Today, one miiiilion people are expected to line Sixth Avenue in New York City for the MLB All-Star Game parade. A red carpet has been laid out that covers 18 blocks of our fair city, and a who's who of All-Stars and hall-of-famers will stroll uptown towards Central Park with the afternoon's festivities culminating in the main event this evening in the Bronx.
I don't get it.
I mean, I work in PR/mktg, so I get the "tactic." It makes good sense for Major League Baseball. Hype up the last All-Star Game in historic Yankee stadium. Celebrate America's pasttime on the biggest, grandest media stage in the world. Trot out the legends to create excitement and "buzz." I get all that.
I guess what I don't get is why anybody, outside of the tourist or father with their kid, would go to the parade. Take me, for instance. I love baseball. Watch every night on TV, own season tickets, can't wait until October. I respect the greats of yesteryear and appreciate those moments where the young stars stand alongside those folk heroes they may have only read about, as well as the younger "legends" whom they grew up idolozing.
But is it that exciting to stand against a stansion and see Reggie Jackson walk on a carpet? Who are these people who are pushing their way past little kids to snap photos with their camera phones? Perhaps I'm the strange one in that seeing a "celebrity" has never really had the same impact on me as it seems to have on so many others. Get me in the lockerroom with my team after they've won the Super Bowl? That would be something. Put me in a bar with a few of my favorite Mets, similarly interesting. Watch players walk down the street and wave? Not so much.
In writing this, I'm realizing my bigger issue could very well be with parades in general. Outside of the Jets or Mets in front of City Hall, and sans any rugrats under my parental obligation, I don't have much motivation to ever attend one. Does that make me somehow un-American? Am I alone, here? What say you Legend faithful?
Sorry, I have to go set my DVR for the four-hour FOX pre-game show now
I don't get it.
I mean, I work in PR/mktg, so I get the "tactic." It makes good sense for Major League Baseball. Hype up the last All-Star Game in historic Yankee stadium. Celebrate America's pasttime on the biggest, grandest media stage in the world. Trot out the legends to create excitement and "buzz." I get all that.
I guess what I don't get is why anybody, outside of the tourist or father with their kid, would go to the parade. Take me, for instance. I love baseball. Watch every night on TV, own season tickets, can't wait until October. I respect the greats of yesteryear and appreciate those moments where the young stars stand alongside those folk heroes they may have only read about, as well as the younger "legends" whom they grew up idolozing.
But is it that exciting to stand against a stansion and see Reggie Jackson walk on a carpet? Who are these people who are pushing their way past little kids to snap photos with their camera phones? Perhaps I'm the strange one in that seeing a "celebrity" has never really had the same impact on me as it seems to have on so many others. Get me in the lockerroom with my team after they've won the Super Bowl? That would be something. Put me in a bar with a few of my favorite Mets, similarly interesting. Watch players walk down the street and wave? Not so much.
In writing this, I'm realizing my bigger issue could very well be with parades in general. Outside of the Jets or Mets in front of City Hall, and sans any rugrats under my parental obligation, I don't have much motivation to ever attend one. Does that make me somehow un-American? Am I alone, here? What say you Legend faithful?
Sorry, I have to go set my DVR for the four-hour FOX pre-game show now
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