Baseball may be back as MLB considers starting season. But it will look very different
Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the desperation of no sports has led to some insane ideas being tossed around.
But this idea to start the 2020 Major League Baseball season might take the cake.
According to the Associated Press and ESPN, the league is possibly looking to quarantine all players and teams in Arizona in May. The idea, apparently, is to relocate all 30 teams to the Phoenix area and keep the players in “relative isolation” according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.
In layman’s terms? They’d be stuck inside their own hotel rooms for months on end.
“You’re going to be largely separated from your families and you’re going to have to function in a very contained way. It’s not a normal life, this idea,” sports agent Scott Boras said, according to the AP. “You’re going to have an identified group of people. You’re going to have a constantly tested group of people.
“And you’re going to have a very limited access of those people to the outside world so that you can assure a very uncontaminated league, if you will, to produce a product that is inspirational to our country.”
It’s an idea not too different than another rumored proposal from the NBA to quarantine the players in Las Vegas to put on a single-site playoff tournament in July.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that social distancing is key to flattening the curve of COVID-19, anyone familiar with baseball understands that playing in accordance with the “6-feet” rule is basically impossible.
But officials have come up with ideas on how to keep everyone in line when it comes to social distancing. Passan lists them in his piece:
“No mound visits from the catcher or pitching coach”
“Implementing an electronic strike zone to allow the plate umpire to maintain sufficient distance from the catcher and batter”
“Seven-inning doubleheaders, which with an earlier-than-expected start date could allow baseball to come closer to a full 162-game season”
“Regular use of on-field microphones by players”
“Sitting in the empty stands 6 feet apart — the recommended social-distancing space — instead of in the dugout”
“MLB has been actively considering numerous contingency plans that would allow play to commence once the public health situation has improved to the point that it is safe to do so,” the commissioner’s office told the Associated Press. “While we have discussed the idea of staging games at one location as one potential option, we have not settled on that option or developed a detailed plan.”
With everyone spread out in the empty stands, teams’ signals would have to get pretty complex, which may or may not give the Houston Astros a distinct advantage.
Joking aside, MLB is running a massive risk based off of desperation — physically and financially. Twitter users were first to take no prisoners and pounce on the idea.
Not only is the coronavirus running rabid everywhere, but MLB is asking if the players would mind playing directly in the sun considering the heat conditions in Arizona during the summer at parks designed to host spring training games.
So not only are they at risk for COVID-19, but they face possibly putting their bodies through the intense Arizona heat.
According to Passan’s piece, the league sees and understands these dangerous caveats, but is still considering it.
The MLB also reiterated in a statement to CBS Sports that “the health and safety of our employees, players, fans and the public at large are paramount.”
It continued: “We are not ready at this time to endorse any particular format for staging games in light of the rapidly changing public health situation caused by the coronavirus,” per CBS.
In addition to putting major league players at risk, officials will also be asking Triple-A players, who are basically paid in Monopoly money and re-chewed gum, to step up and risk their own health if something happens to one of their major league brothers, ESPN reported.
Not to mention putting everyone that comes along with the game in jeopardy as well, including medical personnel, front-office officials, television crews and media, to name a few.
Fans are also cut out of the equation, of course, which would have a strong effect on the game itself — not just in motivation, but in money terms. Since fans won’t be forking over their hard-earned, and possibly scarce, paychecks to their favorite stadium to watch their team, they have to depend on television.
Would you watch MLB games if it started the season under this format — or do you think it’s a risk not worth taking?