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| Date | July 11, 1995 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Venue | The Ballpark in Arlington | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| City | Arlington, Texas | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Managers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| MVP | Jeff Conine (FLA) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 50,920 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ceremonial first pitch | Nolan Ryan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Television | ABC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TV announcers | Al Michaels,Tim McCarver andJim Palmer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radio | CBS | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Radio announcers | John Rooney,Jerry Coleman andJeff Torborg | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The1995 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 66th playing of the midsummer classic between theall-stars of theAmerican League (AL) andNational League (NL), the two leagues comprisingMajor League Baseball. The game was held on July 11, 1995, atThe Ballpark in Arlington inArlington, Texas, the home of theTexas Rangers of the American League. It was the third All-Star Game held in the state of Texas (with the previous two hosted by Houston) and the first All-Star Game held in the area ofDallas–Fort Worth metroplex.[a] In this All-Star Game, American League pitchers held National League batters to just three base hits, but all three were home runs as the National League defeated the American League 3–2. This is also the most recent All-Star Game to be televised by theABC television network.
Because of the1994–95 Major League Baseball strike and the lack of official champions, the leagues chose to designate the managers of the unofficial league champions (teams with the best record at the time of abandonment of the season) as managers for this All-Star Game. The All-Star break that season was actually only two days - because of the strike induced schedule in 1995, there were games scheduled for the next day. As a result, by the time this game ended, several players had already flown out of Texas to get to where their teams were playing the next day.
There were two color guards participating in the pregame ceremonies. TheRoyal Canadian Mounted Police National Color Guard from Ottawa, Ontario, carried the Canadian flag, while the 1995-96Del Rio (TX) High SchoolROTC Color Guard carried the American flag. Country singerMichelle Wright later sang "O Canada", while fellow country singer (and native Texan)Lyle Lovett sang "The Star-Spangled Banner".Nolan Ryan threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
National League PresidentLen Coleman presentedJeff Conine with the All-Star Game MVP Award in lieu of theCommissioner of Baseball, marking the second year in a row that Coleman presided over the MVP Award presentation.
Players initalics have since been inducted into theNational Baseball Hall of Fame.
| Home Plate | Durwood Merrill (AL) |
| First Base | Charlie Williams (NL) |
| Second Base | Al Clark (AL) (crew chief) |
| Third Base | Mike Winters (NL) |
| Left Field | Ted Hendry (AL) |
| Right Field | Ed Rapuano (NL) |
| National League | American League | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Order | Player | Team | Position | Order | Player | Team | Position |
| 1 | Lenny Dykstra | Phillies | CF | 1 | Kenny Lofton | Indians | CF |
| 2 | Tony Gwynn | Padres | RF | 2 | Carlos Baerga | Indians | 2B |
| 3 | Barry Bonds | Giants | LF | 3 | Edgar Martínez | Mariners | DH |
| 4 | Mike Piazza | Dodgers | C | 4 | Frank Thomas | White Sox | 1B |
| 5 | Fred McGriff | Braves | 1B | 5 | Albert Belle | Indians | LF |
| 6 | Ron Gant | Reds | DH | 6 | Cal Ripken Jr. | Orioles | SS |
| 7 | Barry Larkin | Reds | SS | 7 | Wade Boggs | Yankees | 3B |
| 8 | Vinny Castilla | Rockies | 3B | 8 | Kirby Puckett | Twins | RF |
| 9 | Craig Biggio | Astros | 2B | 9 | Iván Rodríguez | Rangers | C |
| Hideo Nomo | Dodgers | P | Randy Johnson | Mariners | P | ||
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| National League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| American League | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 0 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| WP:Heathcliff Slocumb (1-0) LP:Steve Ontiveros (0-1) Home runs: NL:Craig Biggio (1),Mike Piazza (1),Jeff Conine (1) AL:Frank Thomas (1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 1995 All-Star Game was the firstMajor League Baseball All-Star Game to be televised byABC since the1988 edition fromCincinnati. Just like in 1988,Al Michaels provided play-by-play duties for ABC alongside color commentatorsJim Palmer andTim McCarver. Also assisting in ABC's coverage wereJohn Saunders (who interviewed players in the American League dugout),Lesley Visser (who interviewed players in the National League dugout as well asgame MVPJeff Conine), andRick Dempsey (who interviewed players inside thebullpen at theBallpark in Arlington).
The 1995 All-Star Game officially launched the second season forThe Baseball Network, which was a consortium that ABC was in partnership with Major League Baseball as well asNBC. As previously alluded to, the inaugural season in 1994 was cut short due to aplayers' strike that began on August 12 and wound up causing theWorld Series (for which ABC was due to broadcast) to be cancelled. The strike proved to hurt the long term viability of The Baseball Network. The arraignment between Major League Baseball, ABC, and NBC was originally supposed to run at least through the1999 season. But instead, both networks announced on June 22, 1995,[2][3][4][5] that they would be dissolving The Baseball Network after that year'sWorld Series.