The idea never made much sense to me. Play a baseball game in the same cornfield where they filmed Field of Dreams? Excellent. Brilliant. Pure baseball.
Play a game at Rickwood Field — where the Birmingham Black Barons played — and use the game to honor Alabama’s own Willie Mays? Breathtaking. Incredible. Pure baseball.
Play a game in Bristol, Tennessee, at gigantic Bristol Motor Speedway instead of a proper baseball park so you can artificially break the record for most fans at game — a cherished record set more than 70 years ago when Cleveland swept the Yankees in a doubleheader and essentially clinched their spot in the 1954 World Series — and give as many Tennessee fans as possible the worst possible seats for a ballgame?
As Annie says to Ray in Field of Dreams: “What’s it gotta do with baseball?”
So, no, I never even understood the point … but I have long believed that MLB should take the game all around the country (the way MLB has wrecked the minor leagues is utterly heartbreaking), and this was to be the first-ever game in the great state of Tennessee. I might have preferred them play the game in Nashville’s minor-league ballpark and create a cool baseball and music theme. But hey, nobody at MLB’s offices listens to me, and, so OK, and I was interested to see how it would go.
So let’s see how it went!
The game rained out — as the weather report clearly predicted long before opening pitch — but not before MLB made fans wait for hours.
The food offerings were apparently a nightmare. Hot dogs without buns? Nachos without cheese?
They ran out of food anyway.
The next day, they just let fans bring their own food.
The concourses were a flooded nightmare.
Social media has been one nonstop complaint session.
Fun! And as the Knoxville News showed, the views were spectacular
Come on ump! That was a strike!
Too often, we find ourselves asking the same question when it comes to MLB: Why does it so often feel like the people running it don’t actually care for the sport of baseball, its history, its joy, its wonder? Tennessee has a wonderful baseball history. The Nasvhille Americans began playing in 1885. The Nashville Stars and Memphis Red Sox played in the Negro Leagues. Tennessee and Vanderbilt have won three College World Series in the last decade and they have given us players like Todd Helton, David Price, Sonny Gray, Phil Garner, R.A. Dickey, Garrett Crochet, Walker Buehler, Dansby Swanson …
I mean MOOKIE BETTS is from Tennessee, for crying out loud.
Why would you go for some dumb Speedway stunt when it is all but guaranteed to be a terrible fan experience, even if the rain doesn’t come? It sure would be nice if people at MLB — before they take these big swings — just asked that Annie question: What’s it gotta do with baseball?
📓 This is Joe’s Notebook.
Half-formed thoughts, instant reactions, and nonsense (usually baseball) in real time.
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