Each Friday, Inquirer photo editors pick the best sports images from the last seven days. And this week, there’s no question what the biggest show in town was: the MLB All-Star festivities. After a month of World Cup soccer dominating the Philly sports scene, it was time for baseball to take over. Here’s what our photographers saw …
One of the keenest pieces of life advice is to never meet your heroes.
Also, never trade for them when they are 34 years old and have $150 million remaining on their contract.
It’s as simple as that, a big part of me thinks.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a part of Mike Trout thinks it, too.
It would certainly explain the vague but consistent discomfort that the Angels superstar projected throughout his All-Star weekend at Citizens Bank Park. From the obligatory arrival-day media free-for-all to a small postgame scrum that included some folks who’d covered him since high school, Trout politely but steadfastly declined to don the homecoming crown.
“It’s been great,” the Millville native said after Tuesday night’s All-Star Game. “Being out there with the guys, seeing my family, friends, it was a special night, special couple days.”
A questioner wanted to know where it ranked. He’d played at Citizens Bank Park in high school, after all. He routinely attends Eagles games across the street. He was applauded wildly during pregame introductions.
“It’s up there,” was all Trout would allow.
Philly loves nothing more than when someone loves it back. Trout surely knows this. Yet his responses were the ones you’d expect if somebody had asked if he enjoyed the meal.
Virtually every year since Trout’s MVP runner-up rookie season, the idea of him in a Phillies uniform has surfaced like a white whale. From the trade-deadline fan fiction to the free-agent fantasy, nobody ever bothered to consider a fundamental question.
Would Trout actually want to play here?
In a lot of ways, Millville is as far away from the insanity of Philadelphia as Anaheim itself is. Trout has seen that insanity close enough at Lincoln Financial Field. Surely, he can imagine all that would await him and his family were he suddenly to become the potential savior of the Phillies.
“I hear this a lot,” Trout told reporters on Monday before the Home Run Derby. “I enjoy coming to Philly. I’m an Angel, obviously. I got a no-trade clause, so it’s ultimately my decision. But, like I said, I love Philly.”
Even if Trout wants to be here, which he has given no indication he does …
Even if the Angels are willing to accommodate it on the Phillies’ terms, which they have given no indication they do …
Even if the Phillies would dramatically increase their World Series odds by adding Trout’s stout right-handed bat to a lineup that leans further left than the DSA. Which is debatable at best …
Even if all that is true — which, again, it very likely isn’t — the Phillies would need to think long and hard about whether such a move makes sense for them.
The rest of us would need to ask ourselves if we really want to see it.
Instead of focusing on the fairy-tale beginning, let’s start with how the thing is most likely to end. That is, poorly. Very, very poorly.
Frankly, the strongest argument for Trout in a Phillies uniform is that the world as we know it may have ceased to exist by the time his contract is off the books in 2030. You only die once, right? Might as well have lived.
Other than that, let’s make sure we think about the likely reality of 2030.
Think about how Trout’s last days, maybe years, in a Phillies uniform would likely look. Think about how the Phillies would likely look as a whole.
Trout is one of the greatest athletes to ever play baseball. He is unquestionably the greatest to do it while holding Eagles season tickets (sorry, Kevin Mench). But Trout’s civic legacy has greatly benefited from the insulation of 2,700 miles. The injuries, the missed postseasons, the diminished production. Thus far, they’ve been the burden of Angels fans, whoever they are.
There will be no insulation when he is 38 years old and being paid $37 million to limp into the last year of his contract alongside a 37-year-old Bryce Harper and a 37-year-old Kyle Schwarber and a 37-year-old Aaron Nola and a 37-year-old Trea Turner and a Phillies team that needs to get its development house in order to be anything other than a soul-sucking disappointment when the year of our lord 2030 arrives.
Sure, maybe this time will be different. But there are very few scenarios where Trout in a Phillies uniform is sensible for the organization and something other than cringeworthy to watch at the end.
From the Phillies’ perspective, the depreciation calculus would be complex enough to jeopardize a deal even if both sides were open to one. Health is a significant variable. That’s true for most 34-year-old players. It is especially true for Trout, who has played 85+ games just twice in his previous six seasons and hasn’t played more than 140 since 2016, when he was 24. He is barely a week removed from returning from a hamstring strain that sidelined him for three weeks. He missed a month last season after reinjuring a knee that had previously cost him most of 2024. The 2021-23 seasons saw him deal with a calf strain, a back injury, and a fractured hamate bone. The actuarial work will require more than a cocktail napkin just to calculate Trout’s likely availability from now through October. Even more complicated is figuring out how to price the risk/reward of the rest of Trout’s contract, which will pay him about $150 million through 2030, when he will be 38 years old.
