MLB All-Star Game 2015: Complete history of winners

Here is a complete list of all 85 All-Star Game winners to date with MVP honors. 

The Major League Baseball All-Star Game—aka “The Mid-Summer Classic”—is the most storied of professional sports’ All-Star games. It is a tradition unlike any other in professional sports—a true exhibition where the game’s best players assemble on one diamond to play this country’s most beloved sport (historically-speaking).

Though an exhibition, it has historically been more competitive than the All-Star games in other sports, probably because historically no other sport has produced the kind of fierce competitors baseball has.

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Until 2003 there was no intrinsic benefit in either league winning the All-Star Game, aside from bragging rights over the other league—and perhaps a slightly larger bonus check for winning. That fact, of course changed following the 2002 game when the final was a tie, and an embarrassment to baseball, especially with it taking place in Commissioner Bud Selig’s home ballpark, Miller Park.

It now involves necessitated competition based on the fact the winning league earns home-field advantage in the World Series. I discuss the merit of this decision here (hint: it really hasn’t changed either the “Mid-Summer Classic” or “Fall Classic”).

There was one other tie in All-Star Game—it came on July 31 at Fenway Park in Boston, as the second All-Star Game played that year (the American League won the first one played three weeks earlier at D.C. Stadium).

Two All-Star Games was a trend baseball tried for a period of four seasons, starting in 1959 and finally ending in 1962. Major League Baseball commissioner Ford Frick admitted at the time the game was an opportunity to further create revenue for the league and its players—the money went into the player’s pension fund.

It was a bit easier to sell then than it would be now since there was no Interleague play at the time, and so it allowed the two leagues to intermingle with a slight bit more of regularity. In those eight games, the National League won five contests, the American League two and of course the ominous tie hangs there in the balance.

The extra victories earned during the odd days of double All-Star Games helped earn the National League their current tight victory margin of 43-40-2.

Granted the National League also had an 11-game winning streak in the Summer Classic from 1972 to 1982.

The American League put together an even more impressive streak, winning 12 straight times recently—starting in 1997 and lasting until 2009 (obviously not counting the tie in 2002). Within that time frame, of course, is the interspersion of the All-Star Game also determining home-field advantage in the World Series.

All in all, there have been some incredibly memorable moments in MLB All-Star Games. But most often the common baseball fan forgets which team won, even in the games which presented memorable moments.

Here is a reminder. A reminder of who won every All-Star Game ever played, and every MVP since 1962—when the award was first presented.

All score data taken from Baseball-Reference.com’s All-Star Game page.