All-Star Game was an annual all-star game for Negro league baseball players. The game was the brainchild of Gus Greenlee, owner of the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In 1933 he decided to match the Major League Baseball All-Star Game with Negro league players. Newspaper balloting was set up to allow the fans to choose the starting lineups for that first game, a tradition that continued through the series' end in 1962. Unlike the white All-Star game which is played near the middle of the season, the Negro All-Star game  was held toward the end of the season. Because league structures were shaky during the Great Depression and also because certain teams (notably the Kansas City Monarchs and the Homestead Grays) sometimes played entirely independent of the leagues, votes were not counted by league, but by geographical location. Hence, the games were known as the "East-West All-Star Games". Votes were tallied by two of the major African-American weekly newspapers of the day, the "Chicago Defender" and the "Pittsburgh Courier". The Games. All games were held at Comiskey Park in Chicago unless otherwise noted. Most selections. Three players  were named to the East–West All-Star Game at least ten times: Alex Radcliffe (13, although he played 12), Buck Leonard (13, although he also played 12), and Josh Gibson (12, with 11 played). Other players that were named to multiple games were Leon Day (9), Neil Robinson (9), Quincy Trouppe (8), "Wild" Bill Wright (8), and Bill Byrd (8).