Sacramento Star Shine
Brian Ross
MLNSportsZone.com
SACRAMENTO, CA. - While the Triple-A (AAA) All-Star game is a showcase of the great talent from the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and the International League (IL), it's also a celebration of home-town professional sports.
Sacramento, like every host city shines with its own peculiar flavor.
The event is a big showcase for its host city. ESPN-2 rolls out the broadcast trucks. The area Visitors and Conventions Bureau and local Chambers try to put their best foot forward.
It also allows for a few of the more "colorful" residents of Sactown a shot at their 15 minutes of fame at the game.
The King of Sacramento made his appearence, bedecked in royal finery. There was the roaming gorilla and banana who looked like they wandered out of Game Show Channel reruns of "Let's Make A Deal."
There were a pair of guys who showed up in "Chico's Bail Bonds" jerseys, either because they were getting paid to plug the release of the upcoming "Bad News Bears" remake, or they harbored a secret desire to be Tatum O'Neal as children.
In the capital city of the state run by the Governator, Arnold Schwarznegger, you have to have a sense of humor.
In the "True Lies" department, Govenah Ahnald was supposed to show up to the All-Star luncheon, and perhaps even the game. Called away by government business, he video-taped a brief message in which he said that the Sacramento RiverCats "pumped up the economy" of Sactown.
The Triple-A All-Star game is the premiere event in minor league baseball, and a coveted big-dollar event for any city in the Pacific Coast League or International League lucky enough to land it.
Some, including a few athletes, may think that Major League Baseball's Futures Game, which features players from both Class-AAA and Class-AA baseball, stands as the new "the" event. Felix Hernandez, one of the power pitchers of the PCL, made the Futures game but skipped the Triple-A All-Stars.
"There is enough honor to go around" said PCL President, Branch Rickey of the Futures game, which is always just a few days ahead of the Triple-A All-Stars. Rickey says their showcase is still the most established place to see Triple-A players
Randy Mobley, President of the International League made it clear that the league encourages players to come out. "We make it clear we'll replace them," he said with dogmatic clarity.
Edwin Encarncion, who attended both events, is reflective of the realities of a major league baseball televised event. "There are so many more people [at the Futures game]. The crowd has good energy."
Red Carpet Event
From the time you arrived at the airport until they started cleaning up the post-game debris from the seats, Sactown did a fantastic job of showcasing the town.
Signs at airports, major restaurants and hotels all welcomed out-of-towners to the game.
Not that you'd need many of them in a town which slugs it out with Memphis each year for the highest average attendance per game.
In fact, locals buy so many tickets that it may have been hard for out-of-towners to get their hands on tickets to the sold-out events.
It was hard to find anyone but locals at the Tuesday night home run derby. We found only a small handful. The remainder of the 14,400 attendees were Sactown through-and-through, a bit unusual based on previous all-star games.
Still, the event was an enthusiastic success. The stadium was at capacity, although not in the usual places. Fans crowded around the lawn...
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