There’s something very satisfying about seeing one of your guys in the starting lineup for the All-Star Game.
Nats fans know there’s a reason to tune in for tonight’s game in Pittsburgh: A Washington player — Alfonso Soriano — will be in left field for the National League when the game starts. While the game may represent the local highlight of his career — particularly if he finishes the season in someone else’s uniform — the All-Star Game highlight film will be seen for years to come.
Washington, by the way, will likely host an All-Star Game in the next decade. A new ballpark usually cinches the deal, so by 2010 or 2012, all eyes will be on our nation’s capital in mid-July.
The All-Star Game was born in 1933 in Chicago, and D.C. got its first one on 1937 at Griffith Stadium, a game remembered mostly for Earl Averill’s line drive off of Dizzy Dean’s foot, a shot that broke Dean’s toe. Diz came back before he should have, altered his delivery and ruined his arm. Not a single Washington player appeared in the game, an 8-3 AL win.
The game returned to the old ballpark in 1956. Future Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle and Stan Musial all homered as the AL won, 7-3. Senators rep Roy Sievers, a pinch hitter, failed to get a hit.
The Game went to a twice-a-year format in 1958, and the new D.C. — now RFK Stadium — got the first game in 1962. The NL won, 3-1, and once again, no Nats player appeared in the box score in their own ballpark. The second game that year was played at Wrigley Field in Chicago and Washington righthander Dave Stenhouse got the start. Years later he told me he had been in teammate Claude Osteen’s wedding the previous evening and only found out he was starting on the bus from the hotel to the ballpark. He took the ball anyway and pitched two innings, allowing one run in a 9-4 AL victory. The game turned out to be the pinnacle of Stenhouse’s career; he was 10-4 at the break and 6-24 from that point until he left the majors for good in 1964.
The 100th Anniversary of Professional Baseball was celebrated in 1969 and RFK Stadium hosted its second All-Star Game in seven years. Frank Howard was in the starting lineup and thrilled the locals with a long home run, though the NL won, 9-3.
Soriano hits the break with 27 home runs, 56 RBI and 20 stolen bases. It can be argued that as Alfonso goes, so go the Nats. Regardless, his off-season acquisition has been good for the ballclub, and we can all hope, short timer or not, his performance at PNC Park tonight gives us all some fodder for discussion down the road.
Phil Wood has covered sports in the Washington-Baltimore market for more than 30 years.
