Tuesday, July 12, 2011
July 12th In AL Vs. NL History
Our league has played the weird other one 6 times on July 12th. We've won 3 and lost 3. Five of the 6 games were played in NL parks.
1949 @ NL (Brooklyn): 11-7 W Mel Parnell started for the AL, who improved their record to 12-4. This was the first All-Star Game to feature black players.
1955 @ NL (Milwaukee): 6-5 L Stan the Man hits the first pitch of the bottom of the 12th out of the park to win it for the NL, who had trailed 5-0 going to the bottom of the 7th.
1966 @ NL (St. Louis): 2-1 L On a 105-degree day in St. Louis, Maury Wills singled home Tim McCarver with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th.
1988 @ NL (Cincinnati): 2-1 W After losing every game from '72 to '82, the AL had started to regain control by the late '80s. Terry Steinbach knocked in both runs for the AL in the '88 game, becoming the first player to hit a homer in his first MLB at bat and his first All-Star Game at bat. I remember being so excited that my favorite player at the time, Mike Greenwell, made his first All-Star Game. He finally got a chance to bat, and hit a solid line drive to left that looked like a sure hit. But Andy Van Slyke made a great catch. The moment was especially terrible for me, since a few of us 7th graders decided for no apparent reason to follow the Pittsburgh Pirates. (When you and your friends root for rival teams, you look wherever you can to find common ground--which is also why we all rooted for the New York-New Jersey Knights of the World Football League. And the National League was about as foreign to us as the World Football League was to everybody, so there was no harm in "rooting" for the Pirates.) Aided by the Panini sticker book, we loved Jose Lind the most, but also liked Bream, Bonilla, LaValliere, and of course Van Slyke. Damn, of all the guys to rob the Gator...
1994 @ NL (Pittsburgh): 8-7 L Fred McGriff tied the game with a 2-run dong in the bottom of the 9th. Moises Alou knocked home Tony Gwynn with a 10th inning double to give the NL their first win since 1987. One month later, the strike would begin, leaving us with no World Series in 1994. The New York Yankees were named that season's honorary champions by their fans, who also determined that Paul O'Neill definitely would have hit .400.
2005 @ AL (Detroit): 7-5 W In the first All-Star Game ever played on July 12 in an AL park, Matt Clement and the rest of the AL stars jumped out to a 7-0 lead and held on for a 7-5 win.
1949 @ NL (Brooklyn): 11-7 W Mel Parnell started for the AL, who improved their record to 12-4. This was the first All-Star Game to feature black players.
1955 @ NL (Milwaukee): 6-5 L Stan the Man hits the first pitch of the bottom of the 12th out of the park to win it for the NL, who had trailed 5-0 going to the bottom of the 7th.
1966 @ NL (St. Louis): 2-1 L On a 105-degree day in St. Louis, Maury Wills singled home Tim McCarver with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th.
1988 @ NL (Cincinnati): 2-1 W After losing every game from '72 to '82, the AL had started to regain control by the late '80s. Terry Steinbach knocked in both runs for the AL in the '88 game, becoming the first player to hit a homer in his first MLB at bat and his first All-Star Game at bat. I remember being so excited that my favorite player at the time, Mike Greenwell, made his first All-Star Game. He finally got a chance to bat, and hit a solid line drive to left that looked like a sure hit. But Andy Van Slyke made a great catch. The moment was especially terrible for me, since a few of us 7th graders decided for no apparent reason to follow the Pittsburgh Pirates. (When you and your friends root for rival teams, you look wherever you can to find common ground--which is also why we all rooted for the New York-New Jersey Knights of the World Football League. And the National League was about as foreign to us as the World Football League was to everybody, so there was no harm in "rooting" for the Pirates.) Aided by the Panini sticker book, we loved Jose Lind the most, but also liked Bream, Bonilla, LaValliere, and of course Van Slyke. Damn, of all the guys to rob the Gator...
1994 @ NL (Pittsburgh): 8-7 L Fred McGriff tied the game with a 2-run dong in the bottom of the 9th. Moises Alou knocked home Tony Gwynn with a 10th inning double to give the NL their first win since 1987. One month later, the strike would begin, leaving us with no World Series in 1994. The New York Yankees were named that season's honorary champions by their fans, who also determined that Paul O'Neill definitely would have hit .400.
2005 @ AL (Detroit): 7-5 W In the first All-Star Game ever played on July 12 in an AL park, Matt Clement and the rest of the AL stars jumped out to a 7-0 lead and held on for a 7-5 win.
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