Selection of managers and coaches Since 1934, the managers of the game are the managers of the previous year's league pennant winners and World Series clubs. The coaching staff for each team is selected by its manager. This honor is given to the manager, not the team, so it is possible that the All-Star manager could no longer be with the team with which he won. This happened in 2003, when
Dusty Baker managed the National League team despite having moved from the National League champion
San Francisco Giants to the
Chicago Cubs. This has also included situations where the person is no longer actively managing a team. For the first All-Star Game, intended as a one-time event,
Connie Mack and
John McGraw were regarded as baseball's venerable managers, and were asked to lead the American and National League teams, respectively. McGraw came out of retirement for that purpose.
Dick Williams resigned after managing the
Oakland Athletics to the 1973 World Series. In 1974, he became manager of the
California Angels, whose uniform he wore for the game.
Tony La Russa, who managed the
World Series champion
St. Louis Cardinals in 2011, and retired after the season, came back to manage the National League in 2012. In 1979,
Bob Lemon managed the American League team after having been fired by
New York Yankees owner
George Steinbrenner. Lemon led the Yankees to the 1981 World Series but did not make it to the '82 All-Star Game as manager after again being fired by Steinbrenner, so
Billy Martin, skipper of the 1981 AL runner-up
Oakland Athletics, led the All-Star squad. There have been some exceptional cases where the usual rule was abandoned. After the 1964 season and the
World Series, the managers,
Johnny Keane of the
St. Louis Cardinals and
Yogi Berra of the
New York Yankees, both left their teams and found new jobs in the other league: Keane was hired to manage the Yankees, and Berra became a player-coach with the
New York Mets. The
Philadelphia Phillies and
Cincinnati Reds had finished in a second-place tie in the NL; the
Chicago White Sox had finished second in the AL. Cincinnati's manager,
Fred Hutchinson, had died in the off-season, so
Gene Mauch of the Phillies and
Al López of the White Sox were chosen to be the managers for the 1965 All-Star Game. The rule may have been abandoned again in 2020, as the manager of the 2019 American League champion
Houston Astros,
A. J. Hinch, was suspended for the 2020 season (and subsequently fired by the Astros) for his role in the Astros'
scandal involving the usage of video to steal signs; however the game was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. • Rosters were expanded by one extra position player, to a total of 34. • The designated hitter will be used in all games, even in National League ballparks. (This became moot when the NL adopted the DH in 2022.) • Pitchers who start on the Sunday before the game break will be replaced on the roster, but will still be recognized as All-Stars. • Each manager may designate a position player who will be eligible for game re-entry if the last position player is injured or ejected. This is in addition to a rule that allows a player to re-enter to replace an injured or ejected catcher. The AL and NL All-Stars are selected through the following process: •
Fan voting (nine N.L. players; nine A.L. players): Baseball fans vote on the starting position players for the All-Star Game, with ballots formerly distributed at Major League Baseball games before mid-season and, as of 2015, exclusively on the
Internet. Since 2022, fans can vote for the designated hitter on both leagues; prior to that, only the AL designated hitter can be voted in, while the NL designated hitter must be selected by the manager. Fan voting has been recently criticized because most of the starting players can come from teams that have large fan bases or passionate fan bases such as the
Kansas City Royals and the
Chicago Cubs. •
Player voting (16 players): Eight pitchers (five starters and three relievers) and one back-up player for each position are elected by the players, coaches, and managers. If the top vote-getter at a position has also been selected via fan voting, the second-place finisher in this category is selected. •
Manager selection (eight N.L. players; eight A.L. players): The manager of each league's All-Star team in consultation with the other managers in his league and the
Commissioner's Office will fill his team's roster up to 33 players. Prior to 2022, the NL manager had the power to select his team's designated hitter; this is no longer applicable after the NL adopted the designated hitter and fans are allowed to vote for that league's starting DH. Game-specific uniforms are made every year, but are not worn for the game itself. Instead these uniforms were worn during batting practice and the
Home Run Derby. From the
2021 to the
2024 games, Major League Baseball and
Nike released new All-Star Game uniforms annually, and these uniforms would be worn by the players during the game. Starting with the
2025 game, however, MLB reverted to wearing team uniforms at the All-Star Game.
All-Star caps Starting with the 2014 All-Star Game, players began to wear special All-Star Game caps. For the workout, batting practice and Home Run Derby contest, players started using one type of cap with colors corresponding the league. For the All-Star Game day, players started wearing a cap with the team's logo on front and the All-Star Game logo on the right side.
History of player selection methods and
Margaret Truman submitting their ballots for the
1953 Major League Baseball All-Star Game rosters In 1933 and 1934, the fans selected the 18 starters for the game and the managers chose the rest of the teams' players. From 1935 through 1944 and in 1946, the manager of each All-Star squad selected the entire team; in 1945, no MLB All-Star Game was held, and no All-Stars were officially named. In 1947, fans were given the opportunity to vote on the eight starting position players, but in 1957, fans of the
Cincinnati Reds stuffed the ballot box (see below), and elected a Red to every position except first base. Commissioner
Ford Frick stepped in and removed two Reds from the lineup. As a response to this unfairness, fan voting was discontinued; players, coaches, and managers were given the sole authority to elect starting position players, for the next dozen years. Between the lack of fan input and over-exposure due to the double All-Star games in 1959–1962, interest in the game was thought to be waning. As part of the rise of the MLB Promotion Corporation's attempts to modernize marketing of baseball, fan balloting for the starting eight was restored for the 1970 game. Sometime in the 1960s, the distinction between left-fielder, center-fielder, and right-fielder was dropped, and it was provided that the top three vote-getters in the outfield category would start regardless of position. Oft-heard remarks prior to this time included ones such as "If you had
Clemente, you couldn't have
Aaron", and so on.
