Today begins the saddest three days of the summer - the three days with no real baseball games.  Yes, we've got the Home Run Derby, and the All Star Game, but despite the hype, they just aren't as meaningful or fun as a regular season game (yes, even one between the Padres and the Nationals).  Of course your mileage may vary.

Pretty simple graph today, showing which league has won the All Star game each year. 

I'm sure most of you are aware that the AL hasn't lost a game since 1996, and only dropped three in the past 20 years.  But this streak pales in comparison to the NL's 25-3-1 record from 1960-1985 (there were two games per season in 1959-1962), which included 12 in a row and 19 of 20 in one stretch.

Other interesting All Star game facts:

Since the game began in 1933, there's only been one season without an All Star game.  Because of World War II, the 1945 game was not played.

Despite all the hubbub surrounding the All Star Game tie in 2002, it was not the first time an All Star game finished without a winner.  The second game in 1961 was called after nine innings because of rain with the score knotted at one apiece.  I suppose rain is different than running out of pitchers.

And this is just strange.  During the NL's record 12 game winning streak, they had a stretch of seven wins where they scored seven runs all but one but one of the years. In the other they scored six.