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Archives for July 28, 2025

Baseball at the Race Track

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BRISTOL (Tenn) – Saturday’s MLB Speedway Classic will break Major League Baseball’s all-time single-game attendance record, the league announced on Monday.

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More than 85,000 tickets have been sold for the game between the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves at Bristol Motor Speedway, the first MLB game ever played in Tennessee.

The current record for paid attendance is 84,587 set on Sept. 12, 1954, for a doubleheader at Cleveland Stadium between the then-Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees.

Fans from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and nine countries across four continents have purchased tickets for the game.

Hall of Famers representing both teams will throw out the ceremonial first pitches, Chipper Jones for the Braves and Johnny Bench for the Reds.

The Speedway Classic will be televised nationally by FOX Sports with the first pitch scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET.

The current record for paid attendance is 84,587 set on Sept. 12, 1954, for a doubleheader at Cleveland Stadium between the then-Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees.

Fans from all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and nine countries across four continents have purchased tickets for the game.

Hall of Famers representing both teams will throw out the ceremonial first pitches, Chipper Jones for the Braves and Johnny Bench for the Reds.

The Speedway Classic will be televised nationally by FOX Sports with the first pitch scheduled for 7:15 p.m. ET.

Harper and The Commish

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PHILADELPHIA – (Staff and Wire Service Report) – Right smack in the middle of the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper dropped an f-bomb on Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred in a heated confrontation last week about a potential salary cap, ESPN reported.

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An irate Harper reportedly got in Manfred’s face and told him to “get the f– out of our clubhouse” if he wanted to discuss such a sensitive economic issue.

Manfred replied that he was “not going to get the f– out of here,” insisting it was important to talk about threats to the league’s business and ways to grow the game, sources told ESPN.

Other players tried to defuse the situation and Harper and Manfred eventually shook hands after the meeting, but Harper would not answer calls from Manfred the next day, per the report.

“It was pretty intense, definitely passionate,” Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos told ESPN. “Both of ’em. The commissioner giving it back to Bryce and Bryce giving it back to the commissioner. That’s Harp. He’s been doing this since he was 15 years old. It’s just another day. I wasn’t surprised.”

Harper, 32, is one of the game’s most influential players as a two-time National League Most Valuable Player and an eight-time All-Star.