That would be true even if the short-term payoff were as decisive as many envision. It isn’t. Trout’s production has cooled off considerably since a sizzling start. He had a .739 OPS with a .326 OBP in his last 20 games before the All-Star break and a .750 OPS with a .349 OBP in his last 42. Those numbers are better than they may sound, particularly compared with what the Phillies’ overall numbers have been in the outfield alongside Brandon Marsh. But they are far from vintage Trout, which is what he was in his first 36 games, reaching base at a .436 clip with a 1.000 OPS and 11 home runs in 126 at-bats.
In the meantime, the Phillies are dealing with the reality that they have exactly one proven late-innings bullpen arm. Their trade deadline focus crystallized on Thursday with the news that setup man Brad Keller will miss the rest of the season — and presumably 2027 — with a torn UCL.
It’s pretty easy to envision how October will end if the Phillies sink resources into Trout instead of allocating them for the bullpen.
Nobody should want to see it.
When 10-year-old Ryan MacLuckie found out he’d been picked to be part of the tribute to the 1993 film The Sandlot at Tuesday’s MLB All-Star Game, he had one thought.
“‘I hope I get to be Benny,’” his father, also named Ryan MacLuckie, recalled. “When they gave him his wardrobe the first day we were filming, he got the Tug McGraw jersey, and it was open, and he had his hat on, and he said he felt just like Benny.”
The 11 kids at the center of one of the All-Star Game’s most touching and striking moments were all local baseball and softball players that the league found through the Phillies’ RBI baseball and softball leagues.
They rode their bikes onto the field, and spent about three minutes each with a big leaguer, as fireworks fired off in the background, reminiscent of the famous 4th of July scene in The Sandlot.
Driving down the Shore every summer, the younger MacLuckie would always point out Millville — “That’s where Mike Trout lives!” — so getting to talk to the local baseball hero was a dream come true. He brought his Little League bat for Trout to sign, but nearly forgot to take his marker onto the field. Leading up to the tribute, his father ran around the stadium in hopes of getting the marker in his hands.
“[Trout] was super nice,” MacLuckie said. “I asked him for help with my batting stance. He told me to move my feet more out, so I could hit.”
“He’s smiling so big right now, he can barely talk,” MacLuckie’s father said.
He’s not the only one who received advice from a big leaguer. Eleven-year-old Damien Davis plays catcher, and he got to talk to Brewers ace Jacob Misiorowski about how he grips his pitches and generates his power.
Thirteen-year-old Joseph Lund from Port Richmond was lucky enough to get paired with a Phillies player, Brandon Marsh, who said after Tuesday’s game that he “couldn’t stop crying” during the tribute.
“We were talking about how that’s his favorite movie, and how Ray Charles always makes him emotional in that song, and then I was telling him about how my grandmother is a really big fan of his, and I got to take a video of me and him saying hi,” Lund said. “I asked him to sign my cap, and he said ‘Dude, you don’t need to ask. Anything you want, I got you.’”
Charlie Fontanez was the rare kid on the field who had actually never seen The Sandlot until recently. When his baseball coach called to ask if the 14-year-old would have interest in appearing in an All-Star commercial tribute to the movie, he finally sat down to watch.
Predictably, he loved it, especially the famous 4th of July scene recreated for the spot.
Fontanez was at the pitcher’s mound with Dodgers star Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The two of them took a selfie, and then talked about pitching. Yamamoto admitted he’d been “a little nervous” in the World Series.
“[Charlie] was super excited,” his aunt, Sandra Fontanez, said. “He was talking about it for hours after. Literally, we probably went to bed at two in the morning because he was just telling me how everything went.”
Noah Postell, a 14-year-old from West Philly, paired up with Freddie Freeman, who asked if he wanted to have a catch. Postell, who is a middle infielder and hopes to play at Cardinal O’Hara next year, said his only regret was that he didn’t keep the ball they were throwing around as a souvenir.
“That’s where the parent in me comes in, like I wish I was able to tell my son what to do, you know?” Postell’s father, Gregory, joked. “The ball that he was playing catch with, I wish he would have kept that ball and had Freddie sign that ball. … Maybe one day we can connect with Freddie Freeman and get a ball, but it was just an amazing opportunity.”
Sophia Wright, a 13-year-old softball player from Roxborough, got paired with Bryce Harper. She was so immersed in the experience and starstruck by Harper that the marker she’d stashed in her pocket also went unused.
“There’s tons of pictures out there, at least,” Wright said.
Fontanez said that the commercial director told her the league initially thought to hire actors for the spot, to make it an easy shoot. But the director insisted on finding players from the area, which made the moment truly magical.
“They’re baseball players,” Fontanez said. “Who better than them to be able to play a role like this?”
Independence Mall was completely transformed for MLB’s 2026 All-Star red carpet. A crowd of fans filled the center, lining the zigzag path as they watched the league’s best players arrive in style ahead of Tuesday night’s All-Star Game. And as each player passed, two brothers could be heard through it all.
