2008 Triple-A All Star Game

The 2008 Triple-A All Star Game in Louisville, Kentucky has definitely been the highlight of the year so far, but with that being said, we definitely have many other stops that I am confident they will be much more superior to Kentucky! The All-Star Game, with my first being in Toledo in 2006, is a very special occasion, especially at the Triple-A level, because on game day, it is the only professional baseball game being played and broadcast nationally (ESPN2). The MLB All-Star Game is hosted on Tuesday night of All-Star week, but the Triple-A Game is on Wednesday which allows for a new audience to experience minor league baseball at its best.

We arrived in Louisville, Kentucky on Sunday afternoon, the day after our fiasco with rain in Indianapolis the previous night. We worked FanFest for three days (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, and FanFest is basically a baseball festival that takes place inside the local convention center, and it allows fans to get an inside look at the All-Star Teams, as well as different vendors of sports memorabilia, and the whole minor league experience as well. We did not participate in the Home Run Derby on Monday night, but we were allowed VIP access to the ballpark to be fans for the night!!! This was very cool for me, because Toledo Mud Hen, Mike Hessman, was one of six participants and he ended up finishing 2nd after a triple sudden death in the final round. I will not bother explaining the Home Run Derby process because it will take a whole page in itself to explain it all, so I will just leave you with that thought that it was a great time and it was nice to be a fan for once.

You have to realize that every event prior to the actually All-Star Game is a big party; to sum it up lightly. On Tuesday night, the annual All-Star Gala was held at the Louisville Slugger Museum which is relatively close to Louisville Slugger Field, the site of the Triple-A All Star Game and the Louisville Bats. The All-Star Gala is basically a big party in which the hosting team, in this case the Louisville Bats, puts on for all the executives, players, managers, sponsors, etc. To sum it up nicely, it a big ass kissing event which is not my cup of tea, but hey, I am not going to complain about free gourmet food, everything from prime rib, to seafood, to a fantastic dessert tray. I was not there for the ass kissing portion of the evening; I was there for the food (and the free alcohol of course)!! But it was an awesome night in which we actually got to get a free tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum (where they actually make the authentic baseball bats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) as well as interacting with much of the interns from the Louisville Bats. Louisville has a great night life, and on Tuesday night we experienced Fourth Street Live, which is there bar district, and it was late night, and an early morning!

Now, for the actual All-Star Game itself – it was AWESOME! From our stand point, everything could not have gone any smoother. We hit all of our marks, made national television, and even SportsCenter that night. It was a very busy night, but it was all worth it when the boss said that everybody did an excellent job, and we could not have done anything better! The International League All-Stars (the league the Mud Hens are a part of) ended up losing 6-5 to the Pacific Coast League All-Stars, but other then that it was a great All-Star Game and I have to hand it to the Louisville Bats on their exceptional planning and implementation of this event.

Well this about concludes this portion of the blog, but we are only about half way through the summer, and there will much more to come I am sure. I hope everybody is doing well and enjoying summer to the fullest. Feel free to send me an e-mail to inform me of how everyone is doing. It is always nice to hear a friendly voice from home J God Bless, and I will be posting another entry on Sunday to fill everyone in on our trip to Billings, Montana; Casper, Wyoming; and Denver, Colorado!