Baseball’s All-Star Game is set for tomorrow night at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. Every year about this time, I reminisce about the first All-Star Game I watched. It was a day game in 1966, and they played it in sparkling new Busch Stadium II in St. Louis. 

There were 26 American League all-stars in 1966 and 27 in the National League. The rosters contained 21 future members of the Hall of Fame.  

The National League team had 13 of the players who eventually would be honored in Cooperstown: Henry Aaron and Joe Torre of the Atlanta Braves; Ron Santo of the Chicago Cubs; Joe Morgan of the Houston Astros; Sandy Koufax of the Los Angeles Dodgers; Jim Bunning of the Philadelphia Phillies; Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates; Juan Marichal, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Gaylord Perry of the San Francisco Giants, and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals. (Phil Regan of the Dodgers replaced Gibson on the roster.) 

The American League roster had eight future members of the Hall of Fame: Brooks Robinson and Frank Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles; Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox; Al Kaline of the Detroit Tigers; Jim “Catfish” Hunter of the Kansas City Athletics; and Jim Kaat, Harmon Killebrew, and Tony Oliva of the Minnesota Twins. 

The Giants led the National League by a game at the All-Star break, and they sent an impressive gang of six players to St. Louis. In addition to Mays, Marichal, McCovey, and Perry, Tom Haller and Jim Ray Hart also represented the Giants. The Braves, my favorite team, had three representatives as Felipe Alou joined Aaron and Torre on the roster. 

Even though the Orioles were in first place by eight games at the break, the Tigers had the most players on the American League squad with five. In addition to Kaline, they had Norm Cash, Bill Freehan, Dick McAuliffe, and Denny McLain. 

In 1966 the National League had nine pitchers on its team, six starters and three relievers. The American League also had nine hurlers, eight of whom were starters. In a sign of how the game has changed, the 2024 rosters for each league have 13 pitchers made up of eight starters and five relievers. In 1966 starters were expected to pitch complete games. Today every team uses at least three pitchers per game, so I guess it makes sense that so many of today’s All-Stars are relief pitchers. 

The 1966 game was a pitchers’ duel. McLain started the game for the American League and mowed down all nine batters he faced, including six future members of the Hall of Fame (Mays, Clemente, Aaron, McCovey, Santo, and Torre). The American League scored in the top of the second inning on a triple by Brooks Robinson and a wild pitch by Koufax. 

The National League tied it up in the bottom of the fourth on singles by Mays, Clemente, and Santo. The bullpens for both teams held tight, forcing the game into extra innings. 

Ultimately, the National League prevailed 2-1. Maury Wills of the Dodgers drove in the winning run–in the person of hometown player Tim McCarver–in the bottom of the tenth. Perry pitched two scoreless innings in relief to get the win. 

I was glad the National League won, but I was disappointed that Aaron was 0-4 with a strikeout, Torre was 0-3 with a strikeout, and that Alou did not get into the game. 

Still, it was great seeing all the top players wearing their team uniforms, which is the way it still should be.

(All roster information and game details are from Retrosheet.org.)