The Major League Baseball All-Star Game, also known as the "Midsummer Classic", is an annual baseball game sanctioned by Major League Baseball between professional players from the National League and the American League, currently selected by fans for starting fielders, by managers for pitchers, and by managers and players for reserves. The game usually occurs on either the second or third Tuesday in July, and is meant to mark a symbolic halfway-point in the MLB season. Both of the major leagues share a common All-Star break, with no regular-season games scheduled on the day before or the day after the All-Star Game itself. Some additional events and festivities associated with the game take place each year close to and during this break in the regular season. For a brief period in MLB history, two All-Star games had been held during each of the four seasons 1959 through 1962, but this format was subsequently abandoned.