Looking back at the 2008 All-Star Game in Yankee Stadium

Shortly after announcing that the 2008 season would be the final at the old Yankee Stadium, MLB awarded the All-Star Game for that season to the team and the soon-to-be-gone stadium. Even though it was being replaced because it was out of date in some areas, it made sense that the historic venue would get one last Midsummer Classic.

That 2008 All-Star Game would go on to a five-hour 15-inning affair. Some might call that a great show as a semi-final bow for the stadium. Wordier people might even say it’s a sign that the baseball gods didn’t want to leave the place.

Those are nice things to say. However, 10 years on from it, we can say that the final innings of that game were also very dumb.

Down a run in the bottom of the eighth, Evan Longoria tied the game for the American League with a ground-rule double that scored Grady Sizemore. After Francisco Rodriguez got a fly out following a walk, AL manager Terry Francona brought in Mariano Rivera in the top of the ninth. Unlike most Rivera appearances, the game was actually tied. Rivera got a double play, but after a scoreless bottom of the inning, the All-Star Game went to extra innings for the first time since the 2002 debacle.

Even though it was the All-Star Game, Rivera actually got another inning in the tenth. He allowed two singles, but got Dan Uggla to ground into another double play. The next couple minutes wouldn’t get any better for Uggla, either.

In the first at bat of the bottom of the tenth this happened.

The error allowed Michael Young to reach. In the very next at bat, Uggla made another error, this time on a Carlos Quinten groundball:

The NL intentionally walked Carlos Guillen to load the bases with still no one out. In a cruel twist of fate, the next two batters hit grounders to Uggla. He managed to not mess up these, and get force outs at home both times. Aaron Cook got another groundout (to shortstop this time), ending the inning sending the game to the 11. Thoughts on the inning, Dan?

Any Yankee involvement ended there, as Rivera didn’t have to pitch for a third inning. The other two Yankees, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, had both started the game and had been long removed by the time extra innings began.

In the 11th, the AL wasted a chance even more comically than they did in the 10th. First, Ian Kinsler singled, but was thrown out trying to steal second. Dioner Navarro then walked, and moved to second on a J.D. Drew single.

In Pittsburgh two years earlier, Young was named MVP after hitting a two-run triple with the AL down to their final out. The hit changed a deficit into a lead, and the AL went on to win the game. It looked like he might repeat those heroics when he singled up the middle. Navarro was waved home from second, but it turns out he’s Dioner Navarro, and not that fast. Nate McClouth (extremely 2008) made a nice throw from center field to get Navarro at the plate. Despite putting four runners on in the inning, they did them in an order that led to no runs.

In the 12th, the NL left three runs on, and the AL responded with a paltry two. David Wright led off the 13th with a single, but the AL worked around that. In the bottom of the 13th, oh no.

In the 13th, Uggla made a third error. Not shockingly, this is an All-Star Game record. However, Carlos Marmol worked around it.

Both teams went down in order in the 14th, and the NL wasted a Wright walk in the top of the 15th. Justin Morneau singled to start the bottom of the 15th and eventually came around to score on a sac fly. The AL won 4-3 well after midnight. Drew won MVP honors, thanks mostly to a two-run home run that had tied the game in the seventh. It should have been Dan Uggla.

If you are a sadist and want to watch all five hours of this game, here is the entire Fox broadcast from where those nice Dan Uggla screenshots came from.