MLB '24 Regular Season Thread

The Rays were swept by the White Sox in a series earlier this year.

 

Sounds cool

Braves, Reds to play game next season at Bristol Motor Speedway: Sources - The Athletic (nytimes.com)

Bristol Motor Speedway, one of NASCAR’s most iconic tracks, will host a regular season MLB game between the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds in 2025, multiple sources briefed on the plans told The Athletic on Tuesday.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith, whose family has long owned and operated Bristol, are set to make an announcement at the track in Tennessee on Friday. MLB declined comment.

 

I’d rather light cash on fire than bet on baseball games. Maybe those are the same.

 

One hell of a warning track.

 

Player props are the way to go for baseball. Way too random to pick actual outcomes.

 

You thought the center field hill at Minute Maid Park was dangerous? Wait'll you see these guys run up 36 degrees of banking!

 

They won't do it -- it's SMI, so never say never -- but putting Turn 3 in the field of play like a concrete Fenway Green Monster would be all kinds of awesome.

(I think the infield media center pretty much requires the field be laid down in the opposite corner of the track. I need to look at how they handled the football game there.)

"It's only 245 in distance to the foul pole but it's 75 feet in height from the playing surface to the fence!"

EDIT: Now looking at photos, the width of the infield may require some sort of positioning of home plate and the backstop between Turns 1 and 2, with first and third base extending diagonally to the straightaways. Otherwise, there's not enough flat area to make a decent outfield. And the pit walls are a problem, too. We'll have to see.

 

I'm picturing scenario like when the Dodgers played at the Coliseum while waiting for Dodger Stadium to be built with the short porch. Even better, the mid-70s when the Pacific Coast League's Sacramento Solons played at Hughes Stadium, a juco football stadium, which was 251 down the line in left with a 40-foot screen.

 

Hughes Stadium was a trip! Got to see Gorman Thomas and Sixto Lezcano back in the day when they were still AAA players for the Brewers. There was a no-hitter thrown there, which is almost as amazing as the White Sox losing 20 in a row.

EDIT: I knew Hughes had hosted the Causeway Classic, but I see Sac State has had a stadium on campus for many years.

 

I like that this losing streak has aged 26-year-old Andrew Vaughn (I believe) at a Ron Karkovice-esque rate.