On the blog today,
we celebrate the 1976 baseball All-Star game with a “missing” 1977 card,
featuring the two starters, San Diego Padre Randy Jones and Detroit
Tigers Mark Fidrych:
It was “business as
usual” for the National League, as they took their fifth straight
All-Star win, beating the American League 7-1, powered by home runs by
George Foster and Cesar Cedeno, at Veteran’s Stadium
in Philadelphia.
It was an extra
festive occasion because of all the Bicentennial celebrations in the
“City of Brotherly Love”, with added excitement because of the Major
League star of the moment, Mark Fidrych.
The A.L. could only
muster five hits off of N.L. pitchers, two by Rusty Staub, singles by
Ron LeFlore and Mickey Rivers, and a solo-homer by young Boston Red Sox
stud Fred Lynn.
The N.L. jumped out
to a 2-0 lead in the first inning, tacking on two more runs in the third
and three more in the eighth, keeping the game well out of reach from
the start.
I’ll always remember
this game, as it was the first All-Star game I saw as I was quickly
becoming a baseball “junkie” at the age of seven, mesmerized by Fidrych,
while rooting for my “hometown” heroes of Thurman
Munson, Catfish Hunter, Rivers and Chris Chambliss.
