My sports-obsessed nostalgia and curiosity has kicked in again with this year’s MLB All Star Game.  If you remember, I used to do a lot of “history” posts in which I’d break down the all-time results of a big game or tournament, or research different records and things of that sort.  With football and basketball over, and baseball in the dog days of its summer season, there haven’t been too many events to delve into with such detail.

That is, until this week, when the sports world stops to celebrate the biggest and brightest stars of our national pastime.

Certainly, the All Star Game has lost some of the luster that it had when my dad was younger.  Back in those days (at least according to the legends I’ve been told) you typically saw one or maybe a couple of games per week, and most of these nationally televised games involved the Yankees.  This was before the Internet, before the MLB Network, before Baseball Tonight, before fantasy baseball, before cable, etc.  Thus, baseball fans like my then-Yankees-obsessed dad (we’ve slowly but surely split his allegiances between the Yankees and White Sox…or so he makes us think) had far, far fewer opportunities to watch and build fan relationships with the stars of their day than we do.  Sure, he was able to watch #7 on the weekends, and probably got to see a fair amount of Willie Mays and other stars in the big markets, but the All Star Game was really the only the time when you could see all of the best players in baseball in one place on one night.  That is a major part of what made the All Star game such an incredible event.

Today, all we have to do is watch the MLB Network for a half hour at night and there’s a good chance we’ll see nearly every superstar in the game take an AB.  Seriously.  (That’s why the MLB Network is awesome!)  And while this is great, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything, there is no chance that the All Star Game could maintain it’s old school magic in the new school era.

CHICAGO - JULY 6, 1933: Babe Ruth crosses home plate as teammate Lou Gehrig waits to congratulate him during the first inaugural All-Star game at Comiskey Park. (Photo by National Baseball Hall of Fame Library/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

But with all that said, I still love watching it.  And I love looking back on the history of what is unequivocally the greatest All Star game of them all.  So for today’s post, that’s what I am doing.  At the bottom of the post, you’ll see a table that lists the results of every All Star Game since its inception in 1933. (It’s a big table, so I didn’t want to break up the text of this post by listing it here.)

The first cool bit of information I learned this morning (at least for a good guy who wears black like me) that I did not know previously: glorious Comiskey Park is actually the cradle of the Midsummer Classic, as it held the first MLB All Star Game in 1933 as part of the World’s Fair in Chicago. Notice how they didn’t have the first All Star Game in decrepit, puke-worthy Wrigley Field.  (Suck it bleacher bums.)

One of the common refrains we will hear tonight during the telecast, and that we’ve heard all week, is how the AL dominates the NL in the All Star Game.  The American League has not lost an All Star Game since the 1996 game in Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, going 11-0-1 in the last 12 contests.  But the AL’s reign goes back even further than that, as the Junior Circuit also won six in a row from 1988 to 1993 after a short three-game streak by the NL.  So the AL is 17-3-1 in the last 21 All Star Games.

But here’s the rub: the National League still holds the all-time advantage at 41-36-2, meaning the NL went 38-19-1 from 1933 to 1987 with the following dominant streaks of their own:

• 11 in a row (1972-1982)
• 8 in a row (1963-1970)
• 19 out of 20 (1963-1982)

For whatever reason, the last four decades of All Star Games have seen one league dominate for long periods of time. Prior to 1963, the longest winning streak by either league was four and it happened only twice: NL 1950-1953; AL 1946-1949.  Something else I did not know: from 1959-1962 there were two All Star Games played each year, a format that was attempted but obviously was quickly changed.

In summation, it will be important for self-righteous AL fans (like myself) to remember that the AL’s decade of dominance still has not erased the gargantuan lead that the NL developed during the 60s and 70s.  But if the AL can hold on and keep winning until 2013, they’ll be able to even out the all-time series.

Now that we’ve discussed the all-time records and win streaks by league in the All Star Game’s history, let’s take a look at some of the more interesting individual records and achievements in the history of the Midsummer Classic. (All stats courtesy of Baseball Almanac.)

All Star Game Individual Records: Career Hitting

• Most Career All Star Game At-Bats: Willie Mays — 75 (in 24 games)
• Highest Career All Star Game Batting Average: Derek Jeter — .474 (in 9 games)
• Most Career All Star Game Extra Base Hits: Willie Mays and Stan Musial — 8 (in 24 games for both)
• Most Career All Star Game Grand Slams: Fred Lynn — 1 (it’s the only Grand Slam in All Star Game history)
• Most Career All Star Game Hits: Willie Mays — 23 (in 24 games)
• Most Career All Star Game Home Runs: Stan Musial — 6 (in 24 games)
• Most Career All Star Game Runs: Willie Mays — 20 (in 24 games)
• Most Career All Star Game Runs Batted In: Ted Williams — 12 (in 18 games)
• Most Career All Star Game Stolen Bases: Willie Mays — 6 (in 24 games)

Sluggers Stan Musial and Ted Williams pose together before a 1950's All Star game.

