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 an above-average ballpark 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

Tour 2026: MLB All-Star Sunday

All photos of Philadelphia, Futures Game, and MLBx All-Star 3-on-3 available on Flickr.

We woke up rested and refreshed for a Sunday packed with more All-Star events, but we started the day with our one bit of non-baseball sightseeing of the trip.  Erik and I kickstarted the morning by each going for our own separate 2-mile jogs.  Turns out we're getting too old to go on 4-day binges and not exercise.  We didn't have a scenic hiking trail at our disposal like we have the past few years, so we settled for a nice run through the city.  Erik headed west to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to run up the Rocky Steps, but I had already been there once before, so I opted for the opposite direction towards Independence Hall.  I stopped to take a bunch of pictures there and got distracted several times on the way back, so it wasn't a super efficient run, but it's hard not to immerse yourself in all the history when you're visiting Philly.  After a quick dip back at our hotel rooftop pool and then telling Erik that did not count as his shower for the day, we got cleaned up and headed right back for Independence Hall, this time to go inside and see the Liberty Bell.  The bell is basically within a separate building that seems to have been built around it so as to not disturb the famously cracked bell.  Words cannot describe what it was like to be within mere feet of one of the most significant artifacts in the 250-year history of our country.  We also saw the original buildings where the constitution was debated and signed, the foundational remains of the former presidential mansion, and the building where Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence.  It was all truly inspiring and left me speechless with awe.  I also learned in our time there that the square outside these buildings is technically a National Park, so I was happy to cross one off the list.  We probably could have spent hours touring everything there, but alas it was time for ball.  We hopped on the SEPTA subway west and south to Citizens Bank Park around 11:00am.

The SEPTA B-line ends at the ballpark, so pretty much everyone on the train with us got off at the same stop.  Philadelphia has its baseball park, football stadium, and arena all in this same area in South Philly, surrounded by almost nothing but parking lots.  It's kind of the opposite direction that most cities are going these days, but it seems to work well for a city as large and transit-oriented as this.  Security lines into the stadium went pretty smoothly and we made our way up to the second deck where we had tickets in the Cadillac Hall of Fame Club.  I'm not sure if this existed when we were there 19 years ago, but I do know it underwent a significant renovation this past offseason in preparation of this event.  From what I'm reading, the remodeling seems to be mostly cosmetic in nature, with all new finishes and aesthetics, and an increased amount of chef-driven culinary offerings.  I would best describe this club as a cross between the club levels at AmFam and Target Field.  Like at AmFam, it takes up pretty much the entire level and you can walk through it from end to end, and just being on the level itself requires a club ticket.  It is lined with quick grab-and-go food and beverage stands on the side opposite the field just like at AmFam.  It also pulls in elements of the Truly On Deck at Target Field, which is connected visually to the field with direct access to seats on the other side of a wall of glass.  This club has some soft seating and the team Hall of Fame inside of it, including their World Series trophies, just like at Target.  It really combines the best elements of both and I loved it.  The thing I appreciated most about it was it has a lot of specialty food items that you didn't have to wait 10 minutes for them to make it to order.  All the food was laid out packaged under heat lamps, so I was able to grab a silo of Miller Lite from the cooler, a Philly grilled cheese, and pay for it, all within literally 30 seconds.  Granted, I will say that Citizens Bank Park was half-full at best for the Futures Game, so maybe this is not always the case at a regular Phillies game.  The food in the AmFam club just plain sucks, and at Target it is either slow or buffet style, so the Phillies were doing it right.  My only complaint is I would have liked it to be a little wider so you could fit some actual bar seating in there.  There were some walkup bars, but it basically just felt like more of just a fancy concourse.  Other than that one minor thing, I highly recommend the Hall of Fame Club to any visitors.

