The 2008 MLB All Star Game Tickets Are NOW HERE! Purchase all your 2008 MLB All Star Game Tickets at Yankee Tickets For Sale the leading New York Yankee Ticket website the last 20 years. Click Here For 2008 MLB All Star Game Tickets With close to 2000 stars and celebrities attending the game it will be a shining star like evening. Yankee stadium is proud to host the All Star Game. Dave Winfield, Wade Boggs, Gary Carter and Ralph Kiner, who all have strong ties to New York baseball, were on the second partial list of 10 Hall of Famers announced on Monday who will participate in pregame ceremonies at the All-Star Game on July 15 at Yankee Stadium in the final year of "The House That Ruth Built."
Additional participants of what will be the largest gathering of baseball stars on one field at the same time prior to the 79th All-Star Game will be announced exclusively each week on FOX's Saturday Baseball Game of the Week.
Winfield, who played for the Yankees for 10 seasons of his 22-year career, made his first All-Star Game appearance at Yankee Stadium in 1977 while with the Padres and was 2-for-2 with two RBIs. The 12-time All-Star was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.
Boggs, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005, is another member of the 3,000 hit club -- with 3,110 -- who also played in 12 All-Star Games during an 18-year career with the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays. The Gold Glove Award-winning third baseman won five batting titles in Boston, but it was with the Yankees that he won a World Series ring.
"To have the All-Star Game played at Yankee Stadium in its final year is a perfect tribute to all of the legends who have played there for so many years," Boggs said. "I will always remember my career at Yankee Stadium, highlighted by our World Series title in 1996, for the fans and the tradition associated with the ballpark. It will be an honor to be a part of a pregame celebration, along with so many other Hall of Fame greats, in a farewell salute to one of baseball's most historic grounds."
Carter, an 11-time All-Star, was on a World Series championship team in New York with the Mets in 1986 during a 19-year career that included two tours with the Expos and time with the Giants and Dodgers. The catcher was a two-time All-Star Game MVP, in 1981 at Cleveland and 1984 at San Francisco -- a feat accomplished by only three other players: Willie Mays (the second game in 1960 at Yankee Stadium and '63 at Cleveland), Steve Garvey (1974 at Pittsburgh and '78 at San Diego) and Cal Ripken Jr. (1991 at Toronto and 2001 at Seattle).
Kiner, a Hall of Famer since 1975, led the National League in home runs seven consecutive seasons and was named to six All-Star teams in his 10 seasons with the Pirates, Cubs and Indians. Although he never played for a New York team, Kiner has been in the broadcast booth of the Mets since their first season of 1962 and is one of the city's most popular baseball figures.
Shortstop Luis Aparicio and first baseman Orlando Cepeda, who were in opposite dugouts for the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium in 1960, were also announced as participants with pitchers Bob Gibson and Rollie Fingers, first baseman Eddie Murray and manager Earl Weaver.
The Hall of Famers will also participate with the AL and NL All-Star squads in the All-Star Game Red Carpet Parade, presented by Chevy, up Sixth Avenue from 48th to 58th Streets in Manhattan from 1 to 3 p.m. ET on the day of the game. FOX will televise the parade at 7 p.m. as a lead-in to the live coverage of the pregame ceremony at 8 p.m.
Aparicio, who was elected to the Hall in 1984, was on the American League roster for what was the second of two All-Star Games in 1960 but did not get into the game, as the Orioles' Ron Hansen, then a rookie, played all nine innings at shortstop. Aparicio was a 13-time All-Star selection in an 18-year career in which he won nine Gold Glove Awards and led the AL in stolen bases nine times.
Cepeda, the NL Rookie of the Year in 1958 with the Giants and MVP in 1967 with the Cardinals, was inducted into the Hall in 1999 for a 17-year career that included 379 home runs, 1,365 RBIs and 10 All-Star Game appearances.
Gibson, who was so competitive that he barely spoke to All-Star teammates unless they wore a Cardinals uniform, was the last NL pitcher to win the MVP Award, in 1968 when he was 22-9 with a 1.12 ERA. He won the Cy Young and World Series MVP Awards twice each and was elected to the Hall in 1981.
Fingers, who helped define the closer role in his 17 years as a reliever with the A's, Padres and Brewers, was the losing pitcher of the All-Star Game in 1981, coincidentally the same year that he won both the AL Cy Young and MVP Awards with Milwaukee. The right-hander, who brandished a handlebar moustache, was elected to the Hall in 1992 for a career that included 341 saves.
