It was on this day in 1991 that
the Blue Jays, the city of Toronto and SkyDome played host to the 62nd
Major League Baseball All-Star Game. The franchise was awarded the opportunity
to host the game on Canada Day (July 1st) 1989 by then-Baseball
Commissioner Bart Giamatti. This was only the second—and to date, the
last—All-Star Game to be played outside of the United States.
Second baseman, Roberto Alomar,
who was in his first year with Toronto was voted to start for the American
League by the fans. Two other Blue Jays—outfielder Joe Carter and pitcher Jimmy
Key—were selected to the team by A.L. manager, Tony LaRussa of the Oakland
Athletics.
The starting pitchers for the
game were Jack Morris of the Minnesota Twins for the A.L., and Tom Glavine of
the Atlanta Braves for the N.L. Seeing as the game was played in Canada, it
would only do justice to mention the All-Stars from the Montreal Expos as well.
Left-fielder Ivan Calderon would start for the N.L, while pitcher Dennis
Martinez was the other Expos’ representative.
The N.L. scored first in the
first inning when Bobby Bonilla of the Pittsburgh Pirates singled off of Morris
to score San Diego’s Tony Gwynn. Morris would leave the game after two innings,
and LaRussa called on Jimmy Key to pitch next, in front of his hometown crowd. Key
got Gwynn to line out to first, gave up a double to Ryne Sandberg of the Cubs,
got San Francisco’s Will Clark to ground out to first (Key making the putout)
and then struck out Bonilla.
The A.L. then scored three runs
in the bottom of the third on three-run home run by Baltimore’s Cal Ripken,
scoring Oakland’s Rickey Henderson and Boston’s Wade Boggs. Former Expo (then
playing for the Cubs) Andre Dawson hit a solo home run off of Boston’s Roger
Clemens in the top of the fourth to make the score 3-2.
In the bottom of the seventh, Joe Carter scored the final run of the
game when he singled, went to second on catcher interference, was bunted to
third and scored on a sacrifice fly by Harold Baines of the Athletics.
The final score was 4-2 in favour of the American League, and since Key
had been the pitcher in the game for the A.L. when they took the lead (and held
it), he was the winning pitcher, making him the second pitcher in Blue Jays’
history to earn a victory at the All-Star Game, with Dave Stieb having been the
first in 1983. Only one other Toronto pitcher would ever get the win at the
Mid-Summer Classic and that was reliever B.J. Ryan in 2006.
Carter walked in his only other plate appearance while Roberto Alomar
played the entire game, but was 0 for 4 at the plate. Montreal’s Ivan Calderon
was 1 for 2.
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