CLEVELAND -- In just about any way you can measure it, Cleveland's hosting of MLB All-Star Week was a home run.
That much was made clear on Friday, when Major League Baseball released a slew of numbers related to the Midsummer Classic.
Perhaps the most impressive as far is Cleveland is concerned is that 149,513 fans attended MLB's Play Ball Park, which was set up in and around the Huntington Convention Center downtown. That makes this year's event the best attended of any MLB fan festival since St. Louis hosted the All-Star FanFest in 2009.
WKYC.com was set up with live streams with MLB former players, administrators and guests of honor at Play Ball Park throughout the weekend. Highlights included Carlos Baerga's plea for Francisco Lindor to stay in Cleveland, as well as free concerts performed by Twenty-One Pilots and The Killers.
Some of the other All-Star Game-related numbers released by MLB and the Indians on Friday included:
- 4,000 participants in the sold-out Color Run 5K event
- 24.1 million fans who watched all or part of the All-Star Game or the Home Run Derby
- 729,347 Home Run Derby brackets filled out on MLB.com
- 289,000 viewers for the All-Star Futures Game, marking the event's largest audience in seven years
- 62,000 new Instagram followers picked up by Toronto Blue Jays rookie third baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was the runner-up in the Home Run Derby
- 36 first-time All-Stars,marking the second-most in history trailing only 2013