Murray, who was inducted into the Hall alongside Carter in 2003, is one of only four players in history with more than 3,000 hits (3,225) and 500 home runs (504). The others are Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Rafael Palmeiro. An eight-time All-Star, Murray played two seasons in New York with the Mets in 1992 and '93 but is best remembered for his years with the Orioles, Indians and Dodgers.
Weaver, who was elected to the Hall in 1996, managed the Orioles to a 1,480-1,060 (.583) record in 17 seasons and into four World Series, winning in 1970. While in New York, he will have to endure references to 1969, when his Orioles were upset in the Series by the Mets.Baseball fans will get their fill of patriotic colors as the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game draws closer. Red, white and blue will light up the New York City skyline from the Empire State Building as part of the All-Star week celebration.
Hall of Famers will travel down a red carpet and an eight-and-a-half-foot-tall Lady Liberty, complete with decorations of fireworks and the Yankees symbol, will show off the colors as well -- just one of 42 MLB-decorated Statue of Liberty replicas that will be displayed throughout the city this summer.
But Major League Baseball wants to make sure another color stands out this summer -- green.
Images of Yankee Stadium, Central Park, hot dogs and baseballs highlight a special tote bag created for the 2008 MLB All-Star Game to be played in New York City. And this bag isn't just a souvenir. It's meant for everyday use.
The reusable bags are made from 80 percent post-consumer recycled content, and they represent one of the steps MLB will take this summer to make All-Star week an environmentally friendly event.
"Handsome and useful," said John McHale, MLB's executive vice president of administration and chief information officer, as he held up a bag.
A partnership between MLB and the Natural Resources Defense Council will make the 2008 Midsummer Classic the greenest event in MLB's history. All of the green activities will have long-term rewards for the environment, but some of them will also provide immediate benefits to fans.
People attending DHL All-Star FanFest can hitch a ride to the Jacob K. Javits Center on clean air hybrid buses. The buses will leave from Grand Central Station and Penn Station from Friday, July 11 through Tuesday, July 15.
And one of MLB's green initiatives will leave more of a lasting mark. It will sponsor an Eco-Play playground build, with 85 percent recycled materials, at the Kip Bay Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx.
"We will be giving back to the greatest city in the world, New York City, by conducting a series of community relations efforts to benefit citizens of this city that has been such an important home for Major League Baseball," McHale said.
"All-Star summer will demonstrate baseball's commitment to improving the environment, and we will continue to do more in this area at the Commissioner's Office and with our clubs."
And the images of All-Star summer will start appearing soon enough. Beginning in the second week of June, New Yorkers will wake up to the Statue of Liberty replicas set up in historic locations up and down the city.
Tim Brosnan, MLB's executive vice president of business, said the statues are a "not-too-subtle reminder that the All-Star Game has arrived."
"What our goal is here is to make this the greatest celebration in baseball ever, because like I said, we've got the greatest ingredients to bake that cake," Brosnan added. Each day as he walks into the current Yankee Stadium, Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost glances across 161st Street in the Bronx at the facility under construction that will become the new Yankee Stadium next year, and wonders what it would be like to have an All-Star Game in that building.
For the first time in the 75-year history of the All-Star Game, the site of the game pairing the top players of the American League and the National League will take place in a park's final season. It's a grand way for the second-oldest park in the AL to go out, but the age of The House That Ruth Built presents some problems staging a modern event that the Yankees and Major League Baseball continue to sort out.
"On a weekly basis, the entire staff meets here in untold numbers with MLB to work out all the issues you have to deal with," Trost said in his Stadium office. "These are not necessarily issues of controversy, just issues of trying to get things done. We're trying to convert a stadium that has been here for 85 years into something that can be a focal point for the country."
The original Yankee Stadium was built in 1923, 10 years before there was anything like an All-Star Game. The park underwent a two-year overhaul and reopened in 1976, the year before it hosted its third All-Star Game. But that was 31 years ago, and the All-Star Game has changed significantly since then. No longer is it just a matter of playing one game.
The All-Star Game has expanded to include the XM Futures Game and Taco Bell Celebrity Softball Game on Sunday, July 13; the Gatorade Workout Day on Monday, July 14, followed by the State Farm Home Run Derby that night and the 79th annual All-Star Game on Tuesday night, July 15. In addition, beginning on Friday, July 11, there is the five-day DHL All-Star FanFest at the Jacob K. Javits Center on the west side of Manhattan.
