Nobody does All-Star Game streaks like baseball, and the American League is taking an all-timer to St. Louis this summer.
The AL has earned home-field advantage for the World Series each of the six opportunities since the bonus to winning the All-Star Game was instituted in 2003. But that's only half of the story
Heading into Tuesday night's 80th All-Star Game at 8 ET at Busch Stadium, the AL has not lost since 1996 for a 12-game run without a defeat, including the tie in 2002 -- the event that turned the Midsummer Classic into an October prize. The 11-game winning streak gives the Junior Circuit 17 victories in the past 20 All-Star Games played to a winning conclusion, part of an era of league domination unparalleled among other sports.
With the home-field advantage on the line, the streak has taken on an even broader dimension.
"I think what's at stake makes it more important," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said in the glow of last year's 15-inning AL victory. "You know, if there is nothing at stake besides the win or loss, it ends up being a little bit of an exhibition game. I know I felt it -- I mean, the responsibility."
But this trend of leagues clinging to All-Star glory predates the advent of the home-field element by decades.
What might be lost in the glare of the well-publicized and now incentivized AL hex over the NL is that this spree has merely amounted to reasonable payback for an even more daunting string of National League dominance -- 19 of 20 -- that ran from 1963 to 1982.
The beat goes on in baseball, one way or the other. For nearly a half-century, the National League and the American League have taken turns at not taking turns winning All-Star Games.
There's simply nothing else quite like these runs of dominance in pro all-star games, although other leagues have come close.
The NBA's Eastern Conference won 14 of 20 NBA All-Star Games in the same years as the NL's era of dominance, 1963-82, then tacking on two more for 16 of 22. The Wales Conference won 12 of the 17 meetings with the Campbell Conference in the NHL All-Star Game before it changed format for a third time. And the National Football Conference has the all-time Pro Bowl streak with four, winning eight of nine at one point, while the AFC has three streaks of three games.
Not bad, not bad. But none as dominant as either the AL one the rival Yankees and Red Sox have banded together to help put together in recent years, nor as transcendent as the NL one that passed from Willie Mays and Hank Aaron to Ozzie Smith and Mike Schmidt, before home-field advantage was in play.
While the incentive isn't lost on anyone playing in the game, this year's National League manager Charlie Manuel knows full well it's not a free pass to a parade. The National League didn't need to win the All-Star Game last year for its representative to win the World Series -- Manuel's Phillies beat the Rays in five games.
In fact, the six World Series in the home-field advantage era of the All-Star Game have split down the middle -- three for the AL and three for the NL, with the '03 Marlins winning on the road at Yankee Stadium but the '06 Cardinals and '08 Phillies finishing off the Series before the AL team had a chance at a third home game.
Still, Manuel knows his mission is to acquire that advantage for his league.
"Definitely, and I'll be out to get it for the NL," Manuel said last week. "You ask the other managers, and they'll tell you the home field is a huge advantage in the World Series."
Manuel added, "And it's about time for the NL."
The likes of Bobby Cox, Bruce Bochy and Tony La Russa -- among National League managers who couldn't get it done -- say amen to that.
The National Leaguers have been close to breaking the streak several times -- the last three and four of the six since the World Series incentive was added were one-run affairs. That includes the heartbreakingly close one in Pittsburgh in 2006, which got away when Michael Young tripled off NL closer Trevor Hoffman.
On the flip side, this run could have been worse. The 2002 game certainly could have been another AL victory, and a couple before that could have gone the other way as well.
The AL had a six-game streak going when one of the most exciting finishes in All-Star Game history put the NL back on the winning side. After Fred McGriff tied the game with a two-run homer in the ninth, the NL capped a thrilling 10-inning 1994 Classic in Pittsburgh when the Expos' Moises Alou hit a blast to the left-center field gap to win it. Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn chugged around from first and got his toe in front of Pudge Rodriguez's tag just in time to bounce up and confirm the safe sign -- 8-7, NL.
The following year was a tight one, too, and it took then-Marlin (for the first time) Jeff Conine delivering a solo homer in the eighth to push the NL to a 3-2 victory despite only three hits. The NL's last victory was an easy 6-0 ride in Philadelphia in '96.
One thing to consider: Those two close ones and the tie go the other way, and you're looking at a 19-for-21 run for the AL.
But the AL's 17 of 20 and 12 without a loss will have to do -- for now.
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