Another major perk of the club was access to shade and air conditioning on this hot afternoon.  We were in our seats for close to 4 hours, and only towards the end of the MLBx event did the sun start to creep our way.  There were two events at The Bank on Sunday, the first of which was the Futures Game.  This is an annual game showcasing 50 of the top rising stars in the minor leagues, and this year's game was particularly star-studded with 38 of the 50 being ranked in the Top 100.  After experimenting with some other formats in the past, this year's game was AL vs. NL just like the regular All-Star Game.  The teams wore some pretty sweet "American" and "National" uniforms that I wished the MLB players would also wear instead of angrily reverting back to tradition.  The game featured two Brewers in the starting lineup for the NL squad - 3B Luis Pena and #1 overall prospect SS Jesus Made.  Pena had the defensive gem of the day with a sensational over the shoulder catch in shallow left, and Made went 1-3 with an RBI groundout.  The future is bright in Milwaukee and I'm excited to see both of these players on the big league team in the next few years.  It's hard to identify any standout players in a 7-inning game that was constantly cycling in substitutions, but Seth Hernandez was definitely one of the players I was most looking forward to seeing and he did not disappoint.  Seth struck out 2 in his lone inning of work and topped 100 several times on the radar gun.  He might have gone #1 overall in the draft last year if player development staffs did not have a natural aversion to right handed high school pitchers, but he is absolutely dominating in A-ball right now and it will be scary to see what he looks like in an already stacked Pirates rotation.  Rays C Nathan Flewelling took home the Larry Doby MVP Award due to his pinch-hit 2-run homer in the 6th.  Phillies 2025 1st round pick Gage Wood got the start for the NL and allowed Leo De Vries to score on a single, 2 steals, and a groundout.

Following the brisk Futures Game was the MLBx All-Star 3-on-3 competition.  MLBx is MLB's response to the rising popularity of Banana Ball and is essentially a co-ed team homerun derby with defense.  This is sort of a barnstorming exhibition tour lead by Nick Swisher and this was its All-Star Sunday debut, replacing the oft maligned Celebrity Softball Game.  I actually thought it was really fun to watch, but just way too long.  It was four teams of 3 that faced off in two semi-final matchups and one final matchup, and each match was 3 innings apiece, so it just got to be a lot and the novelty of it wore off quickly.  There were 3 teams led by former Phillies legends - Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and Shane Victorino - and one Braves team led by Andruw Jones that was just awful and got booed incessantly.  I think Jones might have only hit one homerun in 2 minutes, and keep in mind the fences were only about 200 feet away.  The celebrities were as always not memorable and contributed nothing, but the softball players were the real stars of the show.  Alyssa Brito in particular just put on a clinic and must have mashed 30 or 40 homers herself.  It's kind of patronizing to pair 20-something professional softball players with 4 guys who have never picked up a bat in their life and 4 retired guys who haven't played in 10 years, so I hope this event served as a wake-up call to all fans watching that the AUSL is the real deal.  I've caught a few games here and there on ESPN and it is a fascinating sport.

After a long day at the ballpark, it was still not even 5pm yet, so we were not ready to head back to the hotel.  We stopped by a new Stateside Live! venue across the street for a couple of brew dogs.  This space opened up just in time for the All-Star festivities and was a lot like the one we went to in Arlington a few years ago, basically an expansive beer hall with a tall wall of TVs, games, a separate bull riding bar, and a more intimate "Miller Lite Tavern" which was sadly closed for a private event.  We met a couple of local dudes here and had a nice conversation about our travels and all things baseball.  After Stateside, we ate dinner at a quaint wood-fired pie joint in the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood we were staying in, and had a quiet night in watching Major League.  I was proud of how we paced ourselves on this trip, but part of me did wish we were 25 again and could have closed down a dive bar somewhere.

