MLB All-Star Week’s free Santa Monica festival kicks off, drums up excitement for Tuesday’s game

A sea of blue Dodger jerseys and baseball fans took over the Santa Monica Pier on Friday, July 15 -– and will continue doing so through the weekend.

MLB’s All-Star Week is officially underway and Friday kicked off the first-ever beach event, called the Capital One All-Star Oceanfront, at the Santa Monica Pier and beach.

This year’s All-Star Game, on Tuesday, July 19, will mark the fourth time in franchise history that the Dodgers will host the Midsummer Classic, but the only other time they did so at their current home was in 1980 (the 1949 game was in Brooklyn and the 1959 game – one of two played that season – was at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum).

All-Star activities are generally pricey, so MLB created the free Santa Monica event for Angelenos and baseball fans from elsewhere who may not be able to afford to attend the game.

The event features instructional youth baseball and softball on the beach, baseball-themed sand-sculpture contests, and batting and pitching cages for all ages to test their skills.

One of the features that Jeremiah Yolkut, MLB’s vice president of Global Events, said attendees should check out are the activities on the beach south of the pier.

“I think one of the best things is what’s happening on the beach itself; how often do you get to see people play baseball in the sand?” he said Friday. “We have an initiative called Play Ball, which is getting more youth involved in the game, and to be able to activate and play ball on the beach with the ocean as the backdrop, you don’t get much better than that.”

Along with that, each morning of the event the public can participate in free yoga classes on the beach before the festivities begin in earnest.

MLB also partnered with Heal the Bay, a local nonprofit dedicated to making the coastal waters in Greater Los Angeles clean and safe, to organize a beach cleanup on Saturday.

“(MLB) wanted to stay true to the community, leave the place better than how we found it,” Yolkut said, “so we’re trying to do everything we can to really be in the market and present.”

The pier was crowded by hundreds of fans and families on Friday, most representing their favorite teams in some way, including by donning their jerseys. People waited in long lines to buy official All-Star merchandise and get baseball cards and pins.

Allen Estrada of El Segundo went to collect rare pins and take advantage of what the event had to offer.

“I wanted to mingle with other baseball fans and check out all the booths,” Estrada said. “There was beach yoga in the morning, and there’s a baseball field in the sand with the wavy roof of Dodger Stadium, which is so cool.”

MLB also had various photo-ops for fans, including massive gloves, helmets and baseballs with which folks could pose.

Virginia Jauregui and her husband, Gilbert Jauregui, attended the event’s opening day sporting rivaling jerseys.

Virginia Jauregui wore her Angels jersey and Gilbert Jauregui had on his Dodgers jersey.

The El Monte couple attended the event because they are big baseball fans and it got them more excited for the All-Star Game.

The two teams also resumed the Freeway Series on Friday and will play again on Saturday.

“We played some games,” Virginia Jauregui said, “got some pins and we liked the atmosphere.”

Baseball activities weren’t the only forms of entertainment, though: The main stage had live music that attendees could hear throughout the entire event.

Children and baseball fans could also get their faces painted or get a caricature drawn of them.

Local food vendors and different beverage stations were available for people to grab a bit to eat and something to drink.

“Santa Monica is thrilled to host Major League Baseball’s first-ever All-Star Oceanfront event,” Deputy City Manager Anuj Gupta said. “We urge everyone attending to bike, bus, train, or walk to Santa Monica, as we are expecting a busy summer weekend in celebration of MLB’s All-Star Week.”

MLB took over the pier to give locals and tourists an event intended to represent Southern California – with a view of the beach and everything baseball.

“Come enjoy the two best things about summer,” said Jim Harris, executive director of the Santa Monica Pier Corporation. “Major League Baseball and the Santa Monica Pier.”

Source: Orange County Register