Catching up with former pitcher Ken McBride.

TIME GALLOPS ONWARD. KEN McBride, who spent parts of seven years in the majors, is 68. More than 40 years ago, on July 9, 1963, he was the starting pitcher for the American League in the All-Star game held in Cleveland's Municipal Stadium.

He was huffing for the California Angels at the time and had a 9-6 record. Angels manager Bill Rigney called the right-handed curve and sinker artist the best pitcher in the league.

Ralph Houk of the Yankees, who was managing the A.L. stars, was undecided whether to start McBride or Jim Bunning of Detroit. McBride had experienced tenderness in his right elbow in his previous start in Washington.

"Houk asked me how my arm felt," recalled the well-preserved McBride, now the president and CEO of a construction company. "I said, 'Fine.' No way I wasn't going to pitch in an All-Star game. My arm was still tender, but sometimes you get loose when you warm up." He had been picked for the classic twice before and had never done more than warm up in the bullpen.

Sitting in his office on the fringe of downtown Cleveland, McBride recalls that he was warmed up by Yankee coach Jim Hegan, the fine catcher whom McBride had often watched play for the Indians in the 1940s and 1950s.

Thirteen future Hall of Famers were on the Stadium grass that day.

The American League had Bunning, Nellie Fox, Al Kaline, Harmon Killebrew, Carl Yastrzemski and Luis Aparicio (Mickey Mantle was injured).