Early All Star Pins Baseball? Maybe Not
 

As a pin collector I have often wondered about some pins that might not be baseball related. The Good Dr Paul Muchinsky has a listing of All Star pins in his book. I have often wondered about alot of these early All Star pins as not being baseball related. As research is hard to do on alot of pins, I stumbled on this info about one of the pins listed in Pauls book as W-2. Now it makes more sense to me as it not being a baseball related pin. It is an East West Shrine game That was played in Tulane Stadium Jan.3 1942. Im very bad at cut and paste so I copied it I hope its readable. Well I believe at least this one is solved. Paul thoughts?

Picked this up a few years ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East-West_Shrine_Game

Attachment 64210

All-Star game pins are always difficult to identify. As I stated in the introductory comments of this section in my book, pins that say "All Star" could also be from various minor leagues, as well as non-baseball sports (collegiate football being the most likely). I am unaware of any basketball all-star game pins (except high school). I don't believe there are any NBA-related all-star game pins. Probably also true of NHL hockey. The most likely source besides baseball would be the East-West and North-South collegiate all-star games. They were typically played in the same place every year. I believe San Francisco was the usual site for the East-West game, and I'm thinking a city in Alabama (Montgomery, maybe) for the North-South game. I have pins that simply say East, West, North, or South. I have always assumed these were collegiate all-star game pins. As a single day event, it makes little sense for a vendor to produce a large quantity of all-star pins. As soon as the game is over, the (dated) pin would be obsolete to any prospective buyer. But by making them generic, the vendor could sell the leftover stock at the same site for the following year's all-star game. The pin in question in this post is unusual in its specificity. Glad some information has been unearthed about it. And Randall, your specimen is exquisite.

pin
 

Randall,
Yes your pin is in great condition! But I guess you now have to replace the baseball with a football!

Paul,
Thankyou for your comments. It also says that you believe all of these pins to be baseball related. I myself have really never thought that any of the early pins in the all star section had anything to do with baseball. They are to generic to come to that conclusion in my opinion. But hay who am I to argue! Just wanted to show how I came to that conclusion!:D;)

Here is pic of the back:


Attachment 64266

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Randall,
I dont know what showing the back of the pin means. As we all know ribbons ,bats,balls,trinkets are all interchangeable. I offered up proof that this isnt a baseball related pin and I guess now until Im proven wrong with some new info that a baseball allstar game was played in New Orleans in 1942 I have to believe it is a football pin and to be exact an East West Shrine game pin. If you have something else show me!