MLB All-Star 2011 Fan Fest Review

The MLB All-Star Fan Fest at the Phoenix Convention Center is really a great family fun event. It is very interactive with games and contests surrounding all things baseball: hitting, throwing, running the bases, you name it, they do at this event.

Now if you are into baseball like me, you will find plenty to keep your attention from autograph signing to baseball memorabilia, to the MLB Hall of Fame exhibit. I mean really, where are you going to see Babe Ruth's jersey and an autographed ball signed by him?

Two of the more interesting exhibits for me where Rawlings was showing people how they stitch and get the baseballs ready for MLB. All these baseballs are hand stitched in Costa Rica. In all, Rawlings produces 15,000, one dozen boxes of baseballs for one major league season. We were also told the average life for a baseball in the major leagues is six pitches.

Another cool exhibit was a place where they made exact replica's of vintage baseballs, gloves and uniforms. Makes sense. If you are going to have Civil War Battle re-creations, I can see where folk would want to create an early 1900's vintage baseball team. In the 1850's through 1880's baseballs were softer and padded because early baseball players did not wear gloves. With the invention of the glove came the hard baseball. This company, www.baseballamericaspastime.com makes an exact duplicate of Babe Ruth's glove (among others). It sure makes you wonder how they ever caught anything with a glove that size.

Now, as you can imagine, when it comes to events of this type buying an actual All-Star shirt or hat or anything "All-Star" is going to be expensive. Baseball hats started at $26 with the cheapest T-shirt was $22. I bought perhaps the cheapest thing there, a Minnesota Twins Lanyard for $5. Tickets into this event are a bit pricey at $30 each but I'm told you can go onto www.stubhub.com and get them for a lot less. Now the family pack it not too bad, you can get four tickets for $90.

All in all, this was a fun event. If you love major league baseball you will find something to like and your kids will love all the fun and games. Now, if you aren't a big fan of baseball and don't have any little kids to take, you might be better off staying at home because you'll probably find this all to be pretty boring.