starry, starry nights
On the occasion of the 95th MLB All-Star Game, here’s a look at some anniversaries of significance:
Ten years ago, Brian Dozier made his only appearance in the Midsummer Classic — and made an indelible mark. The former Southern Miss star from Fulton, then with the Minnesota Twins, hit a home run in his lone at-bat, taking Mark Melancon deep in the eighth inning at Cincinnati’s Great American Ballpark. The American League stars won the game 6-3. Dozier became just the fourth Mississippi native to homer in an All-Star Game, following George Scott (1977), Dave Parker (1981) and Frank White (1986). (Mississippi State alum Will Clark also hit an ASG bomb in 1992.) Dozier would hit 28 homers in that 2015 season, helping the Twins to their first winning season in five years. … Twenty years ago, Roy Oswalt made the first of his three All-Star Game appearances. The 2005 season was a banner one for the former Holmes Community College star from Weir. He won 20 games for Houston, went 3-0 in the postseason, took National League Championship Series MVP honors while leading the Astros to the World Series and finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting. But his memories of the All-Star Game that July might not be so pleasant. He allowed two hits, a walk and two runs in an inning of work as the NL lost 7-5 at Detroit’s Comerica Park. In the 2006 ASG, Oswalt threw a scoreless inning. … Tonight’s game will be the third All-Star Game played in Atlanta, each in a different ballpark. In the first, at Fulton County Stadium in 1972, ex-Ole Miss star Don Kessinger of the Chicago Cubs started at shortstop and went 0-for-2 for the Nationals in a 4-3 win. Kessinger made six All-Star teams in his 16-year career. In the 2000 game, at Turner Field, Gulfport native Matt Lawton of Minnesota subbed in for the Americans and went 1-for-2 with an RBI and a run in a 6-3 victory. Lawton made two All-Star teams in his 12-year MLB tour. … The Braves’ Hank Aaron homered in the ’72 game and Chipper Jones went yard in the 2000 game. That might bode well for former Mississippi Braves star Ronald Acuna Jr., who’ll bat second for the NL tonight at Truist Park. P.S. Brent Rooker, former Mississippi State standout and an All-Star reserve, missed by an inch — literally — of eliminating eventual champ Cal Raleigh in the first round of Monday night’s Home Run Derby. Both hit 17 homers, but Raleigh advanced to the semifinals on a tiebreaker. His longest homer — a 471-footer — was .08 of an inch longer than Rooker’s 471. (Rooker also inadvertently ran out of balls before his time expired in the first round.) Despite the letdown, Rooker said the experience was “super fun.” Tonight will be Rooker’s second All-Star appearance; the A’s slugger went 1-for-2 as a sub in the 2023 game. … Ocean Springs’ Garrett Crochet, now pitching for Boston, was chosen for the ASG for a second time but elected not to participate.