2025 Bristol Speedway Game Could Smash MLB's Single-Game Attendance Mark
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
The Wednesday night grand-slam delivered by Atlanta’s Michael Harris II in his first at-bat since a two-month layoff with a hamstring injury was the first home run into San Francisco’s McCovey Cove by a visiting player this season . . .
Before losing two out of three in Denver last weekend, the Braves had not lost a single game to Colorado since 2022 . . .
Surprise, surprise: The Rockies made a few moves before tonight’s series opener in Arizona. Most notably, former MVP Kris Bryant is back on the Colorado injured list for the eighth time and has played in just 159 of his team’s 443 games since signing as a high-priced free agent . . .
Larry Bowa, 78, is still a regular at Citizens Bank Park, where he’s active on the field once or twice a home-stand for pregame infield work with the players (one of the T-shirts in Trea Turner’s current rotation has an enlarged Bowa baseball card on it) . . .
Jeff McNeil’s solo homer was the only run produced by the Mets in their three-game weekend series at Seattle last weekend . . .
Nobody expected the Phillies, Braves, and Mets to stumble into the Dog Days of August but they spent the first two weeks of the month playing like baseball’s version of The Three Stooges . . .
The Manfred Man — sometimes called the “ghost runner” — is still the worst rule change in the history of baseball, light-years beyond the designated hitter.
Leading Off
MLB Attendance Record Could Fall at 2025 Bristol Speedway Game
By Dan Schlossberg
For the second time in recent seasons, the Atlanta Braves will play in one of Major League Baseball’s one-night stands in a new venue.
The Bristol Motor Speedway, with a seating capacity of 146,000 for stock car racing, will host the Braves and Cincinnati Reds in a nationally-televised game on Saturday, Aug. 2, 2025.
By then, injured superstars Ronald Acuna, Jr. and Spencer Strider should be back in action and Atlanta should regain its former foothold as beasts of the East in the National League.
The first major-league game to be played in Tennessee will feature the Cincinnati Reds as home team. Ballpark dimensions will be 330 feet down the lines, 400 to center field, 375 to the right-field alley and 384 feet to the left-field alley.
The MLB Speedway Classic follows previous international games in Australia, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United Kingdom (Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory but competes as its own team in international baseball competitions).
The 2024 schedule included the season-opening Seoul Series (Dodgers-Padres), the latest edition of the Mexico City Series (Astros-Rockies) and the third edition of the London Series (Mets-Phillies).
Official games have also been played stateside in Williamsport, PA (Little League Classics); Fort Bragg, NC (Fort Bragg Game); Dyersville, Iowa (Field of Dreams Games); Honolulu (the Paradise Series); Birmingham, AL (Rickwood Field Game); Omaha, Orlando, Las Vegas, and Jersey City, NJ (the Brooklyn Dodgers played 15 home games at Roosevelt Stadium during the 1956 and 1957 seasons before moving to Los Angeles).
Because of its capacity, the Bristol Speedway contest has a chance to top the record attendance of 115,300 for an exhibition game between the visiting Boston Red Sox and host Los Angeles Dodgers on March 29, 2008. According to the Baseball Hall of Fame, it is the only time any game has drawn at least 100,000 spectators.
A 2016 college football game between Tennessee and Virginia Tech drew 156,990, an NCAA record. The reconfigured stadium has also hosted an NFL exhibition game.
According to Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred,"The Reds and the Braves form an ideal match-up because of their dynamic talent and the proximity of their markets. We look forward to celebrating our game with a wide array of fans, both on and off the field throughout the weekend, and highlighting the rich traditions of sports, music and community in Tennessee and across the region."
The event announcing the venue included Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, stock cars decked out in MLB team logos, appearances by team mascots, and even hot dog vendors.
The game will be part of a three-game series hosted by the Reds, with Sunday a scheduled off-day for both teams in the event of inclement weather.
MLB has been discussing a possible game at Bristol Motor Speedway since 2017.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ notes that Tennessee has long been a haven for minor-league baseball, with legendary games and players in places from Chattanooga to Nashville. His e.mail address is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
Is This The Year An NL Slugger Wins The Triple Crown?
By Dan Schlossberg
The lowest average ever recorded by a batting champion was the .301 mark of Boston’s Carl Yastrzemski in 1968.
Since this is the Year of the Pitcher Part II, that dubious achievement is in definite danger — at least in the National League.
Luis Arraez of the San Diego Padres has won back-to-back batting crowns — one in each league — and is contending for No. 3. But he’s had some physical setbacks this season and may not be able to ward off a pair of challengers, including Atlanta’s Marcell Ozuna and MVP favorite Shohei Ohtani, a fellow DH.
If either slugger surpasses Line Drive Luis in the batting race, it could open the door for the Senior Circuit’s first Triple Crown since 1937.
Neither Hank Aaron nor Willie Mays ever won it, though the former led in each of the three Triple Crown categories at least twice (Mays led in batting and home runs but never in RBIs).
The NL’s last Triple Crown went to Joe Medwick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1937, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president and the American flag had 48 stars.
This year, when most of the baseball world is struggling at the plate, Ohtani and Ozuna seem amazingly immune to the malaise.
Just a few days ago, Ohtani had the most home runs (36) while ranking second in RBIs (85) and third in batting (.298).
Ozuna was actually better with a .302 average — a single digit behind Arraez — plus a league-leading 90 runs batted in and 35 home runs, one behind Ohtani.
The bearded Dominican actually flirted with a Triple Crown before, during the virus-shortened 2020 season. His 18 homers and 56 RBIs in 60 games led the league but his career-best .338 batting average was well behind batting king Juan Soto’s .351.
Nobody is going to hit close to that this season, especially with Soto in the American League, making an NL Triple Crown a definite possibility.
Neither Ozuna nor Ohtani has won a batting crown before but there’s always a first time in baseball.
The American League has had a half-dozen Triple Crowns since Medwick won the last one in the National.
They were Ted Williams (1942 and 1947), Mickey Mantle (1956), Frank Robinson (1966), Yastrzemski (1967), and Miguel Cabrera (2012).
All of them also won concurrent MVP trophies except for Williams, whose two MVP awards did not coincide with either of his Triple Crown seasons.
Whether he wins the Triple Crown or not, Ohtani is the heavy favorite for NL MVP. If he wins it, the first-year Dodger would join Frank Robinson as the only men to win the award in both leagues.
Dan Schlossberg is the author of 40 baseball books, including Home Run King: the Remarkable Record of Hank Aaron [Skyhorse, 2024]. His email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: Bring Baseball Back To Olympics
With baseball scheduled to return to the Summer Olympics in 2028, it will create more publicity than the World Baseball Classic — especially if major-leaguers are allowed to compete . . .
Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is apparently studying the concept in the wake of Olympic performances by pros from hockey and women’s basketball . . .
To allow MLB players to enter the Olympics might mean shutting down America’s national pastime for two weeks in mid-season . . .
Baseball was a regular event at the Summer Olympics through the 2008 games in Beijing, China, but went on hiatus for the 2012 and 2016 Games before returning temporarily for the 2020 Games in Tokyo . . .
Team Israel, a surprise success in the World Baseball Classic, hopes to qualify for the Los Angeles Olympics and thereby showcase Mensch on the Bench to the world.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.