The Fifty Year Itch

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't care for Major League Baseball's All-Star Game. To me, it's a mere exhibition, and it's not supposed to mean much in the big picture. However, the New York Mets are hosting the festivities . . . and that might not happen again for a long, long time.

The first time . . . the only time the Mets hosted was back in 1964. The team had moved into Shea Stadium that year, which was the most state-of-the-art venue at that time. That year, Phillies' outfielder Johnny Callison capped a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth with a three-run home run, giving the National League a 7-4 walk-off victory, the last one in All Start Game history. Meanwhile, second baseman Ron Hunt made Mets history by becoming the first player from the team to crack the National League's starting lineup. In the Mets' three-year history, many considered him to be the team's first true star.

Cut to 49 years later. Shea Stadium is gone, replaced by Citi Field, the House That Fred Wilpon's Raging Ebbets Field Obsession Built. There are ten more teams in the majors, and a lot more money being made. Another second-year Met will be making his All-Star debut and starting for the National League: Matt Harvey, the phenom right-handed pitcher who is among the leading candidates for the Cy Young Award. Also in the starting lineup is third baseman David Wright, who has taken the lead for the otherwise moribund franchise, locking himself in with the team through 2020, at a time where fleeing the Mets might have been a better move. No team's unofficial motto should be "Hey, At Least We're Not The Marlins."

I consider myself a "lapsed" Mets fan, meaning that I'm not as into the team as when I was younger, but I cannot imagine rooting for any other team. That said, I'm perplexed as to why this is the second time in fifty years the team is hosting. I wrote to the Mets about it, and I got this message:

Thank you for your email. Major League Baseball picks all of the host cities for the All Star Game and typically they select new ballparks to showcase them. Since Citi Field is the second new ballpark in Mets history that is most likely why the Mets have only had the All Star Game twice.

That made a little bit of sense . . . but it still stuck in my craw. In 1964, there were twenty teams in the majors. The leagues would expand by four teams in 1969, and two each in 1977, 1993 and 1998. While I wouldn't expect a fixed rotation amongst all teams, I would've thought the Mets would get their chance sometime in the 1990s. The Houston Astros -- who broke into the majors in 1962 along with the Mets -- hosted three times in that fifty year span, including their 25th anniversary season . . . and the Astrodome was only a year younger than Shea Stadium. The Mets' cross-town rival Yankees got to host in 1977 and 2008; the latter being the team's final year in the original Yankee Stadium. That season also marked the final year Shea Stadium was used by the Mets. The Angels hosted three times (1967, 1989, 2010), all in the same venue. Logic would be nice. Did the Mets offend Major League Baseball in some way? Did they not file paperwork? Or was this about putting the screws to a franchise known for not getting much respect? I know, that's a little bit of overkill, but the team did used to call their second home game of the season "Opening Day II" and have Rodney Dangerfield throw out the first pitch.

I don't know why I think this hard about the All-Star Game. It's a game that's marred by tradition. Think about it . . . it's held on a Tuesday night, with the first pitch usually coming in at 8:45 p.m. Eastern time, guaranteeing a finish after midnight thanks to network broadcasting. Meanwhile, the NFL, NBA and NHL hold their midseason classics on a Sunday. Also, there was the kneejerk reaction by commissioner Bud Selig to have the winning league's representative in the World Series get home-field advantage, after both teams ran out of players in the 2002 edition, leading to an unsatisfying 7-7 tie in Selig's hometown of Milwaukee. I feel that the All-Star Game should be used as a tiebreaker, but only before "coin flip." Either the team with the best record gets home field, or it goes to the team with the better interleague record. Or perhaps it should go to the team with the better head-to-head record, when applicable. The All-Star Game is an exhibition. It was made to be an exhibition, back before interleague play, allowing players from both leagues the novelty of playing against each other. Why should, say, the Red Sox get a possible four games out of seven at home against the Pirates in October, just because the Royals' sole representative got a bloop single, driving in two runs and giving the American League the lead for good? By the way, does anyone realize Kansas City still fields a team? I'm not anti-Kansas City . . . I just got irritated watching last year's All-Star Game in KC, when Fox kept playing "Kansas City" (you know, "I'm goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City, here I come") damn near every time they went to commercial.

I made a chart on All-Star Game locales form 1964-2015. With the Mets getting the game, I think the people with the biggest justified gripe would be fans of Florida-based teams; neither the Marlins (1993) not Rays (1998) have gotten to host. Granted, it's pretty hard to find fans in Miami (last season with at least 2 million fans: 1997) and Tampa (last season, etc: 1998, their inaugural year), but like the Mets' long wait, it's the principle that counts. Included in the list are the ballparks, the number of years each ballpark was in business at the time of the All-Star Game hosting, and the number of previous All-Star Games hosted. As always, thanks to Wikipedia for feeding my need to write about stuff few people would care about.

