Smoke from Canadian wildfires has blanketed northern U.S. states in the Midwest and East Coast, leading to a number of outdoor-activity cancellations.
What about the Milwaukee Brewers games against the Miami Marlins, scheduled to begin at American Family Field on July 17?
Obviously, the stadium has a retractable roof and adjustable back panels that can slightly mitigate the flow of smoke into the building, but air quality would remain hazardous.
“We are making the usual preparations to play tomorrow night’s game as scheduled,” a Brewers spokesman said July 16. “We remain in contact with Major League Baseball, our weather consultants and the Miami Marlins as we monitor the future forecast and conditions.”
Coming out of the all-star break, the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies did play their regularly scheduled game July 16 at Citizens Bank Park, though first pitch was moved up an hour. A Major League Soccer game in Chicago was postponed.
Mets and Phillies personnel said the presence of smoke proved only moderately inconvenient in terms of game play, though that doesn’t account for the cumulative health risks.
In Milwaukee, the Friday night game might actually be the least impacted by wildfire smoke over the weekend. The National Weather Service expects conditions to improve in Milwaukee on Friday, but that’s likely to provide only a temporary reprieve, with the smoke returning Saturday.
The American Family Field hotline message advising fans of roof status hadn’t been updated as of 9:30 a.m. July 17.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Will smoke and air quality affect Brewers games this weekend?
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