All Star Game Individual Records: Single Game Hitting

• Most At Bats in a Single All Star Game: Willie Jones (NL) — 7 in 1950 (14 inning game)
• Most Doubles in a Single All Star Game: 8 players (including Paul Konerko!) tied with two
• Most Hits in a Single All Star Game: Joe Medwick (NL), Ted Williams (AL), Carl Yastrzemski (AL) tied with 4
• Most Home Runs in a Single All Star Game: 5 players (including Ted Williams) tied with two
• Most RBIs in a Single All Star Game: Al Rosen (AL) and Ted Williams (AL) tied with five
• Most Runs in a Single All Star Game: Ted Williams — 4
• Most Strikeouts in a Single All Star Game: 12 players tied with three
• Most Stolen Bases in a Single All Star Game: Four players tied with 2

So, if you’re scoring at home, Ted Williams pretty much had the greatest All Star Game ever for a hitter in 1946.  He had 4 hits, 2 home runs, scored 4 runs, drove in 5, and also set the single-game record with 10 total bases.

Another interesting note: five players have led off an All Star with a home run: Lou Boudreau, Frankie Frisch, Willie Mays, Joe Morgan, and, of course, Bo Jackson.

Now let’s turn our attention towards the hurlers.

All Star Game Individual Records: Career Pitching

• Most Career All Star Appearances: Roger Clemens — 10 (in 10 games)
• Most Career All Star Games Started: Don Drysdale, Lefty Gomez, Robin Roberts — 5
• Most Career All Star Game Hits Allowed: Whitey Ford — 19 (in 6 games)
• Most Career All Star Games Pitched in Consecutively: Ewell Blackwell and Early Wynn — 6
• Most Career All Star Game Home Runs Allowed: Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter — 4
• Most Career All Star Game Innings Pitched: Don Drysdale — 19.1 (in 8 games)
• Most Career All Star Game Strikeouts: Don Drysdale — 19 (in 8 games)
• Most Career All Star Game Wins: Lefty Gomez — 3 (in 5 games)
• Most Career All Star Game Saves: Dennis Eckersley and Mariano Rivera — 3

All Star Game Individual Records: Single Game Pitching

• Most Earned Runs Allowed in a Single All Star Game: Atlee Hammacker — 7 (1983)
• Most Earned Runs Allowed in a Single All Star Game Inning: Atlee Hammacker — 7 (3rd inning in 1983)
• Most Hits Allowed in a Single All Star Game: Tom Glavine — 9 (1992)
• Most Home Runs Allowed in a Single All Star Game: Jim Palmer — 3 (1977)
• Most Innings Pitched in a Single All Star Game: Lefty Gomez — 6 (1935)
• Most Strikeouts in a Single All Star Game: Four players tied with 6

Other Interesting All Star Game Records

• Largest All Star Game Attendance: Municipal Stadium in Cleveland — 72,086 (1981…Cleveland actually won something!)
• Smallest All Star Game Attendance: Braves Field — 25,556 (1936)
• Earliest All Star Game Date: July 6th (four times)
• Longest All Star Game: 15 innings, twice (1967 in Anaheim and 2008 in Yankee Stadium)
• Most All Star Games Managed: Casey Stengel — 10


Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays and Hank Aaron stand together for a victory portrait after the 1961 All-Star Game in San Francisco. (© Bettmann/CORBIS)

• Most All Star Game Losses by a Manager: Casey Stengel — 6
• Most All Star Game Wins by a Manager: Walt Alston — 7
• Most All Star Games Played: Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Stan Musial — 24
• Most All Star Games Played on Losing Team: Brooks Robinson — 15
• Most All Star Games Played on Winning Team: Hank Aaron and Willie Mays — 17
• Oldest All Star: Satchel Paige — 47 years and 7 days old
• Youngest All Star: Dwight Gooden — 19 years, 7 months, and 24 days old

So that should be pretty much everything you ever wanted to know about individual performances for a career and in a single game in All Star history.  If you want to get more granular and look at the stats for individual All Star games, follow the link to the All Star Game index at Baseball-Reference.com.  There, you can view the box score for any game.

And finally, as promised, below is the table with the all-time list of All Star Game results and year-by-year winners.

Enjoy the game tonight everyone.  (And go AL!  The White Sox are going to need home field advantage when they shock the world and make it to the World Series…)

MLB All Star Game History: All-Time List of All Star Game Winners by Year

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* – Babe Ruth / Lou Gehrig photo found at: Legacy.com

* – Stan Musial / Ted Williams photo credit: ioffer.com

* – Roberto Clemente / Willie Mays / Hank Aaron photo credit: Achievement.org