FUTURES GAME STARTING LINEUPS:
 
American League
Leo De Vries, SS, Athletics (AA)
Franklin Arias, 2B, Boston (AA)
Ralphy Velazquez, 1B, Cleveland (AAA)
Walker Jenkins, CF, Minnesota (AAA)
Blake Mitchell, C, Kansas City (A+)
Caleb Bonemer, 3B, Chi White Sox (AA)
Ike Irish, DH, Baltimore (A+)
Nelson Rada, LF, LA Angels (AAA)
Theo Gillen, RF, Tampa Bay (A+)
Kade Anderson, SP, Seattle (AA)

National League
Eli Willits, 2B, Washington (A+)
Roldy Brito, CF, Colorado (A)
Jesus Made, SS, Milwaukee (AA)
Charlie Condon, 1B, Colorado (AAA)
Josue De Paula, LF, LA Dodgers (AA)
Alfredo Duno, C, Cincinnati (A+)
Ethan Salas, DH, San Diego (AA)
Luis Pena, 3B, Milwaukee (A+)
Edward Florentino, RF, Pittsburgh (A+)
Gage Wood, SP, Philadelphia (AA)

pitchers of record – Anthony Eyanson (W), Kash Mayfield (L)
time of game – 2:10
attendance – not posted
score – 6-1 AL (F/7)
Brewers score that day – 14-5 L

Tour 2026: MLB Draft

All photos of Philadelphia and 2026 MLB Draft available on Flickr.

Saturday was the day I was most looking forward to of the trip and also the most exhausting.  It was the one day we had to set an alarm, and we were on the road for Philly a little after 7:00am for the 4+ hour drive.  The bulk of this drive would be on our old Tour nemesis - I-95 - so we knew to expect traffic and made sure to give ourselves plenty of time to make it for the first pick at 1:30.  It started out beautifully as we headed south to New Haven and west along the Long Island Sound, but sure enough we slowed down through the Bronx and into Newark.  Why there is not a better bypass system to get around New York City, I'll never know.  It was our longest drive of the trip, and we mostly passed the time listening to a very entertaining reggae radio station we stumbled upon, featuring a thick-accented Jamaican DJ that was eager to repeat the same event ad reads over and over.  We also made a pit stop in New Jersey, at which I learned that it is the only state in the union where it is illegal to pump your own gas.  We made it into downtown Philly just before noon, got checked into our hotel, and walked past city hall over to the convention center for the Draft.

Up until 5 years ago, the Rule 4 Draft was historically held in early June, which was always an incredibly inconvenient time as most college players are still in school and many of the top picks might even still be playing.  The draft back then was also extremely inaccessible to the average fan.  The advent of MLB Network and the rise of social media helped with this some, but it was never the spectacle that the NFL or NBA drafts are.  That all changed with with the latest CBA in 2021 when it was formally moved to be integrated with All-Star Week.  This change gave the league an opportunity to better market the sport and give prominence to this event like never before.  Fans visiting a city for the All-Star Game could now go watch the draft in person just like all the other major sports.  I'm not sure how it's been the last 5 years, but this year it was free but you had to register for an opportunity to be one of the supposedly 250 fans let in.  The Luck of the Tour was on our side once again and I was selected!  Fans started being let in at 12:30, and we rushed up the escalator to claim chairs as close as we could to the stage.  On the way to our seats, we passed by rows and rows of analysts and team representatives actually working the draft, as well as multiple television crews.  It felt like we truly had VIP access, and quite simply it was one of the coolest baseball events I've ever been a part of.  To be in the same room as star former players, media personalities, and the commissioner of baseball, not to mention the honor of witnessing the most important moment in the lives of a few dozen athletes, was something I'll never forget.  Erik and I were memorialized on TV and the internet several times in our Brewers and Twins jerseys respectively, cheering loudly for each pick.  It all felt like a crazy dream that we got to be there, and it was my favorite part of our trip.  Any baseball fan needs to add this event to their bucket list ASAP. 

My one complaint for this particular iteration of the event was the very limited concessions.  We ended up leaving about 3 hours in after the Brewers #25 pick, but the draft lasted well into the evening and really your only options were popcorn, pretzels, and soda.  It definitely wouldn't have been enough real food to sustain us had we chosen to stay longer.  In the pro column, I loved how much they tried to make it a very personal experience for the limited number of fans in attendance.  This is clearly an event best suited for television audiences, but MLB Network and the emcee made every effort to entertain the crowd during the breaks and made sure we more than just 250 flies on the wall - and all the free swag didn't hurt either.  It felt like we were a part of a live studio audience that just got kind of a peek behind the curtain of how the draft runs, and it was a pretty indescribable feeling.

