From 1977 to 2022: Enjoying the All-Star Game

I spent the last two nights at Dodger Stadium, enjoying Monday’s Home Run Derby and the American League’s 3-2 victory last night in the All-Star Game. Besides the thrilling battle between two young sluggers from the Dominican Republic (Seattle’s Julio Rodriguez and Washington’s Juan Soto), Monday’s home run fireworks show featured an unexpected first-round win by the great Albert Pujols (also from the Dominican), who is retiring at the end of the season and will have a plaque unveiled in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in the summer of 2028.

Last night, I attended my 9th All-Star Game, 45 years after my first one at Yankee Stadium in New York. The All-Star Game has changed a lot over those 45 years. 20 different pitchers were used last night, with no pitcher tossing more than one inning. By comparison, only 11 pitchers toed the rubber during the 1977 Mid-Summer Classic. In 1977, the designated hitter was not used; a total of 49 players appeared in the game. Last night, with the Angels’ two-way star Shohei Ohtani leading off the game as the A.L.’s designated hitter, a grand total of 62 players appeared, including 21 different batters per team.

There was much more pomp and circumstance last night than in 1977. The highlights included a pregame flyover by four F-22 fighter jets and the Dodgers’ Mookie Betts leading the crowd into Happy Birthday wishes for Rachel Robinson (the widow of Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson), who turned 100 yesterday. But one of my favorite parts of the festivities remains mostly the same: player introductions before the game.

Now, in 1977, and in every All-Star Game before and since until 2021, the players all wore the uniforms of their home teams, giving the fans the opportunity to see the different colors and uniform styles of all the teams. Unfortunately, last night, the teams wore “league” uniforms for the second year in a row. For this lifelong baseball fan, that’s a hideous and unwelcome change.

In both 1977 and 2022, a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers started the game for the National League. In ’77, it was future Hall of Famer Don Sutton; last night, it was a nearly certain future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw, a nine-time All-Star. The difference is that, with a career record of 192-86 (.691), a 2.48 ERA, and 3 Cy Young Awards, the hometown fans last night knew they were watching a future Hall of Famer take the hill in the top of the 1st inning. In 1977, Sutton’s future plaque in Cooperstown was anything but certain. Sutton had a fine career record of 186-140 (.589) and an even 3.00 ERA but was only making his 4th All-Star appearance and had never won a Cy Young. One thing that was the same was that neither Dodger hurler gave up a run.

But, oh, that ugly Dodger Gold. Sheesh.

Embed from Getty Images

1977: My First All-Star Game

I was born in New York City in 1967, but because my parents didn’t care about the game, I didn’t start following baseball until 1975, when I discovered trading cards through my 3rd-grade classmates. I vaguely recall this, but the first time I watched the All-Star game was in 1975, and it was the only time I saw Hank Aaron live on TV. At 41, it was his final Mid-Summer Classic; he lined out to shortstop in a 2nd inning pinch hitting performance.

Two years later, the All-Star Game came to New York City, and, thanks to the connections of one of my classmates’ fathers, I was privileged to attend my first Mid-Summer Classic in person at Yankee Stadium. In the 1970s, the baseball All-Star Game was a really, REALLY big deal. The players cared about winning, and the television audiences were immense. For me at the age of 10, it was by far the biggest sporting event I had ever attended.

The game featured 16 Hall of Famers who played in the contest, another three who didn’t make it into the game, plus Hall of Fame Manager Sparky Anderson, who was skippering the National League squad.

WP Table Builder

The game also featured several players who were big stars but never made the Hall of Fame. I’m talking about players like Pete Rose, Steve Garvey, Dave Parker, Fred Lynn, Thurman Munson, Graig Nettles, Vida Blue, and Mark “the Bird” Fidrych.

The N.L. had dominated the game for years, having won 13 of the previous 14 contests. The American League starter, Jim Palmer of the Baltimore Orioles, had previously started the 1970 and 1972 games (against Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson), earning no decisions in both. And, if the A.L. felt snake-bit, it didn’t help that the first batter of the game, Cincinnati’s Joe Morgan, hit a solo home run deep to right field. For me, as a ten-year-old kid, this should have been really neat to see, a home run by a member of the previous year’s World Championship team. But I had emotionally invested in the Boston Red Sox in the 1975 World Series (against Morgan’s Reds) and transferred that allegiance to the A.L. squad for the All-Star Game.

Much to my dismay, Palmer gave up an additional three runs in the first inning on an RBI double by George Foster (also on the Reds, who would go on to hit 52 home runs and win the ’77 N.L. MVP) and a two-run home run by the Phillies’ Greg Luzinski. In today’s game, Palmer would not have pitched beyond that first inning, but he came back in the 2nd and the 3rd as well. After the Dodgers’ Garvey led off the 3rd with another solo blast, manager Billy Martin (of the hometown Yankees) replaced Palmer with Cleveland’s Jim Kern.

On the other side, Sutton was mowing down the American League lineup, laden with five Hall of Fame position players (Rod Carew, George Brett, Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Jackson, and Carlton Fisk). Sutton pitched three scoreless innings and ultimately would be named the game’s MVP.

As a fan rooting for the A.L., I was pleased to see another Indians pitcher (Dennis Eckersley) toss two perfect innings in the 4th and 5th, and that memory would eventually put a smile on my face when the Red Sox traded for him the following spring.

