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Hazy conditions prevailed at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday.
CNN –
A number of sports games and practices have been postponed as smoke from Canada’s wildfires continues to choke the Midwest, Northeast and Southeast United States.
Around 75 million people are under air quality warnings as smoke from wildfires shrouds major US cities. Major League Baseball (MLB), the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) are being forced to postpone games over concerns about hazardous air quality.
MLB has postponed two games — one between the Detroit Tigers and hosts Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park and the other between the Chicago White Sox and the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium — to Wednesday because medical experts and weather experts warned of “dangerous evictions.” “Air quality conditions in both cities had warned,” the league said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the WNBA was forced to postpone Wednesday’s game between the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx due to smoke at the Liberty’s home arena. The league indicated that information about the rescheduling of the game would be announced at a later date.
The New York Racing Association (NYRA) canceled Thursday’s practice at Belmont Park due to “poor air quality” in New York state, while the NWSL in New Jersey has postponed Wednesday night’s Challenge Cup game in Harrison to August 9 has postponed.
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Zack Wheeler of the Philadelphia Phillies warms up at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday.
“The safety of our players, officials and fans is our top priority. After consultation with the NWSL’s medical and operational staff, it was determined that the game could not be safely played based on the projected air quality index,” the NWSL said in a statement.
Smoke from Canada’s fires has been regularly sweeping the northeast and mid-Atlantic for more than a week, raising concerns about the damage from persistent poor air quality.
So far this year in Canada, more than nine million acres have been charred by wildfires – about 15 times the area normally burned at this time of year – and more than 10,500 people have been evacuated from communities across Alberta.
According to the MLB, the Phillies-Tigers game will take place Thursday at 6:05 p.m. ET, while the Yankees and White Sox will now play a doubleheader starting at 4:05 p.m. ET on Thursday.
The Belmont Stakes is scheduled for Saturday at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, and the NYRA said a decision on Thursday’s live racing program will be made in the morning following a “review of air quality conditions and the forecast.”