Lights, camera … All-Stars!
Six thousand yards of red carpet has arrived in Anaheim, ready for the big night.
Fashion consultants and makeup artists will be on hand as the celebrity guest list fills out, publicists calling to secure tickets for their A-list clients.
If it sounds as if baseball’s annual All-Star game — which comes to Angel Stadium on Tuesday evening — has gone Hollywood, that’s no mistake.
Over the last decade or so, Major League Baseball has expanded its “Midsummer Classic” from nine innings to five days that include rock concerts and a high-tech carnival, the popular home run derby and a softball game pitting former players against actors and musicians.
This convergence of athletics and entertainment equates to survival for a traditional if occasionally sleepy pastime battling to stay relevant in a hyper-environment of extreme sports, video games and downloadable music.
To ensure that Anaheim is camera-ready, the league has flown in a team of designers.
“It’s definitely like a production,” said Eric Rodriguez, a senior graphic designer for the league. “It really is theater-esque.”
All of this makes historical sense for an event that started out as a sideshow.
When Chicago hosted a World’s Fair in 1933, newspaperman Arch Ward proposed inviting top ballplayers. Team owners weren’t thrilled; they warmed to the idea after Babe Ruth homered and the game generated national buzz.
Baseball had stumbled upon a winning formula, a highlight amid the summer doldrums when most sports lay dormant.
The All-Star game continued largely unchanged for decades until the mid-1980s, when television ratings began to slip. That’s when the makeover began.
The Monday home run derby was added in 1985 and quickly became a hit with fans. Six years later, the Toronto Blue Jays hosted the game and hired a local designer, Reg Bronskill, to help them make use of a convention center next door.
The “All-Star FanFest,” which opened Friday and runs through Tuesday at the Anaheim Convention Center, now travels from one All-Star city to the next by way of 100 tractor-trailers bringing memorabilia displays, merchandise booths and interactive exhibits at which fans can test their skills at hitting, pitching and fielding.
“My background was in theater, years and years ago,” Bronskill said. “You imagine you’ve got these entertainment layers that are a part of this, the lighting layer, the physical components … all those layers weave a really interesting theatrical environment.”
Football soon followed suit with the “ NFL Experience” and the NBA bolstered its All-Star weekend with slam dunk and three-point shooting contests.
League executives were fighting a perception that All-Star games don’t really matter. Baseball responded by giving the victorious team home-field advantage in the World Series, but marketing experts say that wins and losses are only part of the equation.
“These All-Star games, these Super Bowls and NBA Finals, cannot simply be sporting events and hope to attract younger audiences,” said David Carter, a USC sports business professor whose upcoming book, “Money Games,” addresses this issue. “They have to be multifaceted entertainment events.”
Baseball has continued to add more elements, including various charity events and separate Sunday games for top minor league prospects and celebrities. The World Series isn’t a viable site because the league doesn’t know which cities will be involved until a few days beforehand, so everything gets lumped in with the All-Stars.
Preparations for this season’s game began more than a year ago. Officials drew up their usual target list of celebrities they hoped to attract, but this time was different.
“We knew we were in a celebrity capital,” said Marla Miller, senior vice president of special events. “The target list was much, much greater.”
Getting stars to play softball in front of a crowd isn’t always easy.
“Celebrities are concerned about perceptions,” Miller said. “Can they actually hit the ball? Can they catch?”
Sunday’s roster includes actor Michael Clarke Duncan and late-night sidekick Andy Richter.
Recruiting singers for the national anthem can also be tricky because the roller-coaster melody intimidates some performers, said Frederic Traube, an industry executive who consults with league executives.
Traube said he once approached Billy Corgan, lead singer of Smashing Pumpkins and an avid Chicago Cubs fan, about performing before a game.
“His quote was, ‘No way,’ ” recalled Traube, who runs Pro Sports Music Marketing in Connecticut. “No matter how good he does it, he’s not going to get a pat on the back. If he does a poor version, it could hurt his career.”
Sheryl Crow sang the All-Star anthem the past two years. This year, league executives were still finalizing details and planned to announce their choice Sunday. Pop star Colbie Caillat will sing “God Bless America,” and the rock group Train, whose “Calling All Angels” has become a theme song for the local team, will perform at several events.
The league also has enlisted actors such as Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts and Matthew McConaughey to appear in a video before Tuesday’s game.
Officials declined to say who will attend that night, but the broadcasters involved with this weekend’s events, Fox and ESPN — the latter affiliated with Disney and ABC — are expected to focus on talent from their movies and television shows in the crowed.
“Mixing celebrities and sports in L.A., of all markets, it’s a good opportunity,” said Ben Sturner, president of Leverage Agency, a sports sponsorship firm in New York City. “So you’re probably going to see more stars than ever before.”
The players will get the star treatment too.
Five years ago, baseball added yet another tradition to its annual game. Instead of riding to the game in buses with darkened windows, the players and their families now parade in open cars along city streets.
That’s where the red carpet comes in, marking a path that on Tuesday will carry All-Stars such as St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols and New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter through Anaheim and into Disneyland, where they will finish their route along Main Street U.S.A.
The league will provide fashion and makeup experts to help the wives prepare for their moment in the spotlight.
Consider it another attempt to make this game — known for dirt-streaked uniforms and chewing tobacco — more glamorous.
“It does come from the premise of the Academy Awards and the Emmys and all the great red-carpet movie premieres,” Miller said. “It’s a lot more like Hollywood.”
twitter.com/LATimesWharton
Clicking on Green Links will take you to a third-party e-commerce site. These sites are not operated by the Los Angeles Times. The Times Editorial staff is not involved in any way with Green Links or with these third-party sites.
Get our high school sports newsletter
Prep Rally is devoted to the SoCal high school sports experience, bringing you scores, stories and a behind-the-scenes look at what makes prep sports so popular.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
