ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The 111th annual Midnight Sun Baseball Game in Alaska was called because of darkness.
The annual game is played in Fairbanks on the solstice with no artificial lights, capitalizing on the 21 hours and 49 minutes of sunlight.
The first pitch was at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, and the night proceeded to get darker because of storm clouds and the setting sun.
The Alaska Goldpanners were leading the Kenai Peninsula Oilers 8-0 at the top of the 7th inning when the umpires called a 30-minute delay at 1 a.m. Wednesday to give the sun time to come back up over the horizon.
At 1:30 a.m., Goldpanners interim general manager John Lohrke said it didn’t look that different and umpires decided to delay the game until Wednesday evening out of safety concerns. Lohrke said the game has since been called.
It’s not the first time darkness has played havoc with the famous baseball game in the north. Lohrke said a team about 30 years ago walked off the field because of darkness.
The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks were founded in 1960 and were the charter team of the Alaska Baseball League in 1974. The ABL is considered one of the top landing spots for collegiate athletes to play their summer baseball.
Notable alumni for the Goldpanners include Terry Francona, Tom Seaver, Dave Winfield, Jason Giambi, Bill Lee aka “The Spaceman” and Barry Bonds.
The Denver Post contributed to this report.
