All-Star Game - Midsummer Classic

On Tuesday, July 14th, Major League Baseball will hold the 80th Midsummer Classic in St. Louis.    The All-Star game has been a baseball tradition since the first All-Star game was played in Chicago in 1933.   A sports editor, named Arch Ward came up with the idea to have baseball’s best come play an exhibition game to coincide with the 1933 World’s Fair being held in Chicago.

Throughout the years, the annual event has been held in different cities year after year.  There is a MLB committe that is responsible for selecting the host city.   The selection of the host city used to alternate from an American League ballpark to a National League ballpark.  It still does for the most part, but there have been some exceptions, Yankee Stadium hosted last year’s event to commerate the closing of the field.

I remember watching my first All-Star game back in 1980…I was at my cousin’s home and didn’t want to leave until the game was over…because Bruce Sutter, the Cubs closer, was pitching. But I also remember it, because of Dave Kingman making the team.   Kingman was the first player I ever saw hit a homer.  I was really hoping for him to hit one in the All Star Game….which of  course he didn’t.  Still, I was ok with it.

Since that first game , I always look forward to see who will be representing the Cubs..and for a good number of those years…there usually was maybe one player selected to the team.  Thankfully they have a rule in place that every team has to have at least one representative or I might have been totally out of luck!

MLB recently started their own network and this past weekend they ran a number of classic All-Star games.    I watched the 1981 All-Star game and was struck by a couple of things..

• The game was played in August due to the strike that took 2 months to get settled.   They still managed to get 70,000 fans in old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, the largest in All-Star history.
• There were 15 hall of famers on that roster…and only 2 of them were making over a $1,000,000 a year.
• They were still rocking out the 70’s uniforms. Don’t you love the Cubs version above?

Over the years they have turned the All-Star game into a week long celebration that includes, fan fests, celebrity softball games, a game with future players the teams have drafted and my personal favorite…the Home Run Derby.    It is just fun to see these guys smash the ball out of the park and compete against each other at the same time.    I highly recommend watching these guys go at it.  This year my pick is Albert Pujols (and yes I know he is a Cardinal, but the man is one of the best players I have ever seen play and he is good for baseball).  I hope he gives his fans a show for the ages.

Tonight the Home Run derby is on ESPN at 8pm EST.
The All-Star Game is tomorrow night on FOX at 8pm EST.

Hope you have a great All-Star Week!