Tour 2026: MLB Homerun Derby & All-Star Workout Day

All photos of Philadelphia, All-Star Village, All-Star Workout Day, and Homerun Derby available on Flickr.

Monday was the jewel event of All-Star Week: the Homerun Derby.  Gates didn't open until 5pm, so we had some time to kill.  We started our day at the All-Star Village back at the convention center.  It was nearly identical to the Fan Fest we went to 12 years ago in Minneapolis and had many of the same features: the "world's largest baseball" to greet you when you walked in, giant team store (from which we refrained significantly more than in 2014), baseball-related activities, baseball exhibits, a Topps Cards shop, player autograph sessions, and even the same S.Preston minimalist art gallery.  I remember meeting the artist at the Minneapolis fest just as he was starting out and talking through concepts and ideas for new prints, and now he's so successful that he didn't even show up to his own gallery - and I own several of his prints, including the County Stadium one I suggested to him.  We took some hacks at the batting cage just as we did in 2014, but sadly the 2026 version did not have an activation where you could race a virtual big leaguer.  I probably still would not be able to beat Bryce Harper 12 years later, but I'd like to believe my pants wouldn't have fallen down this time.  The other activation we participated in was softball speed pitch.  Let's just say I was not even close to approaching the 70mph these girls typically throw.  There were long lines for everything as expected, including the Monday morning Budweiser line.  It's a cool fest and it's nice to have something for visitors to do between events, but once you've seen one you've seen them all.  After a couple hours we'd seen everything we were interested in and walked across the street to Reading Terminal Market for lunch.  This market opened in 1893 under the former Reading Railroad Terminal (yes, the same Reading from Monopoly) and still operates today as one of the largest and oldest public markets in the country.  There had to be at least 100 vendors in there, and was mostly hot prepared food as opposed to the fresh farm goods and nonperishables type of market.  I finally got my much-anticipated cheesesteak here, and although it would not be considered authentic by Philadelphia's high standards, it was delicious.  Note to those visiting Philly: a real cheesesteak is just steak and cheez whiz, with or without onions ("Wiz Wit" or "Wiz Witout").  No other types of cheese, no peppers, nothing else.  After eating huge dense sandwiches in a hot stuffy market, we both needed to go lay down back at the hotel for a bit (getting old sucks).  We then had a couple of drinks at a pub called The Dandelion down the street, and before we knew it it was time to head down to the park.

We had significantly more time to explore CBP than we did on Sunday, and we did a couple of laps before heading up to our upper deck seats.  It's hard to remember what has changed since our last visit, but looking through old photos, it looks largely the same aside from the batter's eye ivy growing in fuller and obviously a new modern scoreboard.  Citizens Bank Park is not the best park in the league, but it's certainly above-average, and is pretty close to how I would lay one out if I was drawing one up from scratch.  The club we were in Sunday seems to be the biggest change in the years since 2007, so I'm grateful that Erik splurged for those seats.  Speaking of splurged, the tickets for the homerun derby cost more than I care to admit, but it was so worth it and All-Star Week is simply a must-do for any baseball fan at some point in their lives.  We were still full from Reading Market, so we spent the majority of our walking around focused on finding the "Liberty Bell Beers" that were supposedly available for All-Star Week, but we never found them nor saw anybody with them.  We filled that gaping void in our souls with ice cream helmets instead.  Erik devoured a decadent "Schwarbomb Sundae" which included a fried strawberry Uncrustable and topped with Fruity Pebbles, while I opted for a normal human amount of ice cream.  With our waist bands expanded, we made our way up to our seats and watched a couple hours of BP and pregame.  Our seats were basically the cheapest we could find but actually not bad at all, about halfway up in the 400 level directly behind home plate.  We had a great view of the Philly skyline from here that we could not really see in 2005 or '07 from the lower bowl.  Munetaka Murakami put on a show in batting practice and earned my pick to win the Derby.