One other major factor in the MLB Draft gaining more popularity in recent years is that draft picks make a faster impact in the big leagues than ever before, and the White Sox #1 overall pick of UCLA SS Roch Cholowsky was perfect evidence of that.  It used to be that a team would pick a guy, and he would get exiled to the minor leagues and nobody would hear from him again for 5+ years.  It's not uncommon now for the top picks or polished college players to get called up to the majors within 1-2 years.  Many experts believe that Roch will be ready for the bigs as early as next year and that that was a factor in them choosing him.  There are many "inside baseball" reasons for this fast tracking that I won't get into here - the slashing of minor league teams is one of the many - but it's undeniable that it makes the Draft more exciting for the casual MLB fan when they can visualize these players helping their team sooner rather than later.  The first 4 picks were chalk - Cholowsky (or Cha-loose-kee as our commissioner says), HS SS Grady Emerson #2 to the Rays, Georgia Tech C Vahn Lackey #3 to the Twins, and UCSB P Jackson Flora #4 to the Giants.  The Pirates and Royals then selected a couple of moderate surprises projected to go lower in the 1st round and it was off to the races.  UNC P Jack Schaffner #20 to the Red Sox and HS SS Trey Ebel #25 to the Brewers were the biggest surprises of the 1st round, if you define "surprise" as merely the biggest gap between their rank and where they were selected.  Any Brewers fan or draft expert should know by now that it's never a surprise for them to take a value pick in the 1st round to save money for spending later in the draft, which is exactly what they did when they stole TCU OF Sawyer Strosnider at the back of the 2nd round.  This is famously how the Brewers managed to snag Cooper Pratt away from a college commitment a few years ago, and now he is their starting SS with a long-term contract.  For as amazing an experience the draft was, by the time the Brewers picked it was starting to get a little redundant, so we left after that to head to our 2nd part of the day in Allentown.

