Nats to face Phillies in 2023 MLB Little League Classic

SAN DIEGO – The Nationals have been selected to play in next year’s Little League Classic in Williamsport, Pa., against the Phillies, Major League Baseball announced tonight.

The Nats and Phillies will face off Sunday, Aug. 20, 2023 at historic Bowman Field, home of the collegiate summer baseball league Williamsport Crosscutters, a short drive from the annual site of the Little League World Series, which will be taking place throughout that week.

It’s the first time the Nationals have been selected for any of Major League Baseball’s various neutral-site games, which over the years have included trips to London, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan and Australia, plus the Field of Dreams in Iowa, the College World Series in Nebraska and Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Created in 2017, the Little League Classic is a "Sunday Night Baseball" game televised by ESPN. It will count as the finale of a weekend series hosted by the Nats, with the two teams playing in D.C. the previous two nights before heading to Williamsport only for the day, visiting the actual Little League World Series in the afternoon. Players from the participating Little League World Series will then attend the Nats-Phillies game in person that evening.

The annual event has previously included the Pirates (twice), Cardinals, Phillies, Mets, Cubs, Angels, Guardians and tonight’s competitors: the Orioles and Red Sox.

Built in 1926, Bowman Field is the second-oldest ballpark in minor league baseball. Its listed capacity is only 2,366, making for an extremely intimate setting for a major league game.

MLB is expected to release the entire 2023 schedule later this week. For the first time, all 30 clubs will face each other for at least one series, a change in the new collective bargaining agreement that will reduce the number of intradivision games and ensure every interleague opponent comes to a particular town every other year instead of every six years under the prior scheduling format.