FOR THE WEEK OF OCT. 05, 2026

No grand slams in Grand Teton: Major League Baseball drops national park game request amid outcry

Major League Baseball leaders struck out on a swing that missed. They dropped a request to the federal government to allow a construction of a temporary ballpark in Grand Teton National Park for a regular season game. "It's become clear the community does not want us to continue," the baseball commissioner wrote last week in a letter to three officials in Jackson, Wyoming, who had objected strongly. "We will not continue to evaluate Grand Teton National Park as a potential site."

The state's Republican governor, other politicians, parkgoers and conservationists blasted the offbeat proposal. Mike Gierau, a Democratic state senator from Jackson, called it an "epically bad marketing idea" and criticized federal officials for considering it. Donald Trump's administration recently had a National Park Service deputy director look at three potential locations in the majestic park in the Rocky Mountains range.

A few days earlier, Trump's team said in a statement: "This is not a White House or administration priority." MLB has held three regular season games in rural Iowa next to the site where a movie called "Field of Dreams" was filmed in 1989. (Boston and Kansas City play there next August.) Last season, the Atlanta Braves beat the Cincinnati Reds at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.

Nature group says: "We are grateful that Major League Baseball heard the roar of the crowd. . . . The bases were loaded with opposition, and this news is a grand slam for Teton County communities and the enduring legacy of Grand Teton National Park." -- Allison Michalski, a senior manager at the National Parks Conservation Association

Governor says: "Grand Teton National Park is spectacular. I cannot imagine, however, losing the night sky, the sound of elk bugling or just the joy of sitting and taking in the beauty of an evening in that valley that God made almost perfect." – Mark Gordon, R-Wyoming

Resident says: "Holding a baseball game there was just the cherry on top of the lunacy happening as of late." -- Xander Witt, University of Wyoming business student

Front Page Talking Points Archive

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SL.CCS.1/2/3/4 Grades 6-12: An essay of a current news event is provided for discussion to encourage participation, but also inspire the use of evidence to support logical claims using the main ideas of the article. Students must analyze background information provided about a current event within the news, draw out the main ideas and key details, and review different opinions on the issue. Then, students should present their own claims using facts and analysis for support.