Evan, 33, and Brent Folan, 35, made the trip from Puerto Rico, where they’ve been living the past two years, to attend this year’s All-Star Weekend. The trip marked the fourth All-Star Weekend the Folans attended as part of their annual brothers’ trip, a tradition that began after Evan’s near-death experience in 2019.
With Independence Hall right behind them, the Texas natives were appropriately dressed for this year’s stop in Philadelphia. They called their outfits “the freedom look,” which consisted of the American flag overalls they’ve worn to almost every sporting event they’ve attended.
The Folans even caught the attention of a certain green, furry creature with similar fashion sense.
The Folan brothers said they wanted to “spread positivity” throughout the afternoon, and did so by cheering for anyone who walked the red carpet, whether it was the players, mascots, ball girls, or staffers.
“This event is so much fun,” Brent said. “Baseball fans from all over the country, even the world, are here. So, just love each other. It’s amazing. It unites us all and everybody deserves to be celebrated.”
The Folans’ goal is to “bring happiness” wherever they go. It’s a life lesson they learned in 2019 when Evan needed to be revived after a car crash in which he suffered a severe traumatic brain injury, leaving him with short term memory loss.
“We’re just best friends, we love each other and we want to spend as much time as we can together,” Evan said. “I have really bad short term memory. … I’m not going to remember this tomorrow. So I’m just living in the moment with my brother, just enjoying life because it was taken away from me momentarily.”
Evan now has a book titled Forgetting to Remember, which shares the story of rebuilding his life following the accident. He also started the clothing brand Toro and Tides to support and raise awareness for those suffering brain injuries.
After a tire flew through his window, Evan was in a coma for two days, suffered a broken neck, a fractured skull, and significant brain bleeding. He was told that his memory would continue to decline and he’ll more than likely develop dementia.
But since the incident, Evan and Brent have traveled across the globe to different sporting events. And this year has been busier than ever — they’ve flown to Milan and Cortina for the Winter Olympics, attended the World Baseball Classic in Puerto Rico, and hit four cities in their World Cup tour.
“I mean, it’s a different life that he’s living now, but it’s something we grew up on,” Brent said. “We love each other, we’re best friends, and it’s going to keep us connected no matter what happens. So we’re going to do it every year that we can.”
During the red carpet, the Folans caught the attention of 33 players, getting signatures from players like Juan Soto. They also got Yoshinobu Yamamoto, after chanting the Japanese phrase san kudasai, a plea for an autograph which they learned from a Japanese cameraman before the red carpet began.
During last year’s Home Run Derby in Atlanta, Evan caught a home run from Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Oneil Cruz in the semifinals, which happened to be a rare bonus ball hit. That luck continued this year when Brent caught a signed home run ball from Philly’s own Kyle Schwarber.
“This is amazing,” Brent said. “All-Star Weekend, this is the closest you’ll get to the players, like the actual All-Stars. The All-Star Village is cool but these are the guys you’re going to be seeing playing in the Home Run Derby, playing in the All-Star Game. You’re literally a foot from them. So, getting to talk to them, seeing they’re human, getting a laugh out of them, it’s been amazing.”
After a successful weekend — catching Schwarbombs, getting nearly three dozen red-carpet signatures, and most importantly, spending quality time with one another — the Folans have a piece of advice for everyone willing to listen.
“Just keep living, baby. Live life,” Brent said. “You never know what’s going to happen so just do what makes you happy.
Evan added: “Spread positivity and bring happiness.”
In 1976, when the All-Star Game came to Veterans Stadium, the Yankees’ Catfish Hunter and Thurman Munson did a midgame interview about a historic collective bargaining agreement that was ratified the night before.
Now that was a celebration of baseball.
Fifty years on, this wasn’t so bad either. MLB pulled out all the stops — and tugged on a few heartstrings, too — Tuesday night, from Miles Teller’s pregame ode about the sport’s impact on a 250-year-old country to the fifth-inning recreation of The Sandlot, including Ray Charles’ rendition of “America The Beautiful,” with All-Stars and children watching fireworks together on the field like it was some magical backyard.
Go ahead and admit it: It got you.
“Oh, yeah, that was honestly one of my favorite parts of the game just because that was my favorite baseball movie growing up,” said Brandon Marsh, the Phillies’ first-time All-Star. “When I hear that song, it almost just brings tears to my eyes because it takes me back to being 5 years old.”
That was the point. And on that count, bravo, baseball.
All of which makes what will happen in less than five months so much more galling.
Because the owners and players agree on one thing — and one thing only: Baseball is thriving. Commissioner Rob Manfred and interim players’ union chief Bruce Meyer have the attendance figures and television ratings to prove it.
Yet when the collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1 without a new deal — the sides can’t even agree on an economic framework within which to work — the owners almost surely will lock out the players, inciting a work stoppage that threatens to shutter the sport not only during a long, cold winter but also for part or even all of the 2027 season.
