Fans await home run balls in McCovey Cove outside AT&T Park during the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

The exhibition game, often called the “Midsummer Classic,” pits players from the American and the National Leagues against each other. Fans vote to choose the players that start the game, which takes place at the symbolic midpoint of the season. The managers, from the teams that played in the World Series the previous year, pick the pitchers and reserve players. Since 2003, the prize for winning has been home field advantage in the World Series for the team from the victorious league.

The American League won the 78th All-Star game on July 10, 2007 with a score of 5-4. No home run balls landed in the water beyond the right-field wall, but the Seattle Mariners’ Ichiro Suzuki wowed the crowd with an inside-the-park home run, the first in All-Star history.

San Francisco, Calif., USA.

Also, check out articles in New America Media category: Arts & Entertainment