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Since 2003, the pennant winner of the league winning the All-Star Game has been awarded home field advantage for the upcoming World Series . The most recent All-Star game (2007) was played at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California , home of the San Francisco Giants . The Americans won the game, thus securing home field edge in the 2007 World Series for their league. The first All-Star Game was held as part of the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago , Illinois , and was the brainchild of Arch Ward , then sports editor for '' The Chicago Tribune ''. Initially intended to be a one-time event, its great success resulted in making the game an annual one. Ward's contribution was recognized by Major League Baseball in 1962 with the creation of the "Arch Ward Trophy," given to the All-Star Game's Most Valuable Player each year. THE BALLPARKS The game's venue is chosen by Major League Baseball and traditionally alternates between the two leagues every year. This tradition has been broken twice. The first time was in 1951 , when the Detroit Tigers were chosen to host the annual game as part of the city's 250th birthday. It was broken again in 2007 , when the San Francisco Giants were the host for the 2007 All-Star Game. That scheduling also set up the 2008 game to be held in the scheduled final season at Yankee Stadium . The "home team" is the league in which the host franchise plays its games. The criteria for choosing the venue are subjective; for the most part, cities with new parks and cities who have not hosted the game in a long time--or ever--tend to get the nod. In the first two decades of the game, there were two teams that shared ballparks, Philadelphia and St. Louis. This led two some shorter-than-usual gaps between the use of those venues: The Cardinals hosted the game in 1940, and the Browns in 1948. The Athletics hosted the game in 1943, and the Phillies in 1952. The last All-Star Game to be played in a stadium that was not hosting its first All-Star Game was the 1999 game in Boston 's Fenway Park . The next one is due to be in 2008, when the game will be held at New York 's Yankee Stadium . To date, only three franchises have never hosted a game: the Florida Marlins (although scheduled to host the game in 2000, Major League Baseball later chose Atlanta), the Arizona Diamondbacks , and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays . The Washington Nationals Franchise hosted the game when they were the Montreal Expos , and All-Star Games have been played in D.C. hosted by both incarnations of the Washington Senators. In the 33 years between 1975 and 2007, the Chicago White Sox , Cleveland Indians , Pittsburgh Pirates , San Diego Padres , Milwaukee Brewers , Philadelphia Phillies , San Francisco Giants , Seattle Mariners and the Houston Astros , have all hosted the All-Star Game twice, during which time the New York Mets , St. Louis Cardinals , and Kansas City Royals have not hosted it. With the exception of Philadephia and San Diego, the other seven franchises who hosted twice in that time period did so between two stadiums: an original one usually scheduled for demolition, and then a new venue built in its place. Confirmed future sites
THE ROSTERS Selection of managers and coaches Normally the managers of the All-Star game are the same managers who faced each other during the previous year's World Series. The coaching staff for each team is selected by its manager. This honor is given to the manager, not the team, so it is possible that the All-Star manager could no longer be with the team with which he won. This happened in 2003 , when Dusty Baker managed the National League team despite having moved from the National League champion San Francisco Giants to the Chicago Cubs . This has also included situations where the person is no longer actively managing a team. For the first All-Star Game, intended as a one-time event, Connie Mack and John McGraw were regarded as baseball's venerable managers, and were asked to lead the American and National League teams, respectively. McGraw came out of retirement for that purpose. More recently, in 1979 , Bob Lemon managed the American League team after having been fired by New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner . There have been some exceptional cases where the usual rule was abandoned. After the 1964 season and the World Series , the managers, Johnny Keane of the St. Louis Cardinals and Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees , both left their teams and found new jobs in the other league -- Keane was hired to manage the Yanks and Berra became a player-coach with the New York Mets . The Philadelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds had finished in a second-place tie in the NL; the Chicago White Sox had finished second in the AL. Cincinnati's manager, Fred Hutchinson , had died in the off-season, so Gene Mauch of Phillies and Al Lopez of the White Sox were chose to be the managers for the 1965 All-Star Game. There was no World Series in 1994 due to the Players' Strike . In 1995 , Buck Showalter of the New York Yankees and Felipe Alou of the Montreal Expos were chosen as managers for the All-Star Game on the basis of their teams finishing with the best Win-loss Records in their respective (National and American) leagues during the previous season. Selection of players As of 2007, the rules call for each team to consist of 32 players (squad size for regulation games is 25 maximum, 24 minimum, until September 1). These players are currently selected though the following process:
History of player selection methods From 1935 through 1946 , the manager of each All-Star squad selected the entire team. Fans were given the opportunity to vote on the eight starting position players starting in 1947 . In 1957 , fans of the Cincinnati Reds stuffed the ballot box (see below), and elected a Red to every position except first base. Commissioner Ford Frick stepped in and removed two Reds from the lineup. As a response to this unfairness, fan voting was discontinued. Players, coaches, and managers were given the sole authority to elect starting position players, for the next dozen years. Between the lack of fan input and over-exposure due to the double All-Star Games during 1959-1962, interest in the game was thought to be waning. As part of the rise of the MLB Promotion Corporation's attempts to modernize marketing of baseball, fan balloting for the starting eight was restored for the 1970 game. Sometime in the 1960s, the distinction between left-fielder, center-fielder, and right-fielder was dropped, and it was provided that the top 3 vote-getters in the outfield category would start regardless of position. Prior to that the situation included remarks like "If you had Clemente, you couldn't have Aaron", and so on. Rico Carty was the first player ever selected to an All-Star team as a Write-in candidate by fans, in 1970 , the first year that voting was given back to the fans. Upon getting elected, he was quoted as saying "Thanks to the fans for making this possible, and thanks to Gillette for making this all necessary." Steve Garvey was the second player ever selected to an All-Star team as a Write-in candidate by fans, in 1974 . He was later the MVP of that game. Until 2003, reserves and pitchers were chosen by the manager. Player voting was re-introduced in 2003 because the managers were criticized for picking players from their own team over more deserving players from other teams. One continuing controversy of the player selection process is the rule that each team has to have at least one representative on its league's All-Star roster. Opponents of the rule contend that the purpose of the game is to spotlight Major League Baseball's best players, and that some superior players are left off the roster in favor of possibly less deserving players from weaker teams. This argument is strengthened by the greater urgency of winning the game, due to the rule that the winning league attains home field in the World Series. Supporters of the rule point out that this rule spreads interest in the game, and prevents large-market teams from totally dominating the squad and possibly resulting in, for example, an All-Star Game consisting solely of Yankees and Red Sox playing a team consisting solely of Dodgers and Cubs. A number of compromises have been suggested in the media, such as limiting the number of representatives a particular team could have, or requiring that a certain percentage of teams be represented. However, Major League Baseball has not indicated that it is considering altering or eliminating the rule in any form. Stuffing the ballot box In 1957 , fans of the Cincinnati Reds stuffed the Ballot Box and elected 7 Reds players to start in the All-Star Game. They were: : Johnny Temple , 2B : Roy McMillan , SS : Don Hoak , 3B : Ed Bailey , C : Frank Robinson , LF : Gus Bell , CF : Wally Post , RF The only non-Red elected to start for the National League was St. Louis Cardinals ' first baseman Stan Musial . While the Reds were known to be a great offensive team with many outstanding position players, most baseball observers agreed that they did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game. An investigation showed that over half of the ballots cast came from Cincinnati. The '' Cincinnati Enquirer '' had printed up pre-marked ballots and distributed them with the Sunday newspaper to make it easy for Reds fans to vote often. There were even stories of bars in Cincinnati not serving Alcohol to customers until they filled out a ballot. Commissioner Ford Frick decided to appoint Willie Mays of the New York Giants and Hank Aaron of the Milwaukee Braves to substitute for Reds players Gus Bell and Wally Post . In addition, Frick decided to strip the fans of their voting rights. Managers, players, and coaches picked the entire team until 1969 , when the vote again returned to the fans. SEE ALSO
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