Major League Baseball All-Star Game
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The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also popularly known as the "Midsummer Classic"is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by fan vote for the starting position players and by the manager (the managers from the previous year's World Series) for pitchers and reserve players. The All-Star Game usually occurs in early to mid-July and marks the symbolic halfway point in the Major League Baseball (MLB) season (though not the mathematical halfway point; in most seasons, the game actually takes place after about 55% of the season has been completed), and since 2003 it has been used to determine home field advantage for the upcoming World Series.
The first All-Star Game was held as part of the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois, and was the brainchild of Arch Ward, then sports editor for The Chicago Tribune. Initially intended to be a one-time event, its great success resulted in making the game an annual one.
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[edit] Choosing the venue
The venue is chosen by Major League Baseball and traditionally alternates between the two leagues every year (this tradition was first broken in 1951, when the Detroit Tigers were chosen to host the annual game as part of the city's 250th birthday at Briggs Stadium, and will be broken again in 2007, when the San Francisco Giants will be the host for the 2007 All-Star Game). The "home team" is the league in which the host franchise plays its games. The criteria for choosing the venue are subjective; for the most part, cities with new parks and cities who have not hosted the game in a long time--or ever--tend to get the nod. The last All-Star Game to be played in a stadium that was not hosting its first All-Star Game was the 1999 game in Boston's Fenway Park. To date, only three franchises have never hosted a game: the Florida Marlins, the Arizona Diamondbacks, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays (the Washington Nationals hosted the game when they were the Montreal Expos).
The designated hitter rule is applied based on the league in which the host team plays. In an American League ballpark, both teams use a designated hitter to hit for the pitcher. In a National League ballpark, lineups schedule the pitcher to hit, though pinch hitters are almost always used. The last instance in which a pitcher took his scheduled at-bat was in 2004, as the American League lineup batted around in the first inning, enabling AL starter Mark Mulder to bat. He was not eligible to be replaced by a pinch hitter, as the starting pitcher in any game must pitch to the first spot in the batting order. [1]
[edit] The rosters
The manager for each league's team has for many years been the manager of the previous year's league champion. This honor is given to the manager, not the team, so it's possible that the All-Star manager could no longer be with the team with which he won, as happened in 2003, when Dusty Baker managed the National League team despite having moved from the champion San Francisco Giants to the Chicago Cubs. This has even included situations where the person is no longer actively managing a team: in 1979, Bob Lemon managed the American League team after having been fired by New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.[citation needed] The coaching staff is selected by the manager.
Each team consists of 32 players. These players are currently selected though the following process:
- Fan voting: Baseball fans vote on the starting position players for the All-Star Game, with ballots distributed at baseball games before mid-season and, more recently, on the Internet. When the game is played at an American League park, the designated hitter for the AL team is also selected in this manner. This method has been recently criticized because most of the starting players from the American League are from the New York Yankees, or the Boston Red Sox because they have a larger fan base.
- Player voting: Pitchers and one back-up player for each position are elected by the players. If the top vote-getter at a position has also been selected via fan voting, the second-place finisher in this category is selected.
- Manager selection: The manager and the Commissioner's Office will fill the roster up to 31 players.
- Final vote: After the lists of 31 players for each league is announced, fans will vote for one additional player, chosen from a list of 5 players provided by the manager and the Commissioner's Office.
- Replacements: After the roster is selected, the manager and the Commissioner's Office will replace players who are injured or who decline to participate.
Between 1935 and 1946, the manager of each All-Star squad selected the entire team. Fans were given the opportunity to vote on the eight starting position players starting in 1947. In 1957, fans of the Cincinnati Reds stuffed the ballot box (see below), and elected a Red to every position except first base. Commissioner Ford Frick stepped in and removed two Reds from the lineup. As a response to this fiasco, fan voting was discontinued, and players, coaches, and managers were given the ability to elect starting position players until 1970.
One of the most controversial aspects of the player selection process is a rule that each team has to have at least one representative on its league's All-Star roster. While this rule made sense in baseball's pre-expansion days, when there were only eight teams in each league, many now consider it to be outdated since there are now almost twice as many Major League teams in existence. Opponents of the rule contend that the purpose of the game is to spotlight MLB's best players, and many superior players get left off the roster in favor of less deserving players from weaker teams. Supporters of the rule maintain that if the rule were dropped, a small number of powerful teams could end up dominating most of the available roster space. Supporters say that this gives fans from every team a reason to watch the game, whereas if the game were dominated by players from only a few top teams many fans might not watch because they wouldn't have a familiar player to follow.
A number of compromises have been suggested, such as limiting the number of representatives a particular team could have, or requiring that a certain percentage of teams be represented. However, Major League Baseball has not indicated that it is considering altering or eliminating the rule in any form.
[edit] Ties
At Fenway Park in Boston on July 31, 1961, the first All-Star Game tie in history occurred when the game was stopped in the 9th inning due to rain.
