Baseball Faces an Enormous Climate Problem, and There's No Baseball Solution to It

[Matthew Trueblood]

Image courtesy of © David Banks-Imagn Images

Home plate umpire Chad Whitson had to leave Saturday's game between the Mariners and Cubs at Wrigley Field after just five innings, with heat-related illness. The game-time temperature in Chicago was 94° Fahrenheit, with the heat index rising over 100° at times during the day. Umpires are, by far, the most frequent on-field personnel to succumb to heat in Major League Baseball, due to their considerably higher average age, relative to players; the fact that they must spend the whole game on the field, rather than taking turns in the dugouts as the teams do; and the extra equipment the home-plate umpire has to wear for safety.

Because few fans take umpires' welfare especially seriously, their disproportionate share of the burden added on dangerously hot days has made the game's interaction with a rapidly warming world somewhat less popular a topic than it should be. With each passing year, though, it's becoming harder to ignore how dangerous it sometimes is to partake in MLB games during the heat of summer—and how much longer that portion of the summer is. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), heat waves—multi-day events during which temperatures reach ranges dangerous for all humans and stay there for extended periods—occur almost three times as often as they did in the 1960s; roughly twice as often as they did in the 1980s; and over 30% more often than they did even in the first decade of the 21st century. Those heat waves last longer (4.3 days, up from 3.0 on a steady climb), are more intense (the temperature exceeds the normal range by more) and occur over a wider span of the year (with a heat wave season that lasts 10 weeks, up from less than 7 weeks even 30 years ago) than they used to. There is no good news here. None.

There is no intelligent debate to be had about the existence, the urgency, or the enormity of climate change. It's happening. It's threatening human lives, and the American lifestyle, in myriad ways. It must be reckoned with, and it must be mitigated, even though it can't be stopped at this stage.

The problem, if you're a baseball fan, is that baseball can do very little to mitigate this crisis. That's not the same as saying it can't do anything. It can, and it must. The league should create and abide by a policy of postponing games scheduled to take place under unsafe conditions with regard to heat and/or air quality, just as they do with rain and other forms of severe weather. There's already no rule proscribing heat-related delays or postponements, but they need to be considered more seriously, more often—because the number of occasions on which they are real threats to player safety, fan safety, and the quality and experience of the ballgame has risen sharply, and will continue to do so.

In the meantime, of course, the league should bend itself to the task of using its might as a lobbying entity to support measures that reduce the impact of climate change and have a chance to slow down the warming trends. Many (though far from all) of the mitigations and partial solutions to this crisis must be large-scale, requiring corporate and/or government action, not just individuals or even teams making minor tweaks. Baseball should be telling that to leaders at home and abroad.

That, alas, feels very unlikely right now. Neither the sport nor its fan base has even fully grappled with the fact that one of its teams has been displaced by a climate-related disaster, and that more such cases are soon to follow. Those should be the easy calls to action. It will be much harder, unless and until things get even worse, to stir this particular body to action when it comes to keeping people safe from our day-to-day, frog-in-a-pot problem: it's getting hotter. Slowly, but surely. And also, not that slowly.

The game's preferred tactic, of course, is to retreat inside. If the West Sacramento Athletics accomplish a move to Las Vegas, as they hope to, it will be to a roofed and air-conditioned stadium. If the Rays regain their home at Tropicana Field, there will once again be eight teams who play home games under roofs at least some of the time, and the Vegas A's would be the ninth. However, such stadia are more expensive, take up more room, and are only Band-Aids on the bigger problem. 

Baseball is our summer game. It celebrates nature and thrives in it. An anodyne, indoor version of the game is not worth having, and neither is a world where we can only breathe fresh air or bear the temperatures indoors. Baseball is one place where we're feeling an ever-increasing crush from the world, telling us—in no uncertain terms—that something has to give. For the next several years, baseball will need to be played only when safe, which will mean building in more off days on the long calendar of the season and/or canceling more contests. For the several years after that, it will either be unplayable altogether; played only inside, like arena football; or played safely in the summers of a better world. We have to decide which of those it will be, right now, and watching Whitson be forced from Saturday's game should help us all make our choices.

View full article

[PVG]

Matt, this post is very much over the top.  There have been days as hot as yesterday (or today) 20, 40 and 60 years ago.  Some solutions for umpires would be to have two home plate umpires one for the first half of a game and one for the second half.   There could also be 4 base umpires - with one rotating out each inning.

I don't think that anyone is predicting that baseball will be unplayable outside in the 20 years -  or even 50 years in Chicago - where did you get that from?  More night games and more shade would help the fan experience.

A lot of people love indoor baseball.  I believe the Astros attendance is something like 32,000 per game - some years even better - when the team is more competitive.

It's not clear at all what the solution to global warming might be.  Estimates are that if the US (13% of global emissions) would cease all emissions tomorrow it would affect the change in global temps by 0.2 degrees C by 2100.  Probably tech solutions will be necessary - large increase in cheap energy (nuclear) which might make carbon capture economical  and solar engineering (the star wars - outer space kind) as a temporary measure..

Back to baseball -  I think the real problem facing baseball is the increase in injuries, esp to pitchers - see https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25460405-mlb-pitching-injuries/

Stays on the IL have doubled since 2012. 