Talk about hitting the self-destruct button. Or pulling the pin out of the grenade. Pick your metaphor. They all apply.
And if you didn’t already think baseball was headed to such a dark place, well, you should’ve been in the hotel ballroom where Meyer and Manfred met separately with members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America hours before the American League scored three first-inning runs against the Phillies’ Cristopher Sánchez in a 4-0 victory over the National League.
Start here: Meyer rejected MLB’s proposal to institute a salary cap, forever a third-rail issue for the players, on the union’s contention that baseball isn’t suffering from competitive imbalance as much as a subset of owners that aren’t trying to actually win. The players, then, are proposing changes to how revenue is shared between the teams.
“Teams in every market across the league can afford to compete; many of them are choosing not to,” Meyer said. “From our standpoint, that’s the biggest problem in the game right now.”
But the owners are “more united than any group in my entire time in baseball” in the pursuit of a salary cap, according to Manfred, who said they were influenced by internal polling of fans. (Here’s a secret: It’s really more about the owners wanting to control costs and raise their franchise values.)
And the players? Although it remains to be seen whether the union can hold — rank-and-file players with lower salaries might have different interests than superstars — the biggest names in the sport are steadfast in their refusal to accept a cap.
It goes back generations, in fact, to Philly’s 1976 All-Star Game, where the players won the right to become free agents after accruing six years of major league service. They played without a CBA for the first half, the sides trusting they would work something out.
“None of us talked about that stuff,” Larry Bowa said. “I hear it now [from players]. You hear a lot of talk about if there’s going to be a lockout. I do know that when we had these talks, [owners] always wanted a cap, and that was one thing that was embedded in our brains: ‘Don’t go for a cap. It’s not going to work.’”
And now?
“I think the opportunity for players to get paid is what this is all about,” Bryce Harper said. “That’s why we have no cap and what we’ve done for so long, starting with Curt Flood. He started everything. So, we owe it to the guys that have come before us to do the same thing and all the young guys that are going to go through it, as well.”
Said Mike Trout: “I think [a cap] is bad for the game. The game’s in a great spot right now, you know? I just don’t support that.”
With five months before the CBA expires, this is a time for rhetoric more than serious negotiation. But Meyer blasted MLB for its advertising campaign on MLB.TV — “Level the Playing Field” — to drum up public support.
“The supposed stewards of the game have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to convince fans that they shouldn’t have hope, or that the product they’re paying to consume in record numbers is somehow broken,” Meyer said. “I think it’s perverse.”
Manfred pointed out that a small-market team hasn’t won the World Series since the Royals in 2015. Meyer noted that the Brewers and Rays are leading their divisions at the All-Star break, with Milwaukee bound for its eighth playoff appearance in nine years, including four in a row.
“It gives Bruce talking points,” Manfred said. “But from our perspective, the more important issue is, what’s the aggregate data over time? Our view of the world is that over a very long period of time, there’s a very strong relationship between [payroll] and who gets into playoffs.”
It’s ugly. And it will only get uglier.
Five years ago, baseball went through a 99-day lockout before reaching a deal in mid-March and shoehorning a 162-game season into a compressed schedule. Back then, though, the owners and players settled their differences within the existing non-cap system.
Now, they can’t even agree on an economic structure. It’s as if the owners are speaking French and the players German.
“A salary cap is the ultimate excuse for an owner to say, ‘Gee, I would like to make the team better, but you know, I can’t,’” Meyer said. “Salary caps are bad for fans.”
Said Manfred: “I think the number from top to bottom in our sport, in terms of payroll, the gap is $441 million. It defies human experience to ask a fan to think that the bottom end of that gap has the same opportunity to win as the top end.”
And ‘round and ‘round they went.
Hours later, after that reenactment of The Sandlot, Marsh detailed the conversation with the boy who watched the fireworks with him in right field.
“We were talking about how his grandma is a huge fan of the Phillies,” Marsh said, “and how she was a huge fan of me personally.”
Then, Marsh asked the boy to take out his phone.
“Yeah, we sent her a video,” he said, “and hopefully made her night.”
Imagine shutting all of that down.
Now that’s perverse.
Every time Sonja Marsh is at a major league baseball game to watch her son, or an international track meet to watch her daughter, she brings a small, gray urn with butterflies on the side.
It contains the ashes of her late husband, Jake, who died of cancer in April of 2021. There are countless ways the family has kept his memory alive. Brandon Marsh and his sister, Erin, each have a tattoo on their arm that says “believe,” a favorite mantra of their father’s.
They wear rubber bracelets bearing his name, and always seem to find signs that their father is with them. Butterflies are a big one. The Phillies outfielder said he’s seen “millions” of the winged creatures since his father passed.
