August 3, 2025: Major League Baseball hosted the Speedway Classic, an attempt to set a new record for the largest crowd in the history of the sport.
NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.
The game was set for the night before, a Saturday night, and they got one inning in, before rain came, and the umpires suspended the game, for resumption the next day.
Before the game was delayed, there was a concert that featured musical performances from country superstar Tim McGraw (son of legendary relief pitcher Tug McGraw) along with pop artist Pitbull and country music star Jake Owen.
To celebrate its upcoming 250th birthday in October, the U.S. Navy was placed front and center, with MU1 Kathryn Dobyns performing the National Anthem, with the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard providing the colors. The flyover was four Navy F/A 18 Super Hornet jets from VFA-103 of the Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach.
Prior to the first rain delay, there was a Hall of Fame and NASCAR-themed ceremonial first pitch. Former Braves 3rd baseman Chipper Jones threw a first pitch to Chase Elliot, while Big Red Machine catching great Johnny Bench caught Kyle Busch's first pitch.
The Braves did not score in the top of the 1st. In the bottom of the 1st, the Reds got 3 straight singles, from Matt McLain, Elly de la Cruz and Austin Hays, to take a 1-0 lead. That's when the rain came, and the umpires decided to suspend the game.
When play resumed on August 3, neither manager, Brian Snitker of the Braves with Austin Cox, or Terry Francona of the Reds with Chase Burns, was willing to risk his starting pitcher any further, and essentially made this a "bullpen game": Each team ended up using 6 pitchers.
A 3-run home run by Eli White off Brent Suter in the top of the 2nd gave the Braves a 3-1 lead. (With a name like Brent Suter, he sounded more like one of hockey's famed Sutter brothers from Viking, Alberta, or its Suter family from Madison, Wisconsin, than Hall of Fame reliever Bruce Sutter, who did pitch for the Braves.)
The Reds pulled a run back in the bottom of the 2nd, but the score remained 3-2 Atlanta until White hit his 2nd homer of the game to lead off the top of the 7th. The Braves won, 4-2. Hunter Waldrep pitched 5 2/3rds innings of relief to be the winning pitcher, while Suter was the losing pitcher.
The attendance was 91,032. That made this the best-attended competitive regular-season game in Major League Baseball history, breaking the record set of 84,587, when the Cleveland Indians swept a doubleheader from the New York Yankees at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on September 12, 1954.
But it did not break the record for highest attendance of any competitive game. That remains 92,706, for Game 5 of the World Series on October 6, 1959, when the Chicago White Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Nor did it come close to the all-time record for any baseball game, an exhibition game the Dodgers set up at the Coliseum to celebrate their 50th Anniversary in Los Angeles, on March 29, 2008: 115,300. As you can see in the photo above, temporary seats were built around the infield, but the permanent seats behind the 3rd-base line were not sold.
It remains to be seen if MLB will try another racetrack game. Somehow, I doubt that Churchill Downs will host Louisville's 1st major-league game since 1899 anytime soon.
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August 3, 2025 was a Sunday. These other MLB games were played, keeping in mind that the Braves and the Reds officially had the day off, just in case a postponement was necessary, as turned out to be the case:
* The New York Yankees lost to the Miami Marlins, 7-3 at LoanDepot Park in Miami. Edward Cabrera outpitched Luis Gil, the previous season's American League Rookie of the Year, who was making his 1st start of the season due to an injury, and really needed at least one more minor-league tuneup. Kyle Stowers hit a home run for the Marlins, while Trent Grisham and Jazz Chisholm hit them for the Yankees.
* The New York Mets lost to the San Francisco Giants, 12-4 at Citi Field. Frankie Montas barely made it into the 5th inning. Francisco Lindor hit a home run for the Mets, to no avail.
* The Boston Red Sox beat the Houston Astros, 6-1 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Detroit Tigers, 2-0 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Cristopher Sánchez pitched 8 innings of 5-hit shutout ball, and Jhoan Durán pitched a perfect 9th.
* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Washington Nationals, 14-3 at Nationals Park in Washington.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-0 at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, where the Rays played the season due to hurricane damage at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. How many Dodgers does it take to pitch a 7-hit shutout? This time, 5, with Yoshinobu Yamamoto allowing 5 hits over 5 2/3rd, and the bullpen allowing 2 hits the rest of the way.
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-4 at the Rogers Centre in Toronto. The Royals scored 5 runs in the top of the 10th, and the Jays could only pull 2 back.
* The Minnesota Twins beat the Cleveland Guardians, 5-4 at Progressive Field in Cleveland.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Colorado Rockies, 9-5 at Coors Field in Denver.
* The San Diego Padres beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at Petco Park in San Diego.
* The Los Angeles Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 8-5 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim.
* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Sacramento Athletics, 6-4 at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California.
* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers, 5-4 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
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