Petco Park 2016 homefield for American League?

As you may have heard or read, San Diego was awarded the 2016 All Star Game. With the Marlins awarded the 2017 edition, three consecutive All Star Games will be played in National League Ballparks.

Beautiful Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres, will be the venue of the 2016 All Star Game

How did this happen? Well, the Orioles were generally expected to be the club that would get the 2016 edition of the mid-summer classic, but a legal fight between O’s owner Pete Angelos and MLB about the TV rights of the Washington Nationals may have been the reason for the fact that San Diego received the honour. When the Nationals moved to Washington in 2005, Angelos was the only owner that voted against the move from Montreal. MLB persuaded him to vote in favour of the move by granting him the TV rights of the Nationals. The Nationals are within the territory of the Orioles and that is why Angelos opposed. The dispute between MLB and Angelos is about the money MASN (Mid Atlantic Sports Network) should pay the Nationals to broadcast their games.

It would be weird if the National League would have three consecutive homefield advantages, so Rob Manfred (the new commissioner of MLB) has decided that the American League will have the homefield advantage at Petco Park.

BTW, only in 1950 it became mandatory that the home team batted last. Before that year, the home team could chose if they wanted to bat first or last.