The Coldest Game in World Series History

Because the baseball regular season is in the spring and summer, the playoffs and World Series are forced to be held during the fall. Due to this, some World Series games can get very cold, but what is the coldest World Series game in history? The answer? Game Four of the 1997 World Series between the Marlins and the Indians at Cleveland’s Jacobs Field on October 22, 1997.

The 1997 World Series was a juxtaposition with respect to the weather. Four of the games were held in sunny, hot Miami, Florida, while the three others were held in freezing Cleveland, Ohio. Naturally, the games in Cleveland were going to be very cold, but no one expected a game where the official game time temperature was 38˚F (3.3˚C). Also, as the game progressed into the later innings, the media reported wind chill readings as low as 18°F! This game was recorded as the coldest game in Fall Classic history. However, Major League Baseball didn’t record the weather for games until the 1970s, so colder World Series games could have occurred before weather data was recorded.

The game featured two rookie starting pitchers,  Jaret Wright  for the Indians and  Tony Saunders for the Marlins. Wright picked up the win for Cleveland as the Indians won 10-3.  Manny Ramirez homered in the first and  Matt Williams  hit one out in the bottom of the eighth. Including the homer, Williams reached base five times, going three for three with two walks on the night. The Game Four win for Cleveland evened up the Series at two games apiece, but the Marlins would go on to win their first World Series in seven games.

As you can see, World Series games and regular season games are a lot different when thinking about temperature (and importance). Thanks for reading this post, and a special shout out to my dad’s friend, Mike Scully, for coming up with the idea for this post. I hope you enjoyed it and check back in a few days for more of “all the buzz on what wuzz.”