East Tennessee Making MLB History

Saturday night (8/2), East Tennessee will make Major League Baseball history as the first ever regular season Major League baseball game played In Tennessee gets underway at a revamped Bristol Motor Speedway. The speedway has undergone a transformation over the past few months from the raceway that hosted NASCAR’s Food City 500 in mid-April to hosting major league baseball.

Over 85,000 tickets have been sold for the game, which will shatter the record for the most attendance for a regular season major league game. The previous record was set in Cleveland on September 12, 1954 with 84,587 fans coming to Cleveland Stadium to watch the Indians host the Yankees.

The two starting pitchers for the game Saturday have ties to East Tennessee. Atlanta Braves starter Spencer Strider played for Christian Academy of Knoxville and helped them win a state championship in 2017. He was also named Mr. Baseball in Tennessee that year. The Cincinnati Reds starter Chase Burns is from Tennessee and pitched for UT for two seasons before transferring to Wake Forest. First pitch is set for 7:20 pm in Bristol and will be televised on Fox.

Tim McGraw will be on hand to perform before the game.