1968 All-Star Game
The 1968 game represented a new era of baseball as it was the first All-Star game ever to be played in an indoor arena on artificial turf. Many fans disapproved of the league's selection and felt that it ruined the ambience of the Midsummer Classic. Whether or not the surroundings had an effect on the players is debatable, but the game resulted in the first 1-0 outcome in the series. Willie Mays led off the bottom of the first by grounding a single to left off of Luis Tiant. A pickoff attempt by Tiant got past first baseman Harmon Killebrew and sent Mays to second. Then it got worse as he delivered a wild pitch to Curt Flood, moving Mays to third. With runners on first and third and still none out, Tiant induced Willie McCovey to ground into a double play and Mays scored.
The closest the American League came to scoring was in the seventh when Tony Oliva hit one off the left-field fence that just missed being a home run. He settled for a double and the American League eventually settled for its sixth straight loss. |
