Major League Baseball has reached out to the federal government about the possibility of one day staging a game in western Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park, an idea quickly met with resistance from environmental groups and others.
MLB and the players' association have played a handful of regular-season games away from the 30 big league ballparks in recent years, including in the Iowa corn fields made famous by the movie “Field of Dreams.”
An MLB official familiar with the discussions confirmed Monday that the league approached the Trump administration about possibly hosting a game in a national park. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the league hadn't authorized comment on the matter and said it was among several ideas MLB has explored.
A White House official said MLB asked the administration whether hosting a game at a national park would be possible but emphasized it was not a presidential directive and was not driven by the administration. The National Park Service has not granted any permits, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to speak on the record.
MLB's special event games have included games at Dyersville, Iowa, in 2021, 2022 and 2026, with another scheduled next August between Boston and Kansas City.
In addition, regular-season games were played at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, in 2024 and at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, in 2025, and games have been held since 2017 in conjunction with the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
MLB also has played international games in London; Mexico City and Monterrey, Mexico; Seoul, South Korea; Sydney; and Tokyo; plus some in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Grand Teton includes a commercial airport — the busiest in Wyoming — and a vast expanse of Jackson Hole bottomlands with spectacular views of the Teton Range. There is no shortage of flat terrain where a temporary ballpark could be built.
The possibility of building a baseball field on national park land quickly raised a host of questions.
“It’s abhorrent,” Mike Gierau, a Democratic state senator and baseball lover who represents Jackson and nearby Grand Teton, wrote in a text message. “Baseball is the American game. The national parks are America’s greatest idea. But a national park is to be protected for its undeveloped and scenic values.”
Environmental groups also came out against the idea, first reported by The Washington Post.
“Americans want to see protections for our national parks and public lands strengthened. Bulldozing these lands for a baseball stadium does the opposite, destroying the magnificent landscapes that millions of people come to experience,” Chris Kassar, the group's Wyoming director, said in a statement.
A message left with Grand Teton officials seeking more information wasn't immediately returned.
FILE - The Teton mountains reflect on Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park in Moran, Wyo., Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Amber Baesler, File)
Metal mixtures found in the leftover smoke, ash and debris from the deadly 2023 Maui wildfires were harmful to the lung health of people living nearby long after the burning ended, a new study says.
The work shows that major wildfires, which are worsening with the planet’s warming, could have lasting effects beyond immediate exposure.
Post-wildfire air quality needs to be monitored longer term, the research suggests, and recovery efforts need to consider what might remain in contaminated soot, residue and dirt well after burning stops.
The wildfires, caused by wind spreading a brushfire spurred by downed power lines, burned on the Hawaiian island of Maui in August 2023, destroyed the town of Lahaina and killed more than 100 people. They were among the deadliest in U.S. history.
New research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday found higher metal levels, associated with respiratory harm, in nearby residents up to a year and a half after the fires.
University of Hawaii researchers studied the urine of 1,400 adults and found substantially elevated concentrations of metals such as arsenic, cadmium, copper and antimony.
These metals could be the result of burned buildings, vehicles, electronics and other materials lost in the wildfires, the researchers say. They can cause a different human impact than simply the burned vegetation that is typically studied after fires of this magnitude.
“What we’re dealing with, especially in the aftermath of what we experienced in Lahaina, is a much more complicated mixture of these chemical exposures,” said Alika Maunakea, the study’s co-author and an anatomy, biochemistry, and physiology professor at the University of Hawaii, Manoa.
The researchers found antimony nearly 40 times higher in the Maui participants than U.S. biomonitoring data. They found manganese 3.8 times higher, barium 2.3 times and arsenic 2.2 times.
Having more metals in the body was more likely to result in abnormal lung function, such as having less breathing capacity and difficulty moving air in and out of one’s lungs, during standard breathing tests, the study found.
Those lung effects aligned with the geographic distribution of smoke and ash; those nearest to Lahaina, and Wailuku and Kahului, experienced a different impact than in those near Kula.
“It’s really important to identify potential sources of these exposures and to mitigate and reduce potential risks for re-exposures that might be contributing to these effects,” Maunakea said. “What happens to the land and environment can shape what people breathe, take into their bodies, and develop over time. The consequences of that can unfold over many years.”
Wildfires are getting larger, more intense, faster-moving and more frequent in certain parts of the globe, experts say, in part due to the warming and drier weather associated with climate change. Human-caused climate change has upped the likelihood of many major fires around the world in recent years and led to fires in regions that typically do not see them as often.
The researchers did note a limitation of the study in that it cannot assess exactly how much of the impact came directly from the wildfires versus chronic or other exposures — such as Hawaii’s geology, diet, historic agricultural and industrial activity and environmental sources — given there is no comparable data from before August 2023.
However, previous studies have also found significant long-term human impacts from wildfires and other environmental crises. The impacts have included lung issues and mental health issues such as depression.
“This is bigger than wildfires. These climate-related disasters can change the environment in ways that continue after the immediate emergency is over,” said Ruben Juarez, study co-author and professor of health economics at the university. “Floods, hurricanes, fires, and other disasters definitely can disturb soil, debris, buildings, and legacy contaminants that we have in Hawaii, creating these pathways for exposure. … Disaster response should not stop when visible danger is gone.”
Dr. Kekoa Taparra, a physician and assistant professor who studies chronic diseases at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the research expands our understanding of the health burden of the fires, particularly over an extended period.
“This type of work echoes that climate-related disasters affect human health well beyond the immediate injuries and deaths we see during the event itself,” said Taparra, who was not involved in the study released Monday but has studied the health impacts of disasters. “Historic wildfires in Lahaina and even Los Angeles have highlighted how these disasters can produce longer-lasting consequences through displacement, disruption of healthcare and social networks, environmental exposures, and potentially increased mortality.
“As these events become more frequent and severe, understanding and measuring their full health impact will be essential to building more resilient communities and health systems.”
Alexa St. John is an Associated Press climate reporter. Follow her on X: @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ast.john@ap.org.
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FILE - A person pushes a cart along the Honoapi'ilani Highway past homes destroyed by a recent wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, Aug. 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - The remains of homes are visible in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, Aug. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, file)
FILE - Charred vehicles remain near burned homes in the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, Aug. 22, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
FILE - A man views the aftermath of a wildfire in Lahaina, Hawaii, Aug. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
