It seems nearly every major sporting event in 2012 has been dubbed the “Most Social” of its kind.
 
The hype surrounding the NBA and NHL Finals, the Men’s Wimbledon Championship match and the fast-approaching London Olympic Games has sparked a seemingly endless conversation about each event’s predicted social clout.
 
The 2012 MLB All-Star Game was no different.

In the preceding weeks, the game was already being toted as the most social event in baseball’s history.
 
MLB officials seized the opportunity to start the ASG conversation early, putting the decision of the players that would fill the remaining roster slots to a Twitter fan vote.
 
They also encouraged fans to tweet using the game’s official hashtag #ASG. Nearly 2/3rds of the related tweets both before and during the game contained the hashtag.
 
Tuesday night’s game surpassed the hype surrounding it, falling right into stride with a 257% increase from 2011 in public Twitter and Facebook comments.
 
The first inning alone sparked over 290,000 comments related to the All-Star Game, surpassing the total amount of social commentary from the entire 2011 game, according to Major League Baseball Public Relations.

At one point during the game, every worldwide trending Twitter topic was related to the All-Star Game.

The game’s commentary reached its peak with a Melky Cabrera home run, receiving over 8,000 comments per minute.
 
The following infographic illustrates the MLB All-Star Game’s surge in social success. Check out some of our favorite highlights:

• Over 800,000 comments related to the ASG from over 440,000 different users
• Melky Cabrera’s home run sparked over 8,000 comments per minute
• More than 3X the amount of social commentary compared to the 2011 ASG
• Over 245,000 mentions of the #ASG hashtag
• After leaving the game, players were permitted to engage in the conversation in a special social media suite near each clubhouse