Start of summer, end of baseball
Well, not really. But baseball shows how climate change affects everything.
Welcome to Planet Days, a green newsletter for a greenwashed Planet. Thank you to Sam Liptak for editing this post.
If you’re new to Planet Days, every other week I try to send out a three-minute read on what it means to go green — ranging from topics on gas stoves and recycling bins to lawns and electric vehicles.
🧠😵💫 Brain update: For those who have read this newsletter for a while, you know that last July I suffered a traumatic brain injury. Since then, I’ve dealt with a number of setbacks that have delayed my recovery and kept me from writing as much as I’d like to.
Even though it’s been two months since my last post, I hope that I’m trending in the right direction and can soon get back on my twice-monthly schedule. Brain injuries are no joke!
But more on today’s post: This Memorial Day, I thought it fitting to celebrate America’s pastime — and importantly, discuss how deeply affected the sport is (and we are) by a changing climate.
The year is 2050. Climate change has made it either too hot or too wet to play baseball. Major league attendance numbers are getting worse, and the amount of playable cities is getting smaller.
With expensive climate projects like seawalls and elevated buildings taking precedence, cities can’t find the billions of dollars in public money to retrofit the outdoor parks of a dying sport. Opting to only keep the handful of teams with retractable roofs, and therefore protect games from the elements, Major League Baseball consolidates its teams — from 30 to eight.
That's the loose premise of a novel that I promised myself I would write someday (don’t steal it). But it’s not just a boo-hoo tale for baseball die-hards. It’s also a peek, albeit a dramatic one, into how climate change affects everything.
Baseball is especially sensitive to weather. Even a little rain can delay or suspend games, which makes it so different from other sports. But this intimate relationship with weather also makes it so relatable.
If you’re like me, when you don’t know what to talk about with loose acquaintances, you talk about the weather. And in the lead-up to a wedding or vacation or birthday party, you constantly check the forecast.
Climate change also has a close relationship with weather. And though climate isn’t the first thing we think of when we think baseball, so much of how baseball operates shows just how much the two are linked.
First, climate change affects the comfort of baseball fans, directly influencing how cities construct ballparks. When Phoenix was awarded the Diamondbacks 25 years ago, they became the first ballpark to add a retractable roof — one that allowed cool nighttime air to flow into the park, while protecting players from oppressive heat during day games.
In the last two decades, cities like Seattle, Milwaukee, Houston, and Arlington (Texas) have followed Phoenix’s lead, building covered ballparks to combat heavy rains, Gulf Coast storms, and brutally hot or depressingly damp weather.
Teams without such luxuries are left to play in increasingly hostile weather: In 2017, the Dodgers and Astros played the hottest World Series game ever, with Los Angeles temperatures above 103 degrees at first pitch. Ten years earlier, the Cleveland Indians tried to play their home opener amid a snowstorm.
Aside from an uncomfortable ballpark experience, such extreme weather causes a slew of problems.
Extreme heat threatens the health of players and fans.
When the weather is bad, fewer people are willing to go to games, meaning less revenue for teams and cities.
When climate factors aren’t taken into account, ballparks can tax a municipalities’ limited resources: Every year, 15 major league teams travel to Arizona for spring training, using a complex that requires billions of gallons of water in a water-parched state.
In Florida, sea level rise is dictating where Tampa builds its next stadium, if the team even stays in the region.
Such weather also affects the game itself. Hotter games means more home runs: Since 2010, over 500 home runs could be linked to warmer temperatures, according to a study published this year. This statistic shows yet again how climate change touches everything, forcing us to restructure how we approach life (or the batter’s box).
“Without serious efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, rising temperatures will transform nearly all aspects of society, from cultural touchstones like baseball to basic human well-being,” the researchers write in The Conversation.
Taken to the extreme, baseball becomes a casualty of a warming world, a nostalgic and revered pastime eliminated, or at least significantly changed, by our own near-sighted decisions.
The important thing here, however, is to remember the importance of sports like baseball in our culture. If we talk about how climate change affects sports, we have more ways to start earnest conversations about how policy can slow global warming.
With climate change, baseball is the least of our worries. But if the sport is a stepping stone to talk about other issues, then that feels like a series win.