Take me out to the ball game … just watch out for the race cars.
According to The Athletic, the sports component of The New York Times, the gigantic Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee will host an event next year with a different kind of spin from its usual NASCAR races: a scheduled Major League Baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds.
The formal announcement and further details are expected Friday from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith, whose family has long owned and operated Bristol. An unconfirmed report said that the teams would play next August 2.
Plans would likely involve reconfiguring the half-mile oval track, which has a seating capacity of nearly 150,000 for motorsports events. In 2016, Tennessee and Virginia Tech played a college football game on a purpose-built field in the infield. That game drew 156,990, the largest crowd ever to watch an NCAA football game, The Athletic said.
Baseball’s attendance record is 115,300, set at an exhibition game between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers at the Memorial Coliseum on March 29, 2008. Nine regular-season games have drawn 80,000 or more fans. The sport has also recently sponsored a number of “special” international contests, having played regular season games in London, Mexico City, Tokyo and Seoul.