Another example came in May of 2024, when a black T-shirt was unexpectedly delivered to Marsh’s locker in Miami. On the front was the logo of Jake’s favorite band: Guns N’ Roses.
So, it was only fitting that in Marsh’s first-ever All-Star appearance on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park, he and his family found a way to include their loved one. Not long after the All-Star roster was announced on July 4, Sonja began designing a logo for her son’s cleats.
On the left side, was a family crest, split into four initials: “J.M., S.M., B.M., E.M.” On the right, a Bible verse, Deuteronomy 31:6: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
She sent the design to Marsh’s agent, Eric McQueen, who put it on some bright red cleats. The outfielder received them on Tuesday morning, as a surprise before the All-Star Game.
“I wanted to make sure Jake was on them,” Sonja said. “Because I just think his dad would be so proud to be here. And he is 90% of the reason [Brandon] is where he is.”
Marsh’s ascension from platoon outfielder to everyday player has been well-documented. In April of 2025, he went hitless through 29 at-bats before landing on the injured list.
Now, 15 months later, the 28-year-old is among the best players in the league, leading his team in batting average (.301) and hits (102). Those struggles have made his All-Star berth all the sweeter. Sonja said she’s noticed a change in her son’s energy.
“Whenever I call him now, it’s not, ‘Hey Mom, I’ve only got five minutes. Walking into the training room, what you need?’” she said. “It’s, ‘So, Mom, can you believe such and such? Hey, did you see so and so?’ Conversationally, it’s gotten better.”
She said he was struggling with stress more than anything else; about performing, about his role. When Jake was alive, he was his children’s biggest cheerleader, knowing the right words to say in a moment of self-doubt.
This is not Sonja’s strong suit — “I’m not as good at that,” she said — which made those brief phone calls especially challenging. But bit by bit, Marsh worked his way out of it, en route to his best season to date.
He is so locked in that he wouldn’t even discuss the All-Star Game with his family — even after he’d made the team.
“I called him, to say congratulations,” Sonja said, “and he’s like, ‘Mom, thank you for calling, can we talk about this on Sunday? Because I still have six more games to win.’”
Added Erin: “Brandon would not talk about the All-Star Game. He was like, ‘I don’t want to jinx it.’”
It’s hard to overstate how proud his family is. On Tuesday night, Sonja watched from Section 120 with a large button of her son’s face on her cap (a clean-shaven Marsh, age 9, glowering at the camera).
Erin, a professional heptathlete, was also able to make it to Philadelphia, finding a pocket of time between competitions. They watched the game with family and friends, remarking on how far Brandon has come.
But Jake Marsh was there, too; in the urn by Sonja’s side, the bracelets on Brandon’s wrist, and of course, the bright red cleats on his feet.
“I know he was watching tonight,” Brandon said, “and he had the best seat in the house.”
Whenever somebody asks me to name my favorite ballparks, I spend most of my time trying to talk myself out of the most boring possible answer.
Sure, Dodger Stadium is a personal favorite. There’s something about the way a SoCal dusk blends with Dodger Blue and the peaceful rise of the San Gabriel Mountains in the distance beyond center field.
And, yeah, you won’t find a more distinctive setting than Oracle Park in San Francisco, where Mission Bay laps against the outfield walls and the lack of a second deck gives you the sense that you are watching a baseball game on a barge. The counterintuitive microclimate only adds to the surreal vibe. Half the winter coats I own were purchased in July in San Francisco.
I can name a half dozen other stadiums that are worth a special trip. Each is unique in its own way. Yet they all have one thing in common. They aren’t Citizens Bank Park.
I don’t know if the whole world saw it on Tuesday night. But anybody who attended sure did. The 68 players. The two coaching staffs. The nearly 50,000 fans who packed the rows and the aisles and seemingly every square inch of concourse.
“Philly was awesome,” said Blue Jays infielder Ernie Clement. “What a great sports city.”
On a competitive level, South Philly’s first All-Star Game in 30 years was a ho-hum affair. The American League scored three first-inning runs off Phillies lefty Cristopher Sánchez and then engaged in an eight-inning sprint for the exit. The two sides finished with 10 hits, only one for extra bases. Kyle Schwarber, Brandon Marsh and Bryce Harper combined to go 0-for-6.
On every other level, it was a triumph.
It was a triumph for the city, whose splendid skyline first gleamed and then glowed in the summer haze. It was a triumph for the Phillies organization, in particular a grounds crew and game day operations staff that has long powered one of the sport’s best extracurricular environments. Most of all, it was a triumph for the setting and its people: for a ballpark that doesn’t get the respect it deserves as one of the sport’s Crown Jewels, and for a fan base that consistently shows that a household is only as strong as its inhabitants.
