Thanks!
I was wondering if anyone had a comment about those. I thought they looked like spring training uniforms, or something. Not my cup of tea (do people say that anymore?)
Definitely agree about the anthem. And even worse, God Bless America on Sundays.
I miss (and prefer) the days when each player wore the uniform of their actual team.
You beat me to this point. When did they start not wearing their own uniforms?
When they discovered they could sell more jerseys if everybody wore special ones.
This. Like the NFL (and probably every other major league), MLB is looking to monetize things as much as possible.
Too bad the game didn’t finish in a tie. The mini home run derby tiebreaker rule would be a lot of fun to watch, and I say that as someone who never watches the actual home run derby.
And that was what year?
2021, it appears, though they initially were using special jerseys for the Home Run Derby (but not the ASG) from 1997 until 2017.
Dumb question, but does a home run in the All-Star game count towards the player’s season statistics, or only what he hits for his own actual team?
All Star game is an exhibition. It does not count towards official stats at all.
It does not. The ASG is an exhibition game, not part of the regular leagues’ schedule. The stats from the game aren’t included in the players’ stats for the season.
Even though the game doesn’t count for stats or standings, for a few years (2003-2016), the result of the game was used to determine which league’s champion would have home-field advantage for the World Series (i.e., if the American League won the ASG, the AL champion would then have home-field advantage for the World Series that fall). This was done to try to create some level of importance for the game, but it wasn’t a popular idea, and it was discontinued.
This was instituted because the 2002 ASG ended in a 7-7 tie after 11 innings, with no more pitchers available for either team. So this rule was put into place so the game would have some meaning.
Beginning in 2017, home-field advantage in the Series has been determined by which team has the better regular-season record. Before 2003, home-field would alternate between the leagues. (IIRC)
I remember the broadcasters trying to talk up the idea and trying and failing to find a player to act like he gave a flying fuck about it.
Hear hear! (or is it Here Here?) At any rate, you are 1,000% right on both counts.
I basically remember talk radio and the ESPN yelling shows trying to make this huge controversy as the time of year falls in the nadir of sports news for a mainstream USA that won’t care about soccer or the Tour de France
It isn’t even easy to find a player’s total All Star Game stats. I know Gary Carter won the All Star MVP twice, but how did he do over the course of his career in ASG? He played in 11 of them so that’s not something I wanna add up by hand. It took me awhile to find it - Baseball Reference doesn’t have it.
One of the weird things about the ASG is the long stretches of dominance by one league or the other. When I was a kid the AL never won the All Star Game. It was just an annual tradition that the NL was walk out there and beat them. Sometimes the games were close, sometimes they were not, sometimes it was high scoring, sometimes low scoring, but it was just a safe assumption the NL would win. When they finally won it in 1983 - Fred Lynn hitting the first ASG grand slam in that one - it was flabbergasting. “Holy shit, the AL won” was the reaction. They hadn’t won it since before I was born and in fact had lost 19 out of the previous 20 years.
And then the AL started kicking ass. In the last 37 years, the NL has only won seven times. In 37 years. (Plus the stupid tie.) The AL had a 16-3 run, then later won ten more in a row from 2013 to 2022. That is astounding. Teams win the World Series and don’t go 29-7 in any stretch of games.
It just defies all probability, even if you conclude there have been times when one league really did have more talent. I really do think the NL had more top line talent in the 1960s and 1970s.
Oh, yes, 1983. Atlee Hammacker, a young pitcher for the Giants who led the NL in ERA that season, came in to pitch the 3rd inning. He gave up six hits, an intentional walk, and seven runs in 2/3 of an inning. His ERA for that game was 94.50.
However, Hammacker did not get the loss, as the AL led 2-1 when he entered the game.
It’s surprising that Baseball-Reference doesn’t have All-Star game stats, but Baseball-Almanac does.