Another major sporting event is coming to Los Angeles next week, which means another opportunity for the Santa Monica Pier to stand as a backdrop for the City of Angels as we welcome thousands of visitors (and potentially millions more TV viewers) to enjoy the sand and surf.
This time around, it’s Major League Baseball’s All Star Game, bringing family-friendly events to the Pier and Santa Monica Beach from Friday through Sunday, July 15-17.
The first pitch for this year’s Midsummer Classic will be thrown on Tuesday, July 19, across town at Dodger Stadium, but the MLB is bringing free events to the Pier in the run-up to the game, including youth baseball and softball, yoga, sand sculptures and more.
Each morning from Friday through Sunday, Cue Health will host MLB All-Star Beach Yoga directly to the south of the Pier, between Muscle Beach and the shoreline. The yoga class runs from 9-10 a.m. each morning and, though free to attend, pre registration is required.
Also on that stretch of beach: a batting cage, beach diamond (a baseball diamond on the sand), beach skeeball, a sand sculpture and a water refill station. The event will also feature a free bicycle valet just off the beach bicycle path.
On the pier deck, local businesses will be operating as usual along with a host of other offerings including a special retail pop-up featuring All Star Game merchandise, a batting cage, several bars, face painting, an MLB photo op, a pitching cage and more. MLB Network and MLB The Show 22 will also have a presence at the event.
The free event runs from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each of the three days and tickets are not required.
On Saturday, July 16, MLB will partner with nonprofit Heal the Bay to host a beach cleanup. Heal the Bay provides cleanup supplies for the first 300 volunteers who register for the event, which is set to begin at 10 a.m. on the beach just north of the Pier.
Santa Monica City Council approved the events during a March meeting. At the time, city staff anticipated “considerable benefit to the City’s brand, global visibility, and reputation would accrue from one of its most iconic and picturesque locations being used as a key event site related to a major, globally followed sporting event.”
As an additional benefit, staff also stated they believed the event would “provide the City with relevant experience leading up to the 2028 Summer Olympics, where the beach volleyball events are slated to be hosted at Santa Monica Beach adjacent to the Pier.”
For more information on Saturday’s Heal the Bay beach cleanup, email Emely Garcia at egarcia@healthebay.org.
More information on all the Capital One All-Star Oceanfront events can be found at www.mlb.com/all-star/oceanfront.
emily@smdp.com
