Cincinnati Reds Catcher, Tyler Stephenson, Going Full “Ricky Bobby” For Speedway Classic At Bristol

Only fitting that someone paid tribute to the great Ricky Bobby during a baseball game played inside a racetrack.

In case you missed it, the MLB decided to shake (and bake) things up a bit by hosting a game inside Bristol Motor Speedway this season. The famous racetrack would normally stick to what it knows best: racing. However, every once in a while, a unique opportunity presents itself to the venue, and the stadium trades out its race cars for another form of entertainment.

This time around, the Bristol, Tennessee racetrack will transform into a baseball diamond for the MLB’s Speedway Classic. The Athletic first reported late last year that the 150,000 seat stadium will be the host of a neutral site game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves in 2025.

And it’s not the first time that the speedway was converted to fulfill another purpose. Back in 2016, Virginia Tech and Tennessee played a game there, and set the record for highest attended NCAA football game with 156,990 fans in attendance.

The regular season game is set to be played on August 2nd of 2025, and it will be the first ever in-season Major League Baseball game played in the state of Tennessee. That’s somewhat hard to believe, right? But I guess it makes sense… no MLB calls the state of Tennessee home (could Nashville soon change that?).

And now, we’re getting to see how the MLB game at Bristol Motor Speedway will look with new renderings released from Front Office Sports. With the news that Major League Baseball is adding a Tim McGraw pre-game concert to the already special night, they felt as though it would be helpful to show fans how everything will fit inside of Bristol Motor Speedway.

There’s plenty of space to make a baseball game and a concert work… but the more interesting question has been, “How will it all be laid out?” As you can see, it appears that a portion of the stadium seating will be closed off – just because of how a baseball diamond fits, and so no fans pay for and experience horrible seats.

That being said, the altered venue is still expected to be able to seat over 100,000 fans, which would easily break the MLB’s regular season attendance record (set back in 1954 when 86,563 people watched the Yankees play the Indians at Municipal Stadium). And if anyone out there just so happens to love both baseball and racing, this sports mash-up is a dream come true.

The renderings certainly look like they are something out of a dream:

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Honestly can’t wait to see how they’ll pull it off.

And I’m already loving that some players that will be participating in the game are already doing their part to make the event that much more special. Take Cincinnati Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, for example. Stephenson found out that he his team would be playing in the MLB Speedway Classic and decided to get some gear specially made to perfectly meet the once-in-a-lifetime occasion.

Why not honor the greatest fictional race car driver the world has ever seen in Ricky Bobby while you take the field for a baseball game played within Bristol Motor Speedway?

“One of the best things I’ve seen in awhile. Check out Tyler Stephenson’s gear for the Speedway Classic as he goes full Ricky Bobby and Talladega Nights. Shake and Bake!”

That’s simply the greatest thing I’ve ever seen. I hope we see more specialized gear like that as we get closer to the game.

We’re now less than a month out from the Speedway Classic game between the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds. And if either of those teams need to light a fire in their collective belly to win that game (as a Braves fan, Lords knows they could use some extra juice to come out victorious), a famous poet once uttered these six words:

“If you ain’t first, your last.”The post Cincinnati Reds Catcher, Tyler Stephenson, Going Full “Ricky Bobby” For Speedway Classic At Bristol first appeared on Whiskey Riff.