Major League Baseball All-Star Game - Scheduling

Scheduling

Since 1963, the game has been played on a Tuesday in July every year except three:

• in 1969, the game was rained out and moved to Wednesday afternoon, July 23 (making it the most recent afternoon game)
• in 1981, it was moved to Sunday, August 9, because of an MLB players' strike; also, the only game to be played on a weekend
• in 1983, the game was played on Wednesday night, July 6, at Chicago's Comiskey Park – 50 years to the day after the first all-star game in the same location.

The game was played at night for the first time in 1942, at the Polo Grounds, located in New York City, New York.

In 1945, with severe wartime travel restrictions in effect, the game scheduled to be played at Boston's Fenway Park was deferred until the next season.

There were two games played each season from 1959 to 1962. The second game was added to raise money for the MLB players' pension funds, as well as other causes. The experiment was abandoned on the grounds that having two games watered down the appeal of the event.

In 1981, the game was moved from July to August, for that year only. The middle portion of the 1981 season, including the scheduled All-Star break, had been erased due to the MLB players' strike. To promote the resumption of the season, the game (in Cleveland) was moved from its original July date to August 9. Second-half regular-season play began the next afternoon with a game in Wrigley Field in Chicago.