The New York Yankees and Miami Marlins will play an evening game at 6:00 PM EST on Monday, which is very normal.
The absurdity of this transaction, however, involves the initial plan: 2:00 PM EST, smack dab in the middle of a solar eclipse — with an eclipse-themed promotion baked in to boot.
New York Yankees v Miami Marlins / Rich Storry/GettyImages
How many Yankees promotions in recent years have been actively dangerous to the human eye? This has got to be the first one since they eliminated Bat Day.
After conversations with Major League Baseball, the Yankees and Rob Manfred’s cabal came to the conclusion that no, actually, it wouldn’t be a fantastic idea to play Monday’s Marlins showdown smack dab in the middle of a solar eclipse. Apparently, the schedulers hadn’t learned much from the unpleasantness of last summer’s Yankees/White Sox game played under intense Canadian wildfire smog.
Remember Carlos Rodón’s outdoor bullpen session during the height of the lung-destroying smog? He doesn’t either. Probably another effect of the smog.
Yankees vs. Marlins Weather: When is Monday’s solar eclipse?
From 3:16 PM to 3:29 PM EST, some truly weird nonsense will be happening above the ballpark in the Bronx, and ticketed fans may enter starting at 3:00 PM EST if they’d like a communal experience unlike any other. Previously, the only time the sun has ever been blotted out at Yankee Stadium was that one time Barry Bonds destroyed a baseball into the upper deck in right.
The first 15,000 fans attending Monday’s game will receive a Solar Eclipse Day shirt courtesy of HubSpot. If those fans enter the gates early enough, they’ll also get a chance to scald their own eyeballs, and they won’t have to do it the old-fashioned way (watching JA Happ pitch).
We’ll update this post with any additional weather interruptions heading into Monday’s contest, but this delay likely accounts for the biggest hurdle. Nobody wants to play a night game in April unless they have to, but yes, this was probably a smarter idea than playing through a solar event. We’ve already had to deal with a Home Opener Earthquake, after all.
