All-Star FanFest blends reality with baseball fantasy
It was quite a Friday morning for Ryan Bora, a baseball-crazy second-grader from Mission Viejo.
He threw fastballs to Alex Rodriguez, stole home twice, and sat in as color analyst as his dad, Dave, delivered play-by-play for one of the greatest moments in Los Angeles Dodgers history.
“Dad, did that play really happen?” he asked, moments after watching the Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson smash his unforgettable home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
Yes, Ryan, that play really happened — although the confusion is understandable. After all, father and son were spending the day at the 20th annual MLB All-Star FanFest at the Anaheim Convention Center, a five-day event that for thousands of fans blends baseball fantasies with a dash of reality.
Ryan was throwing baseballs at a video image of A-Rod, for instance, and “stealing home” meant sprinting across the carpet and sliding across a soft pad covered with a slick cloth sheet. The Gibson replay was part of an exhibit that let fans feel what it’s like to work in a broadcast booth.
“We want the fans to have the All-Star game experience,” said Jacqueline Secaira-Cotto, director of special events for Major League Baseball. “Not everyone can get to the All-Star game, but everyone can taste the All-Star flavor.”
There are more than 40 baseball-themed attractions at FanFest, all of which are included in the price of admission ($30 for adults, $25 for kids). That includes interactive skills challenges, autograph sessions with high-profile current and former players, and clinics and seminars conducted by legends of the sport. Rod Carew conducted a hitting clinic Friday, for instance, and Cal Ripken Jr. is doing the same today.
“It’s nice to have a face-to-face connection with the fans, and that’s what baseball is always trying to do,” said Shawn Green, a former major league outfielder who attracted a long line of autograph seekers.
Across the convention center, a far longer line formed for another former Dodgers star, Steve Garvey. That one snaked out of the autograph area and around the corner, growing so long that organizers eventually had to turn people away.
Most of the people in Garvey’s line were wearing the colors other than Dodgers blue — lots of Angels T-shirts and hats, in fact — and many of the fans clutching baseballs weren’t even born when he retired in 1987.
Then again, if age were an issue at FanFest, Kent Soper wouldn’t have been walking around with a giant foam taco on his head. He was one of hundreds at the event who got there early enough to grab one of the coveted Taco Bell giveaways, an absurd headpiece that people wore like Napoleon-style hats.
Soper, a Little League coach from Anaheim who has an otherwise normal life as a branch manager for Fujifilm, was holding a bag full of freebies that included a toy Bigfoot truck and a collection of squishy baseballs. He had tried most of the interactive displays with varying degrees of success. (His pitch was clocked at 59 mph, failing to impress his 13-year-old son who topped that by 10 mph.)
“The people working here and the vendors are really friendly and enthusiastic,” Soper said. “Nobody’s getting mad at anybody.”
Added his neighbor and Little League co-coach Chris Fogelsong: “It’s probably the first time I’ve seen a beer line with nobody standing in it…. This place is about families.”
It’s also about the history of America’s Pastime and features, among other things, one of the largest collections of artifacts on loan from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. On display at FanFest are items such as Nolan Ryan’s shoes, the bat Ted Williams used to collect his 2,000th hit, and the hat Jim Palmer wore when he no-hit the Oakland A’s in 1969.
Across the convention center from that display is an artifact that’s less historic but more eye-catching. It was a waxy, life-sized replica of Tommy Lasorda, sporting a flattering beltline and a vacant stare that’s more creepy than lifelike. The mannequin was the centerpiece attraction at a memorabilia booth, and, the vendor said, at least 200 people stopped by Friday to pose for pictures with it.
Evidently, the legendary Dodgers manager felt good enough about it to autograph it with: “Good luck! Tommy Lasorda.”
In another example of FanFest blending reality with baseball fantasy, Lasorda stopped by Friday and briefly checked out the event.
“This game doesn’t belong to the owners and it doesn’t belong to the players,” Lasorda said. “It belongs to the people.”
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