2026 MLB DRAFT ROUND 1/PPI/1A: 

1.  CHW - Roch Cholowsky, UCLA, SS

2.  TB - Grady Emerson, HS, SS

3.  MIN - Vahn Lackey, Georgia Tech, C

4.  SF - Jackson Flora, UC-Santa Barbara, RHP

5.  PIT - Derek Curiel, LSU, OF

6.  KC - Zion Rose, Louisville, OF

7.  BAL - Eric Booth Jr., HS, OF

8.  ATH - Drew Burress, Georgia Tech, OF

9.  ATL - AJ Gracia, Virginia, OF

10.  COL - Tyler Bell, Kentucky, SS

11.  WSH - Chris Hacopian, Texas A&M, 2B

12.  LAA - Jared Grindlinger, HS, OF

13.  STL - Trevor Condon, HS, OF

14.  MIA - Jacob Lombard, HS, SS

15.  ARZ - Ryder Helfrick, Arkansas, C

16.  TEX - Gio Rojas, HS, LHP

17.  HOU - Logan Hughes, Texas Tech, OF

18.  CIN - Justin Lebron, Alabama, SS

19.  CLE - Liam Peterson, Florida, RHP

20.  BOS - Jack Schaffner, UNC, RHP

21.  SD - Coleman Borthwick, HS, RHP

22.  DET - Cameron Flukey, Coastal Carolina, RHP

23.  CHC - Cade Townsend, Ole Miss, RHP

24.  SEA - Ace Reese, MS State, 3B

25.  MIL - Trey Ebel, HS, SS

26.  ATL - Carter Beck, Indiana State, OF

27.  NYM - Carson Wiggins, Arkansas, RHP

28.  HOU - Jack Radel, ND, RHP

29.  SF - Carson Bolemon, HS, LHP

30.  KC - Tyler Rabe, Ole Miss, RHP

31.  ARZ - Blake Bryant, HS, RHP

32.  STL - Tegan Kuhns, Tennessee, RHP

33.  TB - Taj Marchand, HS, SS

34.  CHW - Landon Thome, HS, SS

35.  NYY - Hunter Dietz, Arkansas, LHP

36.  PHI - Tyler Spangler, HS, SS

37.  COL - Daniel Jackson, Georgia, C

38.  COL - Logan Reddemann, UCLA, RHP

39.  TOR - Cole Carlon, ASU, LHP

40.  LAD - Bo Lowrance, HS, SS

venue - Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia

Tour 2026

Hello and welcome to 2026 and the 20th year of this blog!  I can't believe this hasn't been flagged by the internet gestapo yet and/or that Blogger.com still exists, but here I am.  This is always one of my favorite weeks of the entire year - football is mercifully over, spring training is right around the corner, and the announcement of our annual Tour trip to myself and the 5 other people that read this.  Erik and I decided it was appropriate for 2026 to celebrate America's pastime in the birthplace of our nation - Philadelphia - during the USA's Semiquincentennial year.  There are a lot of appalling things going on in our country right now that make it hard to be a citizen at times, but as Mark Twain famously said, "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it."  It would be stubborn and short-sighted to pass up this opportunity, and we'll be proud to be in Philly for America's 250th birthday.

I was originally hoping that we could journey to Philadelphia over Independence Day and also sneak in a World Cup match, but alas, Erik was not available that weekend.  We then quickly pivoted to the All-Star Game the following weekend, which Citizens Bank Park is appropriately hosting.  We plan to attend basically every event surrounding All-Star Week except for the ASG itself - MLB Amateur Draft, Futures Game, MLBx, All-Star Village, All-Star Workout Day, and the Homerun Derby.  Erik and I did technically go to the Futures Game together when it was in Minneapolis in 2014, but he had to work the rest of the festivities when he was employed by the Twins, so this will be a first of sorts for us.  We will also not be going to the hotbed region of baseball that is Eastern Pennsylvania without fitting in a minor league game or two, and we've got a few options for those.  Erik has been a trooper the last four years of our trips with torturous cross-country flights, so I'm sure he is quietly very excited about not having to wake up at dawn to fly 6 hours this year.  I am also happy about not needing a rental car this year, which is usually one of the biggest headaches of our travels.  As is always the case, this will be months of planning and anticipation for something that goes by in the blink of an eye, but I can't wait!

Whereas Tour Erik 2026 will be all about celebrating the United States, Tour Molly 2026 will be going international for the first time.  My goal is to drive Molly up to Thunder Bay, Ontario for our daddy-daughter trip this year.  I'll probably break up the trip with a stop in Duluth since Thunder Bay is 6 hours away, but we've got our passports ready and I am super excited for this trip as well.  I always cherish our special time together, especially as she gets older and gets more and more of her Dad's attitude with each passing day.

Aside from the two major trips, I've also got the usual Town Ball and local collegiate schedules to scour, as well as what I'm assuming will be a poorly attended embarrassment of a Twins home opener.  Pitchers & Catchers report in just 2 days, play ball!!

Tour 2023: Arizona Fall League Home Run Derby

All photos of AFL HR Derby at Sloan Park available on Flickr.

Our final game of our jam-packed Tour 2023 was the AFL Home Run Derby at Sloan Park in Mesa.  Sloan Park is the relatively new Spring Training home of the Chicago Cubs, located just west of their former home at Hohokam which is now inhabited by the Oakland A's (which I visited in 2019).  This park has also hosted the Mesa Solar Sox of the AFL since the park's inception in 2014, and on this particular weekend hosted the biggest events of the Fall League calendar - the homerun derby and the Fall Stars Game.  We were planning on attending both of these events when we originally planned this trip, but unfortunately the schedule changed after we booked our flights and the Fall Stars Game moved to Sunday, the day we both flew home.  Personally I enjoy derbies much more than the actual all-star games, so this was the event I was more excited about anyways.  The derby was jacked up to a whopping $20 for this special event and we headed straight towards the outfield berm in left field when we got inside.  Sloan Park is the largest park in the circuit at a 15,000 capacity, but I never would have guessed that since the overwhelming majority of people in attendance were in the outfield as we were.

