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.
Lights, camera … All-Stars!
The game isn't enough by itself anymore to carry the event. Baseball now adds a home run derby, FanFest and a little bit of Hollywood for glamour.
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."
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