What happens when you bring together elite athletes, thousands of fans and two of the world’s most popular sports? You get MLBx: Mumbai, a one-of-a-kind way to introduce baseball to a new audience.
Saturday’s MLBx event at the Mumbai Football Arena featured a unique sporting crossover, blending skills and uniting superstars from baseball, softball and cricket. Retired MLB stars Nick Swisher, Adrián González, Jonny Gomes and Jake Arrieta joined professional softball players Jordan Woolery and Rachel Garcia and India cricketers Suryakumar Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Jitesh Sharma, Deepak Chahar, Radha Yadav and Kanika Ahuja.
The result was a co-ed, three-on-three clash highlighting home run power and dazzling defense among the participants, who represented four iconic MLB clubs: the Dodgers, Cubs, Yankees and Red Sox. Woolery had some big hits as the Dodgers beat the Cubs in the first semifinal, while Swisher delivered a huge at-bat with 25 points to help the Yankees take down the Red Sox in the second semifinal.
Yadav, who was named an MLB Ambassador in July and represented the Yankees in the MLBx event, won a game of rock-paper-scissors against Sharma (repping the Dodgers) and chose to bat first in the final. Once again, it was the 12-year MLB veteran Swisher coming up big as the Yankees won the championship. Garcia, a star for the Texas Volts of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, was named the event’s most valuable player.
MLBx: Mumbai featured performances by musicians such as KR$NA and Badshah and a specially curated menu that included the All-Star Paneer Burger, the Mumbai Vada Dog, the Jersey Disco Fries and the Yankee Doodle Hot Dog. Attendees -- including students from 35 area schools -- were able to try their hand at both sides of baseball with the Test Your Swing and Test Your Pitch batting and pitching cages.