Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is expected to award the 2015 All-Star Game to Cincinnati on Wednesday, which should excite even the most casual baseball fans in the area.

Speaking from experience, the All-Star Game and everything that surrounds it – the Home Run Derby, Futures Game, FanFest and more – are fantastic events.

My son Braden and I took in the experience in Kansas City last summer as a gift from my father, who moved there a few years ago, and it was a trip neither of us will ever forget.

We made the nine-hour drive on Sunday and noticed the buzz in the city as we covered the final few miles of Interstate 70 that took us right past Kauffman Stadium. The outfield portion of the stadium is wide open, which enabled us to look in and see that it was jam packed even for the Futures Game and Celebrity All-Star Softball Game.

After a relaxing Sunday evening, we headed to FanFest at the convention center on Monday morning. Even if you can’t make it to the Home Run Derby or All-Star Game (tickets will be scarce and expensive), you should schedule some time to visit FanFest, which is dubbed the World’s Largest Interactive Baseball Theme Park.

There was a whiffle ball home run derby contest featuring the mascots of the MLB teams, which was fun to watch, in addition to Q &A and autograph sessions with several current and former All-Stars. They had a replica clubhouse where you could pose in front of your favorite player’s locker. Braden, of course, headed straight for Joey Votto’s.

You could also get your picture taken while reaching over the wall to rob a home run while wearing an All-Star jersey, take some cuts in the batting cages or get timed stealing a base, an attraction that was fun to watch as kid after kid made awkward, crashing slides into the foam pit at the end of the base path.

We left the convention center in the afternoon and headed straight for Kauffman Stadium so we could be one of the first ones through the gate for the Home Run Derby. Our seats were behind home plate in the upper deck, but we spent the entire batting practice session in the front row in left field.

No home runs came our way, but the children of the All-Star players were shagging balls in the outfield and chucking them into the stands at rapid-fire pace. We came close on a few, but didn’t manage to snag any before heading up to our seats for the Derby, which was preceded by a quick concert from the Zac Brown Band.

The Derby is fun to watch, but you have to endure ESPN announcer Chris Berman’s incessant babble over the stadium PA through the entire thing.

Feeling a bit fatigued Tuesday morning, Braden and I skipped the Parade of All-Stars through downtown. But my stepmom and cousins, who are casual fans at best, went and came back excited with plenty of stories, not to mention arms full of souvenirs thrown to them by the players.

Braden and I headed to Kauffman about four hours before the game, and an hour before the gates opened. We wanted to be the first ones in so we could get close to the rail again in left field, where our seats were.

As luck would have it, ushers were only letting people who had tickets in the lower sections into those areas, so we were the only two people standing along the rail in our aisle for the first 30 minutes or so of batting practice. One of C.C. Sabathia’s sons threw Braden a couple of balls, which may have been the highlight of the trip for him.

After another pregame concert, this time by Phillip Phillips, the All-Star Game itself was a bit boring, with the NL romping to an 8-0 win, but the entire experience was anything but.

If you plan on going in 2015, you may want to start saving now. The FanFest tickets were $50, and our upper-deck seats for the Home Run Derby were $170 each. The face value on the All-Star Game ducats was $270.

Souvenirs and food are expensive, too, both at the stadium and FanFest.

But no one expects the experience of a lifetime to come cheap. Even if you’re unable to get inside Great American Ball Park, there will be a lot of fun activities in and around downtown in the days leading up to the All-Star Game.

Start planning now to be a part of it. You won’t regret it.