On Tuesday night, over 3,000 writers, journalists, and photographers will be on hand at Yankee Stadium to cover the final All-Star Game to be played in the House That Ruth Built.
        Yankee Stadium has been host to the Midsummer Classic four times; the other times were in 1939 when Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio slapped a solo shot in the fifth inning to preserve an A.L. victory. The other two appearances, the National League blanked the Junior Circuit 6-0 in 1960 and 7-5 in 1977.
        Taken together, New York has been host to an All-Star game eight times if you include games played at the Polo Grounds in 1934 and 1942, Ebbets Field in 1949, and Shea Stadium in 1964.
        It’s only fitting, then, that Major League Baseball hold the All-Star Game in the final year at Yankees Stadium, considering the Bombers, winners of 26 World Championships and 39 American League Pennants, have suited-up 112 All-Star players, the most of any Major League team, since the Midsummer Classic was inaugurated in 1933. 
        With such a galaxy of stars, you’d think the Yanks would have had more All-Star MVPs. Surprisingly enough; Derek Jeter in 2000 at Turner Field in Atlanta is the only Yankee to claim the honors, when he clubbed two singles, a double, drove in a run and scored a run.
         Not only is the Big Apple proud-as-punch to have the world feast its eyes on Yankee Stadium in front of a nationally televised audience, the city’s finances will benefit as well. According to the New York’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), the All-Star Game will generate $184. 4 million in economic activity, not exactly chump change.
        So for those itching for a little Yankee Stadium nostalgia and All-Star Game history, the Press Office of Major League Baseball has provided The Morning Delivery with a few historical nuggets as we prepare to crack open up a cold one and squeeze a little mustard on our pretzels for the 79th Midsummer’s Classic.

Yankee Stadium History

April 18, 1923: Yankee stadium is open for business.
74,200 fans pass through the turnstiles to watch the Bombers beat the Boston Red Sox, 4-1, in a game which included a moon shot from Babe Ruth.

November 12, 1928: Legendary Notre Dame Head Coach Knute Rockne belts out his famous half-time speech: ``Win One For the Gipper’’
The Fighting Irish beat Army, 12-8.

July 1, 1939: One of the first televised boxing matches takes place between Max Baer and Lou Nova.

October 5, 1947: The Yankees defeat cross-town rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game Seven of the World Series during the first televised World Series.

October 8, 1956: Don Larsen pitches a perfect game in Game Five of the World Series, the first time a no-hitter has ever been thrown during a Fall Classic

December 28, 1958: Considered to be the ``greatest football game ever played’’ the Baltimore Colts defeat the New York Giants, when Al Ameche lunges in from the one-yard line, scoring the winning touchdown during the first overtime in NFL history.

May 13, 1967: Mickey Mantle makes history when he blasts his 500th home-run, becoming the first switch-hitter in baseball history to accomplish such a feat.

September 28, 1976: Muhammad Ali defeats Ken Norton in a close but unanimous decision in the last boxing match to take place at Yankee Stadium.

April 20, 2006: Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass at Yankee Stadium, making him the third pope to appear at Yankee stadium

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All-Star Game History

• The first All-Star Game was held at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1933, when the AL won 3-1 on July 6th.

• FDR was the first president to attend an All-Star Game in 1937; George H.W. Bush was the last in 1992

• There was no All-Star Game in 1945 due to World War II travel restrictions.

• 2003 marked the first year the winner of the Midsummer Classic would be awarded home field advantage during the World Series.

• Satchel Paige, 47, of the St. Louis Browns, was the oldest player to appear in an All-Star Game in 1953. The youngest was the New York Mets’ Dwight Gooden, aka ``Dr. K’’, at age 19, in 1984.

• The longest nine-inning game was three hours and 38 minutes at Coors Field in Denver on July 7, 1998; the shortest was one-hour and 53 minutes at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis on  July 9th, 1940.

• The New York Yankees Lefty Gomez holds the record for most All-Star Game wins at 3 in 1933, 1935, and 1937.

• Philadelphia Phillies’ third baseman Willie Jones steps to the plate seven times (in an extra-inning game) on July 11th, 1950, a Major League record for an All-Star Game.

• Ralph Kiner smacks back-to-back-to-back home runs in 1949, 1950, and 1951

• Fred Lynn of the Boston Red Sox holds the record as the only player to belt a grand slam on July 6th, 1983.

-Bill Lucey
billlucey@bellsouth.net