It was a Ball-Star classic.

For three days Denver was the epicenter of baseball — the futures game, the Home Run Derby, the Major League amateur draft and the All-Star Game.

Whew! Wow! Winner!

Disappointingly, the event won’t return for a third time until probably 2050. By then, Coors Field will be an ancient gem, in the tradition of Wrigley Field and Fenway Park. And I’ll be 104 and still covering baseball.

Paul Klee: German Marquez, retired Rockies jersey? The next time Colorado hosts the MLB All-Star Game…

Sorry, Atlanta. But Denver, a late replacement, did put on a great show with everything Mile High and everyone from Shohei to Vlad, and almost 150,000 experienced the Grand Old Game in all its glory.

The American League won its eighth straight All-Star Game Tuesday night because of five runs, including three homers; Shohei Ohtani was the winning pitcher in an oddity because he was on the mound only in the first inning — and went 1-2-3, and was 0-2 as a batter; and Vlad Guerrero Jr. — who played in the game 20 years after being a kid who joined Vlad Guerrero Sr. at the event — was named the youngest Most Valuable Player in 91 All-Star games because he hit one of the home runs and drove in another run with a groundout. He had a home run 15 years after his dad had one in the Star bonanza.

Baseball won because of a flawless Sunday-Tuesday.

LoDo won because it is alive and, well, thriving again.

All-Star Game highlights: Baseball provides star-power for pregame ceremony

The only frustrated person may have been Kris Bryant, an All-Star and former Rookie of the Year. He could be traded this month by the Cubs. And, with the National League down, he went to the plate in the sixth and the eighth inning with two outs and the bases loaded. In his first at-bat, his team scored on a passed ball, but then Bryant struck out. On his second attempt with the N.L. running out of a chance, Bryant hit a screaming liner to left that was caught on the slide by Jared Walsh, who is normally a first baseman and never an outfielder.

The National League went quietly in the ninth into a night that was Colorado beautiful after sunset.

The evening began with a wonderful tribute to Hank Aaron, the Home Run King, who died Jan. 22. His widow, Billye Aaron, was honored at home plate with an artistic rendering of her husband.

Ohtani would have made Aaron and Babe Ruth proud. He became the first player ever to pitch and bat in an All-Star Game. In the bottom of the first he got Fernando Tatis Jr. and Nolan Arenado, who received a standing ovation from the 50,000 when he was introduced before the game, in the first after bouncing out to first as the leadoff hitter in the game. History was produced.

And more history was made by a Japanese pitcher being the winning pitcher and a relief pitcher from Australia — Liam Hendricks — earning the save in the night. Overall, the game had 19 pitchers who, oddly enough, allowed only seven runs in a ballpark that had allowed more than 250 home runs the night before.

The Rockies’ only representative, German Marquez, was perfect in his only inning.

Overall, baseball proved to still be the national pastime, even if it is no longer the most popular game in the United States, and an international sport because of the players from so many nations. It’s the Americas’ game.

The angels were smiling down. And even the Angels were smiling. At the MLB draft the second Los Angeles team defied gravity in Colorado by drafting 20 pitchers (19 from colleges, one from high school) in the 20 rounds.

The Rockies’ No. 1 draft choice this week was a high school center fielder who has a quirk in his swing.

It could have been expected that the teams would come up with 17 runs, but they did manage to end up with 17 hits.

And in the ninth inning a wild pitch bounced off the brickwork behind home plate directly to the catcher, who threw out a stolen base try at second.

Weird Coors, as always.

It was a night of juniors, too, with Guerrero, Tatis and the Blue Jays’ Bo Bichette, whose father, Dante, played in the last All-Star game here in 1998 as a member of the Rockies.

Clinton Yates, a prominent baseball writer and commentator for ESPN, said Monday night that Coors Field is the “perfect place for the Home Run Derby.’’ It was the best ever, and Denver did well.

What a ball!