The Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Fenway Park in 1999 provided memories that arguably have not been surpassed in the years since.
Most notably, Ted Williams’ incredible entrance and Pedro Martinez’s lockdown performance against a star-studded National League were the type of pomp and circumstance that we don’t see much at the Midsummer Classic. And it was the people that made the moment, but the ballpark as well.
So now that it’s been nearly three decades, and almost every other big-league stadium has hosted the All-Star Game in the years since, we’ve been left wondering when the next Fenway All-Star Game would be.
It appears we’re getting close to an answer.
On Sunday, Sean McAdam of MassLive reported that there was a “feeling in the industry” that the Red Sox were somewhat destined to host the All-Star Game in 2029. The next two years’ bids have already been awarded, so that would be the second-closest date Boston could be awarded.
“The Red Sox will gladly host any year they’re asked, but there’s a feeling in the industry that the most likely choice for Fenway to host another All-Star Game will come in 2029,” McAdam wrote.
“Why that year? That would mark the 30th anniversary of the last time the game passed through town, when both squads enveloped Ted Williams on the mound, creating one of the most iconic moments in modern baseball history. The All-Star Game is set for Philadelphia next summer and Wrigley Field in 2027.”
Williams, who passed away in 2002, hit a walk-off home run in the 1941 All-Star Game. The trophy for the Most Valuable Player award of the game, which Red Sox outfielder Jarren Duran won last summer, is named in Williams’ honor nowadays.
Now that the Cubs have been awarded the 2027 All-Star Game, there are only two teams that have waited longer than the Red Sox to host (excluding the Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays, who both have highly uncertain home ballpark situations at the moment). The Baltimore Orioles last hosted in 1993; the Toronto Blue Jays in 1991.
The dust has settled on this year’s Midsummer Classic fun, so we’ll probably have to wait a while for an announcement to become official. But four years can fly by, and the long wait for the next Fenway All-Star Game at least appears to be drawing toward an eventual close.
