Date of publication: July 11, 2006
Source: The Associated Press
Author: MICHAEL COWDEN
PITTSBURGH - As Coast Guard boats armed with machine guns patrolled below, New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, dapper in a tailored suit and sitting on a shiny pickup, rode across a bridge to the All-Star game like a conquering hero.
Thousands cheered - and some jeered - as player after player crossed over the Allegheny River on, appropriately enough, a red carpet rolled out across the Roberto Clemente Bridge from the downtown Pittsburgh to the stadium.
"Baseball is the best game, and this is the epitome of baseball. Other sports try to imitate it, but they cannot," said Vince Conte, 44, a lawyer from Montclair, N.J., in town for his sixth All-Star game.
The parade capped off five days full of baseball-related events, including museum retrospectives, interactive exhibits and parties. Local leaders called the festivities a success.
"We're really shaking off a lot of the old stereotypes that Pittsburgh is a smoking industrial city that is rundown and doesn't have anything going on," said Kevin Evanto, a spokesman for Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.
Steven Prefontaine, 38, of Nottingham, N.H., said he was impressed by the city.
"It's gorgeous. It's clean. The place looks wonderful," said Prefontaine, who sported a Red Sox cap and baseball glove. "And PNC is by far the most beautiful park I've ever seen, and I love Fenway."
Preliminary numbers indicate that about 50,000 people from outside the Pittsburgh area visited the city for the All-Star weekend, said Joe McGrath, president and CEO of VisitPittsburgh, which promotes tourism and business travel to the region. The All-Star game, FanFest and other events drew at least as many local attendees and likely brought about $52 million into the regional economy, he said.
FanFest wrapped up Tuesday with clinics hosted by New York Yankees All-Star third baseman Alex Rodriguez and former Baltimore Orioles All-Star shortstop Cal Ripken. There was also a live auction of sports memorabilia, including a baseball that Babe Ruth hit for a home run in the first All-Star game, which sold for $805,000.
"The sale price places it among the most valued pieces of American sports memorabilia," said David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions Inc., the Exton-based sports memorabilia auction company that conducted the sale.
A bat that the legendary Yankees slugger used to hit his 59th home run in 1921 sold for $483,000.
The All-Star hoopla, however, did not meet with approval from everyone. The Pittsburgh Anti-Sweatshop Community Alliance planned a rally on the bridge during the game to criticize conditions in some factories that make Major League Baseball apparel and accessories.
"Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente would be pleased" with the action, said co-founder Dennis Brutus, a professor emeritus of African studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Robinson was the first black player to breach baseball's color barrier. Clemente died in a plane crash while trying to deliver relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.
A Major League Baseball spokeswoman said an investigation had found no basis for the accusation.