Marlins Park getting final All-Star touches

MIAMI — Eighteen months of preparation for Marlins Park’s All-Star Game is entering its final phase.

With the Miami Marlins heading out for a threecity, 10-game road trip starting Friday to close out the first half, their home ballpark will undergo a transformation of sorts before the baseball world descends upon Little Havana for All-Star festivities starting July 9.

“It’s pretty extensive,” said Claude Delorme, executive vice president of operations and events. “We’ve been on this for 18 months and the intensity keeps increasing on a dayto-day basis.”

That final phase was set to begin late Thursday night, right after the Marlins’ series with the Mets.

Among the goings-on in the dark: the start of the construction of a fence around the perimeter of the park, similar to the setup for a Beyonce concert last year and the World Baseball Classic in March. The temporary perimeter will close off the West Plaza and East Plaza, and fans entering for All-Star events will have to pass through metal detectors there before even getting to entrance gates.

Also over the weekend, crews will set up a “broadcast compound,” Delorme said, for the many television and radio stations that’ll broadcast on-site. That’ll take up three parking lots on the east side of Marlins Park.

On the west side, in what’s known as West Lot 3 between the ballpark and NW 17th Avenue, will be a large tent/party area for “a pregame celebration event by invitation only for 3,500 people” July 11, the day of the actual All-Star Game, Delorme said.

Come Monday, Major League Baseball and its close to 300 people will begin to arrive in earnest. All sorts of signage and branding will go up in and around the ballpark. The field will be similarly detailed, with All-Star logos and such painted onto the grass.

Inside, Marlins clubhouse attendants will makeover the clubhouses. The National League will get the larger of the two, the Marlins’ normal space. The American League will occupy the visitors’ clubhouse.

Prep on the home side includes packing up Marlins players’ belongings and cleaning each locker, then replenishing it with All-Star apparel and new nameplates for the temporary tenants.

And it’ll all be done just in time for Marlins Park to turn into the center of the baseball world.

“It’s not on the same [level] as opening the ballpark,” Delorme said. “But it’s similar in a lot of ways.”

Miguel Rojas

want to be back on the field,” Rojas said. “It’s the point of the season where everybody needs a break, and I feel like I’m fresh. I would like to give a boost of energy to the team, because I know when I come back I can be productive.”

Rojas will head to the Marlins’ facilities in Jupiter to work while the major league team is on the road. He has a doctor appointment Wednesday, when he hopes to be cleared to play games. He could start a rehab assignment toward the end of next week, if all goes well, and said he wants to play six or seven games. Manager

said he likes Rojas as a utility player, able to play all four spots in the infield, but isn’t ruling out a more consistent job.

“I want to be openminded,” Mattingly said. “Everything should be a competition, even at this level.”

Mattingly also said he doesn’t anticipate moving away from carrying eight relievers, meaning when Rojas does return, the Marlins would have to drop one of their four bench players.

Don Mattingly

Rojas