Phillies trio looking to add to unbelievable franchise All-Star Game home run total

To paraphrase Benjamin Franklin, "Nothing is certain except death, taxes, and Philadelphia Phillies players not homering in the All-Star Game."

While I may not have exactly captured Dr. Franklin's quote precisely, the proof is there. Of the 207 home runs that have been hit in the history of the MLB All-Star Game going back to its founding in 1933, only five have been hit by Phillies. It's a staggeringly low number for a franchise that has been around the entire time and seen its share of sluggers, although there were a few slow decades in there that kept their representation, and thus the odds of one of their players homering, down. But I digress.

Phillies trio looking to add to unbelievable franchise All-Star Game home run total

By sending the trio of Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm and Trea Turner to the Midsummer Classic, this is as good a year as any for the Phillies to add another name (or two or three) to the very short list of Phils reps who have taken an AL pitcher deep in the All-Star Game. To recap:

It took over 30 years, but Johnny Callison finally provided the Phillies' first ever All-Star Game home run in 1964, a memorable walkoff bomb deep to right field to give the NL a 7-4 win at Shea Stadium. It was fitting that Callison, a three-time All-Star and one of the most beloved Phillies of his era, was the one to finally break the drought.

In 1967, Dick Allen mashed a home run to lead off the second inning for the NL, providing their only run until they eventually plated another in the 15th inning of a 2-1 win. It was the only All-Star Game home run of Allen's career, who was making his third straight (and, as it turned out, final) appearance as a Phillie before going on to four more All-Star nods elsewhere in his career.

Fast forward to 1977, as Greg Luzinski homered off Jim Palmer to cap off a four-run first inning in an uncharacteristically bad start for the future Hall of Fame hurler. The NL hung on to win 7-5 in the second of three straight All-Star Game starts for The Bull, who finished his career as a four-time All-Star.

Mike Schmidt finally surfaces here in 1981, thanks to a two-run home run off future Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers in the eighth inning of a 5-4 NL win. Yes, Schmidt got four at-bats that day, and his lone career All-Star Game home run provided the winning margin. Though he was named an All-Star 12 times, Schmidt only came to the plate 21 times in his career for the NL, and he ended up with more errors (three) as an All-Star than home runs.

And that was it for 40 years, until J.T. Realmuto homered off current teammate Gregory Soto during the 2021 Midsummer Classic, bringing the grand total to just five Phillies who have ever homered in the All-Star Game. We got through the entire Phillies careers of Darren Daulton, Scott Rolen, Bobby Abreu, Ryan Howard, Jim Thome, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, and more without any of them popping a ball over the fence between the time that Schmidt and Realmuto did.

All of this brings us to this year's game. Between the trio of Bohm, Turner and Harper, we may only see five or six trips to the plate, so the odds aren't great that one or more of them reaches the seats. But they've all certainly got a puncher's chance to make a mark in Phillies history.

This is, of course, Bohm's first all-star visit, while Turner has gone 1-for-4 with no longballs in his two previous appearances. Interestingly, this will be the first time since 2018 that Harper actually appears in the game, and he's also still searching for his first bomb as an All-Star (2-for-11 with a pair of walks).

It seems like somebody in this group is due, and it will be fun to see what they can manage in Arlington. This is all just an appetizer to the anticipated main course this fall, but Phillies fans will be hanging on every pitch as they root for their sluggers at this year's All-Star Game.