For years, it seemed like a glaring oversight that 22 ballparks would host an All-Star Game before Citizens Bank Park got its turn. As it turned out, the wait was more of a feature than a bug. The bright lights and national television cameras only served to accentuate the glow of a ballpark that somehow looks even better than it did when it opened in 2004. Similar to the red brick rowhouses in the city proper, the outfield’s masonry facades have an age-defying property, especially when contrasted with the industrial steel and wide-open concrete of the concourses and seating decks. You won’t find a stadium or arena in any sport that has aged as gracefully as the house that David Montgomery (and others) built.
Earlier this spring, with the Eagles beginning their due diligence on a potential replacement for Lincoln Financial Field, Phillies owner John Middleton said he sees no reason why Citizens Bank Park shouldn’t last another 100 years.
Tuesday night was a triumph for him, then, too.
Of course, Middleton would be the first one to tell you that the people make the place. So it was on All-Star Weekend. The real star of the show on Monday and Tuesday night was the home crowd, whose caustic electricity provided a much-needed edge for an over-corporatized event that most years feels emptier than a bowl of sugar cereal.
You saw it in the smiles that appeared on the faces of players as the crowd booed its lengthy list of civic enemies. From Yankees starting pitcher Cam Schlittler to Mets outfielder Juan Soto to anybody in a Braves or Red Sox jersey, those targeted grinned and waved in appreciation. By the end of the proceedings, it felt like an insult to be ignored.
“Like they always say,” said Soto, “if they boo you, then you’re doing things right.”
The heckling was mostly good-natured, save for an appearance by Mr. and Mrs. Met.
This was a celebration first and foremost. The event’s organizers and executors were aided by a number of ready-made story lines. They included the All-Star debut of Catholic League standout Kevin McGonigle and the homecoming of Mike Trout in his career’s twilight, in addition to Sánchez on the mound and Schwarber and Marsh in the starting lineup. But MLB also did its part. With a devastating labor stoppage potentially looming in a sport that increasingly feels anachronistic in the swirl of a country’s division and distraction, baseball managed to summon a lot of its friendlier ghosts on Tuesday night.
The climactic moment was curiously timed and even more curiously powerful. In the fifth inning, with the stadium lights dimming and Ray Charles’ famous playing on the oversized videoboard in left field, Citizens Bank Park erupted with a fireworks display complete with players holding sparklers and Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman playing catch with one of the local kids who rode their bikes onto the field as part of the program.
“Like I’ve been saying the last two days, since I came up with the Braves, this is my favorite place to play,” Freeman said after the game. “I love the Bank. It wasn’t fun to play because it was Halladay, Hamels, Lee every time, but it was packed every night. It’s a great place to play. Great city.”
Sounds like a win in our book.
Kevin McGonigle sat countless times as a fan in Citizens Bank Park, but he still wasn’t sure how the crowd would react Tuesday night when he was introduced before the All-Star Game. He grew up in Delaware County, starred at Bonner-Prendergast, modeled his game after Chase Utley, and was in the stands for Red October.
But he’s a rookie for the Detroit Tigers. McGonigle worried his own people — the Phillies fans he used to cheer with — would boo him.
It was instead a roar as the 21-year-old who grew up just 10 miles from the ballpark was treated like a returning hero. It was the perfect cap to a few days that McGonigle said were unbelievable: He slept in his childhood bed, made his parents cry, finally met Utley, and was an All-Star in the ballpark where he used to dream.
McGonigle had “Detroit” across his chest, but he was at home.
“The kid’s a hometown kid, and it’s a shame Philly didn’t figure it out,” McGonigle’s father, Kevin George, said during the game as the Phillies could have drafted the infielder in 2023. “But that’s the reason it was so loud here. This kid is a winner and he’s always going to be a winner. For him to be here right now in the All-Star Game is beyond my wildest dreams. I never saw it happening this soon. It’s pretty amazing.”
McGonigle received a text message a few days ago from a number he didn’t know. It was Utley. He congratulated McGonigle for making the American League team and said he would look for him in Philly. McGonigle has never been shy about his admiration for Utley, and NBC10 had Utley record a video for McGonigle in 2023 before he was drafted. But the two never met.
McGonigle was on the field for batting practice on Tuesday afternoon when someone told him that Utley was looking for him. McGonigle stopped what he was doing and looked for his idol. The All-Star became a fan again.
“Right when I saw him, I was like, ‘Thank you for everything you’ve done,’” McGonigle said. “Then I stepped back and I was like, ‘Maybe I should act more professional. I’m in the major leagues now.’ But I think that’s the best thing about this game. It’s a kid’s game. The way I played it as a kid and the work I put in as a kid got me to where I am today. I want to keep acting that way. It’s a kid’s game.”
Utley told McGonigle that there was nothing to thank him for. All the credit belonged to McGonigle. The Tigers infielder — who had an Utley poster as a kid in his bedroom — wasn’t thanking Utley for helping him with his swing or with his defense. He thanked him for being an inspiration every time he watched the Phils on TV or sat in those blue seats.
