Midsummer Classic still brings stars to these eyes All-Star Game stirs imagination and memories

Tonight, the 78th baseball All-Star game will be played in San Francisco, which will mark the very first at AT&T Park, which opened in 2000.

The first All-Star game was played July 6, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. According to the Baseball Almanac, it was initiated at the insistence of Arch Ward, sports editor for the Chicago Tribune, to coincide with the city’s Century of Progress Exposition.

I started paying attention to the so-called Midsummer Classic when my friend Dave came back to the sandlot and boasted about his attendance at the extravaganza in Boston at Fenway Park on July 31, 1961.

Featuring such sluggers as Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Al Kaline, the game was filled with action. Of all the stars on display that night, Dave was most impressed with Mantle, who, for young boys in this part of the country, maintained myth status due to the few number of times we saw him on TV.

My own first trip to Fenway earlier that summer found me gaping in awe at both Mantle and Roger Maris, who were chasing after Babe Ruth’s historic record of 60 home runs in a single season. Mantle didn’t play in the Yankees’ victory, but Maris came through with a long ball.

Yes, we were future Yankee haters, but those New York boys could sure play.

Dave’s special night at the All-Star game ended in a rain-soaked 1-1 tie.

For a number of years in my father’s house on Highland Avenue in Bangor, it was a tradition to bring the neighborhood gang in to watch the game. My mother and sister catered the thing, and by the time we were all in college, the whole affair became quite festive.

I’m not certain that there are a lot of festivities comparable to Super Bowl parties and Final Four extravaganzas, but back in the day, we celebrated years that included more than one Red Sox player on the roster. And, for the record, we had a grand old time.

This year would be a good year to honor Red Sox players for there are six of them going to the game, an impressive total indeed, indicative of the great first half season they have had.

Pitchers Hideki Okajima, Jonathan Papelbon, and Josh Beckett join third baseman Mike Lowell, left fielder Manny Ramirez, and first baseman David Ortiz (no DH this year) to help comprise this year’s star-studded roster.

Regardless of how the players have been voted in during the years, or the number of Red Sox participants, this showcase glitters like perhaps no other in sports.

In all my sporting travels, I have never attended a Major League All-Star game.

I still remember how excited Dave was upon returning to Maine following the game.

Baseball became interwoven in his future life, and he would go on to star for several post-Little League teams at shortstop, a position he handled with the grace and style of the classy person he was. This, of course, is further evidence of the positive influence these games can have on young people.

I know I’ll be in front of the TV set tonight, watching all the action. It may be just an all-star game, but with World Series home field advantage at stake, this game is important.

30-Second Time Out

A chance meeting with another all-star, Tommy Waterman of Bangor High fame, and his parents, Leslie and Neil Waterman, brought back a lot of memories for this writer.

They were accompanied in their dinner travels with well-known basketball official Dave Mansfield and his wife Sandra.

Boy, there’s a lot of sports history at that table, I’m thinking.

Toss into that mix the stellar coaching career of Neil’s in baseball and basketball and David’s many years on the court as a well-known YMCA youth coach and high school hoop official, and you’ve got the makings of some impressive years in those two games.

BDN columnist Ron Brown, a retired high school basketball coach, can be reached at bdnsports@bangordailynews.net