The MLB has announced that Bristol Motor Speedway is set to host a historic MLB game next season, with the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves participating in the game.
Bristol Motor Speedway opened in July 1961, hosting countless NASCAR Cup Series races over the span of the track’s 63-year history while also bringing in other styles of racing, such as a dirt track configuration.
However, the track is prepared to host its first ever MLB game, arguably the first time a baseball game has been played at a NASCAR circuit.
The only other instance you can say that this has occurred would be LA Memoria Coliseum, which has hosted MLB games in the past for the Los Angeles Dodgers, although the Coliseum’s circuit is temporary for the race in February.
Bristol will mark the first full-time track to host a MLB game. However, it is not the first time the track has played host to pro and collegiate sports.
In 1961, the Philadelphia Eagles and the then-Washington Redskins played an exhibition game at the track due to a failed try to play at Charlotte Motor Speedway, while the speedway last hosted the Virgina Tech Hokies playing the home state Tennessee Volunteers for a regular-season college football game in 2016.
That game would receive heavy national recognition, with ESPN’s hit morning college football show, College Gameday, covering the festivities prior to the big game.
The “MLB Speedway Classic” will be held on August 2nd, with a majority of the grandstands open for game.
There will also be stands surrounding the actual field to provide a closer experience for fans who want to pay the extra money to experience the game from the infield of the track.
The series between the Braves and Reds will feature the Cincinatti Reds as the home team, with this game wrapping up a three-game series that will begin on July 31st of next year.
For the speedway and the area, this is a massive positive to have an MLB game at such a unique venue.
This partnership between SMI (the group that owns Bristol) and the MLB to facilitate a game at a racetrack is unfathomable.
This idea should be a home run, maybe to where the MLB executives will be doing donuts afterwards.
Baseball in Bristol has life.
Bristol actually had a MLB-affiliated minor league team in the Bristol Pirates (prior Bristol White Sox), with the city now fielding a collegiate summer league team, the Bristol State Liners in the Appalachian League.
Baseball has a place in Tennessee, and this may be a ploy by the MLB to test the waters of a market that has been red hot to acquire a ballclub, more notably in Nashville.
But it’s awesome to see one of NASCAR’s famed tracks get some heavy national recognition in the form of an MLB game.
This article may also be seen on my racing site: Auto Racing Digest on Athlon Sports
