ALL-STAR GAME IS A TRIBUTE TO DAVID MONTGOMERY

BY ROCK HOFFMAN

In 2019, Major League Baseball made the unprecedented move of awarding the 2026 All-Star Game to Philadelphia. Indeed, they have yet to award the 2028 Midsummer Classic. There was one reason they elected to announce that the game would be held at Citizens Bank Park more than seven years before the game would be played - David Montgomery.

PORTRAIT OF DAVID MONTGOMERY IN CITIZENS BANK PARK

The Phillies President was weeks away from losing his battle with cancer and he wanted nothing more than for the All-Star Game to be in Philadelphia to help celebrate the countries semi quincentennial. A quiet leader among the game’s power brokers, it was the least Commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB could do for Montgomery, who passed away May 8, 2019, 22 days after the announcement.

Now, that time has come for the game.

“We spent a lot of years wishing it was here,” said Phillies’ great Jimmy Rollins, “but it makes sense to have it here now with the 250^th of America. You know how David was with the fans, the fans were his family, and he would’ve done everything he could to get the most Phillies fans in here to support the local guys. This ballpark, he would’ve loved to showcase it.”

“David is looking down on us right now,” added Ryan Howard, Rollins’ World Championship teammate, “and I’m sure he’s smiling. He’s probably, ‘hey guys we have to do this, and we have to do that.’ Everyone here with the staff is going to do everything they can to make him proud.”

SOUTH JERSEY'S MIKE TROUT

This is the fifth time the game has been held in Philadelphia. The first was in 1943 at Shibe Park and hosted by the Philadelphia Athletics. It was the first night All-Star game and the American League won 5-3. The Philles were the host at Shibe in 1952 and there was another first, the game was called after five innings because of rain with the National League taking a 3-2 victory. Satchel Paige and Mickey Mantle were first time All-Stars but neither played in the truncated contest.

It wouldn’t be until the bicentennial year of 1976 th the game returned to the City of Brotherly Love – this time at the still new Veterans Stadium. The National League’s 7-1 win was the fifth in what would be an 11-game winning streak. Twenty years later, it returned and the National League scored a 6-0 win, they wouldn’t win again until 2010.