We didn't get to see as much of Sloan Park as we would have liked since we made a bee-line directly to the outfield, but from the looks of it, it is following the trend of a lot of the Grapefruit League parks that look to mimic the shape and feel of their major league tenants - a "Wrigley Field West" of sorts.  It had similar dimensions with the same deep outfield corners as Wrigley, it had some "rooftop seating" in the outfield to mimic the rooftops on Waveland and Sheffield Streets in Chicago, the same green seats and green painted structure, and even a replica of the Wrigley Field marquee.  Had this park not been in the desert, I would have fully expected to see ivy on the walls as well.  I think given the fact that it was trying to recreate a smaller Wrigley Field, it made the park kind of ordinary and simplistic in its layout.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it made it less memorable than some of the other newer parks and made it not as nice as I was expecting.  This was the one park of the week where I think being there for an AFL game as opposed to a Spring Training game negatively skewed my opinion.  It was still a great place to watch the derby, and I felt just like I was in the bleachers at Wrigley on that giant berm that was packed with fans on this night.  Much like at the bleachers at Wrigley, there were a couple of idiots that had to be escorted out.  A couple of dudes wearing GoPros were jumping in front of children left and right to snag homeruns and had literal backpacks full of balls before security finally stepped in to remind them they were grown adults and asked them to leave.

The AFL Home Run Derby had a similar format to the format that has been adopted by MLB and many other leagues in recent years, namely that rounds are timed rather than based on a number of "outs."  I love this format, as it creates less down time and more home runs, which has certainly been a goal of baseball lately.  One slight nuance to the AFL rules that I also loved is that two finalists advance to a championship matchup based on a cumulative total of two rounds.  This means that you get to see every hitter at least twice, it avoids dragging out the event and tiring out hitters, and it also avoids the common occurrence of somebody putting up a monster first round total but still not advancing.  Kala'i Rosario of the Desert Dogs/Twins ended up winning on a very impressive effort.  He finished with 25 total homeruns as well as the longest homer of the night, estimated at 465 feet.  He really impressed us in Glendale on Thursday and we were excited to see him listed as a participant at the derby, and he did not disappoint.  Damiano "Chicken Parm" Pamelgiani was leading after the first two rounds with 17 homers, and 2nd place was a 4-way tie between Ivan Melendez, Kyle Manzardo, Jase Bowen, and the aforementioned Rosario.  This led to a one-minute swing-off for the 2nd and final spot in the championship round, which was won in a walk-off fashion by Rosario over Bowen with 10 seconds left on the clock.  Pamelgiani chose to hit 2nd in the final round, and that proved to be a mistake as he lost 6-5.  In addition to winning the Derby, the Hawaii native Rosario also finished the season tied for the league lead in homers with 7.  Wes Clarke of the Saguaros/Brewers also participated and mashed a paltry 6 total dingers in his two rounds, although he did manage to crush a hot dog during one of his timeouts.

Following our visit to Sloan Park, I have now officially completed the Cactus League/AFL Tour, which is the only league outside of MLB for which I have been to every ballpark.  With that being said, I would rank the parks in this order:

1. Camelback Ranch
2. Salt River Fields at Talking Stick
3. Surprise Stadium
4. Hohokam Stadium
5. American Family Fields of Phoenix
6. Sloan Park
7. Tempe Diablo Stadium
8. Goodyear Ballpark
9. Scottsdale Stadium
10. Peoria Sports Complex

