1992 All-Star Game | Baseball Almanac (original) (raw)

1992 MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ALL-STAR GAME

Despite dominating the majority of the previous decades, the National League had now become the underdog. Some sportswriter had joked that the "cleat was on the other foot" and after four consecutive losses, the National League entered the '92 game determined to win back the respect that they were used to.

Unfortunately for them, the American League had different plans and it didn't take long for them to put the "rookie underdogs" in their place. Right out of the gate, the American League laced seven consecutive first-inning singles and bolted to a 4-0 lead.

National League starter Tom Glavine and two of his successors, Bob Tewksbury and Doug Jones, worked 4 1/3 innings and were tagged for seventeen hits and twelve runs. Glavine gave up nine hits himself in what looked more like American League batting practice and less like an All-Star Game.

The American League struck for four more sixth-inning runs, changing a safe lead into an insurmountable one. Ruben Sierra's two-run homer capped the uprising and made it 10-0. Ken Griffey Jr., one of four American League hitters with two runs batted in, went three-for-three. He singled home a run in the first, homered in the third, triggered the sixth-inning outburst with a double and was the game's MVP. The National League only managed to score their first run after ten runs had already scored and by then, it didn't really matter.

"I've had seventy-three days off with a broken hand, twenty days off the following year. I've had enough time off." - Ken Griffey, Jr. in 1999 on whether he would prefer three days off during the All-Star break

Ken Griffey Jr. went three-for-three, singled home a run in the first, homered in the third, triggered the sixth-inning scoring with a double and was honored with the game's Most Valuable Player Award.

Tom Glavine allowed a record number of hits during a single All-Star Game inning with seven (during the first) AND a record number of hits during a game with nine after one and two-thirds.

Did you know that Kevin Brown was the first pitcher to start an All-Star Game from the expansion Texas Rangers, who had their last franchise starter (they were the Washington Senators at the time) during the 1962 All-Star Game (Dave Stenhouse)?