The All-Star Game was first held in the major leagues on July 7, 1933 (Korean time) at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois, USA.
The All-Star Game is an event planned as a fan service so that you can see the match between the top class players of both leagues during the season, which is impossible unless it is the World Series. The American League (AL) best hitter Lou Gehrig (New York Yankees) and the National League (NL) best pitcher Carl Hubbell (New York Giants) faced each other at Comiskey Park.
In the bottom of the 7th inning, trailing 2-4, Hubbell took the mound and faced Gehrig as the lead batter. The result was a walk, and Hubbell blocked two innings with one hit and no runs until the eighth inning.
The All-Star match between Hubbell and Babe Ruth (Yankees) took place at the Polo Grounds the following year. Hubbell came to the mound as the NL starter, and Ruth started as the AL third right fielder. In the first meeting in the first inning, Hubbell set Ruth back with a 1B2S ball count, striking out on the 4th pitch. In the second matchup in the third inning, Ruth got a walk after a full count.
The reason why the All-Star Game was brought up 90 years ago is because of the uniforms worn by the players at the time. All players participating in the All-Star game wore their team’s uniform. You can tell which league or team he belongs to just by looking at his uniform, so he didn’t have to make uniforms for each league. Above all, it was necessary to wear the uniform of the affiliated team to properly live the purpose of the All-Star Game.
This tradition continued into 2019. However, after a shortened season in 2020, an unfamiliar sight unfolded from the 2021 All-Star Game. The players competed wearing league uniforms with ‘American’ and ‘National’ written on them, not their teams.
This is the third year that players have worn unified league uniforms in the All-Star Game. On this day, AL players wore dark green tops and white shorts, and NL players wore dark blue tops and black shorts. However, they wore hats and helmets with the logo of their team. However, it was difficult to guess which team he belonged to because he was not very visible.
In an article published after the All-Star Game on this day, Sports Illustrated (SI) said, “Right after the 2023 MLB All-Star Game in Seattle, everyone agreed on one opinion on social media. It is that the soulless uniforms, which are divided into NL and AL, are terrible and should never be worn again.” It takes away too much of the fun of the annual games,’ he pointed out.
SI then said, “Especially, this year’s All-Star game uniforms were very difficult to distinguish between players, making it very uncomfortable for fans watching in the stadium or on TV.”
The New York Times also reported the news of the All-Star Game and criticized, “It could have been visually impressive, but MLB made it impossible to tell who was who by wearing unified Nike uniforms to players for three consecutive years.”안전놀이터
Although it is not clear exactly why the major leagues introduced a unified All-Star game uniform, it seems to be in line with the strategy of global sports company Nike.
If you look at the opinions of fans posted on social media, ‘MLB seems to want to make money selling such ugly uniforms, but it is stupid to not wear their team’s uniform’, ‘Please discard the All-Star Game uniform and let them wear their team uniform’ ’, ‘The only team I support gets national attention is the All-Star Game, so that uniform felt even more precious at a special event. Most of the content is critical, such as MLB ignoring the fans who take away that impression.
