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Merchants To Play In Midnight Sun Game

Today the Everett Merchants announced that they will be making their third trip to Alaska this summer to take on the Alaska Goldpanners and will play in the 115th annual Midnight Sun Game one of the most iconic events in all of baseball. In total, we will play 6 games in Alaska from June 20-25th.


The Midnight Sun Game is played every summer solstice at Growden Memorial Park in Fairbanks, Alaska. Because the sun is out for almost 24 hours a day, the game starts at about 10:30 at night and completes around 1:30 the next morning. However, because Fairbanks’s summer time zone differs by about an hour from local solar time, coupled with the state’s observance of daylight saving time, the game may not actually last until solar midnight, at about 1:53.

Famous players who have appeared in the game include Tom Seaver, Dave Winfield, Terry Francona, Harold Reynolds, Jason Giambi, and Bill “Spaceman” Lee.

The first game was in 1906. Artificial light has never been used. The sun does dip below the horizon for about an hour. Since 1960, the game has been hosted by the Alaska Baseball League’s Fairbanks-based Alaska Goldpanners.

The Merchants previously played in the MidNight sun game back in 2012 falling 7-5 to the Panners.