July 6 is the 85th anniversary of the very first Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

In this edition of Reading Baseball, Pete Peterson explains how a Chicago man thought of the idea as a way to help revive a struggling sport.

Reading Baseball is a series of essays and commentaries by Richard "Pete" Peterson, co-author with his son Stephen, of The Slide: Leyland, Bonds and the Star-Crossed Pittsburgh Pirates and the editor of The St. Louis Baseball Reader.