Up in the Bronx is what concerns Trost and the Yankees most. The current Stadium, as celebrated as it is, lacks many of the amenities of modern parks that have most often been the site for All-Star Games. Since 1997, Boston's Fenway Park, site of the 1999 All-Star Game, is the only yard build before the 1990s to house the event.
Deborah Tymon, Yankees senior vice president for marketing, attended last year's All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco to get a lay of the land for this year's event.
"There were seas of people everywhere," she said, "and all I could think about was how are we going to handle all of this at the Stadium? It has been a challenge, but we're up to it."
"I hate to keep bringing up the new Stadium, but the new building will be 500,000 square feet larger," Trost said. "That expanse is the building itself. The field is identical, even the dimensions. In that building we'll have space for clubs, meeting rooms, restaurants, whatever, that this building doesn't. So we sit with the folks at MLB and the architects to see which areas we can convert. We're taking a portion of the weight room, a portion of the auxiliary clubhouse, portions of the concourse area and making them into areas that can handle the influx of events."
Among those is something as seemingly innocuous as the Mascot Race, which has become a recent feature.
"There will be a mascot race with 20 some-odd mascots," Trost said. "Where do you dress them? Where do you feed them? You have the Derby, the All-Star Game, a softball game, the Futures game, so there not only have to be locations for these people to change clothes in the clubhouse and showers but also there has to be a quick turnaround so that one group gets in and out and the next group comes in. The same thing holds with our club. We have to pack up everything in the clubhouse. Where do you put everything?"
The largest storage area in the Stadium is currently used to keep promotional items, which will have to be moved so that it can be used for an interview room. If the Yankees were going out of town after the All-Star break, it might have been easier to clear out the locker rooms, but they begin the second half at home, so temporary shelter for the equipment and uniforms have to be found.
As for the playing field, which is exquisitely groomed, there are problems that have little to do with the grounds crew. Again, there is the matter of limited space at an older venue.
"Here's an idea of what we're up against," Trost said. "For the Home Run Derby, they generally have a platform on the field where ESPN does its show. Well, in the new stadiums the field seats are higher and the field is lower, so you put the platform in without creating sightline problems. Here, the field level is low and the field itself is higher, so when you put a major stage there, all of a sudden you're taking away 100 seats of your most important fan base. There are issues like that we're trying to resolve."
For postseason games at the Stadium, TV platforms have been stationed down the left field line. Coverage of the Home Run Derby, however, requires ESPN cameras and personnel to be closer to the plate to conduct interviews of each participant after their swings. Trost had a suggestion.
"I said, 'Put it on second base,' and they thought I was crazy," he said. "I said, wait a minute, you want access to the players. Nobody can get hurt because it's no different from batting practice when we put screens up at the bases, and it's a far better view. They didn't buy that.
"The resolution is that there will be a number of fans with hampered views, and we're going to lose some seats. The Home Run Derby this year could be as big as the game itself when you consider that no one has ever hit a fair ball out of the Stadium. We know everybody is going to try. We know they are going to hit it in the black [the blackened seats beyond the center-field fence]."
As for security, the Yankees are old hands at trying to ensure that on game nights the safest place in town is Yankee Stadium.
"For events like this, security is not just us and MLB," Trost said. "It's all the services: federal, city, state. Security has always been an extremely high priority at Yankee Stadium. We've had presidents here. We've had Popes here. So we have plenty of background in what has to take place.
"Parking will be, well, different. We will lose Lot 14 [the players' parking area]. That will be taken over by MLB for all the television trucks. So players' cars, staff cars and employees' cars will have to be relocated."
Does all this work mean the Yankees have second thoughts about hosting the All-Star Game?
"Not at all," Trost said. "It's something that we felt was necessary for this ballpark. It's appropriate. Fundamentally, it is the cathedral of sporting venues in this country, and we expect the new building to be the same."
And getting ready for the All-Star Game also includes making the new facility presentable. After all, there will be those blimp shots the night of the game.
"When the blimp comes over, it will almost look ready," Trost said. "The foul poles are in already. We're going to have them lay out the field. There won't be any grass, but you'll get a view of what the interior will look like. For the new building, we looked at every request anyone could make and we put in every room we could possibly think of necessary for a major event like the All-Star Game.
