SAN DIEGO — Goose Gossage keeps a bottle of Weibel Vineyards champagne with “Cubs” on the label perched on a shelf in his pantry, a reminder of when Chicago arrived in San Diego needing one win to reach the 1984 World Series and wound up crushed again.

This year’s All-Star Game is a mini-Cubs celebration, with seven players on the NL roster, including the entire starting infield, after a remarkable half season. But a summer slump serves as a reminder: A good start is a long way from Chicago winning its first championship since 1908 or even bringing the World Series to Wrigley Field for the first time since 1945.

National League's Giancarlo Stanton, of the Miami Marlins, hits during the MLB baseball All-Star Home Run Derby, Monday, July 11, 2016, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Jae Hong)

Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins was a total hit Monday night during the Home Run Derby portion of the All-Star events in San Diego. Stanton finished with a record 61 homers in the three rounds. Associated Press/Jae Hong

ALl-STAR GAME LINEUPS

American League

Jose Altuve 2B Astros

Mike Trout CF Angels

Manny Machado 3B Orioles

David Ortiz DH Red Sox

Xander Bogaerts SS Red Sox

Eric Hosmer 1B Royals

Mookie Betts RF Red Sox

Salvador Perez C Royals

Jackie Bradley Jr. LF Red Sox

National League

Ben Zobrist 2B Cubs

Bryce Harper RF Nationals

Kris Bryant 3B Cubs

Wil Myers DH Padres

Buster Posey C Giants

Anthony Rizzo 1B Cubs

Marcell Ozuna CF Marlins

Carlos Gonzalez LF Rockies

Addison Russell SS Cubs

“Everyone crowned us the World Series champion in December, which is unfair to the whole organization,” first baseman Anthony Rizzo said Monday. “Everyone put this high expectation on us and we lived up to it.”

The Cubs aren’t the only team boasting multiple All-Stars. The Boston Red Sox will have four starters – David Ortiz, Xander Bogaerts, Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. – and pitcher Steven Wright. Reliever Craig Kimble also was chosen but is injured.

When Chris Sale of the South Side’s White Sox throws the first pitch to Ben Zobrist of the Cubs on Tuesday night, the All-Star Game will be in San Diego for the first time since 1992, when Ken Griffey Jr. batted seventh for the AL between another pair of juniors – Cal Ripken and Sandy Alomar. Griffey was the MVP, going 3 for 3 and falling a triple short of the cycle. Tony Gwynn – the Padres’ Hall of Famer who died of salivary gland cancer in 2014 – had two assists in right field.

A new generation has taken over, led by Bryce Harper of Washington, Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels and Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant – who is happy to see his old friends from University of San Diego days. Stephen Strasburg of the Nationals also is having a reunion; he played for San Diego State.

“He probably did more at San Diego State than I did for USD,” Bryant said.

Chicago has become a favorite second team, longtime losers trying to win the North Side’s first championship in 108 years.

“The Cubs are like the Cowboys. Wherever you go in the country, there’s fans there,” reigning NL Cy Young Award winner Jake Arrieta said about his team. “You go as far as you can west and as far as you can east, there’s Cubs fans, and anywhere in-between.”

Boston also has its supporters around the world. The Red Sox ended an 86-year title drought in 2004 and have added two more.

Wright, a 31-year-old knuckleballer, could follow the hard throwers to the mound in the middle to late innings.

“I feel like 95 is the new 90,” Wright said of their mph velocity. “Everybody is coming in throwing 98, 100, and then you’ve got somebody coming in throwing 75 and I’ll drop it down to 60.”

Johnny Cueto of San Francisco starts for the NL, which has lost three straight and 10 of 13 since the All-Star winner determined home-field advantage for the World Series. That served Cueto well last fall, when he pitched a two-hitter for host Kansas City in Game 2 for a 2-0 lead over the New York Mets, who never recovered.

San Diego may not have won the World Series in its 48-year existence but is a team of distinction: The only one not to have thrown a no-hitter, and famous for its golden yellow and brown color scheme in the 1970s under owner Ray Kroc, who also headed McDonald’s. Players wore jerseys in the Padres mustard-and-mud style for the Home Run Derby on Monday.

San Diego has been cruel to the Cubs. In 1984 they left Wrigley Field to the sound of Van Halen’s “Jump” and headed west convinced they would play Detroit or Kansas City for the title, holding a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five NL Championship Series.

“There was at least 100 brooms around our bus,” recalled Gossage, the future Hall of Famer who got a six-out save in the Game 5 finale.

But current players try to think only about the game in front of them. History is for the fans.

“That’s something we don’t really discuss often,” Arrieta said.

Chicago got off to a 25-6 start and was 39-15 in early June. But the Cubs skidded into the break, losing 15 of their last 21 games.

“We’ve got to play better than we have recently,” Zobrist said.

With Rizzo, Zobrist, shortstop Addison Russell and Bryant, the Cubs joined the 1963 St. Louis Cardinals as the only teams to start all four infielders in an All-Star Game – a fifth Chicago player, Dexter Fowler, was voted to the starting lineup but has a hamstring injury.

Rizzo led NL players with 3.2 million votes.

“It’s crazy to me just because of all the superstars in this game, and I do not classify myself as one of them,” he said. “When that first voting came out, I was like, ‘Is this a fluke? Was there a glitch?’ “

The NL is hosting the All-Stars for at least four straight years, which is unprecedented, starting with Cincinnati last season and continuing with Miami next year and Washington in 2018. Because the game is used to determine Series home-field advantage, the home team is alternating, meaning the AL wears white and bats last this time.

Because of that, Wil Myers and Drew Pomeranz of the Padres had to vacate their own clubhouse and move to the visitors’.

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