MLB cancels All-Star Game for first time since 1945

and so that’s unique in and of itself,” he said Friday. “I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to take that trophy home, especially when you’re competing against your peers and there’s only going to be one of them.”

It already has been a big week for Cole. His wife, Amy, a sister of San Francisco shortstop Brandon

Crawford, gave birth Tuesday to their first child. Caden Gerrit Cole weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces.

“He’s a good mix of his dad and his mom,” Cole said. “He’s absolutely adorable. He’s got big blue eyes and gosh, I just can’t stop staring at him.”

Signed to a $324 million, nine-year contract that set a record as the highest for a pitcher, Cole said the delay caused by the pandemic might benefit the Yankees because it allowed many to heal.

Left-hander James Paxton has recovered from back surgery in February, designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton has bounced back from a strained right calf sustained during defensive drills on Feb. 26 and right fielder Aaron Judge appears healthy following a stress fracture to his first right rib.

“I saw Aaron yesterday. He’s swinging the bat well. He’s pain free,” Cole said.

Switching-hitting center fielder Aaron Hicks, a key

LOS ANGELES — Dodger Stadium’s 40-year wait to host the All-Star Game is going to last even longer.

The game scheduled for July 14 was canceled Friday because of the coronavirus pandemic, and Dodger Stadium was awarded the 2022 Midsummer Classic. The 2021 game is set for Atlanta’s Truist Park, home to the Braves since 2017.

Because of the pandemic, opening day had already been delayed from March 26 to July 23 or 24.

“Once it became clear we were unable to hold this year’s All-Star festivities, we wanted to award the Dodgers with the next available All-Star Game, which is 2022,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

No date for the 2022 game has been announced, although Dodgers President Stan Kasten said it would take place in the third week of July.

This year will be the first time since 1945 that no game is held. Travel restrictions because of World War II kept the game scheduled for Boston’s Fenway Park and any player selections from taking place that year. It was pushed back to the next season.

The Dodgers hosted the only the Midsummer Classic in Dodger Stadium history in 1980, won 4-2 by the National League.

The stadium — thirdoldest in baseball behind Fenway and Chicago’s Wrigley Field — is the only park in the majors not to have increased its 56,000-seat capacity since it opened in 1962.

That’s not to say it hasn’t changed, however.

Since 2013, the stadium that overlooks downtown Los Angeles has undergone

Frank Franklin II / Associated Press The New York Yankees’ Gerrit Cole throws to first base during a drill at a spring training workout in February in Tampa, Fla.