The tone was set even before the first pitch.
Mike Piazza caught a ceremonial ball from his boyhood idol, Mike Schmidt, who inscribed it, "You're the best."Cal Ripken, everybody's hero, got his nose broken.
Not hard to tell whose team came out on top Tuesday night. Piazza hit a 445-foot home run and an RBI double, and nine National League pitchers shut out Ripken and the punchless Americans 6-0 in the All-Star game.
Piazza won the MVP award in the ballpark where he grew up rooting for Schmidt to hit them into the upper deck.
"I have so many memories of this city. I could remember so many games as a kid watching the Phillies play," he said.
"Getting that award tonight made me feel really humble. There have been so many great players in this game - and in the game tonight."
Ripken, one of those former All-Star MVPs, was merely hurting.
Two hours before the game, Baltimore's iron man sustained a broken nose when he caught a forearm from Chicago White Sox reliever Roberto Hernandez, who lost his balance on a platform during a team picture.
The bloodied Ripken was treated and returned to play his 14th All-Star game. His streak of 2,239 consecutive games is expected to continue.
"I reserve the right to use it as a crutch if I have a bad game," he said before the game.
Sure enough, Ripken went 0-for-3, but his power-packed AL teammates didn't do any better, managing just seven hits against winning pitcher John Smoltz and eight relievers.
Albert Belle became the first AL player to strike out three times in a nine-inning game since Mickey Mantle in 1956 and was hitless in four tries. Major league home run leader Brady Anderson failed to get the ball out of the infield in two at-bats.
While the AL was handed its first shutout since 1987 - when it lost 2-0 in 13 innings in the last supposed year of a lively ball - the NL increased its overall lead to 40-26-1.
The Nationals won their third in a row, their best streak since they won 11 straight from 1972-82. Who knows if their streak will continue next year when the All-Star game comes a few weeks after interleague play is scheduled to start?
Ken Caminiti, Lance Johnson and Chipper Jones, all playing in place of injured stars, each delivered key hits for the NL.
Ozzie Smith, in his 15th and final All-Star game, drew the biggest cheer of the evening, a 45-second standing ovation that also included a handshake from opposing catcher Sandy Alomar Jr.
Smith, though no longer even the starting shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals, clearly was the fans' favorite. With tears in his eyes, he stepped out of the batter's box to acknowledge the cheers in the seventh, the last ones he'll hear at an All-Star game before retiring at the end of the season at 41.
"It's a very touching time, a very emotional time for me in my life," Smith said.
The AL players joined in applauding Smith, who grounded out and then shook hands with The Phillie Phanatic mascot on his way back to the dugout.
Johnson, in his first All-Star game at age 33, took Tony Gwynn's spot and doubled on loser Charles Nagy's first pitch. He later scored on Barry Bonds' groundout.
Jones, playing third base for injured Matt Williams, singled and scored in the second. Caminiti, added to the team when Williams was dropped from the roster, hit a leadoff home run in the sixth that made it 5-0.
Piazza, who homered in his last All-Star at-bat last summer in Texas, he picked up where he left off with a drive into the upper deck leading off the second inning. That made him the first player to homer in consecutive at-bats since Gary Carter in 1981, and the last to do it in two straight games since Fred Lynn in 1979-80.
Piazza's two-out double off Chuck Finley in the third put the Nationals ahead 4-0.
That 4-0 score was exactly what it was after three innings the last time the All-Star game was played at Veterans Stadium, back in 1976 when early home runs by George Foster and Cesar Cedeno off Mark Fidrych and Catfish Hunter led the Nationals to a 7-1 win.
Piazza, born and raised in nearby Norristown, Pa., remembered watching that game on television while his dad, Vince, was there in person.
Vince Piazza was in the stands again Tuesday night to see his son, a four-time All-Star catcher for Los Angeles at age 27.
"It's hard to believe," Vince Piazza said. "It's amazing. It's something that's hard to explain. I still can't accept it. It's like a dream."
The AL, minus injured Ken Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas, only had a couple of threats, and each time Belle made key outs.
Booed in pregame introductions and again every time he came to the plate, Belle struck out swinging against Smoltz, Atlanta teammate Tom Glavine and Montreal's Pedro Martinez, the last time with runners on first and third in the sixth.
Belle came up again with two on in the eighth and hit a hard line drive to center field that Johnson caught on the run.
Three of Atlanta's four pitchers - the most ever for one team - helped post the first All-Star shutout since 1990, when the AL won 2-0 at Wrigley Field.
All pitchers did a good job of putting the ball over the plate in the first All-Star game without a single walk.
The short-handed AL found out before the game that first baseman Thomas could not play because of a nagging foot injury and learned outfielder Greg Vaughn was out because of food poisoning.