Top 5 Major League Baseball All-Star Game Moments

The 92nd edition of the Mid-Summer Classic is just days away, as the best of the best will be up against one another. Special moments are bound to happen when you have that amount of talent on one field. There have been some incredible highlight plays in All-Star Game history.

So let’s take a trip down memory lane to further appreciate this year’s exhibition. 

Let’s set the stage. It’s 1941, Joe DiMaggio is about halfway through his record 56-game hitting streak, and Ted Williams is hitting well over .400 at the All-Star break. These two men are at the peak of fame in mid-July, batting back to back in a loaded American League lineup.

The AL enters the bottom of the ninth trailing 5-3. They load the bases with one out for none other than Joe DiMaggio. Joltin Joe doesn’t get the job done as he grounds out to short, which drives in a run, but his hustle kept the game alive for the Splendid Splinter. Williams steps to the plate with the game on the line. The tying run is on third, and DiMaggio is the winning run one first. Ultimately, Teddy Ballgame would play the hero in the most significant way possible as he launched a ball over the right-field fence to win the game.

Williams would reflect later in life that this was one of the most significant moments of his career. Given the stars on the field and the history he and the rival Dimaggio were making, it was also one of the most significant moments in All-Star game history. 

The 1999 All-Star game was a special occasion, as they have brought every living member of the first All-Century team onto the field before the game in Boston. With the current All-Stars included, it was considered the greatest collection of baseball talent ever assembled. The game would become even more magical as the first pitch was thrown.

Red Sox ace Pedro Martinez was the starting pitcher for the American League. He was in the middle of one of the best pitching seasons ever was getting to start the All-Star Game in front of the hometown fans. How did he make his mark on the game? By striking five of the six hitters he faced. Three of those hitters were Hall of Famers Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, and Jeff Bagwell. Oh, and Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire were also sat down in between. 

In 2001, it was the final season for “the Ironman,” Cal Ripken Jr. The Hall of Fame shortstop had one last blast left in him as he would homer in the bottom of the third inning off Chan Ho Park. The home run was the perfect cap on his legendary career. He and Tony Gwynn would later be honored by former commissioner Bud Selig when he presented them with the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award. The evening was memorable for those two, and Ripken gave us all a moment we won’t forget.

It’s 1993, and Randy Johnson is already the most feared pitcher in the game. The 6’10” lefty was overpowering everyone and had one of the best sliders in the game to go boot. However, his velocity came with command issues during this stage of his career, and Phillies’ first baseman wanted no part of Johnson as a left-handed batter. The Big Unit could sense the fear in Kruk, so he threw the first pitch in and up over his head by about five feet. It scared Kruk so much that he was nearly on the edge of the batter’s box and waved at the following three pitches. He would have needed an oar to make contact. 

In a later interview, Kruk talked about how his approach changed in that at-bat. He said, “At first I thought ‘all I want to do is make contact,’ but after the first pitch, all I wanted was to live. And I lived. So I had a good at-bat.” This at-bat is now what many fans think of when you mention John Kruk or Randy Johnson. 

Now that headline does not describe what Twins outfielder Torii Hunter was wearing in the 2002 All-Star Game. In the bottom of the first, Barry Bonds, the most feared power hitter in the game, stepped to the plate. He would send a towering drive to right-center field, but who was there, Torii Hunter. He skyed way above the wall to rob Bonds of a home run, who could not believe it. The all-time home run leader jokingly hoisted Hunter up like a child on his way off the field.

However, that wasn’t the only thing memorable, as, after 11 innings, Bud Selig would end the game and rule it a tie. That ruling would not go over well, so Selig implemented the stipulation that the All-Star game would determine home field advantage in the World Series.