Celebrate solstice by catching a ballgame or watching ski jumpers

For fans of late nights and long days, the summer game and a winter sport will provide a midnight treat on the summer solstice Thursday.

In Fairbanks, the annual Midnight Sun game, scheduled to start at 10 p.m. Thursday, will cap 24 straight hours of baseball that begins at midnight Wednesday with an American Legion game.

In Anchorage, the Midnight Sun Ski Jump-a-Thon will feature 12 hours of ski jumping and camping. The event begins at 6 p.m. Thursday and ends at 6 a.m. Friday at the Karl Eid Ski Jumps near the Hilltop Ski Area.

The Midnight Sun baseball game is the granddaddy of all things solstice in Alaska. It's 113 years old.

Since 1906, the game has been played on the night of the solstice without the use of artificial lights. The first pitch is delivered at 10 p.m. At the half-inning break closest to midnight, the crowd rises to its feet to sing the Alaska flag song.

Only twice has darkness prompted the cancellation or postponement of the Midnight Sun game. In 1984, Taiwan's national team forfeited when its manager deemed it was too dark to see the ball. In 2001, umpires halted the game in the 10th inning, at 1:20 a.m., because they ruled it was too dark to play; the game was finished on a later date.

The forecast is for clouds for this year's game at Growden Memorial Park, which pits the Fairbanks Goldpanners — the home team since 1960 — against the Orange County Surf of California.

The late-night game marks the final event of 24 straight hours of baseball and softball in Fairbanks as part of Major League Baseball's Play Ball program, which MLB runs in conjunction with a variety of partners including USA Baseball and USA Softball.

The first Play Ball event begins at midnight Wednesday — an American Legion game at Kiwanis Field between Fairbanks and North Pole.

Between the Legion game and the Midnight Sun game, a number of baseball and softball games will be played — including a 2 a.m. girls softball game and a 4 a.m. adult softball game. From 1-6 p.m., 600 kids are expected to run drills and collect freebies at Growden Park.

A smaller crowd is expected at the Karl Eid Ski Jumps for the inaugural ski jumping marathon.

There's a competition for members of the ski jumping club from 6-8 p.m. After that, those kids can jump whenever they want off any of the four jumps (10, 20, 40 and 65 meters) they are qualified to use.

"We're hoping to do it every year, sort of as a fun way to celebrate the solstice, and we're also hoping to raise a little bit of money for the club," said Karen Compton, one of the organizers of the event.

"Kids are getting pledges per jump and the jumps will be open all night long. We have a whole schedule of people who are manning the jumps and making sure everybody's safe and that jumps get counted."

The astrological event that is the actual summer solstice — the moment when the sun reaches its highest yearly point in the northern sky — is at 2:07 a.m. Thursday. Most of Alaska's solstice-related sports events will happen on the weekend.

The Midnight Sun Marathon will send runners from Bartlett High to the Delaney Park Strip on Saturday morning. Runners can also do a half-marathon or a 5K.

At 10 p.m. Saturday, the Anchorage Glacier Pilots will play their annual solstice baseball game at Mulcahy Stadium. This year the Pilots will take on the Mat-Su Miners.

There are two solstice events for mountain bikers — 12 Hours of Kincaid and the Kenai 250.

The 12 Hours of Kincaid provides two options Saturday at Kincaid Park — a 12-hour race at 10 a.m. and a 6-hour race at 4 p.m. Teams or individuals ride a loop starting at the Jodhpur Trailhead as many times as they can in the allotted time.

The Kenai 250 is a self-supported mountain bike race that covers 265 miles — much on single-track trails — with 30,000 feet in elevation gain. It starts Friday and ends Sunday in Hope.