Since its inception in 1933, the All-Star Game has become an integral part of baseball. Yet there has been no truly comprehensive source for researchers that includes both a narrative and a play-by-play for each game. Nor have there been more than perfunctory lists for historians to use in determining who among baseball's greats have had an impact on the games.

The Midsummer Classic covers each of the All-Star Games and examines All-Star history more extensively than ever before. It not only discusses each game in great detail -- with play-by-play, complete roster information, and expanded box scores -- but also breaks new ground with a series of itemized lists never before published. The book also includes information on the ceremonies surrounding the games, along with an explanation of how these ceremonies have changed over time. In addition, it explains how the All-Star Game has been influenced by the significant changes that have occurred in baseball over the years, such as the breaking of the color line, expansion, the shifting of franchises, and the introduction of the designated hitter.

"If this isn't the best analysis of the professional sports business ever written, I'd like to see the book that beats it. . . . Should be read by every sports fan or -- for that matter -- social critic." --From a five-star review, West Coast Review of Books. "Explores its subject so thoroughly and demolishes so many commonly held assumptions that after reading it even the most knowledgeable fans (and some journalists) should feel like drunks who have suddenly been forced to sober up." -- Chicago Tribune "Required reading for anyone who calls himself a fan." -- Chicago Sun-Times "An invaluable contribution to sports literature." -- Howard Cosell