02/08/2005 8:04 PM ET
Giants to host '07 All-Star Game
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Major League Baseball will award the Giants and SBC Park the 2007 All-Star Game, giving San Francisco the game for the third time and the National League a first in this era with back-to-back contests.
Neither the Giants nor the league office had any official announcement Tuesday. But the Giants said in a press release issued Wednesday morning that Commissioner Bud Selig will be in San Francisco to make the announcement at a at 1:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. ET) in SBC Park. The Giants' release also said that the team was making a "major announcement."
Following the 2006 game at Pittsburgh's PNC Park, San Francisco's turn will mark the first time since the early 1950s that one league, in this case the National, hosts the Midsummer Classic in consecutive seasons. This year's game is scheduled for July 12 at Detroit's Comerica Park.
Adding last year's classic at Houston's Minute Maid Park, the NL will have hosted the game three times during the four-year period beginning in 2004.
The selection makes good on Selig's quest to showcase the new ballparks opening around MLB rather than swap the game between the two leagues.
Including a new ballpark to be opened in St. Louis for the 2006 season, eight of the nine MLB ballparks inaugurated since the start of the 2000 season will have been in NL cities. In addition, the Washington Nationals hope to debut a new stadium in 2008.
Since the Giants moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, the team has hosted the game twice at Candlestick Park -- in 1961 and 1984. The former New York Giants also hosted the All-Star Game twice at the old Polo Grounds in 1934 and 1942.
The American League won the two games played in New York and the NL won the two games played in San Francisco.
It will have been 23 years between All-Star Games played in San Francisco.
SBC Park, formally known as Pacific Bell Park, was opened in 2000. It was the site of the 2002 World Series, won by the Angels over the Giants in seven games, and has been home to many of the home run feats accomplished by local hero -- Giants slugger Barry Bonds.
Bonds hit career homers 600, 660, 661 and 700 at the ballpark nestled on the banks of McCovey Cove, his 700th homer coming off of Padres right-hander Jake Peavy to lead off the third inning last Sept. 17. Nos. 660 and 661 also came at home early last year and allowed him to pass his godfather, Willie Mays, into third place on the all-time list behind Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755).
Mays started in center field for the NL at Candlestick in 1961 and went 2-for-5 with a double, RBI and two runs scored as the senior circuit won, 5-4. The game in San Francisco was one of two All-Star Games that season. The other was played in Boston's Fenway Park in a game that was rained out after nine innings with the scored tied, 1-1.
There was a four-year period from 1959 to 1962 when MLB staged two All-Star games in each of those seasons.
Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
Giants to host '07 All-Star Game
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Major League Baseball will award the Giants and SBC Park the 2007 All-Star Game, giving San Francisco the game for the third time and the National League a first in this era with back-to-back contests.
Neither the Giants nor the league office had any official announcement Tuesday. But the Giants said in a press release issued Wednesday morning that Commissioner Bud Selig will be in San Francisco to make the announcement at a at 1:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. ET) in SBC Park. The Giants' release also said that the team was making a "major announcement."
Following the 2006 game at Pittsburgh's PNC Park, San Francisco's turn will mark the first time since the early 1950s that one league, in this case the National, hosts the Midsummer Classic in consecutive seasons. This year's game is scheduled for July 12 at Detroit's Comerica Park.
Adding last year's classic at Houston's Minute Maid Park, the NL will have hosted the game three times during the four-year period beginning in 2004.
The selection makes good on Selig's quest to showcase the new ballparks opening around MLB rather than swap the game between the two leagues.
Including a new ballpark to be opened in St. Louis for the 2006 season, eight of the nine MLB ballparks inaugurated since the start of the 2000 season will have been in NL cities. In addition, the Washington Nationals hope to debut a new stadium in 2008.
Since the Giants moved to San Francisco after the 1957 season, the team has hosted the game twice at Candlestick Park -- in 1961 and 1984. The former New York Giants also hosted the All-Star Game twice at the old Polo Grounds in 1934 and 1942.
The American League won the two games played in New York and the NL won the two games played in San Francisco.
It will have been 23 years between All-Star Games played in San Francisco.
SBC Park, formally known as Pacific Bell Park, was opened in 2000. It was the site of the 2002 World Series, won by the Angels over the Giants in seven games, and has been home to many of the home run feats accomplished by local hero -- Giants slugger Barry Bonds.
Bonds hit career homers 600, 660, 661 and 700 at the ballpark nestled on the banks of McCovey Cove, his 700th homer coming off of Padres right-hander Jake Peavy to lead off the third inning last Sept. 17. Nos. 660 and 661 also came at home early last year and allowed him to pass his godfather, Willie Mays, into third place on the all-time list behind Babe Ruth (714) and Hank Aaron (755).
Mays started in center field for the NL at Candlestick in 1961 and went 2-for-5 with a double, RBI and two runs scored as the senior circuit won, 5-4. The game in San Francisco was one of two All-Star Games that season. The other was played in Boston's Fenway Park in a game that was rained out after nine innings with the scored tied, 1-1.
There was a four-year period from 1959 to 1962 when MLB staged two All-Star games in each of those seasons.
Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