Rico Carty was the first player ever selected to an All-Star team as a
write-in candidate by fans, in 1970, the first year that voting was given back to the fans.
Steve Garvey was the second player ever selected to an All-Star team as a
write-in candidate by fans, in 1974. He was later the Most Valuable Player of that game as well as the National League MVP for that year. From 2002 to 2018, the final roster selection has been made by the public via the
All-Star Final Vote. Until 2003, reserves and pitchers were chosen by the manager. Player voting was re-introduced in 2003 after the managers were criticized for picking players from their own team over more deserving players from other teams. This was particularly evident in 2002, when National League manager
Bob Brenly selected his own catcher,
Damian Miller, over the more deserving
Paul Lo Duca; while American League manager
Joe Torre selected his own third baseman,
Robin Ventura, over the
Oakland Athletics'
Gold Glove and
Silver Slugger-winning third baseman
Eric Chavez. Before the 2009 game, Major League Baseball announced that an additional pitcher would be added to each roster, bringing the total for each league to 33 players.
The following year, MLB announced that an extra position player would be added to each roster for the 2010 game and beyond, bringing the total to 34 for each league. Both these arguments were strengthened by the greater urgency of winning the game, due to the former rule that the winning league attains
home field advantage in the
World Series. A number of compromises were suggested in the sports/news media as measures to mitigate these selection issues, including limiting the number of representatives a particular team could have; or requiring only that a certain percentage of the 30 teams be represented; or expanding the size of the All-Star rosters. The only exception is if a team trades its lone All-Star before the game; in this case, its league's All-Star Game manager is not required to include another player from that team.
Stuffing the ballot box In 1957,
Cincinnati Reds fans
stuffed the ballot box and elected seven Reds players to start in the All-Star Game:
Johnny Temple (2B),
Roy McMillan (SS),
Don Hoak (3B),
Ed Bailey (C),
Frank Robinson (LF),
Gus Bell (CF), and
Wally Post (RF), and the only non-Red elected to start for the National League was
St. Louis Cardinals first baseman
Stan Musial. While the Reds were a good offensive team, most baseball observers agreed that they did not deserve seven starters in the All-Star Game. An investigation ordered by Commissioner Ford Frick showed that over half of the ballots cast came from Cincinnati, as the
Cincinnati Enquirer had printed up pre-marked ballots and distributed them with the Sunday newspaper to make it easy for Reds fans to vote often for their favorite stars. Commissioner Ford Frick appointed
Willie Mays of the
New York Giants and
Hank Aaron of the
Milwaukee Braves to substitute for Reds players
Gus Bell and
Wally Post, and took fan voting rights away in future games; Bell was kept as a reserve, while Post was injured and would have been unable to play in any event. Managers, players, and coaches picked the entire team until 1969, when the vote for starters again returned to the fans. To prevent a repeat of this incident, from 1970 until the start of internet voting, each team has been given the same number of ballots to hand out. In 1998, that number was roughly 400,000 ballots. The 1988 Game was surrounded by tacit accusations against Oakland Athletics fans of stuffing the ballot box in favor of catcher
Terry Steinbach, whose qualifications as a starter were questioned by some sportswriters. Steinbach wound up being named the game's Most Valuable Player, hitting a home run and a sacrifice fly to get both RBIs in a 2–1 win. Since the dawn of the internet age, online voting has again led to ballot stuffing. In 1999, Chris Nandor, a Red Sox fan, utilized a simple computer program to vote for
Nomar Garciaparra over 39,000 times. Upon discovery, MLB rejected the votes. In 2015,
Kansas City Royals fans were accused of stuffing the ballot box when eight of their players (
Salvador Pérez,
Lorenzo Cain,
Mike Moustakas,
Alcides Escobar,
Eric Hosmer,
Kendrys Morales,
Alex Gordon, and
Omar Infante) were leading the ballots at their respective positions before the final tally was taken. Had this result stood, the only non-Royal in the American League's starting lineup would have been
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim player
Mike Trout. This also would have been a record for the most players from one team starting in the All-Star game. However, after MLB cancelled 65 million votes deemed to be fraudulent, the final starting roster included only
Salvador Pérez,
Lorenzo Cain,
Alcides Escobar, and
Alex Gordon (Gordon would be replaced due to injury). The only other Royals to make the final lineup were
Mike Moustakas,
Kelvin Herrera and
Wade Davis; Moustakas as the winner of the AL
All-Star Final Vote while Herrera and Davis, both pitchers, were chosen through either Player Ballots or by Royals and AL Manager,
Ned Yost.
Designated hitter In 1989, a
designated hitter was allowed in the All-Star Game for the first time. Between 1989 and 2010, the designated hitter rule was applied based on the league in which the host team plays; it was used for games played in American League ballparks in each such instance, both teams used a designated hitter while in National League ballparks, managers have scheduled the pitcher to hit, though
pinch hitters have almost always been used in practice. This allows a deserving nonstarter to make a plate appearance. In 2010, Major League Baseball announced the designated hitter rule would apply for every All-Star Game; while the
2010 game was already to have the DH, the
2011 game was the first played in a National League park with a DH. ==All-Star Game MVP Award==