"I want to see the last one here and the first one there." As kids from the Children's Aid Society Boys & Girls Clubs awkwardly lunged forward in an attempt to hit the ball, Yogi Berra peered through the batting cage netting and gave a few pointers.
He didn't stop them through the process. The Hall of Famer just stood there with his fingers clenched around the barrier, offering them the opportunity to listen -- a gift in itself. The kids stared back at the legend, who to them is more famous for insurance commercials than for his baseball exploits.
But when this day was all over, they took home yet another prize. All of the children were handed tickets to this year's DHL All-Star FanFest, which was being previewed outside of Major League Baseball Headquarters on Tuesday.
The first boy in line, naturally a little shy, didn't even make eye contact with Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter as he grabbed the ticket to the July 11-15 event.
That stub, one of the FanFest lot that is almost halfway sold out, will get these children into FanFest's more than 450,000 square feet of baseball activities at the Jacob K. Javits Center. FanFest, according to MLB executive vice president Tim Brosnan, will provide an estimated 125,000 to 150,000 "All-Star memories" for fans in attendance.
At the Javits Center, there will be autograph signings, baseball instruction, skills competitions and batting cages like the one previewed on Tuesday. Most importantly, FanFest will allow fans who can't attend the game at Yankee Stadium to experience the All-Star atmosphere.
"It's what we refer to as 'Baseball Heaven on Earth,'" Brosnan said before spectators gathered along Park Avenue. "As you all know, the All-Star Game will be here on July 15, but because the stadium has limited seating capacity, Major League Baseball always endeavors to make sure that every baseball fan that wants to take away a memory of the All-Star Game has that opportunity."
Jeter, along with Berra and Yankees co-chairperson Hal Steinbrenner, emphasized how important it was to have events like FanFest for New Yorkers and for travelers who might come to see the game but be unable to get inside Yankee Stadium for its historic All-Star goodbye.
"Obviously, there is a lot of excitement for the All-Star Game, but this is an event for, like I said, people who aren't able to go to the game," Jeter said. "They can still participate."
Then Jeter, asked what his favorite All-Star memory was, put his arm around Berra, and said, "Being here with Yogi."
Steinbrenner, still waiting for the new Yankee Stadium to open in 2009, can't wait to send off the current one with events like the All-Star Game and the surrounding FanFest.
"How appropriate?" Steinbrenner said, boasting the longevity of his home turf. "Eighty-five years. It needed to be here, and Major League Baseball appreciated that right off the bat."
Additional participants of what will be the largest gathering of baseball stars on one field at the same time prior to the 79th All-Star Game will be announced exclusively each week on FOX's Saturday Baseball Game of the Week.
Winfield, who played for the Yankees for 10 seasons of his 22-year career, made his first All-Star Game appearance at Yankee Stadium in 1977 while with the Padres and was 2-for-2 with two RBIs. The 12-time All-Star was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.
Boggs, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2005, is another member of the 3,000 hit club -- with 3,110 -- who also played in 12 All-Star Games during an 18-year career with the Red Sox, Yankees and Rays. The Gold Glove Award-winning third baseman won five batting titles in Boston, but it was with the Yankees that he won a World Series ring.
"To have the All-Star Game played at Yankee Stadium in its final year is a perfect tribute to all of the legends who have played there for so many years," Boggs said. "I will always remember my career at Yankee Stadium, highlighted by our World Series title in 1996, for the fans and the tradition associated with the ballpark. It will be an honor to be a part of a pregame celebration, along with so many other Hall of Fame greats, in a farewell salute to one of baseball's most historic grounds."
Carter, an 11-time All-Star, was on a World Series championship team in New York with the Mets in 1986 during a 19-year career that included two tours with the Expos and time with the Giants and Dodgers. The catcher was a two-time All-Star Game MVP, in 1981 at Cleveland and 1984 at San Francisco -- a feat accomplished by only three other players: Willie Mays (the second game in 1960 at Yankee Stadium and '63 at Cleveland), Steve Garvey (1974 at Pittsburgh and '78 at San Diego) and Cal Ripken Jr. (1991 at Toronto and 2001 at Seattle).
Kiner, a Hall of Famer since 1975, led the National League in home runs seven consecutive seasons and was named to six All-Star teams in his 10 seasons with the Pirates, Cubs and Indians. Although he never played for a New York team, Kiner has been in the broadcast booth of the Mets since their first season of 1962 and is one of the city's most popular baseball figures.
