ASG News

Baseball All-Star Game News and Information

ASG Weekly Roundup: April 24 – May 1, 2016

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Now that baseball season is underway, talk of the All-Star Game has started up.  Here’s a recap of this week’s headlines:

4/24/16

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Voting Now Open for 2016 MLB All-Star Game

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Voting for the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game starters has officially begun. As was the case in 2015, this year’s vote will be online and mobile only, with fans having the option to cast their ballots via the ballot on MLB.com, text messaging, and the MLB.com At-Bat mobile app.

Fans will be able to vote up to five times per day (technically, per 24-hour period), and up to 35 times in total. The voting period is scheduled to end Thursday, June 30.

According to MLB, a record 620 million votes were cast in 2015, which surpassed the previous record of 391 million in 2012.

More details about this year’s vote are available in the press release from MLB announcing the start of balloting.

Tomorrow is the Deadline to Register For 2016 All-Star Ticket Strip Opportunity

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For those who are interested in purchasing a ticket to the 2016 Major League Baseball All-Star Game without having to go through a reseller or purchasing San Diego Padres season tickets first, you must first register for the All-Star Week Ticket Opportunity, which is a drawing that determines who will get a chance to purchase an All-Star ticket strip.  Each ticket strip includes:

  • One ticket for All-Star Sunday (Futures Game and Legends & Celebrities Softball Game) on Sunday, July 10
  • One ticket for All-Star Workout Day, which includes the Home Run Derby, on Monday, July 11
  • One ticket for the All-Star Game on Tuesday, July 12
  • Two tickets for the All-Star FanFest, held at the San Diego Convention Center Friday, July 8 through Tuesday the 12th
  • One All-Star Game program

The deadline to register for the drawing is tomorrow, April 20, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time.  According to MLB, the drawing is tentatively scheduled for Monday, April 25th, with winners being notified later in the week (on or about the 28th).  For those who are eligible or have been selected for the opportunity to purchase ticket strips, the sale of those strips is tentatively planned to occur on or about Friday, May 6.

The registration form is available on the MLB website, where individual tickets for the FanFest and All-Star Sunday are already on sale.  In addition, discounts for FanFest tickets are available on Tuesdays and Fridays; details are available on the MLB FanFest ticket page.

MLB Unveils Uniform Designs for 2016 All-Star Game and Workout Day

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Major League Baseball has unveiled the cap designs for the 2016 MLB All-Star Game, as well as the jersey and cap designs for the All-Star Workout Day and Home Run Derby.

The All-Star Game caps will feature a gold outline around the team logo, gold metal stars around the eyelets on the front panel, and gray brims. On the reverse, a pair of stars will flank the MLB logo, as will be the case on the back of the player jerseys. Each jersey also will feature the player’s signature on the front at the bottom right, with an ASG patch appearing on the sleeve. Jerseys otherwise will match each player’s regular uniform, with American League players wearing their home jersey and the National League wearing road jerseys despite playing in an NL ballpark, San Diego’s Petco Park.

The Workout Day caps and jerseys will have an orange, brown, and yellow theme that pays homage to the Padres uniforms of the 1970s and ’80s. The caps will be brown with a white front panel, featuring the team name in orange retro lettering, and a yellow brim. The NL jerseys will be primarily brown with yellow along the edges and sleeves, with the colors reversed for the AL.

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MLB All-Star Game 2016: Way-Too-Early Projections

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In January of 2014, BleacherReport predicted that 7 up-and-coming players would make the All-Star Game within 3 years.  Those players were: Byron Buxton (OF), Oscar Taveras (OF), Xander Bogaerts (SS), Archie Bradley (RHP), Francisco Lindor (SS), Gregory Polanco (OF), and Austin Hedges (C).  Tragically, Oscar Taveras passed away in a car accident in October of 2014. While each of the other players has received recognition on some level, none have yet reached the level of MLB All-Star.  This year may be the year for one or more of these players, but the 2016 All-Star Game will mean the expiration of this prediction.

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Chicago in the Mix For an All-Star Game in the Near Future

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A few days ago, CBS Chicago quoted MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred as saying, “It makes sense the Cubs get an opportunity ahead after the new renovations are complete.”  He went on to say, “This will provide the Cubs and Ricketts family a chance to showcase the unbelievable renovation they are in the midst of doing for Wrigley Field. Timing wise, we have the schedule of cities set through Washington ( in 2018). We will have an open and complete competition for the All-Star Game beyond that time.”

Naturally, the commissioner’s words have stirred speculation and hopes among Cubs fans for the opportunity to host the 2019 All-Star Game.  Sporting News also made note of the commissioner’s quotes although refrained from speculation.  Fox Sports went out on the limb a bit more to suggest that the Cubs are likely to host the game in the near future while hinting at the 2019 season.  Chicago Now has placed their guess on the year 2020, rather than 2019.  Our readers may remember that ASG News speculated that it was possible for Chicago to leapfrog L.A. because of their renovations, although for now our projection for 2019 continues to be Toronto, given that the National League will have hosted four years in a row, and it’s certainly possible that the Wrigley renovations might not be completely wrapped up in time.

While the location for the 2019 All-Star Game is still unknown, we know that the commissioner has his eye on Chicago.  The city certainly is due to host the game soon and the excitement around their renovations could help them cut to the front of the line.  Cubs fans have taken the commissioner’s latest statement as a good sign that they will have the opportunity to showcase a renovated Wrigley Field soon after the project is completed.

AFL Fall Stars Game Recap

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Overview:

This year’s AFL Fall Stars game showed a lot of promising talent and had lots of entertaining plays.  Fans got to see triple-digit fastballs, in-the-park home-runs, and a bizarre acrobatic move on a botched steal.  In the end, the West beat the East by the score of 8-3.  You can read more about it with the links below, see video highlights, and read some team blogs and hear their evaluation of their prospects.

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Preview: 10th Annual Arizona Fall League Fall Stars Game

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Overview:

This Saturday will be the Arizona Fall League’s 10th Annual Fall Stars Game.  The game will take place at Salt River Fields in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Here is a quick look at some of the media coverage leading up to this week’s game:

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Predicting Who Will Host the 2019 MLB All-Star Game

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With the 2015 All-Star Game behind us, attention has turned to San Diego, where the Padres will play host to the 2016 game. Following that will be the 2017 game in Miami and the 2018 game in Washington, D.C.  But who will host the 2019 All-Star Game?

Many factors are considered when making this decision, not least of which is how long it has been since a team hosted the game.  The five teams that have gone the longest without hosting the All-Star Game, with the Los Angeles Dodgers having the longest drought by far, having most recently hosted in 1980. After that, it’s the Oakland Athletics (1987), the Chicago Cubs (1990), the Toronto Blue Jays (1991), and the Baltimore Orioles (1993), whose Oriole Park at Camden Yards started the recent wave of new, retro-themed ballparks.  The Tampa Bay Rays have never hosted, although they didn’t begin play until 1998.

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All-Star Trade Roundup

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Many of this year’s All-Star players appeared to be trade candidates, with USA Today reporting that trade deadline activity was robust with All-Stars.  In the end, there were three big trades and you can read all about them below.  We’ve provided reactions and analysis of each trade from each city involved.

David Price (Detroit to Toronto)

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