The Home Run Derby!
The Red Carpet!
The All-Star Game!

I have about 150 pics from these events –

Alan Trammell Tigers Manager Alan Trammell

Alex Rodriguez A-rod in the field

Opening Ceremony The Opening Ceremony at Comerica Park

John Smoltz and his daughter John Smoltz and his daughter

The whole thing was marvelous. A truly once in a lifetime experience. Some thoughts:

Home Run Derby-
Everyone said “Oh, the Derby will suck in Comerica Park, it’s too big.” Well, records were broken for how many homers were hit! Bobby Abreu stunned everyone in baseball by hitting 24 dingers in the first round. SO, yes it was long: a lot of homers being hit, and David Ortiz was ridiculously selective in his swings, and took forever at the plate. Despite that, because of Abreu’s performance, and because home-town boy Pudge Rodriguez made it to the final round, it was exciting and the crowd was into it the whole way.

Red Carpet Event-
This was a great event, like a combination between a movie premiere and a parade; the All-Stars rode on convertibles and trucks along the roped off crowd on a red carpeted path, throwing stuff to the crowd, like Mardi Gras style AllStar beads, and baseball cards. Occasionally, someone would throw them a ball and a marker and they’d sign it and throw it back, but it was clear that for this event they’d been asked to not do that and keep it going. (There were autograph signing sessions elsewhere.) It was, for a baseball geek like me, great to be just a few feet away from them! (We had managed to get PERFECT spots for this event: right on the rope, right across from where they were interviewed on TV and at the spot where they made the turn into the parking/reception area. It was awesome, and how we got these primo spots was PURE LUCK.)

A couple of specific fun things from this: It was freaking hot, and we were in the sun in 94 degrees. One of the guys (Michael Young, I think…) rode by about 5 feet away in his car, and folks were calling to him and taking pictures and someone yelled “Throw us some beads!” and he yelled “Sorry, I don’t have any more!” and my friend Mark said, laughing, “Got any WATER?!” and sure enough, Michael Young reached into the car and tossed out an unopened cold bottle of Aquafina! The crowd cheered, Mark and I shared the water with a nice lady standing next to us, and everyone else on the line was TOTALLY JEALOUS!”

Second fun thing: A lot of the guys had people with them in their rides, like family or kids, or friends. Mike Piazza’s ‘friend’ (girlfriend, date, whoever) was sitting there looking BORED out of her gourd. More than bored, annoyed at being there. When I can dig up the pic, I’ll post it, cuz it makes me laugh. Anyway, as Mike was being interviewed about 15 yards away, she sat there looking like she wanted to leave. Then, when the car started moving again, it came right over to us, and about 10 feet in front of us Mike Piazza, who was waving and yelling to the crowd, leaned down to her and said “Wave, honey” and she snapped “I’m way-ving!” and began to wave, smiling a fake “I’d like to punch something” smile. It was absolutely hilarious. If that tone ever comes out of my wife, it’s because I’ve done something very wrong! I have a feeling Mike was in trouble that day!! 🙂

Okay, outta here. I’ll post about the game itself and some more pics later!