The '15 MLB All-Star Game will be played at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park, and Reds COO Phil Castellini said that planning the event will "dominate his time the next 12 months," according to a front-page piece by Josh Pichler of the CINCINNATI ENQUIRER. Holding a successful event next year will "require a tightly coordinated effort among MLB, the Reds, and business and public leaders." Castellini, who arrived in Minneapolis on Saturday and has been to six of the last eight All-Star Games, has "largely focused on how the host cities executed events outside the stadium." He said, "My observation is when the All-Star Game is hosted by a smaller, Midwestern-sized type town, it is the thing happening. It's like when the World Choir Games were here. You couldn't go anywhere in Cincinnati and not know the World Choir Games was in town" (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 7/16). Castellini added, "We've been benchmarking All-Star games since 2006. We've usually sent about six people a year to the host cities. We've been keeping an eye on it but this year, the people that are here are actually participating and even working some of the events" (MLB.com, 7/16). Meanwhile, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig yesterday said that the Reds "will be allowed to include" Pete Rose in All-Star Game festivities, "even if it is on a limited basis." Selig said, "They know what they can do and they can't do. They've been very good about that. We haven't had that discussion." Castellini said, "We plan on using him wherever Major League Baseball is comfortable with, but we're certainly going to include him" (CINCINNATI.com, 7/15).
SOUR ON THE APPLE: Selig yesterday said that the All-Star Game is "nowhere close to returning" to N.Y. He said, "I've got too many people ahead of them." In N.Y., Ken Davidoff notes MLB "took care of the Yankees" in '08 by holding the All-Star Game in the final season of the old Yankee Stadium, and the game returned to N.Y. last year, when the Mets hosted the event. The game has not been awarded beyond next year, but there are four NL venues outside of GABP that are "new and have yet to hold the All-Star Game" -- Nationals Park, Petco Park, Marlins Park and Citizens Bank Park. Furthermore, the Dodgers "haven’t hosted the game" since '80 and have "made dramatic improvements to Dodger Stadium in the past few years" (N.Y. POST, 7/16). Also in N.Y., Pat Borzi notes among AL teams, the Orioles have applied for the '16 game, which would "be its first" since '93, the second year that Camden Yards was open. MLB is "unlikely to award the game" to either the A's or Rays "because of concerns over those stadiums." However, potential candidates include the Blue Jays, who last hosted it in '91, Rangers ('95) or Indians ('97) (N.Y. TIMES, 7/16).
