Do MLB, Texas Rangers really want the risk that comes with fans at Globe Life Field?
More than a week of Texas Rangers summer camp is done, and fewer than two weeks remain until the rescheduled season opener July 24.
Despite all the good that has happened on the field, starting with Lance Lynn and including Rougned Odor and Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the overriding storyline is playing during the coronavirus pandemic.
Two Rangers players, Joey Gallo and Brett Martin, tested positive for COVID-19. As of Sunday, an off day for the Rangers, only the asymptomatic Gallo had been cleared.
Ronald Guzman returned after his pre-camp screening was delayed, for unknown reasons but perhaps because he was exposed to someone who was COVID positive.
Because talk of the disease is inescapable at Globe Life Field, the majority of the first Rangers Reaction of summer camp is COVID-centric, starting with the decision to not allow fans for at least July.
Here’s some Rangers Reaction from summer camp.
Protect the brand
A league commissioner’s No. 1 job is to protect the brand, and that almost always translates to not letting anything happen that would stop money from funneling in.
Just look at how NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has essentially turned a blind eye on the human rights atrocities in China. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell quickly did a 180 on the national anthem kneeling controversy last month following public outcry in the wake of the George Floyd death.
The NBA apparently feels it can’t jeopardize the cash flow from China, and Goodell knows enough about bad PR to jump at the opportunity for some good.
They are protecting the brand.
Speaking of bad PR, after a month of it as owners and players bickered very publicly about how to divvy up billions of dollars, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred just might have protected the brand last week.
MLB is not permitting fans into games in July, with the possibility that fans don’t see a single game in person this season.
The Rangers said late last month, after an agreement was reached on a 2020 season, that they would attempt to have fans at Globe Life Field as early as their home opener. At the time, MLB’s stance was that it would sit back and let local ordinances dictate if a club could welcome fans.
A few days later, though, MLB said its medical experts would review if it was safe to allow fans.
Less than a week later, on July 6, MLB had stopped fans despite executive orders in some markets. The Reopen Texas plan currently allows for 50% capacity in professional sports venues.
It seems simple enough. MLB doesn’t want to be known as the sport that killed off some of its fan base. The Rangers can’t possibly want that legacy either.
The death rate from COVID-19 continues a significant drop from the height of the pandemic a few months ago, even as positive cases surge after states reopened and Floyd-related protests raged.
Those concerned about a rise in fatalities are predicting bodies will start to pile up again in a few weeks as hospitals potentially reach their capacities. Those weary of the fear point to the recovery rate and the shift in the demographics among the recent positives.
It’s those darn millennials who were ignoring social distancing at bars and lakes and protests who are infecting everyone, but those darn millennials also generally have no underlying medical conditions and aren’t dying.
Numbers can be twisted to suit any narrative. It happens all the time with baseball’s statistics.
Regardless, Manfred is an attorney by trade. He doesn’t want any liability if fans were to come to a game in Texas or Georgia or Florida and two weeks later start to drop dead.
That’s protecting the brand.
MLB lost a lot fans last month with its ill-timed and ugly spat over money. Those fans can be won back.
Dead fans can’t.
Ticked over tickets
Naturally, despite all that, the Rangers have told their season ticket holders that the club continues to work on safety protocols to allow fans into Globe Life Field.
The team sent a letter to some season ticket holders explaining as much, and that they should continue to remain patient until the protocols are in place. Ticket holders will be given options at that time.
In the meantime, the Rangers will continue hold onto the money, presumably in a big pot that is earning interest. If fans aren’t permitted this season, the Rangers would likely prefer that fans ask for a credit toward 2021 rather than issue refunds.
As expected, some fans are pretty ticked off that the Rangers haven’t issued refunds. Some people are in for more than $10,000.
My guess is that those people aren’t hurting if they could afford $10,000 in the first place, though I’d want mine back if I were them.
Some have lost their sources of income during the pandemic and need that money back. The Rangers have accommodated some in that predicament.
Another guess: People understood early on that the Rangers and the other 29 MLB teams were in completely new territory and didn’t have a plan on what to do. That patience is wearing thin more than three months after the season was delayed.
Bumpy testing road
Speaking of delays, MLB was put in scramble mode after COVID testing was delayed over the Fourth of July weekend and some teams were forced to cancel workouts because many of their players hadn’t been cleared or the team hadn’t received the proper personal protective equipment required for testing and being at a ballpark.
I, for one, am shocked — shocked! — that MLB didn’t have all the kinks worked out of its system.
Closer to home, the system appears to have ensnared Gallo as a COVID-19 positive even though he confirmed on Twitter that he tested negative twice via nasal swabbing from a private laboratory.
But MLB tests a player’s saliva, and twice Gallo failed to be cleared by the MLB lab in Salt Lake City despite being asymptomatic. He passed that test twice last week, with samples taken 24 hours apart, and participated Friday and Saturday in summer camp.
Gallo, though, isn’t sure how he could have contracted COVID-19 and isn’t convinced he did. He’s confused, and some of his teammates probably are, too.
No one is immune, no matter the lengths they go to avoid it. However, the more they do, the better their chances.
It will be interesting to see how players fare next month on the first road trip to San Francisco and Oakland. They will be in the same hotel for a week, which is good, but it sure seems like it would be tempting to escape into the city.
Woo hoo, 2021!
But at least the 2021 schedule is out. By then, we’ll be free to go wherever we want without restrictions.
Right?
Well, let’s keep our fingers crossed.
It sure seemed like odd timing for MLB to reveal a schedule during a season that hasn’t happened yet. Maybe they had an ulterior motive, like giving fans a shot of optimism that baseball will be just fine in 2021.
It turns out that the July schedule release is part of MLB’s ongoing plan to give schedules to its teams a few months earlier than normal for planning purposes.
The schedule release used to be a September event, but it has moved closer and closer to July the past few years. The 2020 schedule landed in mid-August in 2019.
For those scoring at home, yes, I have booked hotel rooms for next season in Kansas City for the opening series and in Colorado in early June.
And doing that made me happy.
Daydreams about night things
Things That Make Me Happy, Part 2: The Rangers will move their summer camp to nighttime beginning Monday. They are considering opening the roof a couple times.
Count me in the camp that thinks it doesn’t make sense to conduct spring workouts in the morning and play games in the afternoon. The golfer in me understands it, though I’ve yet to play golf in Arizona in 12 1/2 springs covering the Rangers.
A huge majority of all regular-season games are played at night, so it would seem logical that teams would play spring games at night to get players into the routine they will be in during the season.
Some teams have started to schedule more night spring games, and manager Chris Woodward has been a proponent of the idea. At the very least he would like to see the final week of games flipped from day to night.
Tee times are available in the morning, too.
