Find All-Star Game stories online in SABR Research Collection
JULY 4, 2023 — Next week, Major League Baseball holds its 93rd All-Star Game at Seattle’s T-Mobile Park. It will be the third time Seattle has hosted the Midsummer Classic. At the Kingdome in 1979, Dave Parker’s stellar right-field defense and Lee Mazzilli’s game-tying home run and go-ahead bases-loaded walk gave the National League its eighth straight win over the American League.
The 2001 All-Star Game, played at T-Mobile Park (then known as Safeco Field), reflected baseball’s increasing internationalization in the 21st century, as Hall of Famers Luis Aparicio, Orlando Cepeda, Ferguson Jenkins, Juan Marichal, and Tony Pérez threw ceremonial first pitches and Ichiro Suzuki, in his first season in the United States, had the game’s first hit. In the 19th and final All-Star appearance of his singular career, Cal Ripken Jr. hit a home run and received MVP honors.
The SABR Games Project has published new articles on the two All-Star Games played in Seattle: Larry DeFillipo on the 1979 game and Gary Belleville on the 2001 game.
Celebrate the All-Star Game by visiting the Games Project’s collection of articles on past Midsummer Classics. Articles on games reaching noteworthy anniversaries in 2023 include the NL-AL and East-West Negro Leagues games played 75 years ago in 1948, the 1973 All-Star Game played in Kansas City, and the 1998 game at Denver’s Coors Field.
— John Fredland
Originally published: July 4, 2023. Last Updated: July 4, 2023.