MLB All-Star Game ends in a ‘swing-off’

By David Mullen

In the 95th MLB All-Star Game on July 15, the National League All-Stars defeated the American League All-Stars, 6-6. 

Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game is by far the best exhibition among the Big Four professional sports leagues. The NBA All-Star Game is limited to basketball’s best players representing a few of the NBA’s 30 teams shooting three-pointers without any semblance of defense. The game feels like an afterthought to the Slam Dunk Contest held the day before.

The NHL All-Star Game has little similarity to an actual hockey game. All time segments, like number of periods and period lengths, are altered. Any player’s determination is negligible. The NFL Pro Bowl Games is filler for the weekend between the end of the regular season and the Super Bowl. Forgoing pads and helmets, NFL brass felt that fans would be intrigued by a flag football game. They are not.

When baseball’s 2025 All-Star Game was tied after nine innings, the 13th tie in All-Star Game history, MLB appeared to go into panic mode while reminding fans of one of the league’s most embarrassing moments in its storied history. 

 In the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee, tied 7-7 after 11 innings, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig abruptly ended the game with both teams out of pitchers. MLB would add significance to the game in 2003, as the winning All-Star team would secure the home field advantage for their league in the World Series. That incentive ended in 2017, returning the game to exhibition status. 

To avoid the debacle of Selig’s Folly, MLB had a new plan. Previously, a tied game went into extra innings to decide a winner. With the game tied after nine innings, MLB would introduce a “swing-off,” a mini home run contest to decide the winner. The contest, under wraps since approved in 2022, was not “mini” in terms of home run power; the outfield fences were not moved closer to home plate and baseballs were not replaced by Nerf balls.

Instead, three batters from each league, selected from a pool of remaining players that had not yet changed into street clothes, would try to hit batting practice home runs before the few remaining fans at Truist Park in Atlanta who had already sat through three days of mostly ludicrous (and Ludacris) festivities, like celebrity softball games and a bloated fanfest.

The results led to a slipshod made-for-TV event that provided more discomfort than drama. For fans at the game or watching TV, the swing-off rules could have been taken from a winning entry from Mrs. Crabapples’ second grade class. It was Arena Baseball.

Philadelphia Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber, the eventual All-Star Game MVP, hit all three hittable pitches he saw out of the park giving the NL a 4 home runs to 3 home runs victory in a shootout after stoppage time. The ending felt more like a Premier League match than a Major League Baseball game, without the postgame pint. The final official score was determined to be National League 7, American League 6.    

The game itself was fun. In a stirring visual tribute to Hank Aaron’s epic 715th home run between the 6th and 7th inning, Truist Park was transformed into Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium circa April 8, 1974, when the Atlanta Braves legend broke Babe Ruth’s then all-time record of 714 home runs. It is the most memorable moment in Atlanta baseball history and one of MLB’s most revered moments. Using stunning technology, the tribute was executed flawlessly.

MLB rolled out their meal tickets like Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge, Manny Machado, Paul Skenes and others, eventually replaced by a crop of budding young star power. After HRs by the New York Mets Pete Alonso and Arizona’s Corbin Carroll made the game 6-0, a late innings comeback led by the A’s Brent Rooker’s three-run HR and a two-run ninth inning created a 6-6 tie. Time for a “swing-off like no other,” because it had never happened before. I felt that the contest fell flat after an intriguing nine-inning tilt.    

The Texas Rangers’ lone representative, pitcher Jacob deGrom, was on the field but did not play in the game as a precaution. deGrom is injury prone, and adding stress to a surgically repaired arm is not worth the risk in an exhibition game.  

Luckily, the All-Star Game swing-off is one of the few blemishes for MLB this season. So far, 2025 has been a fascinating year. The game has introduced surprise teams like the Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs, disappointing teams like the Rangers and the Baltimore Orioles, breakout seasons, new blood like Pete Crow-Armstrong and Jacob Wilson making immediate impact and a major emphasis to return the National Pastime to the national psyche. 

Sometimes, MLB tries too hard to please too many and correct previous mistakes. The 95th All-Star Game was a movie full of high-priced talent that ran 20 minutes too long with a plot twist gone wrong.

Next time the All-Star Game is tied after nine innings, give the win to the league whose representative won the Home Run Derby the day before. Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners won the 2025 Home Run Derby, so the American League All-Stars would have beaten the National League All-Stars, 6-6.