On This Date in Sports July 11, 1989: Bo Knows All-Star Highlights
In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com
It as is the stars lined up in Anaheim for Bo Jackson, as his “Bo Knows” ad campaign is launched during the 1989 All-Star Game. Seconds after the commercial is first air, the Kansas City Royals star hits a leadoff home run with Ronald Reagan in the broadcast booth for NBC. The American League would win the game 5-3 as Bo Jackson takes home MVP honors.
Baseball was in a period of transition as the final All-Star Game of the 1980s was played at Anaheim Stadium. It was the final year of baseball on NBC as they had signed a four-year deal on CBS that would begin in 1990. The sport had a new commissioner in A. Bartlett Giamatti who had spent the first half of the season dealing with the Pete Rose investigation. Ronald Reagan’s whose presidency ended in January had time on his hand and wanted to return to his roots. Early in his career, he had performed recreations of Chicago Cubs games via telegraph in Iowa. Now he was invited to call the first inning of the All-Star Game on NBC with Vin Scully and Tom Seaver. This was also the first All-Star Game to utilize the Designated Hitter.
Ronald Reagan enjoyed plenty of action in his one inning of work. Dave Stewart of the Oakland Athletics made the start for his own manager for the American League and struggled in the first inning, as he allowed a leadoff single to Ozzie Smith of the St. Louis Cardinals. Smith was quickly thrown out stealing, but the NL continued their assault as they plated two runs in the first inning as Kevin Mitchell of the San Francisco Giants and Howard Johnson of the New York Mets had RBI singles.
In between innings, Nike launched a new ad campaign centered around Bo Jackson, the two-sport star who was batting leadoff for the American League after being the top vote-getter in the All-Star vote. The ad showed Bo trying his hand at other sports and badly playing the guitar with Bo Diddly responding that he did not know Didley. What Bo did know was how to hit home runs and if on cue, he hit a leadoff shot off Rick Reuschel of the San Francisco Giants who was selected to start the game by Dodgers Manager Tommy Lasorda. The next batter, Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox followed with a home run to tie the game 2-2.
Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers came on and shut down the National League in the second. John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves meanwhile struggled, as the American League took the lead when Ruben Sierra of the Rangers scored on an RBI ground out by Jackson. The American League added two more runs in the third as Harold Baines of the Chicago White Sox the first DH in the All-Star Game and Sierra each drove in runs with singles off Rick Sutcliffe of the Chicago Cubs. With the American League-leading 5-2, pitching took over the rest of the way as Mark Gubicza of the Royals, Mike Moore of the A’s and Greg Swindell of the Cleveland Indians shut down the NL.
Tim Burke of the Montreal Expos, Mark Davis of the San Diego Padres and Jay Howell of the Los Angeles Dodgers, kept the American League from doing further damage. Finally, in the eighth, the NL got a rally going against Rangers reliever Jeff Russell, who walked Glenn Davis of the Houston Astros and allowed a hit to Kevin Mitchell. Dan Plesac of Milwaukee Brewers singled in Davis to make it 5-3 as Doug Jones of the Indians took over. Jones ends the National League uprising as Tim Wallach of the Expos lined out to Mike Greenwell of the Red Sox in left.
After a strong inning by Mitch Williams in the eighth, the NL came to the plate needing two runs to tie the game. Bobby Bonilla of the Pittsburgh Pirates led off with a single Doug Jones quickly worked around it as Willie Randolph of the Dodgers hit into a fielder’s choice, while Tony Pena of the Cardinals ended the game by hitting into a double play.