The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also popularly known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game between players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by fan vote for the starting position players and by the respective managers (from the previous year's World Series) for pitchers and reserve players. The All-Star Game usually occurs in early to mid-July and marks the symbolic halfway point in the Major League Baseball (MLB) season (though not the mathematical halfway point; in most seasons, the game actually takes place one week later).

Since 2003, the pennant winner of the league winning the All-Star Game has been awarded home field advantage for the upcoming World Series. The most recent All-Star game (2007) was played at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California, home of the San Francisco Giants. The American League won the game, which secured home field advantage in the 2007 World Series for the sixth straight season (including all five seasons under the current format).

The first All-Star Game was held as part of the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois, and was the brainchild of Arch Ward, then sports editor for The Chicago Tribune. Initially intended to be a one-time event, its great success resulted in making the game an annual one. Ward's contribution was recognized by Major League Baseball in 1962 with the creation of the "Arch Ward Trophy," given to the All-Star Game's most valuable player each year.

The ballparks

The game's venue is chosen by Major League Baseball and traditionally alternates between the two leagues every year. This tradition has been broken twice. The first time was in 1951, when the Detroit Tigers were chosen to host the annual game as part of the city's 250th birthday. It was broken again in 2007, when the San Francisco Giants were the host for the 2007 All-Star Game. That scheduling also set up the 2008 game to be held in the scheduled final season at Yankee Stadium.

The "home team" is the league in which the host franchise plays its games. The criteria for choosing the venue are subjective; for the most part, cities with new parks and cities who have not hosted the game in a long time--or ever--tend to get the nod. In the first two decades of the game, there were two teams that shared ballparks, Philadelphia and St. Louis. This led two some shorter-than-usual gaps between the use of those venues: The Cardinals hosted the game in 1940, and the Browns in 1948. The Athletics hosted the game in 1943, and the Phillies in 1952.

The last All-Star Game to be played in a stadium that was not hosting its first All-Star Game was the 1999 game in Boston's Fenway Park. The next one is due to be in 2008, when the game will be held at New York's Yankee Stadium.