Major League Baseball has played at the “Field of Dreams” movie site. Now baseball is eager to see just how big a crowd will show up for a game at a NASCAR bullring of a track.

And Bristol Motor Speedway can hold a lot of people.

It’s part of Commissioner Rob Manfred’s push to take MLB to locations where baseball isn’t played every day live. MLB played a game at the movie site in Iowa in both 2021 and 2022. Alabama, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, too.

Now it’s Tennessee’s turn when the Cincinnati Reds play host to the Atlanta Braves on Aug. 2.

Manfred noted Tuesday after speaking at the CAA World Congress of Sports Presented by Sports Business Journal that the Tennessee Volunteers are the defending college baseball national champions with Vanderbilt winner of two college titles. Manfred sees lots of alignment between NASCAR and MLB fans.

“Big crowd, big crowd,” Manfred said of what is expected at Bristol. “We think that it’s an opportunity to have a really large audience for a major league game, and we think the setting in really a legendary speedway is going to be awesome for a baseball game.”

Nobody is ready to put a number on how many will turn out for the MLB Speedway Classic. Bristol set a record for a college football game in 2016 and has a capacity of 146,000 for racing.

This game will be played on a field laid over part of the speedway infield and the high-banked track.

Derek Schiller, president and chief executive officer of the Braves, said MLB approached the team a few years ago about this possibility. Schiller said the Braves were adamant about wanting to be a part of this game.

“We know that there’s a uniqueness to it that is unmatched,” Schiller said. “Playing a baseball game at a motor speedway and being part of that was really important also because this is part of where our fan base comes from. So we we think many, maybe most of those fans are going to be Atlanta Braves’ fans.”

Officials announced Tuesday that country superstar Tim McGraw will perform a concert an hour before first pitch. McGraw has ties to baseball having earned a college scholarship playing the sport. His late father Tug McGraw won two World Series titles pitching for the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies.

Hosting an event like this is nothing new for Bristol. The track hosted the Tennessee Volunteers and Virginia Tech in the Battle of Bristol in 2016 before a record 156,990 fans.

So track officials have experience adapting the half-mile concrete track into something new. Caldwell said preparations started before the track’s spring race April 13, won by Kyle Larson. Bristol then will have six weeks until hosting a night NASCAR Cup Series race in the playoffs on Sept. 13.

“It’s becoming very real,” said Jerry Caldwell, president and general manager of Bristol Motor Speedway. “We’re approaching 100 days out from the game, and we’re thrilled with the progress.”

AROUND THE MAJORS

Max Meyer struck out a career-high 14 in six scoreless innings, pinch-hitter Kyle Stowers had a three-run homer in the seventh and the Miami Marlins beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-3 on Monday night in Miami.

Damien High product Nick Lodolo (2-2), coming off paternity leave, allowed three runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings for the Reds.

Meyer tied for the third-most strikeouts in Marlins history behind Ricky Nolasco’s 16 against Atlanta on Sept. 30, 2009, and Liván Hernández’s 15 vs. the Braves in Game 5 of the 1997 NL Championship Series.

The Chicago Cubs acquired Drew Pomeranz from the Seattle Mariners, putting another relief option in their minor league system.

Chicago traded cash to Seattle for the 36-year-old Pomeranz, who hasn’t appeared in a big league game since 2021. The team said the veteran left-hander would report to Triple-A Iowa.

While the Cubs were on top of the NL Central standings heading into Tuesday’s games, their bullpen is off to a shaky start. They have a 5.19 bullpen ERA going into Tuesday night’s game against the Dodgers.

New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge extended his on-base streak to 19 games, going 1 of 4 with a walk, but struck out against Cade Smith with a runner on second for the final out in Monday’s 6-4 loss to the Guardians in Cleveland. The reigning AL MVP leads the majors with a .384 average, 33 hits and 25 RBIs.

Giancarlo Stanton, out since spring training, took batting practice with the Yankees on Tuesday as he continues to recover from tendinitis in both elbows.