Washington (AFP) – Eli White belted two home runs to propel the Atlanta Braves across the finish line with a 4-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in Major League Baseball’s “Speedway Classic” at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday. The unique contest on a specially built ballpark on the infield of the US stock car oval track had to resort to a restart after heavy rain brought out the red flag with less than an inning completed and the Reds up 1-0 on Saturday.
MLB announced a record attendance of 91,032, and those that made it back on Saturday were treated to a show by White, who was in the lineup because Ronald Acuna Jr. was sent to the injured list with a calf strain on Tuesday. White belted a three-run homer off Reds pitcher Brent Suter in the second inning, a 411-foot (125m) blast that bounced off the banked track beyond the left field wall, hit the safer barrier, and gave Atlanta a 3-1 lead. As White rounded the bases, a race car decked out in red, white, and blue circled the racetrack, a passenger holding a “Home Run” flag out the window.
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White brought out the Home Run Car again in the seventh, leading off the inning with a solo homer off Scott Barlow. The 31-year-old posted the second multi-homer game of his career and his first with four runs-batted-in. “It’s super-special for me,” White said. “Being here, just trying to soak it all in and be able to have a big day and come through for the team is just something I’ll cherish for a long time.”
A throng of fans — lured by the novelty of the event, a pre-game concert, and a chance to break the 71-year-old MLB regular-season attendance record of 84,587 — had waited through two rain delays totaling more than two hours on Saturday night before MLB postponed until Sunday. When play resumed, Hurston Waldrep was pitching for Atlanta, having traveled some 250 miles on Sunday morning after being called up from the minor leagues. He surrendered one run over 5 2/3 innings for his first major league win in his third MLB start.
Despite the weather, players were enthusiastic about the event at the iconic 64-year-old racetrack in rural northeastern Tennessee, which typically fills all 146,000 seats for NASCAR series races. “Never really dreamed of this,” Cincinnati’s Spencer Steer said Saturday. “You think of 85,000 people you think of NFL or college football. A very incredible opportunity.”
In 2016, a collegiate American football game in the speedway infield dubbed the Battle at Bristol drew 156,990 fans to see Tennessee beat Virginia Tech 45-24. An NFL exhibition game on the Bristol infield between Washington and Philadelphia in 1961 drew only 8,500 spectators back when seating capacity was only 18,000. MLB built its field in the infield between turns three and four, bringing in several tons of gravel to create a level field and removing a building from what would become the outfield.
Celebrities in attendance included baseball Hall of Famers Johnny Bench and Chipper Jones and NASCAR stars Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott. “My first thought is I can’t believe they did all this for one game,” Braves first baseman Matt Olson said. “It’s pretty incredible.” MLB’s previous regular-season games at special venues included games at the Field of Dreams movie ballpark in an Iowa cornfield in 2021 and 2022. MLB has also staged regular-season games in Australia, South Korea, Japan, England, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
© 2024 AFP