The 2002 All-Star Game ended in controversy when both teams ran out of pitchers in the 11th inning, and in response Commissioner Bud Selig declared the game to end in a tie. To provide additional incentive for victory, Major League Baseball reached an agreement with the players union to award home-field advantage for the World Series to the league who won the All-Star Game, for 2003 to 2004. Since then, the agreement was extended twice, in 2005 and 2006. <ref>Associated Press. "All-Star Game to affect '06 World Series", SportingNews.com, 2006-06-20. Retrieved on 2006-10-24. (in English)</ref> Previously, home field advantage in the World Series alternated between the two leagues each year.
Even under the new rules, there is no guarantee that a repeat of the 2002 situation might not occur. The game could still be called a "suspended game" in which case it would become a tie if no make-up date was scheduled. It would be extremely difficult to find such a make-up date: Major League Baseball would have to postpone one or more days of the regular season and/or schedule the make-up date on the travel day between the regular season and the Division Series.
[edit] Oddities
- In 1945, with severe wartime travel restrictions in effect, the All-Star Game scheduled to be played at Boston's Fenway Park was canceled.
- There were two All-Star Games played each season from 1959 to 1962. The second game was added to raise money for the players' pension funds, as well as other causes.
- Of the eighteen players who started the 1934 All-Star Game, only one, Wally Berger, is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- Steve Garvey is the only player ever selected to an All-Star team as a write-in candidate by fans, in 1974. The fans made a great choice, as he was the MVP of that game.
- The 1981 game in Cleveland was moved from its original July date to Sunday night, August 9. It was the first non-exhibition game played after the end of the players' strike, with second half play beginning the next afternoon with a game in Wrigley Field in Chicago. The 1981 game is the only game to be played on a weekend.
- In 1995, because of the players' strike in 1994, the managers of the unofficial league champions (by best record), who were each rewarded as winners of the Manager of the Year Award, were awarded the right to manage the 1995 teams -- Montreal's Felipe Alou and the Yankees' Buck Showalter.
[edit] Stuffing the ballot box
In 1957, fans of the Cincinnati Reds stuffed the ballot box and elected 7 Reds players to start in the All-Star Game. They were:
- Johnny Temple, 2B
- Roy McMillan, SS
- Don Hoak, 3B
- Ed Bailey, C
- Frank Robinson, LF
- Gus Bell, CF
- Wally Post, RF
The only non-Red elected to start for the National League was St. Louis Cardinals' first baseman Stan Musial. While the Reds were known to be a great offensive team with many outstanding position players, most baseball observers agreed that they did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game. An investigation showed that over half of the ballots cast came from Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Enquirer had printed up pre-marked ballots and distributed them with the Sunday newspaper to make it easy to vote early and often. There were even stories of bars in Cincinnati not serving alcohol to customers until they filled out a ballot.
Commissioner Ford Frick decided to appoint Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves to substitute for Reds players Gus Bell and Wally Post. In addition, Frick decided to strip the fans of their voting rights. Managers, players, and coaches picked the entire team until 1969, when the vote again returned to the fans.
To guard against further ballot stuffing, since 1969, each team has been given the same number of ballots to hand out. In 1998, that number was roughly 400,000 ballots. Since the dawn of the internet age, online voting has again raised fears of ballot stuffing. Yet Major League Baseball assures its fans that they have taken precautions to guard against this.
[edit] Other All-Star Weekend events
Since 1985, the Home Run Derby, a contest between home run hitters, has been played on the day before the All-Star Game. Also, a celebrity softball game is held the day before the Home Run Derby. The teams are usually a mixture of former stars from the host team's past, plus some celebrities from music, film, and television. Since 1999, the All-Star Futures Game has been held during All-Star Weekend. The two teams, one consisting of young players from the United States and the other consisting of young players from all other nations, are usually chosen based on prospect status in the minor leagues.
[edit] Major League Baseball All-Star Games (1933-present)
77 All-Star Games have been played, with the National League winning 40 and the American League winning 35 (there were 2 ties). The National League has the longest winning streak of 11 games from 1972-1982. The American League currently has a league-best 10-game unbeaten streak (including the tie in 2002).
[edit] 2008 All-Star Game and Beyond
Among the cities in the running for 2008's All-Star Game are Anaheim (whose stadium was so completely transformed in the late 1990s and early 2000s that some people almost consider it a whole new entity) and New York (2008 is Yankee Stadium's and Shea Stadium's last season), as the new Yankee Stadium and the new Mets Stadium, Citi Field, are predicted to open in 2009 , so the 2008 All-Star Game could be a historic send off for the stadiums [2].
Many candidates exist for All-Star sites after 2008, as recent years have seen many ballparks newly-built or renovated.
[edit] See also
- List of Major League Baseball All-Star Game broadcasters
- Major League Baseball All-Star Games in Pittsburgh
[edit] External links
- BaseballLibrary.com - All-Star Game
- All-Star Games by Baseball Almanac : A Midsummer Classic Analysis
- Major League Baseball : Events : All-Star Game
- The Sporting News: History of the MLB All-Star Game
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da:MLB All-Star Game es:Juego de Estrellas de las Grandes Ligas de Béisbol nl:Major League Baseball All-Star Game ja:MLBオールスターゲーム
