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Date | July 15, 2003 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Venue | U.S. Cellular Field | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
City | Chicago, Illinois | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Managers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
MVP | Garret Anderson (ANA) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 47,609 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Television | Fox (United States) MLB International (International) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TV announcers | Joe Buck and Tim McCarver (Fox) Gary Thorne and Ken Singleton (MLB International) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Radio | ESPN | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Radio announcers | Dan Shulman and Dave Campbell | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 2003 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the 74th midsummer classic between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and celebrated the 70th anniversary of the inaugural All-Star Game played in Chicago, Illinois in 1933.
The game was held on July 15, 2003 at U.S. Cellular Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League. The game resulted in the American League defeating the National League 7–6, thus awarding an AL team (which was eventually the New York Yankees) home-field advantage in the 2003 World Series. This game was the first All-Star Game to award home-field advantage in the World Series to the winning league, a rule that stemmed from a controversial 7–7 tie in the previous year's edition. In the days leading up to the game, Fox advertised it with the tagline: "This time it counts." Subsequent editions altered the slogan to "This one counts" to reflect the new method of determining the World Series' home-field advantage; that arrangement ended with the 2016 edition, where the AL team (which became the Cleveland Indians, now the Cleveland Guardians) also won home-field advantage; the AL would win the next six years, as well as the last four. The winning league had a 9–5 record in the corresponding year's World Series, with the AL going 6–5 in the 11 years it won the All Star Game and the NL going 3–0 in the three years it won the All Star Game.
This All-Star Game marked the seventh All-Star appearance for the Naval Station Great Lakes color guard from Waukegan, Illinois, who this year was joined by police officers from the Kane County Sheriff's Department who presented the Canadian and American flags in the outfield. Both the five-man color guard and the sheriff's department officers accompanied Michael Bublé, who sang O Canada, and Vanessa Carlton, who sang The Star-Spangled Banner. Bublé's performance of "O Canada" was not televised until after the game in the Chicago area, while Carlton's performance was followed by fireworks that shot off the U.S. Cellular Field scoreboard. This was also the last All-Star game to have the stadium's public address announcer announce the all-star rosters and coaches; the game's play-by-play announcer (in this case, Joe Buck) proceeds that custom starting the next year's game and onwards.