“It’s just the way he played the game,” McGonigle said. “It was the way he hustled on and off the field. The way he never took any pitches off. Of course, his swing is great and his defense. But it’s really just the way he went out and competed. I just wanted to thank him for helping me get to where I am today.”
McGonigle ended the conversation by asking his favorite player for a photo. All-Stars are fans, too.
“I want to meet Utley next,” McGonigle’s father said.
The path to Tuesday’s game can be traced to a $5,000 investment his father made years ago when he purchased a JUGS pitching machine off the internet.
“And I got a Honda Whisper generator,” McGonigle said as he motioned his arm like was pulling the motor again.
The McGonigles spent countless hours in their backyard building a swing that helped make the Delco kid a rookie sensation. He signed a $150 million contract three weeks into the season and entered the All-Star break with an .812 OPS. He’s the favorite to win the AL Rookie of the Year and could haunt the Phillies for not drafting him as the player they drafted — Aidan Miller — has not played this season due to a back injury.
McGonigle looks like a star. So, was that JUGGS machine the best investment his dad ever made?
“No doubt in my mind,” the father said. “The kid learned to spoil a pitch at a very young age. He’s pretty good at it.”
McGonigle had patches representing Bonner-Prendergast and Delco sewn into the inside of the suit jacket he wore to the ballpark on Tuesday. He’s proud, McGonigle said, to be from Delco. He arrived home on Sunday night and hung out with his neighborhood buddies. McGonigle could have stayed with the All-Stars in a Center City hotel, but he opted to eat his mom’s cooking and sleep in his bedroom that still has a Cole Hamels poster on the wall.
“[My] younger self would be super proud,” McGonigle said. “This is all I ever dreamed of.”
His mom Tracy cried, McGonigle said, when he was named an All-Star. And his dad was verklempt after he watched his son enter the game on Tuesday night.
“This is a real blur for me,” McGonigle’s dad said. “But this kid has what it takes. We’ll probably see this a few more times before he’s done.”
The public address announcer used the standard intro for most players before the game: “From the San Diego Padres, pitcher Mason Miller.” McGonigle received a special touch: “From the Detroit Tigers, from Delco, shortstop Kevin McGonigle.”
McGonigle had plenty of friends and family in the stands but this roar was louder than the pack of 36 family and friends McGonigle brought from Delco. It sounded like the whole ballpark. Boos? No chance. Philly fans knew that one of them was on the field.
“It was chills, man,” McGonigle said. “Hearing the stadium get loud like that. Just having the support of the fans here today was unbelievable. I can’t thank them enough.”
The opening bars of Ray Charles’ rendition of “America the Beautiful” swept through the stadium as a group of nine children pedaled across the outfield grass.
They ditched their bikes on the edge of the infield and dashed off to stand next to an All-Star as fireworks crisscrossed the night sky. The 2026 All-Star Game was briefly paused ahead of the fifth inning, while Citizens Bank Park paid homage to the iconic Fourth of July scene in the 1993 film The Sandlot.
Bryce Harper, a reserve who had not entered the game yet, emerged from the dugout to watch the night sky with a young girl by first base. Nearby, Freddie Freeman and a child started a game of catch. In the outfield, Brandon Marsh filmed a video for a little boy’s grandmother after he learned he was her favorite Phillie.
“That’s my favorite baseball movie growing up,” Marsh said. “When I hear that song, it almost just brings tears to my eyes. It just takes me back to being 5 years old watching that movie. It was special. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
For the six Phillies selected to participate in the game, the past two days had been filled with experiences like that. Moments that reminded them why they love the game of baseball and always had.
Not everything on the field went according to plan. In fact, many things didn’t. In the National League’s 4-0 loss, starter Cristopher Sánchez gave up three runs and needed 34 pitches to finish the first inning. None of Kyle Schwarber, Harper, nor Marsh recorded a hit. And as Jhoan Duran jogged to the mound with one out in the ninth, his entrance music was noticeably delayed. (He didn’t mind. “They may be nervous, too, like me. So it’s OK,” Duran said.)
Jesús Luzardo had the best performance of the six Phillies, with a six-pitch 1-2-3 fourth inning. But the results were secondary to sharing their All-Star experience with their families and their home fans.
“Doing it at home is what makes it so special,” Luzardo said. “My first one, doing it in front of a crowd that is obviously very passionate. When you’re on their side, they have your back no matter what. So I couldn’t be happier to do it here at home, and in front of a lot of family, as well.”
Atlanta starter Chris Sale joked with Marsh during the game that he would never be able to top having his first All-Star experience at his home ballpark.
“It only goes downhill from here,” Sale told him.
