After much talk, many rumors and speculation, the 2013 All-Star game will officially be at Citi Field. Alongside Mr. Met, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Commissioner Bud Selig, Jeff and Fred Wilpon, made the announcement at New York’s City Hall that the Summer Classic will be held in Queens. The last All-Star game that the Mets held was in the 1964. It is the longest All-Star game hosting drought in baseball. The second longest drought is this year’s site for the All-Star game, Kansas City, who last hosted the event in 1973.
It’s the 9th All-Star game in New York, which is the most for any city. The last All-Star game in New York came back in 2008 at Yankee Stadium. Selig said the festivities will be a five day event, including the Home Run Derby and Fan Fest.
Fred Wilpon said he’s been dreaming of hosting this event, and that is very meaningful to him. Also, the Mets finical problems did not affect the decision for the Mets to host the All-Star game. Selig had great faith in the Wilpons overcoming the finical problems they had.
Joe Torre even got up and talked about the honor and privilege of the All-Star game. Even though it is an exhibition game, there is a lot of pride and enjoyment that goes into playing in the game. The All-Star game use to be a one day thing back when Torre was a player, and now it’s more of a festival and a celebration.
Selig said there is an increasing amount of competition for teams to host the All-Star game. The Mets being chosen makes the most sense out of any other team though. It addition to not being given the event for the past 48 years, they have a new ballpark that will provide a great setting for the All-Star festivities. David Wright said that if the Mets are awarded the All-Star game it gives the world a chance to see the new stadium and for the Mets to show it off.
For me, I didn’t get a chance to get down to Yankee Stadium in 2008, but a bunch of my friends did. It’s pretty much a dream come true for baseball fans. I’ll obviously have to do everything I can in order to make it to all five days of the festivities next year.
One thing I’m very interested in seeing is the Home Run Derby. Everyone knows that Citi Field is a pitchers park, even after the fences were brought in and lowered. Right now Citi Field ranks 27th in the league in home runs per game. Personally, I don’t think it’s going to matter much and players are still going to be able to hit a ton of home runs, but it’s certainly a topic of conversation.
Hosting the All-Star is an honor that has been long overdue for the Mets. There was probably the belief that if you’re going to hold the All-Star game in New York, why give it to the Mets when you could just give it to the Yankees. But now the Mets are the hosts and it’ll be very exciting to be a part of. Hopefully it doesn’t take another 48 years for it to return back to Queens.