The festival venue, Tempe Beach Park, was set up like a baseball diamond. There were three stages: home plate, right field and left field. The left field is where all the baseball action took place, including Off The Mound with Ryan Dempster.

Dempster hosted his talk show in which he brought out festival performers and people in the baseball world to discuss the intersection of sports and music. His guests included Jessica Mendoza, a former Olympic softball player and baseball analyst, Andrew McMahon of Jack's Mannequin, and The All-American Rejects.

In the same area of the festival, there were opportunities for fans to try the speed pitch to see how fast they could throw a baseball and to try out the batting cages. Some attendees were throwing as high as 89 mph.

Jay Halverson was a member of the Innings Festival crew working in left field. What he loved most about being on this side of the festival was the meet-and-greets with the baseball players.

“A lot of these players are heroes to a lot of people,” Halverson said. “Some people just want to get an autograph. They want to have a picture. Some people want to tell a story, all things that have an impact on people's lives. So I think it's a great combination of music, baseball and fans just having a good time.”

Halverson has been working at the festival for a few years, and he mentioned his favorite moment involved a young kid’s school project.  

At a previous festival, a fifth grader showed up waiting to meet Randy Johnson. Halverson said the kid came to the festival many hours before Johnson’s scheduled appearance. The fifth grader said he had done his school project on Johnson. Since the kid didn't live far from the festival, Halverson suggested he run home and grab his project to show Johnson. The kid did just that, and by doing so, the meet-and-greet was more memorable than the kid could have ever imagined.

“I tell Randy about this young lad who had done a project where he had a turkey, and every feather was a Randy Johnson accomplishment,” Halverson said. “Well, we brought him up there; Randy Johnson spent about 20 minutes giving a pitching lesson, looking over his school project and it was just the greatest connection. It was like a superstar like Randy Johnson taking time for a nice little fifth grader.”

Festival goer Chris Sessna attended the festival with his son Jonah. Sessna loved how two different communities could intersect.

“It's been really cool, kind of watching the music and baseball community collide as we're standing here with people that we've never met before, giving them baseball cards for autographs and listening to stories about baseball and music,” Sessna said. “It's just a lot of fun combining two of my favorite things.”

Like Halverson, Sessna was excited to meet one of the game's legends.

“Seeing Jim Abbott over there, one of the guys from my childhood, and telling stories about Jim Abbott to my 9-year-old, standing in line and getting ready to meet a legend here in a few minutes,” Sessna said.

Jonah, on the other hand, was excited about the baseball cards. He had been handed many cards of stars from the 80s and 90s.

In addition to the meet-and-greets, fans could visit the Zia Records pop-up booth, which featured records and CDs from festival artists. Zia Records merchandise was also available, specially designed to resemble the current Arizona Diamondbacks logo.

There were baseball references during the musical performances as well.  

The All-American Rejects wore baseball jerseys with the word “Rejects” on the front. Before the closing set each night on the home field stage, they showed clips from famous baseball movies such as "A League of Their Own," "Bad News Bears" and "Rookie of the Year" on the screen.

Additionally, prior to The Killer's set beginning, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" was played twice before the band came on stage and played John Fogerty's "Centerfield."

This baseball portion of the festival was a home run, and fans can experience all the same amenities and references when Extra Innings Festival rolls into Tempe Feb. 28 and March 1.