Getting to meet and share a clubhouse with players on other teams also was a highlight of the experience for all six Phillies. Although Sale — along with anyone else with the Atlanta Braves on their chest — was resoundingly booed by the Citizens Bank Park crowd, he was popular inside the NL clubhouse. Luzardo, Duran, and Sánchez mentioned having conversations with him.
Sánchez also spoke with Pittsburgh star Paul Skenes and picked the brains of two Cy Young winners.
“Incredible experience,” he said through team interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “Just an amazing experience overall, sharing the love with the fans and how joyful they are with us. And sharing the clubhouse with superstars, it’s just an amazing thing to do, learning from each one of them.”
Sánchez had dedicated his night to his father, who was unable to make the trip to Philadelphia from the Dominican Republic. After he was introduced in the bullpen to thunderous applause, the lefty put his hand over his heart and then saluted. He struck out Millville’s own Mike Trout to start the game, but then gave up three singles and two walks that led to three runs.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts moved to lift Sánchez after the Yankees’ Ben Rice singled to drive in the third run. But even in an exhibition, Sánchez is loath to leave runners on base. He signaled that he wanted to stay and struck out Riley Greene to end things on a higher note.
Regardless of the score, this night, being here at all, meant everything to Sánchez.
“Myself, coming from La Romana, back home in the Dominican Republic, coming from basically nothing, it means a lot,” Sánchez said. “It means a lot to me, this experience. It’s just a sign that we’ve been doing things the right way. It’s a sign of all that hard work paying off.”
Before the game, Roberts asked Harper, Freeman, and Sale to stand up and address the NL team. Harper’s message to the clubhouse, which included 17 first-time All-Stars, was to soak in every moment because it all goes by fast.
He was speaking from experience. A month and change after Harper signed with the Phillies in 2019, Philadelphia was announced as the site of the 2026 All-Star Game for the United States’ 250th birthday. At the time, that felt like eons away. But it went by in a blink of an eye.
“It seems like it was forever ago, but it went so quick,” Harper said. “Cherish the moment. Take it all in, because things go quick. And remember the good times that you had.”
The big winners of All-Star Weekend? Philly fans.
The All-Star Game itself? Pretty boring, even by its own standards. The American League strung together three runs off Cristopher Sánchez in the first inning, and the only other run of the game was Miguel Vargas’ home run in the eighth.
The National League got just three hits, none from a Phillies player. But for the fans in the building, the pageantry of the day made it well worth the trip.
“It was super impressive,” said Stefanie Lollis, a Phillies fan who flew up from Lake Mary, Fla., with her husband for the game. “A lot of the stuff that was around it on the field: the fireworks, the different things, the kids riding out on their bikes.
“It’s very touching, some of the little moments they had out there in between innings and stuff,” said her husband Chris Lollis. “I figured Philly would do a great job with this. I’m very impressed.”
Demand was so high for the All-Star Game and the Home Run Derby that prices on secondary markets outpaced the World Cup semifinal between France and Spain on Tuesday. But fans found plenty of ways to get in the All-Star spirit outside of just the two marquee events, at the All-Star Village and the red carpet.
The All-Star red carpet at Independence Hall was open to the public without tickets. One father and son waiting on the bleachers hoping for a glimpse of Mike Trout flew in from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., for the weekend.
The trip was a Christmas gift for Oscar Borello, who attended the All-Star Game with his father in 1989 in Anaheim. While Tuesday’s game didn’t provide a moment quite as iconic as the leadoff 448-foot Bo Jackson home run in that game, he cherished the opportunity to share the experience with his own son.
“Philadelphia is the best city that we’ve traveled to as tourists,” Borello said. “It’s phenomenal to share this with my son.”
He was curious to hear the reception to Millville native Trout, returning to the All-Star festivities for the first time since 2023, and starting in the game for the first time since 2019. “I hope it’ll be good. I think Mike Trout being healthy is good for the game of baseball in general” Borello said.
Trout earned a huge ovation, and so did Delco native Kevin McGonigle, playing in his first career All-Star Game. Justin Verlander, retiring at the end of the year, also got big cheers.
Aside from the Phillies themselves, though, they were basically the only ones. After earning some scrutiny for heavy boos during the Home Run Derby, Philly fans came right back on Tuesday, booing every player on an NL East team, teams they’ve recently lost to in the playoffs (Houston, Arizona, the Dodgers), the Yankees, Home Run Derby champion Jordan Walker, and also the Brewers’ Jacob Misiorowski. Not even the mascots were safe — Mr. and Mrs. Met might’ve been booed louder than any player.
But, despite Kyle Schwarber’s loss, that electric Home Run Derby crowd was the highlight of the weekend, even for those who came in neutral.
“The Home Run Derby was just awesome,” Adam Dashner, who drove in from Pittsburgh with his dad for the weekend. “I think Philadelphia is a good city for that. They played up the heckling for everybody who’s not a Phillie. It was a real hometown crowd. I loved it.”