Before the trade deadline and MLB’s home stretch, baseball’s schedule takes a break this week for Tuesday’s All-Star Game in D.C. By pitting baseball’s best against each other since 1933, the All-Star Game allows the game’s elite a chance to add to their legacies with legendary performances. This year, the Yankees had four players selected. Luis Severino and Aaron Judge will both play in the game, while Aroldis Chapman and Gleyber Torres received All-Star recognition but will be inactive. The Mets’ historically bad first half of the season means Jacob deGrom, whose 1.68 ERA leads the MLB, serves as their only representative.
Here’s a look at the 10 best All-Star Game performances by players representing New York’s teams:
10. Mariano Rivera, 2013 (IP, 0 R)
In his final All-Star Game appearance, Rivera spun a clean eighth inning to preserve the A.L.’s 3-0 lead. Having already announced he would retire after the 2013 season, Mo received a two minute standing ovation from the Citi Field crowd as he took the field by himself to the sounds of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” After the game, Rivera received the All-Star Game MVP, joining Derek Jeter as the only Yankees to earn that honor. In his legendary career, Rivera was named an All-Star 13 times and appeared in the Midsummer Classic nine times. In nine career innings of All-Star work, he never allowed a run and conceded just five hits while striking out five.
9. Dwight Gooden, 1984 (2 IP, 1 H, 3 Ks)
Gooden was only 19 when he made his All-Star debut at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Throwing to future battery mate Gary Carter (then of the Montreal Expos), Doc struck out the side in the top of the fifth and pitched another clean inning in the sixth. The N.L. lost that All-Star Game 3-1, but Gooden went on to win the N.L. Rookie of the Year in 1984, and the Mets traded for Carter after the season. With Carter behind the plate, Gooden went on to win the Cy Young Award in 1985 and he also started the All-Star Game in 1986 and 1988 (with Carter again catching him both times).
8. Tug McGraw, 1972 (2 IP, 1 H, 4 Ks, Win)
In his only All-Star Game appearance as a Met, McGraw became the first pitcher in franchise history to earn a win. McGraw entered the game with the National League trailing 3-2 in the top of the ninth and allowed a double but worked out of trouble to keep the game within reach. After the N.L. tied the game in the ninth, the lefty pitched a perfect 10th inning and Joe Morgan knocked in the winning run in the bottom of the frame. Among McGraw’s four strikeout victims were Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Carlton Fisk.
7. Lou Gehrig, 1937 (2-4, 2B, HR, 4 RBIs)
Gehrig played in six straight All-Star Games between 1933 and 1938, and his performance in the American League’s 8-3 win at Griffith Stadium in D.C. easily stands out as his best. Gehrig opened the scoring in the third with a two-run homer to right field, driving home teammate Joe DiMaggio. In the sixth inning, with the National League fighting back, Gehrig put the game out of reach with a two-out, two-run double to extend the A.L. lead to 8-3. The All-Star MVP award wasn’t given until 1962, but Gehrig likely would have won it, as his four RBIs and six total bases led the winning A.L. side.
6. Jacob deGrom, 2015 (IP, 3 Ks)
DeGrom’s first All-Star performance goes down as one of the most dominant innings in Midsummer Classic history. The Mets righty struck out all three batters he faced and only needed 10 pitches to do so. Since MLB began counting pitches in the All-Star Game in the 1990s, deGrom is the only pitcher to strike out three batters on 10 pitches or fewer. DeGrom’s three victims — Stephen Vogt, Jason Kipnis, and Jose Iglesias — swung five times between them but never even mustered a foul tip. Only Kipnis managed to lay off a pitch while down in his at bat 0-2, but deGrom put away the Indians second baseman on the very next pitch.
5. Babe Ruth, 1933 (2-4, HR, 2 RBI)
The All-Star Game didn’t come around until 1933, when Ruth was at the tail end of his career and baseball undoubtedly missed out on a few potential iconic Ruth moments by introducing the event so late. But the Bambino still made his mark by hitting the first-ever All-Star Game home run in the inaugural exhibition at Comiskey Park. Ruth’s third-inning, two-run homer to right extended the American League’s lead to 3-0 and proved to be the difference in its 4-2 win. Ruth only played in one more All-Star game before retiring midway through the 1935 season.
4. Lee Mazzilli, 1979 (1-1, HR, BB, 2 RBIs)
Mazzilli was an unexpected hero in the only All-Star appearance of his career. The Mets outfielder tied the game at six in the eighth inning when he clubbed a pinch-hit homer to the opposite field. The next inning, with two outs and the bases loaded, Mazzilli drew a walk off Yankee Ron Guidry to give the National League a 7-6 lead at Seattle’s Kingdome.
3. Vic Raschi, 1948 (3 IP, 0 R, 3 Ks, Win; 1-1, 2 RBI)
Before the introduction of the designated hitter in 1973, Raschi helped the American League both at the plate and on the mound. The Yankees righty hurled three clean innings, striking out Hall of Famers Stan Musial and Richie Ashburn. Raschi made his biggest impact in the game at the plate when he drove in two runs with a bases loaded single, giving the A.L. a 4-2 lead. Raschi was a career .184 hitter, but managed a .235 average with 11 RBIs in 90 at bats in 1948.
2. Carl Hubbell, 1934 (3 IP, 6 Ks)
Hubbell is the only non-Met or Yankee on this list, but the Giants starter earned it with his electrifying start to the 1934 All-Star Game at his home Polo Grounds. Hubbell opened the game by allowing a single and a walk but he settled in afterwards by striking out the next five batters he faced, all of them future Hall of Famers. The lefty retired Ruth, Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx to escape the first inning then sent down Al Simmons and Joe Cronin to set an All-Star game record for consecutive strikeouts that has only been matched once — by Fernando Valenzuela in 1986.
1. Derek Jeter, 2000 (3-3, 2B, R, 2 RBI)
Jeter made 14 All-Star games between 1998 and 2014, going 13-for-27 (.481) over that stretch. His best performance came at Atlanta’s Turner Field in 2000 when he won the All-Star Game MVP as the American League starting shortstop. Jeter opened his day with a first-inning double off of Randy Johnson and then singled and scored the game’s first run in the third. In the fourth inning, he singled against Al Leiter of the Mets to give the A.L. a 3-1 lead it didn’t relinquish. Jeter went on to win the World Series MVP later that season, making him the only player to win All-Star MVP and World Series MVP awards in the same year.