Erik and I have never really cared for the All-Star Game itself and have always preferred the homerun derby.  Even when the ear-bleeding Chris Berman was on the mic for the old ESPN broadcasts, it was always what I looked forward to the most during the break.  It certainly feels like it has now become the jewel event of All-Star Week, and that is due in large part to it being an event that is made for television, with opportunities do to things with cameras and media and players that you just can't do during a normal game.  This was the first year the event was covered on Netflix, and by all indications, Erik and I got the better end of the stick being there in person.  One thing you can't adequately capture on TV is the crowd and the atmosphere.  Philly fans are notoriously harsh and difficult fans, and it was cool to see how invested they were in the exhibition, even if that meant booing everyone who was not a Phillie.  They even booed kids who dropped fly balls in the outfield.  Some of this I think is them just leaning into a stereotype a little bit, and we were more than happy to join in.  For as much as Philly fans will voice their displeasure with you, they are also the best fans in the league to have in your corner if you give them a moment to be proud of.  The roar of the sellout audience for Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber being introduced was deafening and emotional, and it made you want to cheer for them along with everyone else.  When I saw the home-plate shaped boxing ring set up at second base, I got so excited to hear that Rocky theme and see Sly Stallone saunter his way out, but that would be our second major disappointment of the day.  They opted for Philly's own Michael Buffer instead and it was still quite the spectacle.

Jordan Walker ended up winning the derby with an epic final round against hometown hero Kyle Schwarber.  MLB abandoned the timed rounds that have been in place since 2015 and changed the rules this year to closer mimic the old rules.  Batters had 20 swings in the first round and 15 in subsequent rounds.  For the final swing of each round, the pitchers switched to a magenta ball that could go on as long as batters kept homering on it.  It was clear that batters were not picking it up out of the hand and I think I can recall only one homer on the magenta ball.  This includes the final round, which Walker won controversially because for whatever reason, he did not see any magenta balls that round.  He was behind by 3 or 4 homers going into the final ball and ended up going on a hot streak to win.  Maybe they ran out of the magenta balls or maybe it was an honest mistake by the pitcher, but there is no such thing as an honest mistake on Philadelphia sports talk radio, and conspiracy theories abounded the next day.  As much as I hate to admit it, the most impressive individual round was by William Contreras' asshole brother Willson.  He cranked the longest homerun of the day at over 490' and posted the highest first round score with 13.  Contreras is probably accustomed to getting booed and used that as fuel rather than a distraction.  I'll give him credit though - at least he didn't charge the mound.  On Tuesday, he would become the first player in MLB history to participate in the All-Star Game while under active suspension.

This was the first trip I can recall in a long time where at least one of us didn't have to wake up at dawn to catch a flight, so we actually got a good night's sleep and parted our separate ways on Tuesday morning.  I know I say this every year, but I always leave these trips with a heavy sense of gratitude and joy that we still get to do these every year.  Most years I only get to see Erik once, so we always value our time together.  Next year's trip will be interesting with the impending lockout, but we've got a framework of an idea in the works.

park stats and rankings
(see original rankings from 07/14/07):
aesthetics - 7
views from park - 7
view to field - 8
surrounding area - increases to 4 (new Stateside Live! bar)
food variety - 9
nachos - 6
beer - 7
vendor price - 6 (new specialty All-Star items are pricy but regular items are fair)
ticket price - decreases to 5
atmosphere - 8 (Futures was a 6 and Derby was a 10)
walk to park - 2
parking price/proximity - 9
concourses - 9
team shop - 8
kids area - 8 (new category - includes Philly Phanatic climbing wall and mini playing field)

best food - Philly cheese steak from Tony's
most unique stadium feature - Liberty Bell
best jumbotron feature - Philadelphia trivia
best between-inning feature - Futures Game "Race to the Majors"

field dimensions - 329/401/330
attendance - 43863

HOMERUN DERBY PARTICIPANTS: 
Willson Contreras, Boston
Jordan Walker, St. Louis
Jac Caglianone, Kansas City
Munetaka Murakami, Chi White Sox
Ben Rice, NY Yankees
Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay
Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia
Bryce Harper, Philadelphia

winner - Jordan Walker
score – 12-11 final round, 31 total
stadium - Citizens Bank Park