With the National League celebrating its 150th season, it’s only fitting that Major League Baseball’s 2026 All-Star Game in July is being hosted by the Philadelphia Phillies.
The baseball stars couldn’t be better aligned this season. MLB is recognizing America’s semiquincentennial (250th) birthday this season, and they are proudly presenting one of their crowning events of 2026 at Citizens Bank Park on July 14. The 96th game pitting the American and National Leagues played in mid-season, being hosted by the National League Phillies, follows in a line that can be traced back to the first such game in 1933.
And 50 years ago, in July 1976, the year Americans cheered on 200 years of independence as a nation, Philadelphia hosted an MLB All-Star Game that included eight future Hall of Fame players.
The first Mid-Summer Classic held in July 1933 in Chicago’s Comiskey Park grabbed few headlines. The more famous National League presence came in the second All-Star Game. Played in 1934 in New York’s Polo Grounds, future Hall of Fame New York Giants pitcher Carl Hubbell turned in a performance historians continue to extol.
Baseball writer Andrew Kivette, in a story written at baseballhall.org, offers commentary from former Boston Globe sportswriter Bob Ryan on the incredible outing turned in by Hubbell at his home ballpark.
“In terms of All-Star Game pitching feats, there is one standing far, far apart from all others. On July 10, 1934, in the Polo Grounds, the National League’s Carl Hubbell wrote himself some baseball history by striking out the final three men of the first inning and the first two of the second. Any self-respecting baseball historian knows the names by heart, and almost invariably rattles them off so quickly it’s as if the five men had one name: Ruthgerigfoxxsimmonscronin,” Ryan said.
Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Al Simmons, and Joe Cronin. All have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.
Since Chicago businessman William Hulbert formed the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs in February 1876—the game’s “Senior Circuit” as the league is referred to when its counterpart American League (formed in 1901) enters the conversation—there has been no shortage of highlights to review. The eight original charter members of the fledgling league consisted of the Boston Red Stockings, Chicago White Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Louisville Grays, Philadelphia Athletics, St. Louis Brown Stockings, and Mutual of New York.
The National League Central’s Chicago Cubs will be celebrating their 150th year on August 29 at Wrigley Field against the Cincinnati Reds. In the National League since 1890, Cincinnati, for much of the 20th century, played at home in the first game of each MLB season.
The Atlanta Braves are one of the two oldest franchises in the National League, and the reason dates back to 1876, when they were known as the Boston Red Stockings. By 1912, the franchise changed its name to the Braves. After 82 years in Boston, ownership shifted the franchise to Milwaukee. In 1966, the Braves closed up shop in the Midwest and settled in Atlanta.
The Cubs began as the Chicago White Stockings, officially changing their name in 1903 to the club that today plays home at Wrigley Field.
The National League has been a leader in the game’s expansion efforts, taking live ball games to parts of America that previously could only follow clubs on radio, in print, and later on TV. In 1958, both New York National League franchises, the Brooklyn Dodgers and Giants, relocated to the West Coast. Before the Dodgers made Los Angeles their home city and the Giants made San Francisco theirs, the most westerly MLB franchises were the St. Louis Cardinals and St. Louis Browns.
Since that initial move to the West Coast, there have been clubs put in Denver (Rockies) and Miami (Marlins), both in 1993. Prior to that, in 1962 and 1969, four new franchises were welcomed.
Five seasons after the Dodgers and Giants exited New York City, the New York Mets brought National League baseball back to the five boroughs. Also, the Houston Colt .45s (name changed to Astros in 1965) joined the Mets in 1962 in the “Senior Circuit.”
Seven seasons later, in 1969, the league welcomed the San Diego Padres, and then, for the first time, a franchise was granted outside of the United States. Canada’s Montreal Expos, for 36 seasons, ending after the 2004 schedule, were a mainstay in the National League East. The Expos were relocated to Washington, D.C. in 2005, and have operated as the Nationals since.
MLB.com’s Elizabeth Muratore wrote before this year’s spring training about how MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred feels toward the game, and MLB’s obligation to give back to the communities it has been serving for more than 150 years.
“Our great game has been a source of entertainment and enjoyment for Americans for more than 150 years,” Manfred said. “During difficult times, baseball has served as a source of strength for Americans and the country as a whole ... When you have a nickname like America’s pastime, we feel that it’s really important that we have a special obligation to appropriately commemorate the 250th anniversary of the country.”
With the strong ties National League franchises have with their fans, so much of what is enjoyed as the strength of baseball in communities of all sizes, is because of what eight clubs decided to build in 1876.
