Mlb to Start Playing in May – Not That Easy

Late yesterday we learned that there is a plan in place to start playing Major League Baseball games in May. The idea would have teams playing games in the greater Phoenix area, with no fans, utilizing Chase Field (home of the Arizona Diamondbacks), 10 spring training facilities, and potentially some additional ballparks in the area.

While the potential for baseball’s return is great! (YAY!) There are still some major stumbling blocks that they would have to overcome for this to work.

First, Arizona has a stay-at-home order for nonessential workers. This order will expire when MLB plans to play, many believe that Arizona hasn’t quite hit their peak and case could increase over the next several weeks.

There is also a ban on gatherings of 50-people or more. With a MLB roster set at 26 now (new rule entering the 2020 season), there are more than 50 just with players. Then, you add coaching staff, medical staff, TV production crews, etc.

I am absolutely certain smarter people than I are figuring out a solution to these questions, but it is still a battle to fight in getting baseball back at this point.

Another obstacle in all of this is ensuring all players return to their living quarters, with limited interaction outside a baseball park and their home. As you can imagine, this poses a large risk as you can go outside right now and see people breaking quarantine recommendations.

I have had non-COVID-19 related doctor appointments over the past couple weeks and every day I see teens out cruising around town in groups. There are kids playing in playgrounds when the park has been closed. Parents are frolicking about like there isn’t a worldwide epidemic waiting to strike. While you would like to believe a group of professionals could figure a way to remain away from others during this time – it isn’t going to happen.

But this isn’t the largest obstacle in this. It is the potential for all game day essential baseball staff to be away from their families for possibly more than four months.

Imagine someone like Kris Bryant, who is supposed to have his first child in the coming weeks. Now, Jessica Bryant is due in April and they could miss this issue, but there are many more players that will be forced to not only miss their child’s birth but to potentially not see them for several months.

I know there are some professional grouches that will say, “suck it up, you’re a professional – DO YOUR JOB!” That’s just not how people work. Sure, someone deployed in the military might face the same situation, and hell, may not ever see their child, but do we really want to start comparing baseball players to our military personnel? Is that where we’re at?

There are several others that believe that this plan could move forward, but with June as a more likely start date. This would be after a proposed three-week training camp to prepare the players, which makes June a much more likely date. This helps, but we haven’t hit the peak of this and there is a real concern that we could be quarantined all summer. What if this were the case, or if we were to be quarantined even longer?

There could be a real possibility that some players refuse to report under these circumstances. But outside of players potentially not reporting, there is a slew of real baseball concerns that can cause issues as well.

Let’s just say things start back up, and in the third game, a player breaks his wrist needing another player to be called up. There isn’t a minor league system currently working out or playing games. Are teams going to call players up and toss them into game situations without seeing game action in weeks, or longer? Are teams going to go to their camps in Arizona with more than 26 players, just for these reasons? Speaking of adjusting the norm to make this work… baseball has kicked around a couple of other ideas as well:

• Having the umpire stand 6-feet behind the catcher and implementing an electronic strikezone
• Absolutely NO mound visits – from the catcher or coach
• seven-inning doubleheaders, allowing teams to get close to 162 games played
• Mic’ing up players, similar to the Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant mic’d game
• Players sitting in the stands, six-feet apart, instead of the dugout or bullpen

I am NOT poo-pooing this idea. I want baseball back. I want to be able to lose myself in a baseball game. I want to feel the ups and downs a game brings you. I want the game, but as much as I and all of you want it, there are real obstacles and questions that need to be answered.