On Friday, we got confirmation that San Francisco would be the host city for Major League Baseball’s 2028 All-Star Game. It’s very cool news and it gives us all something to look forward to as we wait for the Giants’ next competitive window to open in 2030. And, of course, it’s more than just the game itself. There’s the Home Run Derby, the Futures Game, celebrity interactions, the draft, and an All-Star village. So, I figured this would be a good place to gather everything we know about the event so far. I promise I’m not riffing through the entire article, but it’s a lot of riffing.
It will happen in July
No exact date yet, but it’s almost certainly the week of July 12th, which is when the Baseball portion of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles will kickoff. That tournament runs July 13-19 at Dodger Stadium.
It will be a factor in the upcoming lockout
Last month, Bruce Meyer, who’s leading the negotiations on behalf of the MLB Players Association, indicated that he knew San Francisco had already been chosen as the site of the 2028 All-Star Game to which Rob Manfred responded, “With all due respect, Bruce does not pick the All-Star Games. He’s not necessarily correct.”
It would be funny if the situation wasn’t so dire. Commissioner Manfred has been a terrible ambassador of the sport, a true antagonist to playersand fans, a bad businessman, and now he’s going to carry water for the owners who want to try to bleed the sport for more profit.
The reason why Oracle Park was chosen as the 2028 site had less to do with the city or the stadium or even that it had been a long time since the game had been hosted there and more to do with proximity to the Olympics. Being an hour away by plane really takes some of the pressure off for making sure as many great players can participate. The sticking point is that the league is trying to negotiate a new CBA along with the details of Olympics participation. If the negotiations drag on, it’s not wild to imagine the owners blaming the players for there being no MLB representation in the summer games or whatever.
It might not be called Oracle Park in 2028
Back in 2019, the Giants made a naming rights agreement with Larry Ellison’s Oracle. It’s a “20-year corporate partnership,” but Larry Ellison (who recently dropped from the 2nd to 8th on the Richest Man in the World List) is highly leveraged right now. Oracle’s AI investments have setup the company for an implosion should the AI be revealed as a bubble that then bursts. On top of that, he’s backstopping his son David Ellison’s $111 billion deal to buy Warner Bros. to merge with Paramount Pictures (“[he] has agreed to provide an irrevocable guarantee of $40.4 billion of the equity financing for the offer and any damages claims against Paramount”). Maybe Oracle just doesn’t exist two years from now? We’ll call the stadium at 3rd & King It’s-It Park?
The feds have gained more leverage
A couple of months ago, the United States Department of Justice announced that they had opened a civil rights investigation into whether or not the Giants had violated the rights of the bigots on the roster by allowing dissent and criticism over their bigotry to be communicated in their general direction. As of this writing, this investigation remains open, and it’s entirely possible that it won’t be closed for some time because why should it be closed? As an open case, the Justice Department and the White House can extract concessions or fines from the team to avoid federal intervention of whatever feels right.
Don’t want ICE agents deployed throughout China Basin for All-Star week? Better not think about cutting Sam Hentges, Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker, or Ryan Walker. Yes, even in 2028.
And who knows where we’ll be by then in terms of federal overreach. I’m sure some very dutiful bootlicker is already cobbling together some sort of order relating to securing America’s Pastime against non-traditional values that are expressed or advertised throughout San Francisco. As paranoid as this might sound, there’s already precedent. ABC has filed a First Amendment suit against the FCC for matters pertaining to broadcast licensing and similar civil rights investigations into the company’s “DEI policies.” Plus, with the commissioner pitching it as being Olympics-adjacent, “security” or “public safety” can be invoked to do all sorts of wacky things. With the government always willing to threaten the sport’s antitrust exemption and Manfred having already demonstrated that he’ll throw the Giants under the bus at the first opportunity, it’s a recipe for more headaches, possible injustice, and disrupted entertainment.