Shortstop Luis Aparicio and first baseman Orlando Cepeda, who were in opposite dugouts for the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium in 1960, were also announced as participants with pitchers Bob Gibson and Rollie Fingers, first baseman Eddie Murray and manager Earl Weaver.
The Hall of Famers will also participate with the AL and NL All-Star squads in the All-Star Game Red Carpet Parade, presented by Chevy, up Sixth Avenue from 48th to 58th Streets in Manhattan from 1 to 3 p.m. ET on the day of the game. FOX will televise the parade at 7 p.m. as a lead-in to the live coverage of the pregame ceremony at 8 p.m.
Aparicio, who was elected to the Hall in 1984, was on the American League roster for what was the second of two All-Star Games in 1960 but did not get into the game, as the Orioles' Ron Hansen, then a rookie, played all nine innings at shortstop. Aparicio was a 13-time All-Star selection in an 18-year career in which he won nine Gold Glove Awards and led the AL in stolen bases nine times.
Cepeda, the NL Rookie of the Year in 1958 with the Giants and MVP in 1967 with the Cardinals, was inducted into the Hall in 1999 for a 17-year career that included 379 home runs, 1,365 RBIs and 10 All-Star Game appearances.
Gibson, who was so competitive that he barely spoke to All-Star teammates unless they wore a Cardinals uniform, was the last NL pitcher to win the MVP Award, in 1968 when he was 22-9 with a 1.12 ERA. He won the Cy Young and World Series MVP Awards twice each and was elected to the Hall in 1981.
Fingers, who helped define the closer role in his 17 years as a reliever with the A's, Padres and Brewers, was the losing pitcher of the All-Star Game in 1981, coincidentally the same year that he won both the AL Cy Young and MVP Awards with Milwaukee. The right-hander, who brandished a handlebar moustache, was elected to the Hall in 1992 for a career that included 341 saves.
Murray, who was inducted into the Hall alongside Carter in 2003, is one of only four players in history with more than 3,000 hits (3,225) and 500 home runs (504). The others are Willie Mays, Hank Aaron and Rafael Palmeiro. An eight-time All-Star, Murray played two seasons in New York with the Mets in 1992 and '93 but is best remembered for his years with the Orioles, Indians and Dodgers.
Weaver, who was elected to the Hall in 1996, managed the Orioles to a 1,480-1,060 (.583) record in 17 seasons and into four World Series, winning in 1970. While in New York, he will have to endure references to 1969, when his Orioles were upset in the Series by the Mets.Baseball fans will get their fill of patriotic colors as the 2008 Major League Baseball All-Star Game draws closer. Red, white and blue will light up the New York City skyline from the Empire State Building as part of the All-Star week celebration.
Hall of Famers will travel down a red carpet and an eight-and-a-half-foot-tall Lady Liberty, complete with decorations of fireworks and the Yankees symbol, will show off the colors as well -- just one of 42 MLB-decorated Statue of Liberty replicas that will be displayed throughout the city this summer.
But Major League Baseball wants to make sure another color stands out this summer -- green.
Images of Yankee Stadium, Central Park, hot dogs and baseballs highlight a special tote bag created for the 2008 MLB All-Star Game to be played in New York City. And this bag isn't just a souvenir. It's meant for everyday use.
The reusable bags are made from 80 percent post-consumer recycled content, and they represent one of the steps MLB will take this summer to make All-Star week an environmentally friendly event.
"Handsome and useful," said John McHale, MLB's executive vice president of administration and chief information officer, as he held up a bag.
A partnership between MLB and the Natural Resources Defense Council will make the 2008 Midsummer Classic the greenest event in MLB's history. All of the green activities will have long-term rewards for the environment, but some of them will also provide immediate benefits to fans.
People attending DHL All-Star FanFest can hitch a ride to the Jacob K. Javits Center on clean air hybrid buses. The buses will leave from Grand Central Station and Penn Station from Friday, July 11 through Tuesday, July 15.
And one of MLB's green initiatives will leave more of a lasting mark. It will sponsor an Eco-Play playground build, with 85 percent recycled materials, at the Kip Bay Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx.
"We will be giving back to the greatest city in the world, New York City, by conducting a series of community relations efforts to benefit citizens of this city that has been such an important home for Major League Baseball," McHale said.
"All-Star summer will demonstrate baseball's commitment to improving the environment, and we will continue to do more in this area at the Commissioner's Office and with our clubs."
