A record crowd for a regular-season Major League Baseball game got to see all the pomp and pageantry of the MLB Speedway Classic on Saturday night before the rain washed out the game itself in the bottom of the first inning. Fans returning Sunday only wanted to watch the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds play ball, after performances by Tim McGraw and Pitbull in the rain leading up to what was to be the first MLB regular-season game in Tennessee. The big question Sunday was how many people would return for baseball itself after the big party, the AP reports.
Sunday was dry at Bristol Motor Speedway even with overcast skies. "We're really glad that they played the game today instead of last night because we sat here a couple hours in the rain and everybody was saturated even with rain gear," one fan said. "The kids are happy so we're happy." This MLB Speedway Classic was 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.
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 meant the final attendance number could reach 90,000 or more even with sections blocked off. The previous paid attendance of 84,587 was set Sept. 12, 1954, when Cleveland Stadium hosted the New York Yankees. Simply canceling this game wasn't an option. The Reds are in the chase for a wild-card spot, and this is the last time these teams meet this season. Teams had police escorts to make sure they got back to Bristol on Sunday.
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