American League teams are jockeying to host the 2016 MLB All-Star Game, and judging by comments from Commissioner Bud Selig, the Baltimore Orioles have a good chance of hosting the event at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
After the Minnesota Twins and Target Field host this year’s All-Star Game, only two active American League ballparks have never hosted a game: Tropicana Field and the new Yankee Stadium. The Yankees hosted the 2008 All-Star Game at the previous Yankee Stadium in one last hurrah for the old place. (Conversely, there are a host of National League ballparks never hosting an All-Star Game: Petco Park, Nationals Park, Marlins Park and, surprising, Citizens Bank Park.) With Oriole Park slated for a 25th-anniversary lap in 2016, an All-Star Game would be a nice memorial to one of the most noteworthy ballparks ever built, the facility that brought retro to the wider sports world. From the Baltimore Sun:
Selig, who is expected to retire in January 2015, said he would award the 2016 and 2017 games before leaving office. The commissioner selects the venue for each All-Star Game.
“I have great feelings for Baltimore,” Selig said last week at the Civil Rights Game in Houston. “And I know they have [applied], and I just got done with the ’15 All-Star Game, and I know I have to do ’16 and ’17.”
It’s not too soon to speculate that Citizens Bank Park and Petco Park are leaders to host the 2017 All-Star Game. It’s been some 21 years after the old Vet hosted the event in 1996, while the Padres last hosted the event at Jack Murphy Stadium in 1992. Both ballparks opened in 2004.
Your trivia for the day: the first All-Star Game was hosted at Comiskey Park in 1933, an event organized by Chicago Tribune sports editor Arch Ward.
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