The MLB All-Star Red Carpet Show will take place Independence Mall with free entry

MLB finally dropped the details on All-Star Week in Philadelphia and the headline is that the All-Star Red Carpet Show is happening at Independence Mall on July 14th. Free and open to the public. The best players in baseball walking a red carpet directly north of Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed, on national television before the 96th All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park.

The All-Star Game hasn’t been in Philadelphia since 2004 when the Bank first opened. Before that, the city hosted it in 1976 for the Bicentennial. Fifty years later, it’s back for America250.

The timing is perfect. The location is perfect. The red carpet at Independence Mall is the kind of move that only works in Philadelphia because no other host city has a setting like that. You want to roll out a red carpet for baseball’s biggest stars?

Do it in front of the building where the country was founded. Every other city would have to use a convention center or a hotel lobby. Philly gets Independence Hall.

The fact that it’s free is the best part. Home Run Derby tickets are a mortgage payment. All-Star Game seats cost more than most people’s rent. The league knows this and they’re giving fans a way to be part of the week without spending their life savings.

Show up at Independence Mall, claim a free ticket to the Fan Zone, and watch the All-Stars walk the carpet with their families in the most historic square mile in America. Details on how to get the free tickets will come before All-Star Week.

Need Bryce Harper & Kyle Schwarber in the HR Derby

Both of them need to do it. This isn’t optional. This isn’t a “let’s see how they feel about it” situation. Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber in the Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park during the All-Star Game in their home ballpark in the 250th anniversary year of the United States of America. If either one of them sits this out, I’m going to lose my mind.

Schwarber is leading the majors in home runs with 21 and is on pace for 60-plus. The man hits balls 450 feet on a regular basis. He crushed a 488-foot bomb at Petco during the 2022 NLCS. He has 10 career homers in 24 games at Petco Park alone.

Imagine what he does in the Home Run Derby at the Bank where he plays 81 games a year and knows every inch of the dimensions. Schwarber in the Derby at Citizens Bank Park is going to be a spectacle that sells the event by itself.

Harper doing the Derby at his home park in Philadelphia is a no-brainer. The man has been mashing all month with six homers in May. He won the Home Run Derby in 2018 at Nationals Park when he was 25 years old.

Obviously, Harper is one of the most electric personalities in the sport. The Philadelphia crowd would lose its mind for every swing. Harper in the Derby at the Bank during America250 is the content that MLB’s marketing department dreams about. Don’t overthink it. Just do it.

If either of them declines because they want to “rest” or “stay fresh for the second half,” I don’t want to hear it. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. The All-Star Game at your home ballpark during the 250th anniversary of the country. You don’t get this opportunity again. Show up, grab a bat, and put on a show for the city. Both of them.

MLB All-Star Game Philly – The Other Stuff

MLB is doing a “Summer Drive-In” on the Fourth of July at four drive-in theaters across the country including one in Vineland, New Jersey.

They’re screening “The Sandlot” followed by the hometown team’s game on the big screen. Watching The Sandlot at a drive-in on the Fourth of July and then watching baseball is the most American evening imaginable. If you’re in South Jersey with nothing to do on the Fourth, Vineland is calling.

Teams will have stars and stripes inside their jersey numbers on July 4th. Home Run Derby participants wear them too. Clean look. Not overdone.

MLB Together is doing a volunteer activation during All-Star Week to refurbish the Shane Victorino Boys and Girls Club facilities and ballfield in Philadelphia. Good cause, good Philly tie-in, and the Victorino connection makes it personal for the city.

The new “For the People” marketing campaign uses a previously unreleased mix of “American Girl” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, originally recorded on July 4th, 1976. Tom Petty and baseball and America250. That writes itself.

This Summer Is Going to Be Insane

World Cup at the Linc starting June 14th. Brazil, France, Croatia, and a Round of 16 knockout game on the Fourth of July. America250 celebrations all summer. The All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park with the red carpet show at Independence Mall. Free events for fans. Drive-in baseball in South Jersey. Over a million visitors expected in the region.

Philadelphia is the center of the universe this summer and the schedule of events keeps getting more stacked every week. If you live in this city and don’t take advantage of at least some of this, I don’t know what you’re doing with your life. This doesn’t happen again for 50 years. Get out there.