This afternoon’s 5.8-magnitude earthquake, centered in central Virginia but felt by people many hundreds of miles away, will apparently have only a small impact on Tuesday’s full slate of Major League Baseball games.
Earthquake Rattles D.C. But Game Will Be Played
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From Nats Insider Mark Zuckerman:
Tonight's game between the Nationals and Diamondbacks will be played, though the start will be delayed slightly after engineers spent the afternoon confirming Nationals Park did not suffer any structural damage from this afternoon's 5.9 magnitude earthquake.
Team officials delayed the opening of the main center field gates, which normally open at 4:30 p.m., for about two hours. A line began forming outside the gate and swelled shortly before the gates were finally due to be opened around 6:40 p.m.
The Nationals haven't publicly announced whether the game would be played at all, but a club official confirmed a few minutes [ago] the game will take place, perhaps delayed by no more than 20 minutes.
The Diamondbacks’ team bus arrived at the ballpark roughly an hour late, but Nick Piecoro reported that manager Kirk Gibson had discouraged his players from taking batting practice even before the earthquake, presumably to switch things up for a first-place team that’s lost six straight games. The Nationals didn’t take their full batting practice on the field, either.
From ESPN.com:
“It went on for at least a minute,” said Betsy Hammond, who was attending the game with her husband, Tim, and their three children. “We were looking around and someone stood up and yelled, ‘Is that an earthquake?’ Then someone who works here came over and said they heard it on the radio.”
In the Mariners' broadcast booth, TV play-by-play man Dave Sims couldn't stop talking about the earthquake, his first. In 20 years, he'll probably remember Tuesday afternoon more for that than for Shin-Soo Choo's three-run walkoff home run that gave the Indians a much-needed victory.
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