Major League Baseball has been forced to postpone a pair of games Wednesday for a rather unusual reason.
The league postponed the White Sox-Yankees game in New York and the Tigers-Phillies game in Philadelphia due to air quality issues. Both cities are being impacted by heavy smoke from wildfires burning in Canada, which led to both postponements.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post shared a photo earlier from Yankee Stadium, and the haze from the smoke was evident.
The picture does not do full justice to the haze over Yankee Stadium. It feels like 5am/dawn-ish. I came from downtown Manhattan and this thickness/haze is far worse. pic.twitter.com/TTNY52LIK7
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) June 7, 2023
Health concerns were certainly a major motivating factor behind the postponements. However, more practically, some players apparently had concerns about whether they would even be able to track fly balls in the haze.
Concern at Yankee Stadium among players and execs about playing in the smoke is about the viability of fly balls
Carlos Rodon pointed out some balls disappeared into the sky last night, and the smoke is much worse today than yesterday
— Joon Lee (@joonlee) June 7, 2023
The smoke and haze was an issue last night, too, but it appears to have gotten even worse a day later. It’s pretty easy to see why MLB was not prepared to ask players to play through these conditions.
