All-Star Game 2002

July 9, 2002

Milwaukee - A game dominated by pitching turns into a slugfest. Milwaukee's Miller Park was host of the 1st annual All-Star Game in the FPBL. The starting lineups from both teams looked feirce, but as expected, it started as a pitchers dual.

Randy Johnson took the hill for the NL All-Stars in the 1st inning. He retired the side easily in the first as did the AL starter Greg Maddux. Bobby Cox decided to go with Johnson in the second, but to some regret. He gave up a home run to Jason Giambi after retiring Alex Rodriguez. Giambi smoked a ball deep left that cleared the fence easily. Johnson was quickly removed for Colorado's Pedro Martinez. Pedro finished out the inning with no troubles.

Morris rolled through the third with no trouble either. Maddux continued to pitch well for the AL side and pitched into the 3rd inning. He hit a bump though as Ichiro Suzuki belted a 1-2 pitch over the left field wall to tie the game at 1-1. Maddux was left in though, and finished out the inning strong.

Great pitching continued through the 4th and into the 5th. The bottom of the 5th saw trouble for Curt Schilling and the AL squad. David Eckstein led off the inning with a double off the top of the center field wall. He was moved over to thrid on Tony Womack's sacrafice hit. Sammy Sosa stepped up to the plate next, but popped out weakly to the pitcher. Alfonso Soriano followed with a big strikeout to end any threat.

Mark Mulder started the 6th inning for the NL, but his outing was kept short. After getting Ivan Rodriguez to ground out, Lance Berkman crushed a 3-2 pitch deep over the left field wall to bring the AL out in front 2-1. Alex Rodriguez stepped up to the plate next and followed it with a back to back homrun to extend the lead to 3-1. Mulder continued to struggle giving up a single to Helton and another to Griffey. He was quickly removed, and replaced with Arthur Rhodes. Shannon Stewart walked to load the bases, but Rhodes induced Orlando Hudson into an inning ending double play which kept the NL in the game.

The AL pitching continued to roll as they combined 3 pitchers in the bottom of the 7th to get three straight strikeouts. AL Manager Lou Pinella did a nice job of pinning Lefties vs. Lefties and Righties vs. Righties to get the strikeouts. The 8th inning brought trouble for the AL pitching staff though. Wade Miller began the inning by getting Soriano to ground out. Eric Chavez followed with a double to begin the NL rally. Miller intentionally walked Jim Edmonds to get to the righty Paul Konerko. Dave Weathers was brought into the game to shut down the rally. On a first pitch fastball, Konerko teed-off and slammed a 3-run shot into deep left field to put the NL Squad ahead for good 4-3.

Kieth Foulke was brought in to close out the game. After giving up a leadoff single, he shut down the next 3 to close out the thrilling All-Star Game. In the league's first year, there couldn't have been a more thrilling finish. The crowd chanted Konerko's name as the game ended. As predicted, Paul Konerko was honored for his performance by recieving the All-Star Game MVP.