All-Star Games are especially unforgettable experiences for players in the host city. Those ovations — thunderclaps of joy and emotion — live forever in hearts and minds. Through the years, some of the most compelling All-Star moments have been hometown players rising to the occasion.Few scenes have been as memorable as seeing Ted Williams, aging and frail, return to Fenway Park one final time before the 1999 All-Star Game. He was wheeled to the center of the diamond for a ceremonial first pitch and was immediately surrounded by starstruck players from both squads as the old ballpark was rocked to its brick and steel bones. There was Bryce Harper winning the Home Run Derby at Nationals Park last summer, and Todd Frazier winning it at Great American Ballpark in 2015. There was magic in the air on both those nights, cheers cascading through a happy city. In fact, players from the host teams have delivered some of the coolest Midsummer Classic thrills in the game’s history. Here are nine of the best:
Carl Hubbell: New York, Polo Grounds, 1934
This was just the second All-Star Game ever played, and in terms of history, might be the most debated, discussed and remembered of them all because Hubbell did something that 85 years later still seems almost impossible. Beginning with Babe Ruth in the top of the first inning, Hubbell struck out five consecutive future Hall of Famers. Listen to the names: In the opening frame, he ended the inning by getting Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx. He opened the second by whiffing Al Simmons and Joe Cronin.
Joe DiMaggio: New York, Yankee Stadium, 1939
This was the first All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, and it was played just days after Gehrig’s retirement ceremony that included the words: “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” Six Yankees were in the AL starting lineup, and it was the 24-year-old DiMaggio who brought 62,892 fans to their feet with a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Pedro Martinez: Boston, Fenway Park, 1999
He walked to the mound at Fenway Park moments after Ted Williams departed to a wild ovation. Not much could have topped that moment, but Martinez came close by striking out five of the six hitters he faced and earning the MVP trophy in a 4-1 AL victory. His performance immediately drew comparisons to Hubbell’s performance in the 1934 game. But because this was a high-octane offensive era, Martinez’s two innings rank among the greatest in All-Star history with punchouts of Barry Larkin, Larry Walker, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire and Jeff Bagwell.
Ted Williams: Boston, Fenway Park, 1946
He hit a walk-off home run to end the 1941 All-Star Game in Detroit, and the 1946 game came after he’d missed the previous three seasons for World War II military service. He was 27 on Opening Day, and some wondered if he could still be the two-time batting champ — and last .400 hitter — he’d been before the war. He was that and more, and in the 1946 Midsummer Classic, he had four hits, including two home runs, and scored four times in a 12-0 AL win. That day, he delivered one of the signature moments of his career when he homered off one of Rip Sewell’s “eephus” pitches in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Sandy Alomar Jr.: Jacobs Field, Cleveland, 1997
He was wildly popular in Cleveland as one of the faces of a team that won five straight division championships and routinely drew 3 million fans per season to the beautiful ballpark that opened in 1994. In plenty of ways, this All-Star Game was his moment long before he entered the game at catcher in the top of the sixth inning. He then did what only the great ones have the ability to do. Alomar stepped to home plate with a runner on base and the game tied in the bottom of the seventh. His two-run blast won the game for the American League and earned him the All-Star Game MVP Award. He played 11 of his 20 seasons in Cleveland and will tell you today that this moment ranks as one of the best of his career.
Al Rosen: Cleveland, Municipal Stadium, 1954
He played all 10 of his Major League seasons in Cleveland and was a four-time All-Star and member of two pennant-winning teams. Perhaps his finest hour came in the 1954 All-Star Game when he homered twice, got on base four times and drove in five runs as the AL won an 11-9 slugfest. He hit a three-run homer off Robin Roberts in the bottom of the third, then connected again with Yogi Berra on base to tie the game in the fifth. Longtime Indians fans will remember that Rosen batted .300 that season despite playing with a broken finger.
Billy O'Dell: Baltimore, Memorial Stadium, 1958
He was the Orioles’ first “bonus baby” during the team’s first season in Baltimore (1954) and had a 2.86 ERA in five seasons with the Birds. He entered the seventh inning of the ’58 Midsummer Classic and retired nine straight NL hitters, including five future Hall of Famers: Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Bill Mazeroski, who combined for 97 All-Star Game selections. “You done splendid,” AL manager Casey Stengel told him. “You made all them fellers look the same size.”
Hank Aaron: Milwaukee, County Stadium, 1955
Seventeen future Hall of Famers earned spots on the two rosters for this instant classic. But to the hometown fans, it was Hank Aaron trotting onto the field as a pinch-runner in the bottom of the fifth inning that drew some of the biggest cheers. He then reached base three times on a walk and two singles in the first of 25 All-Star selections. Aaron’s final Midsummer Classic appearance would occur 20 years later at County Stadium.
Harmon Killebrew: Twin Cities, Metropolitan Stadium, 1965
He was one of six Twins on the 1965 AL All-Star team, and with the franchise in just its fifth season in the Twin Cities, his home runs became a focal point of the franchise — his 520-foot blast at Metropolitan Stadium in 1967 is commemorated at the Mall of America, and he blasted all 475 of his 573 dingers in Minnesota. The American League trailed, 5-0, early in this game, but Killebrew’s two-run dinger in the bottom of the fifth inning tied it. The NL would go on to win, 6-5, but that didn’t take the thunder out of Killebrew’s hometown heroics.