The Giants will have at least one All-Star
By rule, each team must have a representative. Bryce Eldridge is confident that he’ll be able to participate in the Home Run Derby, but we’ll see. He’s going to sit an awful lot if the lockout drags on as long as the owners want it to, and that could impact his development. I’m sure most fans have penciled in Logan Webb already, but this year already showed a marked decline for the former ace. As I mentioned back in May, it’s possible that his best days are already behind him. Lincecum, Cain, and Bumgarner were all basically done by 30. Webb turns 30 in November.
I wonder if Webb and Eldridge will have a better opportunity to represent the United States on the Olympic Team rather than as All-Stars representing the Giants.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will be hounded to participate in the Home Run Derby
My one memory of the 2007 ASG in San Francisco is of Vladimir Guerrero Sr. winning the derby. He waws my white whale for many years and after the infamous Brian Sabean quote that killed the idea, I took my moments of watching Vlad very seriously. Watching him mash in the Home Run Derby was the only time I was able to imagine what it might’ve been like to have my favorite player (at the time) on my favorite team.
To be clear, I won’t be hounding Vladito, but the chance for a father-son story to crop up in this specific competition is too good to pass up. Obviously, it’s not a guarantee. It’s not that 2028 is far enough where things could change, it’s that 2026 has given us a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who has evolved/de-evolved into a player who would be stealing a derby spot from a more deserving bat. He has just 7 home runs this season — his age-27 season! — and looks like he’ll just barely clear double digits. But also, after hitting 48 home runs in 2022, he’s hit just 118 since.
Some aspect of the team being in San Francisco will be celebrated
It’ll be the 70th anniversary of the team’s move from New York to San Francisco but its 71st season overall. That could mean it’s a San Francisco-tinged celebration or its a Giants history-themed one or if the Olympics of it all simply overwhelms.
Politics will be inescapable
Maybe you’re bent out of shape when I mentioned Pride Night again, but I promise you that I’m not even the tip of the iceberg. I’m the water vapor that might freeze down onto the berg. 2028 is an election year, and July is usually a busy time, not just with party conventions but also big election-changing news. Joe Biden dropped out of the race in July 2024. Kanye West announced his candidacy in July 2020. The United States Postal Service, under full Trump control, and having cut costs to the extent that the service was hobbled, informed states that there would be delays with mail balloting ahead of the election. On July 12, 2016, Bernie Sanders endorsed Hillary Clinton. On the 23rd, Wikileaks released a tranche of documents to indicate the DNC’s bias against Sanders. We’re likely to be pelted, inundated, possibly overwhelmed by politics. The trendlines of reality don’t suggest that’s going to reverse anytime soon, especially if Donald Trump continues to suggest that he’ll run for reelection when he legally cannot.
This might be the last All-Star Game on FOX TV
All of MLB’s national broadcast rights have been synced to expire at the end of the 2028 season… unless a specific amount of time is missed due to a work stoppage. In that case, an extra year would be added. Still, it might be the last time that John Smoltz is inflicted on us.
Although the FOX Network has been a fine partner with MLB all these years, I’m still miffed about them putting the NFL theme over the baseball stuff to trick viewers into tuning in… and then there’s John Smoltz. But they actually broadcast the baseball game, far better than ESPN. Of course, nobody is as good as NBC/Peacock’s coverage. But what’s probably going to happen going forward is the Balkanization of the broadcast rights. Your MLB.tv subscription will continue to be diluted by other platforms you’ll need to subscribe to: Apple, Peacock, Netflix and then, who knows?
The national anthem will be performed by a Bay Area native
In 2007, Stockton’s Chris Isaak sang “The Star-Spangled Banner.” With all due respect to Chris Isaak, I think that can be topped; although, I’m having a tough time coming up with relevant Bay Area acts who will still be notable in 2028. Age has caught up with a lot of our faves, but then again, Patti LaBelle did this in Philadelphia last month and at 82:
Tim Lincecum will be there, right?
It’ll be the 20th anniversary of his first All-Star Game. Even with a large contingent of non-Giants fans in the crowd, that’s still homefield. Barry Bonds will definitely be there, Jeff Kent, too. Lincecum will be there. He’s got to be. I’m not sure in what capacity, of course. I don’t think Dave Roberts would let him deliver the lineup card or whatever.