And the images of All-Star summer will start appearing soon enough. Beginning in the second week of June, New Yorkers will wake up to the Statue of Liberty replicas set up in historic locations up and down the city.
Tim Brosnan, MLB's executive vice president of business, said the statues are a "not-too-subtle reminder that the All-Star Game has arrived."
"What our goal is here is to make this the greatest celebration in baseball ever, because like I said, we've got the greatest ingredients to bake that cake," Brosnan added. Each day as he walks into the current Yankee Stadium, Yankees chief operating officer Lonn Trost glances across 161st Street in the Bronx at the facility under construction that will become the new Yankee Stadium next year, and wonders what it would be like to have an All-Star Game in that building.
For the first time in the 75-year history of the All-Star Game, the site of the game pairing the top players of the American League and the National League will take place in a park's final season. It's a grand way for the second-oldest park in the AL to go out, but the age of The House That Ruth Built presents some problems staging a modern event that the Yankees and Major League Baseball continue to sort out.
"On a weekly basis, the entire staff meets here in untold numbers with MLB to work out all the issues you have to deal with," Trost said in his Stadium office. "These are not necessarily issues of controversy, just issues of trying to get things done. We're trying to convert a stadium that has been here for 85 years into something that can be a focal point for the country."
The original Yankee Stadium was built in 1923, 10 years before there was anything like an All-Star Game. The park underwent a two-year overhaul and reopened in 1976, the year before it hosted its third All-Star Game. But that was 31 years ago, and the All-Star Game has changed significantly since then. No longer is it just a matter of playing one game.
The All-Star Game has expanded to include the XM Futures Game and Taco Bell Celebrity Softball Game on Sunday, July 13; the Gatorade Workout Day on Monday, July 14, followed by the State Farm Home Run Derby that night and the 79th annual All-Star Game on Tuesday night, July 15. In addition, beginning on Friday, July 11, there is the five-day DHL All-Star FanFest at the Jacob K. Javits Center on the west side of Manhattan.
Up in the Bronx is what concerns Trost and the Yankees most. The current Stadium, as celebrated as it is, lacks many of the amenities of modern parks that have most often been the site for All-Star Games. Since 1997, Boston's Fenway Park, site of the 1999 All-Star Game, is the only yard build before the 1990s to house the event.
Deborah Tymon, Yankees senior vice president for marketing, attended last year's All-Star Game at AT&T Park in San Francisco to get a lay of the land for this year's event.
"There were seas of people everywhere," she said, "and all I could think about was how are we going to handle all of this at the Stadium? It has been a challenge, but we're up to it."
"I hate to keep bringing up the new Stadium, but the new building will be 500,000 square feet larger," Trost said. "That expanse is the building itself. The field is identical, even the dimensions. In that building we'll have space for clubs, meeting rooms, restaurants, whatever, that this building doesn't. So we sit with the folks at MLB and the architects to see which areas we can convert. We're taking a portion of the weight room, a portion of the auxiliary clubhouse, portions of the concourse area and making them into areas that can handle the influx of events."
Among those is something as seemingly innocuous as the Mascot Race, which has become a recent feature.
"There will be a mascot race with 20 some-odd mascots," Trost said. "Where do you dress them? Where do you feed them? You have the Derby, the All-Star Game, a softball game, the Futures game, so there not only have to be locations for these people to change clothes in the clubhouse and showers but also there has to be a quick turnaround so that one group gets in and out and the next group comes in. The same thing holds with our club. We have to pack up everything in the clubhouse. Where do you put everything?"
The largest storage area in the Stadium is currently used to keep promotional items, which will have to be moved so that it can be used for an interview room. If the Yankees were going out of town after the All-Star break, it might have been easier to clear out the locker rooms, but they begin the second half at home, so temporary shelter for the equipment and uniforms have to be found.
As for the playing field, which is exquisitely groomed, there are problems that have little to do with the grounds crew. Again, there is the matter of limited space at an older venue.
"Here's an idea of what we're up against," Trost said. "For the Home Run Derby, they generally have a platform on the field where ESPN does its show. Well, in the new stadiums the field seats are higher and the field is lower, so you put the platform in without creating sightline problems. Here, the field level is low and the field itself is higher, so when you put a major stage there, all of a sudden you're taking away 100 seats of your most important fan base. There are issues like that we're trying to resolve."