I would highly recommend the Arizona Fall League to any rabid baseball fan and especially to anybody who enjoys going to the Cactus League.  If you love Spring Training, but you also want cool evening temperatures, smaller crowds, and something a little bit more affordable, then this is the league for you.  The two of us spent a grand total of $112 on 4 AFL games and probably $20 apiece per game in concessions, and we've definitely had trips where we spend that much on one person for just one game.  It was a long wait into the year for our Tour 2023 trip, but well worth it.  It was awesome that we got to extend the season by a few days, and it makes Tour 2024 already that much closer.

park rankings and statistics:

aesthetics - 8
views from park - 4
view to field - 7 (largest park in the league)
surrounding area - 3 (nothing in immediate vicinity but 5 minutes from downtown Mesa and Tempe)
food variety - 5
nachos - 5
beer - 4 (points deducted for no Old Style)
vendor price - 8
ticket price - 8
atmosphere - 9
walk to park - 3
parking price/proximity - 10 (adjacent lot for free)
concourses - 7
team shop - 3 (points deducted for very little generic AFL gear at the jewel event)

kids area - n/a

best food - Chicago Dog
most unique stadium feature - replica Wrigley Field marquee
best jumbotron feature - player stats

best between-inning feature - live music by the Chocolate Fountain Experience

field dimensions - 360/410/360

HOMERUN DERBY PARTICIPANTS: 

Kevin Alcantara, CHC/Mesa
Jase Bowen, PIT/Salt River
Wes Clarke, MIL/Surprise
Kyle Manzardo, CLE/Peoria

Ivan Melendez, ARI/Salt River

Damiano Palmegiani, TOR/Surprise

Gabriel Rincones Jr., PHI/Scottsdale

Kala'i Rosario, MIN/Glendale

winner - Kala'i Rosario
score – 6-5 final round, 25 total
stadium - Sloan Park

American Association All-Star Break

All photos of AA HR Derby available on Flickr.

This past week was the 11th installment of the American Association All-Star Game, and I attended the Home Run Derby portion at Franklin Field, home of the Milwaukee Milkmen.  A lot of baseball purists tend to shun the derby as frivolous entertainment and a publicity stunt, but I've long held the view that it is the most exciting part of any baseball league's all-star break.  A lot of fans tend to agree with me as the numbers bear out that these events draw way better, both in terms of attendance and television ratings, than the actual All-Star Game.  Many years in fact I will only watch the HR Derby and won't even watch the ASG.  I've attended all sorts of homerun derbies, from the 2014 MLB version at Target Field, to the Northwoods League Derby at Kenosha Harbor in 2016, and even an impromptu exhibition derby featuring Jose Canseco in Madison, and these were all some of my most vivid baseball memories outside of the Tour.  So I of course jumped at the opportunity to see a derby in my own city.  It was not a promising forecast for the evening when I approached the gate to find people buying walk-up tickets with ease, but I pressed on and met a group of my friends inside.

We had tickets in the first 3 row of a section in right field.  It was evident pretty soon after we sat down that about 90% of the fans would be sitting in the outfield, which was a super weird juxtaposition particularly in a smaller independent league ballpark.  The format was very similar to the MLB version of the derby, in which participants faced off against each other based off of seeding, rather than just taking the highest totals of the group.  It was also the same timed format as MLB - each batter got 2 minutes and could take one timeout per round.  When you remove the "bonus time" and all of the TV timeouts, it makes a big difference, because the entire 3 rounds with 8 batters took barely over an hour.  The hometown participant was Cam Balego of the Milkmen, but given where we were sitting, the only batter we really cared about were the two lefties - Conor Panas of the Lincoln Saltdogs, and Chris Herrmann of the Kansas City Monarchs.  The majority of their homeruns launched well over our heads and landed on the concourse and tents behind us, as there are only 3 rows of actual seats in right field.  But by the later rounds when the batters started getting more tired, our prospects of snagging a homerun grew - and I caught one!  On the fly!  I should probably remember which of those two men hit me the homerun, but sadly I don't.  I almost caught a second homerun as well - I leapt and it hit my glove, and fell down into the row behind me (which means that at least somebody in our party got the ball).  It was much more difficult to track the baseballs than I thought it would be.  For almost the entirety of the first round, the sun was setting directly into our faces, and also there were many times when multiple balls were in the air at the same time, as the pitcher does not wait for a ball to land before throwing the next pitch due to the timed format.  I'm sure most dads would probably give a ball they caught to a kid in the stands or to their own kid at home, but screw that - it is proudly sitting in a baseball display case at my house.