Addendum: I don't know how to do footnotes in Blogger, so you'll have to scroll up and down. Also, I think the stupid stillborn YouTube window still pops up if you're using Explorer. I'll try to get rid of it, but I wouldn't be opposed to getting advice to how to stop doing that.

Year	Stadium	City	Team	Stadium Yrs.	Prior ASG
1964	Shea	Flushing, NY	Mets	1	0
1965	Metropolitan	Bloomington, MN	Twins	5/10[1]	0
1966	Busch Memorial	St. Louis	Cardinals	1	0
1967	Anaheim[2]	Anaheim	Angels	2	0
1968	Astrodome	Houston	Astros	4	0
1969	RFK	Washington, D.C.	Senators	9	1[3]
1970	Riverfront	Cincinnati	Reds	1	0
1971	Tiger	Detroit	Tigers	60	2[4]
1972	Atlanta	Atlanta	Braves	7	0
1973	Royals[5]	Kansas City	Royals	1	0
1974	Three Rivers	Pittsburgh	Pirates	5	0
1975	County	Milwaukee	Brewers	6/21[6]	1
1976	Veterans	Philadelphia	Phillies	6	0
1977	Yankee	Bronx, NY	Yankees	2/53[7]	0/2[7]
1978	San Diego	San Diego	Padres	10	0
1979	Kingdome	Seattle	Mariners	3	0
1980	Dodger	Los Angeles	Dodgers	19	0
1981	Cleveland	Cleveland	Indians	50	3
1982	Olympic	Montreal	Expos	5	0
1983	Comisky Park	Chicago	White Sox	74	2
1984	Candlestick Park	San Francisco	Giants	25	1
1985	Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome	Minneapolis, MN	Twins	4	0
1986	Astrodome	Houston	Astros	22	1
1987	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum[8]	Oakland	Athletics	20	0
1988	Riverfront	Cincinnati	Reds	19	1
1989	Anaheim2	Anaheim	Angels	24	1
1990	Wrigley Field	Chicago	Cubs	75/77[9]	2
1991	SkyDome[10]	Toronto	Blue Jays	3	0
1992	Jack Murphy	San Diego	Padres	24	1
1993	Oriole Park at Camden Yards	Baltimore	Orioles	2	0
1994	Three Rivers	Pittsburgh	Pirates	25	1
1995	The Ballpark in Arlington[11]	Arlington, TX	Rangers	2	0
1996	Veterans	Philadelphia	Phillies	26	1
1997	Jacobs Field[12]	Cleveland	Indians	4	0
1998	Coors Field	Denver	Rockies	4	0
1999	Fenway Park	Boston	Red Sox	88	2
2000	Turner Field	Atlanta	Braves	4	0
2001	Safeco Field	Seattle	Mariners	3	0
2002	Miller Park	Milwaukee	Brewers	2	0
2003	U.S. Cellular Field	Chicago	White Sox	13	0
2004	Minute Maid Park	Houston	Astros	4	0
2005	Comerica Park	Detroit	Tigers	6	0
2006	PNC Park	Pittsburgh	Pirates	6	0
2007	AT&T Park	San Francisco	Giants	8	0
2008	Yankee	Bronx, NY	Yankees	33/84[7]	1/3[7]
2009	Busch	St. Louis	Cardinals	4	0
2010	Angel Stadium of Anaheim	Anaheim	Angels	35	3
2011	Chase Field	Phoenix	Diamondbacks	14	0
2012	Kauffman	Kansas City	Royals	40	1
2013	Citi Field	Flushing, NY	Mets	5	0
2014	Target Field	Minneapolis, MN	Twins	5	0
2015	Great American Ball Park	Cincinnati	Reds	13	0

Boldface denotes stadium currently in use.

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[1] Venue was host to the Minneapolis Millers from 1956-60. The Washington Senators moved into it in 1961 and renamed themselves the Twins.

[2] Venue is currently known as Angel Stadium of Anaheim.

[3] Venue known as D.C. Stadium during the first All-Star Game in 1962.

[4] Venue known as Briggs Stadium in 1941 and 1951.

[5] Venue is currently known as Kauffman Stadium.

[6] Venue was host to the Milwaukee Braves from 1953-66. The Chicago White Sox played home games there from 1968-69. The Seattle Pilots moved into the stadium in 1970, renaming themselves the Milwaukee Brewers.

[7] The stadium went through renovations in 1974-75.

[8] Venue is currently known as O.co Coliseum.

[9] Venue was originally used by Chicago Whales of the Federal League from 1914-15.

[10] Venue is currently known as Rogers Centre

[11] Venue is currently known as Rangers Ballpark in Arlington

[12] Venue is currently known as Progressive Field