Ad Disclosure
Five Minutes at Citizens Bank Park Summarized the Beautiful Game of Baseball
By Luke Arcaini
Published:
78 players were selected to this year’s MLB All-Star Game. Those 78 players have a total of 206 All-Star Game selections. Those guys have combined for countless MVPs, Silver Sluggers, Cy Young Awards, World Series trophies, and everything in between.
A commercial was shown in-between innings of the Midsummer Classic at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday night. It was a recreation of “The Sandlot,” one of the greatest baseball movies ever made.
The marquee scene shows kids riding bikes to their friends houses, telling everyone they’re meeting up at the baseball field in town, and going to play a night game while the Fourth of July fireworks light up the field. Ray Charles’ “America The Beautiful” plays while slow-motion baseball scenes flood your screen, with smiling kids remembering how much they love the game of baseball.
Major League Baseball recreated that scene on Tuesday night. And when the gates opened up in the right field corner of Citizens Bank Park, 10 kids came out on bikes, rode them across the field, and got to meet the guys they look up to.
In that moment, everybody remembered that baseball is a kids’ game. And the players gave those kids a moment they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.
“That was honestly one of my favorite parts of the game,” Brandon Marsh told us during Tuesday night’s game. “(The Sandlot) was my favorite baseball movie growing up. When I hear that song, it almost brings tears to my eyes. It takes me back to being five years old watching that movie.”
The kid that rode to Marsh was a Phillies fan. Most of the kids out on the field had Phillies jerseys on. Marsh said that he chatted with him for a few minutes. The conversation led to the child telling Marsh that his grandma is a huge fan. Marsh ended up taking the kid’s phone and recording a video for his grandmother.
Jacob Misiorowski is a young, extremely quick rising star across Major League Baseball. When the child biked to him, the first thing he was asked was to show the kid his pitching grips.
I asked Misiorowski if he voluntarily showed the child his pitching grips. He did not. That was the child’s first question. “He asked me to see them, so I showed him,” Misiorowski said. “That was a really, really cool moment.” Maybe he’ll take those grips back to the little league mound.
National League manager Dave Roberts has been involved in the game of baseball for a long time. He acknowledged postgame how difficult it is for players to make it to the big leagues. That moment, as Roberts said, gave those kids a memory that’ll last a lifetime.
“We were all one of those kids,” Roberts told me postgame. “Some of these kids might never get to step on a Major League field. For them to have that opportunity to have a conversation with an All-Star is something they might never have the chance to do again.”
The fireworks, the Ray Charles version of “America the Beautiful,” the lights going down, and all that took place during those five minutes was perfect. It was a jaw-dropping moment that was absolutely nailed by Major League Baseball.
It’s moments like those that should serve as a reminder to cherish baseball, and cherish sports as a whole.
“It makes you realize how special baseball is,” AL Manager John Schneider told me postgame. “It was a cool baseball moment for sure.”
Luke Arcaini covers the Phillies for Crossing Broad. The wave is the worst thing is sports. Follow him on Twitter @ArcainiLuke