MLB has made the decision to move the 2021 All Star Game from its originally scheduled home of Atlanta, Georgia due to reasons we will not get into in this article. Now that the All Star Game and it’s related festivities need a new city on short notice in 2021, the Milwaukee Brewers and American Family Field would be a great host.
The plan for the All Star Game festivities in 2021 was a bold one that MLB has not done before. Not only is there an All-Star Game and a Home Run Derby, there has traditionally been a Futures Game with top prospects from around the minor leagues, and a celebrity softball game. But the one big addition this year was the MLB Draft was going to be during All Star Week.
In previous years, the MLB Draft has been held in Secaucus, New Jersey at MLB Network’s studios. In 2020, it was planned to be in Omaha ahead of the 2020 College World Series. When that got cancelled, the plans for 2021 included moving the draft back a month and including it as a part of All Star festivities. So, this is a monster week for MLB and it needs to be held in a city where all of these events can happen.
Enter Milwaukee.
There are quite a few reasons why MLB should choose the Milwaukee Brewers and American Family Field as the host of the 2021 All Star Game.
Reason #1: Hank Aaron
In MLB’s statement explaining their decision to move the All Star Game from Atlanta, a city where Hank Aaron played nine seasons of his storied career, they said “we will continue with our plans to celebrate the memory of Hank Aaron during this season’s All-Star festivities.”
The only other city Aaron played in during his career was Milwaukee, where he played 14 seasons, even more time than he spent in Atlanta.
Hank Aaron loved Milwaukee, and spoke positively of it often. This was a home to him.
Outside of American Family Field, in the parking lot, there is the location of Aaron’s 755th and final home run, marked in the concrete. The Brewers have a statue outside of the ballpark for Hank, and his number hangs in the rafters.
If MLB plans to celebrate the memory of Hank Aaron, and they won’t be in Atlanta to do it, the next best place is clearly Milwaukee. Doing that kind of tribute in a city like Chicago or New York, or Dallas just wouldn’t carry the same kind of weight that it would here.
Hank Aaron should be reason enough alone for MLB to move the All Star Game to Milwaukee, but there are a few other reasons as well.