Now, being a Boston Red Sox fan in the 1970s while going to school in New York City was not the easiest thing in the world. Fortunately, if you’re a baseball fan in the Big Apple, you get two teams to choose from so, in 1976, I also became a fan of the New York Mets. In July of ’77, however, I was a little down on the Mets because they had just traded their franchise ace Tom Seaver to the hated Reds.

So, at the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium just over a month later, the second time I ever got to see Seaver live in person, he was wearing a Cincinnati uniform. Tom wasn’t terrific that night; the newly minted Red gave up three runs in two innings of relief, tightening the score to 5-3.

Embed from Getty Images

In the 8th inning, to the home crowd’s delight, Martin brought the Yankees’ bullpen ace (Sparky Lyle, the eventual A.L. Cy Young Award winner) into the game. To the crowd’s non-delight, future Yankee Dave Winfield (then a young star with the San Diego Padres) hit a two-run single to extend the N.L. lead to 7-3.

In the 9th, with a two-run lead, Sparky Anderson turned the game over to the Pittsburgh Pirates stopper, flamethrower Goose Gossage. I didn’t know much about Gossage yet, but he was in the middle of a dominant season that would earn him a big free agent contract with the Yankees after the season. After walking the A’s Bert Campaneris, Gossage struck out future teammate Nettles.

The next batter, the Red Sox’ George Scott, then proceeded to hit a long home run to deep right-center field. Because Scott (the original “Boomer,” a nickname also owned by my future colleague and friend Chris Berman) played first base (my position on my 5th-grade softball team), he was my favorite member of the BoSox.

And so, although I was rooting for the A.L. and they wound up losing 7-5 (Gossage retired future teammates Willie Randolph and Thurman Munson to end the game), I left with the memory of my favorite member of the Sox hitting a home run in the ballpark of their biggest rivals and on one of baseball’s biggest stages.

This is a link to the full broadcast of the ’77 All-Star Game; Scott’s blast occurs at 2:13:25.

The 1999 All-Star Game at Fenway Park

I had the privilege of attending five All-Star Games during my 12 years at ESPN. I was in Baltimore in 1993, Arlington in 1995, Philadelphia in 1996, Denver in 1998, and Boston in 1999. The ’99 edition, hosted at historic Fenway Park, was especially memorable for a couple of reasons. On a personal level, I had the rare opportunity to meet Ted Williams, who was a guest on Up Close. The Splendid Splinter was near the end of his life; he passed away two years later.

As for the action at Fenway, the Home Run Derby (featuring Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa) was thrilling; seeing some of the game’s top sluggers take aim at the Green Monster was a treat. In the game itself, won 4-1 by the American League, Boston’s Pedro Martinez authored one of the greatest pitching performances in the history of the Mid-Summer Classic. In two innings of work, Pedro struck out five members of the N.L. squad: Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Jeff Bagwell. If it weren’t for the admitted and suspected use of Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) by McGwire and Sosa, history would be able to record that Martinez whiffed five future Hall of Famers that night at Fenway. Ironically, in a ballpark famous for sluggers and the big wall in left field, no home runs were hit in the game.

However, by far the highlight of the festivities in Boston was the introduction of the All-Century Team, unveiled in 1999 because it was the final season of the 20th century. There were 31 living Hall of Famers on the field to take their proverbial bows, highlighted by the grand entrance in a golf cart by Williams, the greatest player in the history of the Red Sox. For any lifelong baseball fan, seeing Williams, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and 28 others on the field at the same time was an unforgettable memory.

Embed from Getty Images

From 1977 to 2022

I left ESPN at the end of May in 2001, but not before I got the special treat of meeting Aaron one week before the 2000 All-Star Game in Atlanta, which I did not attend. The next game I had the opportunity to witness was at Angel Stadium in Anaheim in 2010. I also made a trip to Cleveland to see the Futures Game, Home Run Derby, and All-Star Game in 2019. Thanks to a well-connected friend, our party of four got to sit behind home plate, just five rows behind Joe Torre and Jim Leyland. And then there were the last two nights at Dodger Stadium.

The 1977 All-Star Game, my first one at age 10, featured four home runs, including George Scott’s blast in the 9th. There were three taters in last night’s contest. After an RBI single by Mookie Betts and a double-play groundout by Manny Machado that took Mookie off the basepaths, Paul Goldschmidt of the St. Louis Cardinals walloped a solo blast to left field off Tampa Bay’s Shane McClanahan to give the N.L. a 2-0 lead.

In the top of the 4th inning, with the N.L. still leading 2-0, the Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton hit a titanic 457-foot home run off the Dodgers’ Tony Gonsolin to tie the score at 2. It was a blast worthy of the previous evening’s Home Run Derby. One batter later, Minnesota’s Byron Buxton hit a solo HR to deep left field to give the A.L. a 3-2 lead. Those were the final runs to be scored in the game.

Most baseball fans who are old enough to remember the 1977 Mid-Summer Classic would agree that the game isn’t quite the spectacle it used to be. I’m sure that most of the players still would like to be on the winning side, but it’s not as important as it was to Pete Rose and the other N.L. players from the 70s, who took pride in consistently whipping the A.L. But it’s still a celebration of most of the game’s biggest stars.

As a resident of Redondo Beach, California, I was delighted to be able to attend the game (and Monday’s Home Run Derby). It was my 9th Mid-Summer Classic. But none will ever top the first time that I witnessed in person the players from all 26 franchises showcase their team colors.

Thanks for reading.

Chris Bodig

Embed from Getty Images