CLEVELAND — We are primed for it. Baseball.
The game at the highest level. But let me take you higher.
Cleveland is primed again for the MLB All-Star Game. Cleveland is in the on-deck circle for July 9, just as we did in ’97.
We are 100 days away. Who’s on calendar watch? The Cleveland Indians organization is keeping the count.
"The entire region will be celebrating the game of baseball through that July 5 through the 9th," said Curtis Danburg, director of communications.
So when company is a-comin’ by the tens of thousands to elbow through Cleveland’s door for baseball’s mid-summer classic, we set the table. A July national audience will eyeball us on television while others will shoe-leather into the Indians’ Progressive Field.
Yeah, man! We know how to throw a party!
"That's what we do better than anything," Danburg added.
But hold on there. The All-Star bash is deeper than baseball. A lot of Cleveland will put on its party face. You see, Cleveland earned this All-Star classic.
"MLB didn't throw a dart at the map," said David Gilbert, president of Destination Cleveland. "...We had to win it. And they had to choose us."
Dave Gilbert is like a proud host, welcoming visitors. Well, that’s what they do there. Especially when company comes a-callin’ with money burning holes in their pockets.
"Sixty-five million dollars in new money that will be spent by tens of thousands of people who will be coming from the outside," Gilbert said.
Regardless whether you have a ticket for the grandstand, you still will have the best seat in the house because the house really is Cleveland, All-Star City.
July will mark Cleveland's sixth hosting of a major league All-Star Game, the most of any city. Now that's baseball and big bucks. They go together like a game of pitch and catch. Well, that's that this story is really about. Cleveland made a good pitch and won a big catch.