A May start to the MLB season seems outrageous, but ‘we have to play this season’
On its face, the plan is outrageous. Actually, it’s outrageous on much more than just its face.
But Major League Baseball has been conjuring up ways to play the 2020 season that has been postponed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Try this on for size:
▪ All 30 MLB teams are sent next month to play the regular season in the Phoenix area, where temperatures can approach 120 degrees in the summer months.
▪ Most games are played at empty spring training facilities, where owners won’t be making any money at the ticket window or at concession stands.
▪ Players would be sequestered to their hotels at all times except when at the ballpark, their families possibly not permitted to be with them. And those owners, according to USA Today, won’t want to pay players their full salaries.
▪ Meanwhile, there is no indication that a vaccine to stop the pandemic will be in place, and, no matter how hard they try, it will be impossible for players to practice social distancing at all times in a metro area that has yet to see its coronavirus cases peak.
All of those details emerged Monday night and throughout Tuesday in various reports, the most explosive of which came from ESPN and the Associated Press.
The Texas Rangers are one of the 15 teams that spend spring training in Arizona, and the stadium they share with the Kansas City Royals would be one of the sites for a slew of regular-season games.
Every Rangers player wants to start the season, and the sooner the better. But in isolation in Arizona?
“That doesn’t sound fun at all,” left fielder Willie Calhoun said Tuesday. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, but we have to play this year. If that’s the only we way we get to play, I guess that’s going to have to happen.
“Safety comes first, and if that’s the safest way to keep this virus away, then we should do it.”
The 2020 MLB season was scheduled to open March 26, with the Rangers visiting the Seattle Mariners. MLB initially delayed the start of the season two weeks, to April 9. A few days later, MLB accepted CDC guidelines on large gatherings that dictated the soonest baseball could be played would be May 11.
Government agencies have been working with MLB on a plan, as has the MLB Players Association.
Perhaps that’s the day MLB has targeted for spring training to resume, covering two or three weeks to help build up pitchers’ arms. The season could start, theoretically, in early June.
There is also flexibility built into the plan depending on how quickly treatments to fight coronavirus develop. Globe Life Field might not spend all of its debut season in mothballs.
If stay-at-home orders remains across the country, watching a ballgame might help reduce cabin fever. More eyeballs watching games on TV could boost baseball’s popularity and make the game’s stars shine brighter.
Owners would be able to start collecting on their precious TV contracts.
And, let’s face it, that’s really what this is all about, owners lining their pockets as much as possible.
Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said on Monday that he expects some form of a season to be played this year, but couldn’t put a finger on a start date.
“All I can really say is the feedback I’ve been getting either directly or indirectly from the league, which is their intent is to play as soon as it is truly safe and advisable to do so,” Daniels said.
“I think that’s the only real handicapping I can do. From a societal standpoint, when do we get to that point? You and I would both be speculating to try to do that. But I think the desire is there, provided we can do so safely. I’m an optimist, so I’ll choose to believe that there will come a point when we get there.”
Players like money, too, especially the kind of money they make. Even those making the minimum salary still have contracts starting at more than $500,000, and the average MLB salary last season was more than $3.8 million.
But that’s also the kind of money where players don’t necessarily need their paychecks until their personal safety from coronavirus can be ensured. They are getting over $4,000 a day through the end of May anyway.
“There are more important things than baseball,” Rangers designated hitter Shin-Soo Choo said.
Players are continuing to work out and get medical treatment, if necessary. Calhoun, recovering from a broken jaw early last month, said he wants to be ready for whenever the season starts.
That might be next month, as outrageous as it might seem.
“When they come out with a for-sure set date is when I’ll start taking this seriously,” Calhoun said. “I hear something new every week. I’m so confused on everything. I’m just going to do my part and stay in the house as much as I can.”