Zach Nehrir of the Cleburne Railroaders ended up taking home the hardware.  He put on quite an impressive display and his round totals actually grew as the event went on.  Most of the batters struggled to get into the double digits in the first round, but after that, I think the remaining participants knew not to worry about any strategy and just swung as hard as they could, as many times as possible.  Zach defeated the aforementioned Panas in the final round, so it was exciting that we got to see at least one lefty make it through to the end.

I had a blast at this event and I'm glad I went, especially with the impending move to Minnesota.  But I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with the fan turnout and the lack of energy in the ballpark.  The Milkmen consistently put out a great product - they won a championship in 2020 and also produced a back-to-back MVP in Adam Walker - but the few times I've been there, the general lack of atmosphere was a common theme.  I hope that the lack of attendance at this major event is not reflective of the fan support and appetite for baseball in suburban Milwaukee, because indy baseball is just the best, and Milwaukeeans should be very blessed to have multiple professional ball options in a market of our size.

HOMERUN DERBY PARTICIPANTS: 
East Division
Cam Balego, Milwaukee
Josh Altmann, Chicago
Zach Nehrir, Cleburne
Hill Alexander, Cleburne

West Division
Connor Panas, Lincoln
Chris Herrmann, Kansas City
Nick Anderson, Lincoln
Vince Fernandez, Sioux City

winner - Zach Nehrir
score – 16-14 final round, 43 total
stadium - Franklin Field

STANDINGS AND UPCOMING SERIES AS OF 7/23/23:

Brewers 55-44, +1.5; 3 v. Reds, 3 @ Braves, 3 @ Nationals, 4 v. Pirates

Twins 52-48, +2.0; 3 v. Mariners, 3 @ Royals, 3 @ Cardinals, 3 v. Diamondbacks

2023 GAMES ATTENDED:

Erik - 1

Peter - 13

Baseball Bucket List

(image courtesy of Baseball Bucket List)

Erik turned me on to a baseball podcast recently called "Baseball Bucket List," and I was recently a guest on the show!  My episode aired last Thursday 4/20 and is episode 095.  You can find it anywhere you get your podcasts but is also available at the link below:

https://baseballbucketlist.com/podcast/episode-095-peter-nagel/

It's probably not necessary to talk about this on the blog, since I'm guessing anyone who is bothering to read this blog probably ironically only knows about it because of the podcast, but I'll do so anyways, if for no other reason than to plug this fantastic podcast and website.  Simply put, Baseball Bucket List is basically like a Facebook for baseball fans. It serves as a repository for baseball fans to come together and document their travels, track their ballparks, share their "bucket lists" hence the name, share photos, and just generally to connect and engage in conversation.  A website of this quality has been long overdue in the ballpark chasing space, and I wish this existed years ago before I bothered with the clunky Google docs I have now.  A podcast component was added a couple of years ago, which is how I came to find out about the website.  Each week, the host Anna DiTommaso interviews a different fan and talks to them about their baseball journey, why they love the game, what some of their favorite baseball memories are, and what is left on their baseball bucket list.  Certainly there have been some semi-famous people on the show like Batting Stance Guy or the guy who invented Big League Chew just to name a couple, but by and large it is just regular fans, all of whom were nervous as hell to be on a national podcast for the first time just like me.  I literally applied to be on the show the day after Erik told me about it and I've been hooked ever since.  

It was so great to recall a bunch of stories from our road trips together, but I won't spoil any more here - please go to the link and check it out!

PS - I have found that the link has 404'd numerous times since it was posted on Thursday, but if that happens to you just check back later and it should work.