I heard about the parade on the morning of the All Star Game. It was to start at Pier 31 and traverse a red carpet on the Embarcadero to the Willie Mays Statue at the main entrance to AT&T Park. How on earth could I resist?
I got a prime spot on the rail near the Second Street entrance to the ballpark. I had a good view toward Pier 31,
as well as down the front of the ballpark.
A local TV reporter interviewed one of the many mascots on hand for the occasion… this is the Indians whozis.
Mr. Met was on hand…
as well as Billy Marlin and Ricky Royal.
Tony LaRussa led his National League team on the carpet…
followed by Jake Peavy, his starting pitcher,
Albert Pujols, who didn’t get in the game, as it turned out…
and Carlos Beltran of the Mets, who did play…
and Ken Griffey Jr, who’s having a great year and had a good game.
Then there was our guy, Barry.
This brought out the Giant’s Lou Seal…
who grabbed me and gave me a kiss, for God’s sake, before moving on down the line.
Jim Leyland preceded his soon to be victorious American Leaguers,
follow by his starting pitcher, the Oakland A’s Dan Haren.
Derek Jeter led the hitters, followed,
as usual, by A-Rod.
Vlad Guerrero won the Home Run Derby, big time…
while Ichiro was the unquestioned most valuable player of the game.
Big Papi was one of the Red Sox Nation participating in the parade (where was Manny?).
And here, we have C. C. Sabathia with his lovely wife, whose two children will be attending Carol’s preschool next semester. After their interview at the AS Children’s Center, Carol asked me, “Have you heard of someone named C. C. Sabathia?”
And bringing up the rear, your next Hall of Famers, Cal and Tony.
As the trucks passed by, the All Stars each had a bag of booty to toss to the cheering fans. This was what I was able to snag. Great fun.
There were a lot more guys and I took a lot more pictures, but these represent what I would call “real All Stars.” Many of the players just sat on their stools with a look on their face that said, “When will this be over?”
RectorSite 
I was baffled by the choice of Dan Haren as starting pitcher for the AL when Sebathia and Beckett both had WAY better records (hometown boy be damned); it was fitting that Beckett got the win, however.
[BTW: Barry got the “fan” vote courtesy of a Bay Area programmer who admitted to creating a way so that people could vote thousands of times (actually an unlimited number of times) for Barry…you might say, he “juiced” the vote…]
Thanks for this glimpse of the festivities — you’re montage makes it feel almost like I was there — but that’s a big ass red carpet. Where do you rent one of those things?? And what’s up with the FlexFuel pick-ups?; since SF was hosting, those vehicles should have been Priuses!
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In case you couldn’t tell, Chevy sponsored the parade. And Chevy says, “Flexible Fueled Vehicles. Flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs) are specially designed to run on gasoline or any blend of up to 85% ethanol (E85).”
As for the carpet, it was declared biodegradable. It’ll probably be used again somewhere (for a convention floor?) before it meets its demise. Sure was pretty.
Dan Haren has an ERA of 2.3 and WHIP of 1.0, CC is 3.58 and 1.17, Beckett is 3.44 and 1.14. No hometown faves here.
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Dan Haren may have nice geek numbers, but in the words of a real sports legend in Oakland: “Just win, baby!”
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