The Los Angeles Dodgers will conduct their first Hollywood Stars Game since 2009 before tonight’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers had held an annual Hollywood Stars Game from 1958, their first season in Los Angeles, through 2009, except in 1994 when it was canceled because of a strike by the Major League Baseball Players Association.
Participants included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Steve Martin, Bob Newhart and Robin Williams.
The Dodgers had planned to conduct a Hollywood Stars Game in 2010, but the game was postponed “due to operational issues,” then canceled, according to an executive who has since left the organization.
“We just wanted to take a couple of years off from doing it and we feel now is the right time to bring it back,” Joe Jareck, the team’s director of public relations, told City News Service in November when the team announced it would revive the game.
Scheduled participants include “black-ish” star Anthony Anderson, “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” star Clark Gregg, recently retired soccer star Landon Donovan and Basketball Hall of Fame member Lisa Leslie.
Other scheduled participants for the softball game include actors Alan Thicke, Jaleel White, James Van Der Beek, Vivica A. Fox and Rob Riggle and Blink 182 bassist Mark Hoppus.
Talk show host Larry King and writer-producer-director Garry Marshall will manage the teams.
Oscar nominee Minnie Driver will sing the national anthem. An MVP of the Hollywood Stars Game will be chosen and he or she will throw the ceremonial first pitch before the Dodger-Cardinals game.
Auto gates and stadium gates will open at 3:30 p.m. Batting practice for the Hollywood Stars Game will be conducted starting at 4:30 p.m. Introductions for the Hollywood Stars Game will begin at 5 p.m.
Pregame ceremonies for the Dodger game will begin at 6:55 p.m., with the first pitch set for 7:10 p.m.
