Throwback glory: Reflecting on a pair of epic MLB All-Star Games

With the All-Star Game happening this week, I wanted to take you on a ride back in time to two of my favorite All Star games: 1999 and 1983.

1999 MLB All-Star Game: Fenway Park

For anyone who has visited Fenway, you will immediately feel a mystique that is unique to this stadium. You feel like you are on hallowed ground … and you are! Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Tris Speaker, Babe Ruth and many others called this place home. It’s as close as you can get to a real Field of Dreams, where you think the ghosts of players are going to come through the door in the left field wall to play the game.

Major League Baseball played upon this mystique for this year’s game. They brought out the All Century Team with the final introduction of “the greatest hitter that ever lived,” Ted Williams. I watched it live and saw the reruns and it still gives me chills to this day … a truly magical moment. With records falling and the end of the century, it was the perfect time and perfect place to pay tribute to the greats of the last 100 years.

Once the game started, we got to see some absolute titans of the game. Home runs were the talk at the time; Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were still chasing each other and 1998 was still very fresh in the minds of many. One man, however, stood in the way … a man who didn’t look like he was carved out of stone like the big hitters. A man who was making history of his own on the mound preventing home runs. That man is Pedro Martinez.

Martinez started the game and, with everything going on, you just knew you were in for something real special. The Red Sox pitcher understood this and, as he always did, rose to the occasion. Of the six batters he faced that night, he struck out five of them. Three of them would eventually be Hall of Famers (Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, and Jeff Bagwell) and the other three could have been if it wasn’t for what they did (we won’t get into that). To give you an idea of what Martinez did that night, the guys he struck out combined for 10,848 hits and 2,222 home runs. Wow.

1983 MLB All-Star Game: Comiskey Park

This game had a much different feel to it. It was David vs. Goliath. The National League dominated All-Star games at the time. Since 1960, the American League won two … in 1962 and 1971. Many were thinking the same thing was going to happen again at Comiskey Park with another National League victory. But the American League representatives had something else in mind. They traded single runs in the first inning and the American League pulled ahead with another run against Mario Soto in the second.

Atlee Hammaker took the mound in the third, and the American League struck quickly. A home run by Jim Rice and a triple by George Brett put Hammaker in a quick bind. He proceeded to load the bases for another hero of Fenway Park, Fred Lynn. This lefty-on-lefty matchup might have seemed favorable for the pitcher, but that year Lynn hit exactly .272 against both lefties and righties. Lynn took the 2-2 pitch from Hammaker and deposited it in the right field stands for the first grand slam in All-Star Game history. After the historic home run, you can hear the crowd chanting “Hey Hey, Goodbye” to Hammaker and the hopes for the National League.

So make sure you keep an eye out on this year’s game: You may get to see something truly amazing and possibly a moment for the history books.