BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) — A record crowd for a regular-season Major League Baseball game got to see all the pomp and pageantry with the MLB Speedway Classic 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. They enjoyed enough of star Tim McGraw and Pitbull in the rain that suspended the first MLB regular-season game in the state of Tennessee.
“We got to see all of that (Saturday), so as long as we see game today I think we’ll be good,” Cindy Lowe of Mount Airy, North Carolina, said.
Craig Morton agreed. He and his family, with three children, were ready to see baseball even if Morton is the Reds’ fan surrounded by relatives rooting for the Braves. They had a good time seeing McGraw and country singer Jake Owen.
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,” Morton said. “The kids are happy so we’re happy.”
This 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 and North Carolina, too.
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.
For fans, the commute back to Bristol Motor Speedway, billed as “The Last Great Colosseum” with its history as a half-mile bullring of a racetrack, was easier for some than others.
Steven Long of Atlanta, Georgia, was on a party bus to his hotel in Knoxville with a bunch of distributors. He drove the 110 miles back to Bristol on Sunday by himself even though he had hoped to be driving home. He couldn’t miss the first MLB game at a racetrack.
“I had to come back,” said Long, who wore his Braves jersey hoping for a win.
MLB will be announcing an attendance figure later Sunday. Officials already knew this event would draw a record crowd with 85,000 tickets sold as of Monday.
The big question Sunday was how many people would return for baseball itself after the big party that MLB and Bristol threw for fans Saturday. For Lowe and Jason Lawson, this is a moment they couldn’t miss after buying tickets in May.
“The history, the nostalgia of Bristol Motor Speedway combined with Major League Baseball all in one I think,” Lowe said.
Long was being joined by a couple of friends. He saw one benefit of returning even if others chose not to.
“We’ll have more space around us, so we won’t be on top of each other,” Long said.
Indeed. Fans had plenty of room to spread out, dance and enjoy the capping event of the MLB Speedway Classic.
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