For postseason games at the Stadium, TV platforms have been stationed down the left field line. Coverage of the Home Run Derby, however, requires ESPN cameras and personnel to be closer to the plate to conduct interviews of each participant after their swings. Trost had a suggestion.
"I said, 'Put it on second base,' and they thought I was crazy," he said. "I said, wait a minute, you want access to the players. Nobody can get hurt because it's no different from batting practice when we put screens up at the bases, and it's a far better view. They didn't buy that.
"The resolution is that there will be a number of fans with hampered views, and we're going to lose some seats. The Home Run Derby this year could be as big as the game itself when you consider that no one has ever hit a fair ball out of the Stadium. We know everybody is going to try. We know they are going to hit it in the black [the blackened seats beyond the center-field fence]."
As for security, the Yankees are old hands at trying to ensure that on game nights the safest place in town is Yankee Stadium.
"For events like this, security is not just us and MLB," Trost said. "It's all the services: federal, city, state. Security has always been an extremely high priority at Yankee Stadium. We've had presidents here. We've had Popes here. So we have plenty of background in what has to take place.
"Parking will be, well, different. We will lose Lot 14 [the players' parking area]. That will be taken over by MLB for all the television trucks. So players' cars, staff cars and employees' cars will have to be relocated."
Does all this work mean the Yankees have second thoughts about hosting the All-Star Game?
"Not at all," Trost said. "It's something that we felt was necessary for this ballpark. It's appropriate. Fundamentally, it is the cathedral of sporting venues in this country, and we expect the new building to be the same."
And getting ready for the All-Star Game also includes making the new facility presentable. After all, there will be those blimp shots the night of the game.
"When the blimp comes over, it will almost look ready," Trost said. "The foul poles are in already. We're going to have them lay out the field. There won't be any grass, but you'll get a view of what the interior will look like. For the new building, we looked at every request anyone could make and we put in every room we could possibly think of necessary for a major event like the All-Star Game.
"I want to see the last one here and the first one there." As kids from the Children's Aid Society Boys & Girls Clubs awkwardly lunged forward in an attempt to hit the ball, Yogi Berra peered through the batting cage netting and gave a few pointers.
He didn't stop them through the process. The Hall of Famer just stood there with his fingers clenched around the barrier, offering them the opportunity to listen -- a gift in itself. The kids stared back at the legend, who to them is more famous for insurance commercials than for his baseball exploits.
But when this day was all over, they took home yet another prize. All of the children were handed tickets to this year's DHL All-Star FanFest, which was being previewed outside of Major League Baseball Headquarters on Tuesday.
The first boy in line, naturally a little shy, didn't even make eye contact with Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter as he grabbed the ticket to the July 11-15 event.
That stub, one of the FanFest lot that is almost halfway sold out, will get these children into FanFest's more than 450,000 square feet of baseball activities at the Jacob K. Javits Center. FanFest, according to MLB executive vice president Tim Brosnan, will provide an estimated 125,000 to 150,000 "All-Star memories" for fans in attendance.
At the Javits Center, there will be autograph signings, baseball instruction, skills competitions and batting cages like the one previewed on Tuesday. Most importantly, FanFest will allow fans who can't attend the game at Yankee Stadium to experience the All-Star atmosphere.
"It's what we refer to as 'Baseball Heaven on Earth,'" Brosnan said before spectators gathered along Park Avenue. "As you all know, the All-Star Game will be here on July 15, but because the stadium has limited seating capacity, Major League Baseball always endeavors to make sure that every baseball fan that wants to take away a memory of the All-Star Game has that opportunity."
Jeter, along with Berra and Yankees co-chairperson Hal Steinbrenner, emphasized how important it was to have events like FanFest for New Yorkers and for travelers who might come to see the game but be unable to get inside Yankee Stadium for its historic All-Star goodbye.
"Obviously, there is a lot of excitement for the All-Star Game, but this is an event for, like I said, people who aren't able to go to the game," Jeter said. "They can still participate."
Then Jeter, asked what his favorite All-Star memory was, put his arm around Berra, and said, "Being here with Yogi."
Steinbrenner, still waiting for the new Yankee Stadium to open in 2009, can't wait to send off the current one with events like the All-Star Game and the surrounding FanFest.
"How appropriate?" Steinbrenner said, boasting the longevity of his home turf. "Eighty-five years. It needed to be here, and Major League Baseball appreciated that right off the bat."
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