BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — Cincinnati manager Terry Francona noticed the sheer size of Bristol Motor Speedway rising up from the mountains as the Reds arrived Saturday on their buses.
The best way to describe the speedway? Huge.
Big enough in fact to place not one, but two baseball diamonds. Francona's Reds need only one for the MLB Speedway Classic against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night in the infield at Bristol Motor Speedway, also called “The Last Great Colosseum.”
Francona approves of all the hard
work.
“When you get outside of the field, it’s actually pretty cool," Francona said. "The way the stands kind of all face in, the ones they’re using, it looks pretty cool.”
A record crowd for a Major League Baseball game had to be patient, sitting out a 2-hour, 17-minute rain delay that started just after the ceremonial first pitch from a pair of Hall of Famers in Chipper Jones and Johnny Bench with help from NASCAR drivers Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott.
Michael Waltrip, who raced plenty at Bristol, restarted the festivities by quoting his brother Darrell: “Boogity, boogity, boogity. Let's play baseball boys!”
The delay also led to the Braves switching starting pitchers. Spencer Strider, who grew up in nearby Knoxville, got a bigger ovation than Reds starter Chase Burns, who is from Hendersonville and played at the University of Tennessee. The Reds stuck with Burns despite the delay.
Strider warmed up, but the Braves chose not to risk his third start in this situation coming off a second elbow surgery.
“I can tell you how excited he was, and I know how he's crushed,” Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos said of Strider during the Fox broadcast.
On a day fans were encouraged to start showing up at noon, stands that were packed pregame were spotty when the game finally started.
The MLB Speedway Classic was first announced nearly a year ago as part of Commissioner Rob Manfred’s push to take MLB to places where baseball isn’t played every day live. MLB played a game at the “Field of Dreams” movie site in Iowa in both 2021 and 2022. Alabama, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, too.
Now it's time for Tennessee, which has teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLS but no MLB team even as a group chases an expansion franchise for Nashville. This game mixes the rich racing history of both Bristol, which hosts a pair of NASCAR races each year, and Tennessee.
Organizers threw a party both inside before the gates opened and inside once fans were allowed inside.
Fans had a party zone featuring a 110-foot Ferris wheel, race cars painted in MLB team colors with food trucks, live music, pitching tunnels and batting cages, a chance for photos with the Commissioner's Trophy, and Clydesdales outside the historic racetrack.
Inside, star Tim McGraw performed and was joined by Pitbull.
Players stood in the back of pickup trucks with their numbers emblazoned on the side and rode around the half-mile bullring racetrack. Some used their phones to document the moment. For introductions, the Braves and Reds walked between a pair of cars decked out in Atlanta and Cincinnati colors.
Then, the tarp came out as rain that had been falling around Bristol much of Saturday turned heavy and delayed the start. Anthopoulos said the players loved the pregame experience.
“Honestly, my first thought I can't believe they did all this for one game,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson said of his first visit to Bristol. “To be able to set all this up, get a playing surface ready, set the stands up in order to have the proper viewing, it's pretty incredible.”
The Reds, chasing an NL wild-card berth, split the first two games in this series with Atlanta. The rubber match will be a part of history as the first Major League Baseball game played in the state of Tennessee.
Pitcher Andrew Abbott showed up Saturday afternoon at Bristol wearing a cut-off version of a NASCAR race suit. Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, Abbott said he wanted something to wear in for a special game.
“I grew up around NASCAR,” Abbott said. “Just went on eBay and found a couple options, and luckily that was the one that arrived in time. I had a couple of backups. I know who Rusty Wallace is too, so I actually do know the backstory behind it.”
More than 85,000 people might not create the noise the usual race cars do, but Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said there’s a big bag of ear plugs available in the Braves’ clubhouse.
”I don’t know if I’ve ever been around this many people,” Snitker said.
MLB didn't try to sell every ticket inside the speedway that drew 156,990 for the Battle of Bristol college football game in 2016. The track with a racing capacity of 146,000 could host 90,000 or more even with sections blocked off.
Officials announced Monday more than 85,000 tickets had been sold — topping the previous paid attendance of 84,587 set Sept. 12, 1954, when Cleveland Stadium hosted the New York Yankees.
A batter will have to clear 400 feet to hit anything out of center field, 375 in the alleys and 330 down each base line. Pulling a ball down the line raises the prospect of a ball bouncing off the racetrack beyond the outfield wall. Olson wouldn't mind that being a first for him.
“We want to win the game, but it'd be cool to hit one where you've never hit one,” Olson said.
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AP Sports Writer Charles Odum contributed to this report.
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