By Canadian Press

MLB politely refuses Montreal’s offer to host games as hurricane Irma nears Florida

Sep 8, 2017 | 9:53 AM

MONTREAL — A renewed Montreal offer to Major League Baseball to help out in the wake of hurricane Irma has been politely refused.

A person with knowledge of the offer told The Canadian Press late Thursday the City of Montreal offered to host the upcoming three-game series between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays.

Scheduled to be held in Tampa Bay between Sept. 11 and 13, the series will instead be held at Citi Field in New York.

A spokesperson for MLB said in an email Friday the availability of a sufficient number of hotel rooms in New York City was behind the choice.

The games will be played Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday afternoon.

Irma is expected to hit Florida on Saturday and despite some fluctuations in strength, it will likely stay a Category 4 hurricane.

A spokesman for the MLB commissioner’s office said late Thursday that if the series were to be moved, it wouldn’t take place in Montreal.

Montreal also offered to help when the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers had to move their series last week because of hurricane Harvey.

The three games were ultimately held at Tropicana Field, home of the Rays, between Aug. 29 and 31.

Less than 15,000 people total attended the three games.

“As for the Astros games, it was to offer our support to Major League Baseball that we submitted this request,” the source said. “Montreal would have the capacity to respond to all Major League Baseball’s demands.”

The city would have also used the series to raise funds to help hurricane victims and the source suggested a Yankees-Rays series would have sold out in Montreal.

Frederic Daigle, The Canadian Press