One of my favorite All-Star memories as a kid was the last time the Summer Classic was played at Yankee Stadium. It was 1977 and I was I was 13 years old.
I was a Cubs fan and my neighbor across the street was a Reds fan. All summer long we argue who was better. Of course, this was in the midst of the Great Red Machine dynasty and my Cubs would perennially find themselves in the bottom half of the East Division. I had no love for his Reds but secretly I envied their lineup which included Joe Morgan, Johnny Bench, George Foster, and Pete Rose.
But this was the All-Star game and in this, we could agree: the National League ruled and the American League was plain bad. And we were right, at least as far as All-Star Games were concerned. Back then, the NL was in the middle of a 11-year All-Star winning streak stretching from 1972 to 1982.
I went across the street to my friend’s house to watch the game. Dodger Don Sutton was facing the Orioles’ Jim Palmer. The NL had big bats like the aforementioned Reds, LA’s Steve Garvey and Ron Cey, the Bucs’ Dave Parker, and Greg “Bull” Luzinski from the Phils.
The AL was equally stacked with the usual suspects you knew by one name. “Yaz”, “Reggie”, Continue reading “1977: Fond All-Star memories”