Growing up a few years ago - I would watch Fergie Jenkins, Kenny Holtzman, Bill Hands, Milt Pappas take the mound every 4 days -they overlapped with Rick Reuschel -  and complete games were a regular  feature.   And those pitchers pitched for years.   Now we have an epidemic of injuries and it seems that your favorite pitcher is always on the IL.  I hope the baseball minds can come up with some solutions.

Also will Matt Shaw ever be a hitter?

[thawv]

Please stick to articles about the Cubs, and not your personal beliefs about the climate.  It's just your opinion.

[Brock Beauchamp]

On 6/22/2025 at 10:40 AM, thawv said:

Please stick to articles about the Cubs, and not your personal beliefs about the climate.  It's just your opinion.

I really have no interest in opening this line of discussion but it's not an opinion, it's the evidence supported by every field of study in science that overlaps with the climate. 97% of climate scientists state that climate change is real and human-made.

https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/do-scientists-agree-on-climate-change/

[mul21]

On 6/22/2025 at 10:40 AM, thawv said:

Please stick to articles about the Cubs, and not your personal beliefs about the climate.  It's just your opinion.

He very clearly and concisely cited his sources for everything he wrote.  You don't seem to understand the difference between opinion and fact. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Setting aside the lightly masked stick-to-sports-isms, I do think that article exaggerates the baseball related impact.  To the degree there is a significant problem, I think the steps to manage are fairly simple and impactful.  Define criteria for delays/postponements like Matt mentioned, and play fewer day games in the hottest months.  The latter may bump into eventual logistics problems with the length of the season given off day/travel needs, but still far from intractable.

[thawv]

17 hours ago, mul21 said:

He very clearly and concisely cited his sources for everything he wrote.  You don't seem to understand the difference between opinion and fact. 

The article is not about the Cubs.  It's about climate change.  This is a Cubs page, and not a weather page. 

[Outshined_One]

23 minutes ago, thawv said:

The article is not about the Cubs.  It's about climate change.  This is a Cubs page, and not a weather page. 

You've been around long enough to know that we've discussed everything on this forum from the Ricketts' political activities to how the Daytona Cubs needed to be moved due to being hurricaned out on a yearly basis to where Theo Epstein got his Starbucks to Tom Tunney's Cubs shakedowns to which players got the COVID vaccine.

Sports are inherently political and intertwined with the rest of the world, like it or not.  Feel free to disagree with other people's opinions, but trying to shut down a discussion on a website you don't own or moderate is kinda dumb.

[thawv]

49 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

You've been around long enough to know that we've discussed everything on this forum from the Ricketts' political activities to how the Daytona Cubs needed to be moved due to being hurricaned out on a yearly basis to where Theo Epstein got his Starbucks to Tom Tunney's Cubs shakedowns to which players got the COVID vaccine.

Sports are inherently political and intertwined with the rest of the world, like it or not.  Feel free to disagree with other people's opinions, but trying to shut down a discussion on a website you don't own or moderate is kinda dumb.

Fair enough.  But I'm not trying to shut anything down.  I'm just saying that this is a Cubs page and not a political climate change page.  

[mul21]

9 minutes ago, thawv said:

Fair enough.  But I'm not trying to shut anything down.  I'm just saying that this is a Cubs page and not a political climate change page.  

Way to completely change the argument you originally made from "we don't need you opinions" to "this isn't a climate change forum".  Pretty typical from those who don't really have a leg to stand on in their argument.

[thawv]

On 6/24/2025 at 9:37 AM, mul21 said:

Way to completely change the argument you originally made from "we don't need you opinions" to "this isn't a climate change forum".  Pretty typical from those who don't really have a leg to stand on in their argument.

We most certainly don't need an article dedicated to climate change in a Cubs forum.  You're kidding, right?  This is not a political page.  It's a Cubs page. 

[squally1313]

1 minute ago, thawv said:

We most certainly don't need an article dedicated to climate change in a Cubs forum.  You're kidding, right?  This is not a political page.  It's a Cubs page. 

I'm sorry the website made you click on and read the article.

[thawv]

Just now, squally1313 said:

I'm sorry the website made you click on and read the article.

I'm sorry the website made you click on my post.  We obviously don't feel the same way about the purpose of a Cubs forum.  

[squally1313]

16 minutes ago, thawv said:

I'm sorry the website made you click on my post.  We obviously don't feel the same way about the purpose of a Cubs forum.  

I'll lean towards the side of defending the writers putting in all the work and producing all the content over repeatedly criticizing them for content you clearly don't care about. 

Also as a heads up, maybe don't check out the Social Forum. 

[chopsx9]

8 hours ago, squally1313 said:

Also as a heads up, maybe don't check out the Social Forum. 

In fairness isn't that why that stuff is segregated in that forum?  I know I avoid most of the other forums - I don't live in the US and did not grow up in North America so I find some of the other topics tiresome...so I stay out of those forums for the most part.  That said I think this article is baseball related enough - maybe a couple of the sentences are a little baiting but of no real issue to me. 

Mandate that all future stadiums built need to be covered; solves a few problems.