Baseball Commissioner Robert D. Manfred, Jr. announced on Wednesday that Major League Baseball has awarded the 2020 All-Star Game and accompanying All-Star Week festivities to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The 2020 Midsummer Classic will be the 91st edition in the event’s history, which dates back to 1933.

All-Star Game video narrated by Vin Scully.
(Click on image to view video … and grab a tissue)

This marks the fourth time in franchise history that the Dodgers will hold the Midsummer Classic, including the third time in Los Angeles and the second at Dodger Stadium, which last staged the event in 1980.  Previously, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum was the site of the second All-Star Game of the 1959 season.  In the franchise’s Brooklyn lineage, Ebbets Field hosted the 1949 All-Star Game, in which Jackie Robinson made his first National League All-Star team and batted second, behind double play partner Pee Wee Reese.

“Major League Baseball is proud to bring the All-Star Game to Los Angeles and fans of the Dodgers in 2020,” said Manfred, in a written statement on Wednesday. “As last year’s World Series demonstrated, Dodger Stadium remains one of our game’s classic ballparks, and it will be a perfect venue to showcase the very best of the National Pastime. I congratulate the Dodgers organization and the leaders of Los Angeles on putting together an outstanding bid to host the All-Star festivities.”

An All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium is long overdue. The last was held on July 8, 1980.
(Photo courtesy of Jerry Reuss)

Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten also released a statement on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.

“We’ve made no secret that bringing an All-Star Game back to Los Angeles was a priority for our ownership group, and we couldn’t be more excited for Dodger fans and to showcase Dodger Stadium and Los Angeles to a worldwide audience in 2020,” said Kasten. “We’d like to thank Commissioner Rob Manfred, Mayor Eric Garcetti and Councilmember Gil Cedillo for their efforts to secure this premier sporting event for our community, which will benefit from baseball’s legacy youth programs for years to come.”

Mayor Garcetti had this to say.

“There’s no feeling quite like watching your favorite players take the field at the ballpark and we can’t wait to welcome baseball’s best to Los Angeles for the 2020 All-Star Game,” Garcetti said. “Dodger Stadium is a perfect destination for this summer tradition, and I look forward to sharing our city with fans from all over the world.”

Los Angeles City Councilmember Gil Cedillo echoed his boss’s statement.

“We are proud that Los Angeles is being recognized for the global city it is, being selected as the host for the 2020 MLB All-Star Game. Los Angeles is poised to bring this international event to Dodger Stadium. We welcome the best of the best in the realm of baseball for this special event.”

The Dodgers will follow the upcoming Midsummer Classic hosts, the Washington Nationals, who will hold this summer’s event at Nationals Park on Tuesday, July 17th, and the Cleveland Indians, who will welcome the 90th All-Star Game to Progressive Field in 2019.

Some Dodgers All-Star Game facts:

• Major League Baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers will hold the 2020 All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium. The 2020 All-Star Game will be the 91st Midsummer Classic.
• The 2020 All-Star Game will mark the fourth to be hosted by the Dodgers, the third to be played in Los Angeles, and the second at Dodger Stadium.
• Previous Midsummer Classics hosted by the Dodgers include 1949 at Ebbets Field; 1959 (the second All-Star Game of 1959) at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum; and 1980 at Dodger Stadium.
• The Dodgers have had a total of 295 All-Star player selections in franchise history by 122 different players.
• The Dodgers have had five different managers lead the National All-Star squad a total of 17 times, including Hall of Famer Walter Alston (1954, 1956-57, 1960-1, 1960-2, 1964, 1966-67, 1975), Charlie Dressen (1953), Hall of Famer Leo Durocher (1942, 1948), Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda (1978-79, 1982, 1989) and Burt Shotton (1950). Current Dodgers manager Dave Roberts will manage the NL All-Star team at the 2018 Midsummer Classic at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. after leading Los Angeles to the NL pennant in 2017.
• The Dodgers have produced four different All-Star Game Most Valuable Players (five times overall).
• Shortstop Maury Wills was selected as the first All-Star Game MVP in history at the first of two All-Star Games played in 1962.
• First baseman Steve Garvey (right) was selected the winner at the 1974 All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, and was given the honor a second time in 1978 in San Diego, becoming the second of five players to win the award twice.
• Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton was the recipient of the MVP award in 1977 at Yankee Stadium, one of just seven times that a pitcher has been selected.
• In 1996 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, Hall of Fame catcher Mike Piazza was named the winner, one of just six occasions in which a backstop has been on the receiving end of the All-Star Game MVP award.
• The Dodgers have had 11 different pitchers start the Midsummer Classic on a total of 15 occasions, including Whit Wyatt (1941), Ralph Branca (1948), Hall of Famer Don Drysdale (1959-1, 1959-2, 1962-1, 1964, 1968), Johnny Podres (1962-2), Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax (1966), Andy Messersmith (1974), Hall of Famer Don Sutton (1977), Fernando Valenzuela (1981), Hideo Nomo (1995), Brad Penny (2006) and Zack Greinke (2015).
• The Dodgers have had eight rookies named to the National League All-Star Team, including one in each of the last three years. The rookies include Bill Grabarkewitz (1970), Valenzuela (1981), Steve Sax (1982), Piazza (1993), Nomo (1995) and current Dodgers Joc Pederson (2015), Corey Seager (2016) and Cody Bellinger (2017). In addition to Valenzuela’s and Nomo’s starting
  assignments, Pederson was selected to start in place of injured fan-elected starter Matt Holliday in 2015.
• Hall of Famer Pee Wee Reese (right) owns the most All-Star selections in Dodgers history with 10 (1942, 1946-54).

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(Article courtesy of LA Dodgers)