LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It was good television. The Speedway Classic gave FOX a made-for-TV spectacle: bold visuals, roaring crowd, novelty with horsepower.
The concept sounded simple enough. Drop a baseball diamond into the middle of Bristol Motor Speedway. Wrap it in spectacle. Welcome a record-setting crowd. Let the moment do the rest.
And for a while, the moment delivered.
Players were driven around the track in pickup trucks. Pit crews changed tires on cars emblazoned with team logos. Starting lineups were introduced under billowing flags. Tim McGraw and Pitbull performed. Johnny Bench, Chipper Jones, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott all threw ceremonial first pitches. A stirring national anthem ended with a flyover from F/A-18s.
It was everything MLB had dreamed — right up until they yelled "Play Ball."
The skies opened. The Reds and Braves hadn't even started when the downpour became a two-hour-plus delay.
Even before that, cracks were showing off camera.
Concession lines were painfully long and began running out of food before the game even began. Social media filled with reports of hot dogs with no buns, nachos with no cheese — and eventually, no beer. The MLB-designed Fan Fest turned into a muddy, crowded mess. Speedway Classic merchandise sold out with people still in line.
One fan on X dubbed it the Fyre Fest of baseball. Ouch.
On screen, it was soggy. FOX's game crew and studio hosts scrambled to fill airtime. When the game was finally postponed after less than one inning, the four-man desk wasn't even told — they were still discussing the possibility of play, even while a massive video board behind them announced the postponement.
About half the crowd showed back up when play resumed Sunday.
So what did we learn in sports last week?
Something Dwight Eisenhower said during World War II:
"Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."
Eisenhower knew no military plan ever survived first contact with the enemy. But he also knew that the act of planning — thinking through contingencies, preparing for disruption — was what allowed you to adapt when things inevitably went sideways.
MLB didn't plan for sideways.
You wonder how an organization that could stage such an elaborate TV spectacle could so badly miss the mark for the people who actually showed up. It's a modern mistake — building something for the image, not the experience. Too often, the priority is how it looks to the world, not how it feels to the people who helped make it real.
That's the lesson: Prepare to succeed. But be ready for the storm. The flat tire. The traffic jam. The plan you didn't want to need.
That's not just Eisenhower. It's Greek philosopher Seneca, too:
"Cling tooth and nail to the following rule: Not to give into adversity, not to trust prosperity, and always take full note of fortune's habit of behaving just as she pleases."
Quick Sips
- The Floyds Knobs U12 Little League softball team opens its Little League World Series run Monday morning on ESPN+. It's their first trip to the event since 2017. Read the preview here.
- Louisville wideout Caullin Lacy is back. After sitting out the second half of last season to recover from injury, he's got something to prove. My Sunday feature is here.
The Last Drop
"Nearly all the best things that have come to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me."
— Carl Sandburg
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