A September nor’easter brought heavy rain, strong winds, and flooding concerns to New England this weekend, and Fenway Park could not host Sunday’s Cubs-Red Sox regular-season finale. Major League Baseball’s solution was a long one: move the game roughly 1,300 miles south to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg. Boston remained the designated home team despite playing in a rival’s ballpark, and the two clubs had already played a doubleheader at Fenway on Friday before traveling to Florida.
This is believed to be only the sixth time in MLB history that weather has forced a game to a neutral site. It’s also the second such relocation played at Tropicana Field, which hosted Rangers-Astros games moved by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Previous weather relocations involved hurricanes Ivan, Ike, and Irma, plus a 2007 snowstorm that sent an Angels-Indians series to Milwaukee. For the Trop, it’s another entry in an unusual résumé as baseball’s emergency host.
The timing made for a strange afternoon: Saturday’s results locked Chicago into the National League’s second Wild Card spot and set Boston’s postseason position, turning Sunday’s finale into a tune-up. Two iconic franchises, a domed ballpark on the Gulf Coast, and a game with nothing on the line except pride. Would you have gone if you’d known a big-league game was landing in St. Petersburg on a few hours’ notice?
