'Deeply unwelcome': MLB backs off its plan for a game at Grand Teton

Major League Baseball (MLB) leadership is no longer considering holding a game inside a national park, according to a letter the commissioner, Robert Manfred, sent to officials in Teton county, Wyoming, on Thursday in what could be the league’s biggest swing-and-a-miss off the diamond.

On 26 September, the Washington Post reported that MLB had reached out to the White House about staging a one-day game at Grand Teton national park in Wyoming. Teton county describes itself as a “a year-round resort community” and sits within the Jackson Hole valley. It’s also a habitat for grizzly bears, osprey, bison and more.

News of MLB’s outreach to the federal government quickly sparked concern about the impact that erecting a field and the infrastructure to hold spectators could have on the natural landscape and habitat of scores of wildlife that call the 310,000-acre (125,500-hectare) park home.

In the letter, Manfred noted that MLB had held games at places like the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina and the nation’s oldest Negro Leagues stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. He added that MLB staff had been doing their due diligence to see whether a game at Grand Teton was possible and to evaluate the potential environmental impact.

“Since the story was reported, it has become clear that the local community does not want us to continue Grand Teton national park as a potential site,” Manfred wrote.

The outrage over the possible MLB game comes as national parks across the US struggle under funding cuts, staffing shortages and consistent overcrowding.

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A Teton county commissioner, Luther Propst, who described the potential game as an “incomprehensible and deeply unwelcome notion”, celebrated the MLB’s decision in a post on Facebook.

“Ever since I got a call from the Washington Post about [MLB] scouting a ballfield in Grand Teton National Park, I have been hoping this idea would die a quick death – and today it did!” he wrote. “This is what can happen when we stand up firmly together, and I am proud to have played my part.”

In a statement to the Guardian, a White House spokesperson said that it was approached by the MLB about the possibility of hosting the game but the National Park Service had not granted any permits to do so and the game is not a White House directive.

Neither MLB nor the National Park Service immediately responded to the Guardian’s request for comment.