Tuesday, December 20, 2022

All-Star Games and Inter-League Play

Inter-league play started in 1997. Table 1 below shows the wins and losses for the AL year by year along with AL runs scored and NL runs scored. I found this data using the Split Finder at Stathead (part of Baseball Reference). Click here to go to that search.

Table 1

Year

AL W

AL L

AL W-L%

AL R

NL R

1997

97

117

0.453

994

1007

1998

114

110

0.509

1089

1078

1999

116

135

0.462

1246

1374

2000

136

115

0.542

1278

1233

2001

132

120

0.524

1175

1175

2002

123

129

0.488

1127

1097

2003

115

137

0.456

1239

1267

2004

127

125

0.504

1252

1210

2005

136

116

0.540

1230

1056

2006

154

98

0.611

1336

1115

2007

137

115

0.544

1352

1172

2008

149

103

0.591

1249

1014

2009

138

114

0.548

1206

1061

2010

134

118

0.532

1168

1098

2011

131

121

0.520

1074

993

2012

142

110

0.563

1142

1034

2013

154

146

0.513

1286

1197

2014

163

137

0.543

1298

1189

2015

167

133

0.557

1398

1169

2016

165

135

0.550

1427

1313

2017

160

140

0.533

1452

1346

2018

142

158

0.473

1254

1330

2019

134

166

0.447

1338

1497

2020

149

149

0.500

1378

1420

2021

167

133

0.557

1383

1346

2022

152

148

0.507

1329

1285

Totals

3634

3328

0.522

32,700

31,076

Using runs scored (AL R) and runs allowed (NL R), the AL's Pythagorean winning pct is .525, very close to the actual .522.

Table 2 has the results of the All-Star games since 1997. 

Table 2

Year

Winner

AL R

NL R

1997

A.L.

3

1

1998

A.L.

13

8

1999

A.L.

4

1

2000

A.L.

6

3

2001

Tie

4

1

2002

A.L.

7

7

2003

A.L.

7

6

2004

A.L.

9

4

2005

A.L.

7

5

2006

A.L.

3

2

2007

A.L.

5

4

2008

A.L.

4

3

2009

A.L.

4

3

2010

N.L.

1

3

2011

N.L.

1

5

2012

N.L.

0

8

2013

A.L.

3

0

2014

A.L.

5

3

2015

A.L.

6

3

2016

A.L.

4

2

2017

A.L.

2

1

2018

A.L.

8

6

2019

A.L.

4

3

2021

A.L.

5

2

2022

A.L.

3

2

 

Totals

118

86

There were 25 games (no game in 2020 due to Covid). There was a tie in 2002. In the remaining 24 games, the AL has a 21-3 record for a .875 winning pct. That is far above the .522 pct it has in inter-league games. So it is possible that the leagues can be fairly even during a long period when one dominates the All-Star game.

The AL's Pythagorean pct for the All-Star games is .653. Not as dominant as .875, but still much higher than the .525 for regular season inter-league games. See All-Star Game History and Leaders from Baseball Reference.