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Tim Kurkjian at ESPN wrote about the incredible collection of talent 50 years ago at the All-Star Game, with 22 future Hall of Famers at the 1971 midsummer classic in Detroit:
“All your baseball cards came to life,” said Joe Torre, who started at third base for the National League team. “It was like walking into the Hall of Fame. You say, ‘Wow, all of these guys are all Hall of Famers.’ You’re still gaga over it.’’
The game’s most famous moment is Reggie Jackson’s home run off the transformer on the roof in right field, the opening salvo of a decade of Jackson shining on a national stage.
Willie Davis made his first All-Star Game that year at age 31, hitting .350 in the first half — trailing only Torre (.359) in the National League — with 25 doubles and 57 runs scored. Davis singled off Jim Palmer in the fifth inning in his only at-bat, and played four innings in center field. Dodgers manager Walter Alston, an eight-time All-Star manager, was a coach on Sparky Anderson’s National League staff.
The American League won this game 6-4, the only AL victory in a 20-year span from 1963-82.
Links
- More on Mookie Betts using the four days of the All-Star break to rest, from Mike DiGiovanna at the Los Angeles Times.
- More on the Dodgers’ record-setting breakout win Saturday, from J.P. Hoornstra at the Orange County Register.
- That Justin Turner hit his first career grand slam on Saturday made MLB.com’s Dodgers stat of the day.
- With the MLB Draft starting tonight (!!!), Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo have one last mock draft up at MLB.com. Both have the Dodgers taking Florida State catcher Matheu Nelson at 29th overall. We profiled Nelson here.