Brent Suter looked like he was FaceTiming someone in the Cincinnati Reds clubhouse. Until you looked closer and realized he was talking to a video.
“I’m trying to get down my Ricky Bobby,” said the Reds’ reliever, who is almost as good at impersonations as he is as big-league pitching.
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“Shake and bake!” he said. “Something like that.”
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Gentlemen, start your engines.
Whether it’s the veteran lefty impersonating the protagonist of the iconic “Talladega Nights” NASCAR spoof or catcher Tyler Stephenson having special catching gear designed in the Ricky Bobby team motif, the Reds are ready for the Aug. 2 Speedway Classic at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“Oh, yeah. We’re locked and loaded,” Suter said. ”I tell you who’s locked in is the wives. We’ve got all these kids who are gonna be in like pit crew outfits. And wives with NASCAR boots and stuff.
“It’s awesome,” Suter said. “Their buy-in is off the charts.”
It’s not all fun. The game counts, especially for the Reds, who are fresh off adding three players at the trade deadline and driving for a playoff shot as they seek a series clincher against the Atlanta Braves at Bristol.
“That’s the one thing. It’s not an exhibition game,” said Reds manager Terry Francona, who’s more focused on getting a win closer to the playoffs than 10 feet closer to any country-music celebrities or race-car drivers.
“You don’t want to be the Grinch, but it’s also not an exhibition,” Francona said. “So some of the asks, like getting players mic’d up and talking, ‘No.’ And it’s not because we don’t care about the game, but if a player messes up a play and they’re talking to an announcer, that’s not going to work.”
He said MLB has been good about working with team officials on what they’re willing to do in-game with players and staff.
To the larger point, Francona brought up a trip his perennial-contending Red Sox made to Japan two decades ago, involving exhibitions before splitting a pair of games that counted to “open” the regular season.
“I was fine with the exhibition part of it. It was actually kind of fun,” Francona said. “When the games counted, and they still wanted you to do (side events) — it was our Opening Day. And we had to go to the embassy. And it’s like 2:30, 3 o’clock. And I’m losing my mind.
“You get anxiety.”
But MLB stages versions of these one-off games/marketing schemes annually in its effort to grow its audience.
Which puts a larger business context on the business at hand for the likes of Francona and Atlanta manager Brian Snitker, with all due respect to their competitive concerns.
“Saying that, if it’s good for the game I think we need to do it with a smile,” Francona said.
Suter certainly is.
And rookie Chase Burns. The Nashville native gets the start for the Reds in the first MLB regular-season game ever played in the state of Tennessee — opposite Braves starter Spencer Strider, who grew up on the other end of the state in Knoxville.
“Two guys from Tennessee playing in the first Tennessee game, I think it means a lot,” Burns said. “It’s just a cool experience.”
MLB expects at least 85,000 for the Bristol game, which would break the MLB regular-season attendance record for a game of 84,587 set in 1954 during a pennant-drive game in Cleveland with the Yankees in town.
“Crazy,” Burns said.
Did somebody say drive?
No, they won’t be racing cars around the track during the game on the baseball field erected in the Speedway infield.
“I’ve never been to a NASCAR race, but I have a feeling that just the enormity of the people there is going to feel like a NASCAR event, an event that’s more like a college football game or NASCAR attendance-wise,” Suter said. “Just seeing people going crazy. I think it’s going to be awesome.
“I’m really looking forward to it, seeing like Tim McGraw and Pit Bull right there. A whole bunch of things to look forward to.”
