MLB announces full schedule for All-Star week in Philadelphia
The five-day event begins July 10 with the HBCU Swingman Classic, and the Convention Center will host the All-Star Village from July 11-14.
The Major League Baseball All-Star Game will be a five-day event as the league announced Tuesday morning the full schedule for July’s Mid-Summer Classic in Philadelphia.
Citizens Bank Park will host the HBCU Swingman Classic — a showcase of the top ballplayers from historically Black colleges and universities — on July 10 and the All-Star Futures Game — a showcase of baseball’s top prospects — on July 12. The Futures Game will be followed by MLBx, a fast-paced, three-on-three competition featuring MLB legends and special guests that replaces the annual Celebrity Softball Game.
The opening rounds of the MLB draft will be held at the Convention Center on July 11 at 1:30 p.m. The Convention Center will also host the All-Star Village — formerly known as Fan Fest — from July 11-14. Two youth tournaments — the baseball Commissioner’s Cup and softball Jennie Finch Classic — will be held at FDR Park from July 10-12.
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The Home Run Derby will be July 13 at Citizens Bank Park followed a day later by the All-Star Game. The players will arrive at the game on the “All-Star Red Carpet Show” but a location for this year’s show will be announced later. Last year’s show was at the ballpark but previous shows have been held at city landmarks before the players are then bused to the park. The league could look to showcase Independence Hall this year.
The five-day event will be part of a busy sports calendar as the PGA Championship comes to Aronomik in May before the FIFA World Cup arrives at Lincoln Financial Field in June.
It’s baseball’s first All-Star Game in Philadelphia in 30 years. In 1996, the event spanned two days — the Home Run Derby and All-Star Game — at Veterans Stadium while Fan Fest ran for five days at the Convention Center. Fifty years ago, it was even simpler: a workout on Monday followed by the game on Tuesday. There was no derby or Fan Fest. Now it’s a spectacle.
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In Trea Turner and Justin Crawford, the Phillies have two of baseball's fastest players at the top and bottom of their batting order. It's a baserunning coach's dream. Paco Figueroa sat down with "Phillies Extra" to discuss his philosophy on baserunning and how the Phillies might be able to leverage the elite speed of Turner and Crawford to boost an offense that has struggled to score runs early in the season. Watch here.
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