Brantley Confirmed For Tribe Fest 2017

Happy 2017, Brantley fans! i am back with some exciting news for you all! today, on January 13, the Indians posted that Michael Brantley has confirmed to attend the 5th annual Tribe Fest, presented by KeyBank.

photo courtesy of @Indians on twitter

like last year, Tribe Fest will not be held at Progressive Field due to ongoing construction on the service level. instead, the one-day event will be on Saturday, January 28, at the
InterContinental Hotel, which is located at 9801 Carnegie Avenue on the campus of the Cleveland Clinic. this is a different hotel from the one that hosted Tribe Fest in 2016, with this venue allowing space for more fans and more parking.

garages on the campus charge $10 to park. those marked "BBS" and "BBN" connect to the hotel by a skyway and lead directly to the 3rd floor Registration area. valet parking is available at the garage on East 105th Street.

if you happen to be a season ticket holder, there is a Tribe Fest VIP event on Friday, January 27, from 5:30 - 8:30 pm, also at the InterContinental. that has already sold out, but for all the details, click here.

tickets for Tribe Fest went on sale a month ago on December 13 at 10 am. a $5 general admission ticket is required for adults and children over the age of 3, while children under 3 years old get in free. in order to guarantee an autograph, fans must purchase an autograph ticket (which is bundled with a GA ticket). an autograph pass is $35 for a current Indians player and $30 for an alumni player--both up $10 from last year. unfortunately, the pass does not allow fans the option to pick the player they'd like an autograph from. in addition, there is a four ticket limit per autograph session per transaction.

two time blocks have been set aside for autograph sessions at this event. there will be four autograph sessions scheduled from 9 am - 2 pm (at 9:15 am, 10:30 am, 11:45 am, and 1:00 pm), and four more autograph sessions from 2 pm - 7 pm (at 2:15 pm, 3:30 pm, 4:45 pm, and 6:00 pm). however, the afternoon 2 pm - 7 pm block has been sold out. each session is restricted to 250 fans and once all the tickets for a particular session have been sold, that session will be closed. tickets for the remaining morning and afternoon slots are almost gone, so get yours now!

along with Michael, the other players who have already confirmed to appear include:
Cody Allen
Abraham Almonte
Trevor Bauer
Carlos Carrasco
Lonnie Chisenhall (just added today)
Mike Clevinger
Edwin Encarnacion
Perci Garner (just added today)
Yan Gomes
Brandon Guyer
Corey Kluber
Francisco Lindor
Zach McAllister
Andrew Miller
Tyler Naquin
Dan Otero
Roberto Perez
Jose Ramirez
Carlos Santana
Bryan Shaw (just added today)
Josh Tomlin
(note: player appearances are subject to change)

the Indians alumni scheduled to attend are:
Ellis Burks
Mike Hargrove
Mike Jackson
Chad Ogea
Jaret Wright

furthermore, manager Terry Francona and 1st base coach Sandy Alomar, Jr. will be there.

the celebrity bartending event is also back this year. various players, coaches, and executives will be participating in two separate sessions, from 2:15 pm - 3:15 pm and 4:45 pm - 5:45 pm, at the Falcon Study Lounge. fans 21 and up who are interested must purchase an additional ticket for $45 (that's a $30 markup from last year!). a portion of the total bar sales goes to Cleveland Indians Charities.

there's plenty of family-friendly entertainment, too. as per usual, the Indians players will take part in Q&As and games on the main stage. younger fans can engage in a fast pitching challenge and Louisville Slugger bat making, or check out the photo booths and Lego art, or visit the locker room displays, or get their faces painted. a GA ticket is all that's needed for these activities. and of course, Slider and the Hot Dogs will be around to interact with as well.

for more information about any of the planned festivities, go to Indians.com/TribeFest.

(special thanks to Jordan Bastian and Joe Noga for their articles on indians.com and cleveland.com, respectively, where i pulled some additional Tribe Fest specifics.)


if you missed the latest offseason news about Michael's rehab and hitting program, refer back to the Brantley News & Updates from November & December 2016 blog.

and keep checking my twitter @clevelandgirl23 for continued updates on Michael's offseason rehab progression. (he's currently taking dry swings.) also, to receive emails when i post new blogs, be sure to sign up for my subscription list, which can be found under the Blog Archive section on the upper right side of your screen.