by Tom Stewart

Created on: July 13, 2010   Last Updated: July 14, 2010

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is an exhibition game between the American League and National League consisting of the best players from each league. The game, nicknamed the ‘Midseason Classic’, has been a yearly tradition since it’s inception in 1933. The first All-Star game was an idea created by Chicago Tribune sports writer Arch Ward. He felt it would be a great event for the Chicago Century of Progress Exposition also known as the World Fair in Chicago. The game was such a success that Major League Baseball decided to hold the contest every season.

In 1962, in honor of Ward’s contribution, Major League Baseball decided to award the All-Star Game’s Most Valuable Player with a trophy called the ‘Arch Ward Trophy’. However in 1970 they changed the name of the trophy to ‘The Commissioner’s Award’ but then switched that name to the World Series trophy. In 2002 the All-Star Game MVP Award was renamed again as the ‘Ted Williams Award’ in honor of the Hall of Famer’s death earlier that year.

During the first two years of the All-Star game the players were selected by both the league managers and the fans, however, in 1935 that rule was changed and until 1946 the team managers were solely responsible for selecting the players for each team. In 1947 the selection process was changed allowing the fans to once again vote for the players who would be each team's starters and the managers would select the remaining players and pitchers. In 1958 the process was changed yet again allowing not only the fans and managers to vote for the players but also the players themselves were allowed to vote. In 1970 it was changed to the format that is used today where the fans vote for the eight starting players on each team with the managers choosing the remaining players and pitchers. Until recently fan voting was conducting by filling out paper ballots at Major League ballparks. But thanks to modern day technology the fan voting process has become much easier and more available through the use of computers, the internet, and text messaging.

Traditionally the managers of each team in the All-Star game are the same as the managers of each team in the previous season’s World Series. However it is an honor that is bestowed upon the manager himself and not the team. And on a few occasions the manager was not still with the same team he was with the previous season. In 2003 Dusty

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