Braves, Reds take in sights for MLB Speedway Classic at Bristol - ESPN

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Cincinnati manager Terry Francona noticed the sheer size of Bristol Motor Speedway rising up from the mountains as the Reds arrived Saturday on their buses.

The best way to describe the speedway? Huge.

Big enough in fact to place not one, but two baseball diamonds. Francona's Reds need only one for the MLB Speedway Classic against the Atlanta Braves on Saturday night in the infield at Bristol Motor Speedway, also called «The Last Great Colosseum.»

Francona approves of all the hard work.

«When you get outside of the field, it's actually pretty cool,» Francona said. «The way the stands kind of all face in, the ones they're using, it looks pretty cool.»

The MLB Speedway Classic was first announced nearly a year ago as part of commissioner Rob Manfred's push to take MLB to places where baseball isn't played every day live. MLB played a game at the «Field of Dreams» movie site in Iowa in 2021 and 2022. Alabama, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, too.

Now it's time for Tennessee, which has teams in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLS but no MLB team even as a group chases an expansion franchise for Nashville. This game mixes the rich racing history of both Bristol, which hosts a pair of NASCAR races each year, and Tennessee.

«When you walk up to Bristol Motor Speedway, much like many of our venues, you know you're at a big iconic sports location,» said Jeremiah Yolkut, MLB's senior vice president of global events. «You feel it. You walk into Wrigley Field, Fenway Park, you feel it. And that's what Bristol Motor Speedway is for NASCAR.»

Before the gates opened, fans enjoyed a party zone featuring a 110-foot Ferris wheel, race cars painted in MLB team colors, food trucks, live music, pitching tunnels and batting cages,