Yankees vs. White Sox game postponed due to poor air quality in the Bronx
Major League Baseball has postponed Wednesday's game between the Yankees and Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium because of poor air quality in the Bronx due to smoke from recent wildfires in Canada.
The game will be made up as part of a single-admission doubleheader on Thursday, with the first game starting at 4:05 p.m.
“It was business as usual coming in," Yankee manager Aaron Boone said after the game was postponed. "Didn’t really think too much of it until I walked outside around two o’clock and I was like everybody else like ‘whoa.’ If my reaction was similar to Major League Baseball, the world’s reaction, circumstances change and it became apparent.”
The city had been covered in a yellow and at times orange haze that made for unpleasant breathing conditions and kept many residents indoors on Wednesday.
The air quality index (AQI) for the Bronx reached 235 at 2 p.m., hit 324 by 3 p.m. and climbed to 392 by 3:30 p.m. and stayed at a "hazardous" level when the postponement was announced at 4:30 p.m.
MLB also postponed Wednesday's game in Philadelphia between the Phillies and Detroit Tigers.
According to AirNow.gov, a partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, CDC and several state and local agencies, an AQI of 151-200 is classified as “unhealthy;” 201-300 as “very unhealthy;” and 301+ as “hazardous" for which it is advised that people "avoid all physical activity outdoors." (The AQI scale goes as high as 500)
The two teams played Tuesday's game amid very hazy conditions and shortly after first pitch, the AQI was 159, at the lower end of the "unhealthy" range. By the seventh inning Tuesday, the AQI rose to 196.
SNY MLB Insider Andy Martino reported Tuesday that air quality postponements are the purview of the league, in consultation with the Players Association, and are out of the hands of the clubs, according to a person with direct knowledge of the process.
Before making any decision on postponements for air, like weather, the league consults experts who take into account the AQI, the expected duration of the issue and whether a high AQI is expected to be sustained, according to Martino.
Wednesday's postponement was not the first due to air quality. Two games between the Mariners and Giants were postponed and moved to San Francisco in September 2020 after playing a game with an AQI of 220 earlier in the series.
Several minor league games have been canceled in recent years due to high AQI numbers and the Triple-A Syracuse Mets' home game against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs and the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders' home game against the Norfolk Tides were both postponed on Tuesday and again Wednesday.
Two other games were postponed Wednesday in other leagues in the region; the WNBA game between the Liberty and Minnesota Lynx at Barclays Center was postponed and the NWSL postponed a scheduled game between the NJ/NY Gotham FC and Orlando Pride in Harrison, NJ.
