Baseball is a game of tradition and one of its major traditions is the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Also known as the Midsummer Classic, the All-Star game is played during the middle of the baseball season. In the game, the best players from the American League face the best players from the National League.

Typically, the All-Star game is played on a Tuesday. To make room for the game, Major League Baseball has no other games scheduled for the Monday before the game and the Wednesday after the game. This year, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be played in New York at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, July 15th.

To understand why the Midsummer Classic is such a tradition, you must first understand the long history of the game. The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played in 1933 in Chicago. Like today’s game, that first All-Star game pitted the best players in the National League against the best players in the American League.

At the time, an All-Star game wasn’t seen much in North American sports. Today almost every sport has some version of an All-Star game. The National Football League has a Pro Bowl that is played after the Super Bowl that features the best teams in the American Football League versus the best teams in the National Football League. The National Basketball Association has a midseason All-Star game that features the Eastern Conference versus the Western Conference. The National Hockey League also has a midseason All-Star game.

Every year since 1933, the All-Star game has been played in baseball. Typically, the location of the All-Star game alternates between the National League and the American League each year. The rules of the league in which the All-Star game is being hosted are the rules that are used. For example, if the All-Star game is held at Wrigley Field, National League rules will be used because that is a National League park (Chicago Cubs).

Major League Baseball does a great job of letting the fans help pick who plays in the All-Star game. The fans vote to pick the starters for both the American League and the National League. Once the starters are determined, the head managers of each league pick which players will be on the bench. After the bench is determined, the final spot on the roster is determined by a fan vote. When all is said and done, there are 32 players on each team’s roster. If any players get hurt and are unable to play in the game, the Commissioner’s Office will pick the replacement players.

The managers of the All-Star games are the coaches who played each other in the previous World Series. For example, if the Los Angeles Dodgers play the Tampa Bay Rays in the 2008 World Series, the 2009 All-Star game will be managed by the managers of the Dodgers and the Rays. The managers have the power to pick who will be on their coaching staffs.

About a decade ago, it seemed like most fans, players, managers and even the media were losing interest in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Instead of letting the All-Star game lose popularity, Major League Baseball decided to do something about it. In 2003, the All-Star game suddenly became a lot more important in a tangible sense. That was the year that the winner of the All-Star game got home field advantage in the World Series. Since that point, the All-Star game has become a very competitive affair.

Since the All-Star game decides World Series home field advantage, nowadays you will see players and managers trying hard to win the game. For a lot of players in the contest, playing for the right to hold a Game 7 at home means there is a lot on the line. Not only are there bragging rights, the fate of their team’s chances of winning the World Series are also on the line.

In 2008, many fans are looking forward to a Major League Baseball All-Star Game which features many new and exciting players in addition to some of the best players of this generation. On top of that, this year’s All-Star game has added importance because Yankee Stadium is hosting games for the last time this year. Next year, the Yankees are moving into a new stadium, so this is the unofficial goodbye to the most famous ballpark in the history of baseball. Yankee Stadium has seen Yankees stars dating back to Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and still remained to today’s tandem of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.

Speaking of Jeter and Rodriguez, those two Yankees will be starting at shortstop and third base – respectively. The American League starters also feature baseball superstars Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners and Manny Ramirez of the Boston Red Sox. On the National League side, the starters include superstars Chipper Jones of the Atlanta Braves, Hanley Ramirez of the Florida Marlins, Chase Utley of the Philadelphia Phillies and Albert Pujols of the St. Louis Cardinals. The starting pitchers will be Ben Sheets of the Milwaukee Brewers for the National League and Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians for the American League.

On the bench, the American League has notable players such as star rookie Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays, MVP candidate Ian Kinsler of the Texas Rangers and Grady Sizemore of the Cleveland Indians, one of the best young players in baseball. The National League bench has rising star David Wright of the New York Mets, Miguel Tejada of the Houston Astros and Russell Martin of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The pitching staffs of each league are very impressive. The American League has starters Roy Halladay of the Toronto Blue Jays and Ervin Santana of the Los Angeles Angels. The National League has starters Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants and Carlos Zambrano of the Chicago Cubs. The American League has closers Jonathan Papelbon of the Boston Red Sox and Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees. The National League has closers Billy Wagner of the New York Mets and Brian Wilson of the San Francisco Giants.

No matter which team in baseball is your favorite, you have a reason to watch the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Baseball puts at least one player from each team into the All-Star game, so even if your favorite team isn’t having a good year – you can still watch a player from your team play with the best players in the world. If your favorite team has World Series aspirations, chances are that more than one player is representing your team in the All-Star game. Not only that, with the home field advantage for the World Series on the line, you have a rooting interest for a certain team to win the game.

You can watch the Major League Baseball All-Star game on FOX at 8 PM EST. Be sure to turn in for the All-Star game introductions to see all the All-Stars get introduced and get an ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd. When the game is over, we’ll be able to crown both the All-Star game winning team and the league that will have home field advantage in the World Series.