MLB All-Star Game canceled amid pandemic-shortened season
It’s the first time the game would not be held since 1945
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Major League Baseball announced Friday the 2020 All-Star Game will be canceled.
The game was originally supposed to be held at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles but that was before the coronavirus pandemic affected the entire sports world and forced the league to push its entire season back and eventually decide on a 60-game schedule.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“The 2020 All-Star Game presented by Mastercard, which was scheduled to be hosted by the @Dodgers and the City of Los Angeles, is being cancelled. With the @Braves already named as host of the 2021 SG in Atlanta, the @Dodgers will host the next Midsummer Classic in 2022,” the league announced on its Twitter account.
It’s the first time the game would not be held since 1945. At that time, it wasn’t held because of World War II.
Last year, the American League defeated the National League 4-3 at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Indians pitcher Shane Bieber was named All-Star Game MVP.
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Baseball’s schedule has already been influx because of the coronavirus. It was unclear whether the All-Star Game was even going to be played at all even if the players and owners agreed to a schedule longer than 60 games.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier this week that any schedule longer than 60 games wasn’t going to happen.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“The reality is we weren’t going to play more than 60 games no matter how the negotiations with the players went, or any other factor,” Manfred said on “The Dan Patrick Show.” “I think this is the one thing we come back to every single day. We’re trying to manage something that has proven to be unpredictable and unmanageable. I know it hasn’t looked particularly pretty in spots, but having said that, if we can pull off this 60-game season, I think it was the best we were going to do for our fans given the course of the virus.
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“It’s the calendar. We’re playing 60 games in 63 days right now,” Manfred added. “I don’t see, given the reality of the health situation over the past few weeks, how we were going to get going any faster than the calendar we’re on right now. No matter what the state of those negotiations were.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News’ Dan Canova contributed to this report.