5 ways to enjoy All-Star fun outside the park
So you couldn't swing a ticket to baseball's All-Star Game (which is now officially sold out), don't care about the Futures Game, and your pals refuse to sneak you into the Imagine Dragons concert?
No worries. You don't need to know if it's Josh Donaldson or Donald Sutherland playing third base at Tuesday's All-Star Game to be part of the festivities.
There are plenty of ways to join the fun outside the park, starting Thursday and running through Tuesday when Target Field hosts Major League Baseball's mid-summer classic.
Some stuff will cost you. Some won't. Here are five ideas:
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Major League Baseball will host eight baseball teams and four softball teams of kids from around the country as part of its Jr. RBI Classic. The games will run at fields in St. Paul and Minneapolis starting Friday morning at Bill Peterson Field on Marshall Avenue in St. Paul. It's a kids' game, after all.
On Sunday, there's a 5K run featuring a bunch of MLB team mascots, including the Minnesota Twins' T.C. Bear. Get your picture taken with Billy the Marlin and the Mariners Moose, run a little, then hit the Slip 'n' Slide. Minnesota's Kat Perkins of the NBC television show "The Voice" will sing the National Anthem. Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and St. Paul's own Dave Winfield will be there, too. Cost is $55 per runner.
3. Go to the parade
A "red carpet" parade featuring the All-Star Game players will run from Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis onto Seventh Street, leading into Target Field before the All-Star Game on Tuesday. It starts at 1 p.m. It's free and open to the public.
4. Attend the block party
From Sunday through Tuesday, food and music will replace traffic on a stretch of 6th Street between Hennepin Avenue and 1st Avenue in Minneapolis, part of the "Chevy Experience Pepsi All Star Block Party."
Twins spokesman Kevin Smith calls the exhibition at the Minneapolis Convention Center "baseball heaven on earth ... autograph sessions with Hall of Famers; clinics; batting cages; all sorts of activities and interactive things that families can participate in." Tickets are $35 for adults.
MPR News reporter Brandt Williams contributed to this report.