July 9, 2002: Major League Baseball's All-Star Game is played at Miller Park (now named American Family Field) in Milwaukee -- but not to a conclusion. It was only the 2nd tie in Midsummer Classic history: One of the 1961 games was called due to rain after 9 innings.
Allan H. "Bud" Selig had bought the expansion Seattle Pilots in 1970, and moved them to his hometown, making them the Milwaukee Brewers. They had hosted the All-Star Game at Milwaukee County Stadium in 1975, with no issues.
In 1992, the MLB team owners fired Commissioner Francis T. "Fay" Vincent. As Chairman of MLB's Executive Committee, Selig was next in the line of succession. He remained Acting Commissioner while also being a team owner, a walking conflict of interest. In 1998, he terminated this status by transferring control of the team to his daughter, Wendy Selig-Prieb, allowing him to be appointed Commissioner in his own right.
As Acting Commissioner, he oversaw the Strike of '94, canceling the 1994 postseason, and forever tainting his record, regardless of what good he might have done. He further tainted his record by allowing the steroid explosion of the 1990s to reach epidemic proportions, without punishing anyone for it -- until after the Congressional hearing during 2005's Spring Training -- after the Boston Red Sox had already ridden steroids to win the previous year's World Series.
He replaced County Stadium, a classic ballpark, with Miller Park, a building that looked like an airplane hangar, with a retractable roof. He got the All-Star Game awarded to it in 2002.
The starting pitchers were Derek Lowe of the Boston Red Sox for the American League, and Curt Schilling of the defending World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks for the National League. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit a fly ball which looked to be deep enough to be a home run. Instead, center fielder Torii Hunter of the Minnesota Twins reached over the wall and caught it for the last out of the inning. As Hunter walked off, Bonds, laughing, picked Hunter up. It was a rare moment of fun for Bonds, who was one of the moodiest players in baseball history, even before he started using steroids. Bonds hit one out in the 3rd inning, extending the NL's lead to 4-0.
The AL made a comeback, including a 5th-inning home run from Alfonso Soriano of the New York Yankees. In the 7th, a double from Paul Konerko of the Chicago White Sox gave the AL a 6-5. The NL made it 7-6 in the bottom of the 7th. Omar Vizquel of the Cleveland Indians drove in a run with a triple in the 8th inning, making it 7-7.
Neither team scored in the 9th, and the game went to extra innings. Neither team scored in the 10th, an inning pitched by Vicente Padilla of the Philadelphia Phillies and Freddy García of the Seattle Mariners -- the last available pitchers on each team.
The AL didn't score in the top of the 11th. At that point, the opposing managers, Joe Torre of the Yankees and Bob Brenly of the Diamondbacks, walked over to Selig's box to discuss the situation. Selig made a decision, and called the home plate umpire, Gerry Davis, over. Davis had a microphone connection to the public-address announcer, Robb Edwards. Edwards announced the decision to the crowd: If the NL did not score in the bottom of the 11th, the game would be declared over and a tie.
The fans booed. Some threw beer bottles onto the field. Some, remembering the 1977 baseball film The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, chanted, "Let them play!" Other chants included "Re-fund!" "Rip-off!" and "Bud must go!"
Garcia retired the NL side in the 11th, and the game was over: American League 7, National League 7. The booing was so bad, Selig didn't dare take the field and announce a Most Valuable Player for the game.
He had canceled a postseason, screwed up a Spring Training, and had now screwed up an All-Star Game in his hometown, in a stadium he had built. How's that for a definition of the worst Commissioner in the history of major league sports?
A solution would have been so simple: Just declare every player who had already left the game eligible to return. Unfortunately, Selig, who had built that whacked-out stadium and torn down its beautiful predecessor out of greed, was not interested in what was good for baseball. And so he got the hell booed out of him in the stadium he built, by his own team's fans.
In 2008, the All-Star Game was played at the old Yankee Stadium, in its last season. It went 15 innings, 4 innings longer than this one, and a winner was determined. The game went to 10 innings in 2017 and 2018, and a winner was found each time.
Selig remained Commissioner until 2015, having handpicked his successor, Rob Manfred. He has not been much of an improvement.
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July 9, 2002 was a Tuesday. As is usually the case on the day of the MLB ASG, it was the only game, in any major league sport in North America, scheduled for the day.
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