“They’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come, Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again.” –Terence Mann, Field of Dreams
We need sports.
The coronavirus pandemic has created just cause for concern. But the world can’t stop working.
Democratic governors have shut down their state’s economy. Unemployment has sharply increased, and with it, unrest has increased as well. We need to reopen our economy now. We need to get back to work. We need to stifle unrest with productivity. And we need sports for recreational and entertainment in our downtime.
But without work, there is no downtime. So the first step is to reopen. Businesses across the board, especially the entire food service industry need to be given the green light from their overreaching government to open. And playing sports again can be a wonderful part of that reopening.
There are a large number of jobs directly and indirectly connected to sports. Obviously the stadiums employ a lot of vendors, security, and others. Multiple media outlets bring a lot to cover the games. Indirectly connected but directly impacted are the local businesses that thrive when the local team plays such as bars and restaurants, as well as retail shops. They need sports too.
Ryan Zimmerman of the World Series Champion Washington Nationals gave an interview on why he isn’t ready to start playing yet. He focuses on the wrong things ad asks the wrong questions while offering no solutions.
First off, Zimmerman takes the absurd position that he needs a 100% guarantee for player safety from the coronavirus before he is willing to play. We writes, “There need to be assurances — not 90%; 100% — about health and safety for us and our families and everyone involved.” That is absolutely impossible to achieve under any circumstances.
Zimmerman goes on to ask some rather ridiculous questions such as will the players have fun and will they be able to go to dinner together. Huh? Professional athletes having fun at work is not something anyone should even consider when putting together a plan for reopening. Few, if any, enjoy the salary of a pro baseball player and get to have fun playing a game to earn that high salary. So whether or not playing baseball outdoors will be fun, it is fair to say that it would more fun than reading blog posts at a desk indoors. As for dinnertime for the players, I’ve never been concerned with what players do in their downtime, it’s their time. Zimmerman could wrestle in an NWO match for all I care, just make it to the game on time. Maybe players will have to just hangout in their hotel/temp apartment rooms. Oh no. I can offer book recommendations if needed (Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick is outstanding).
Let’s play ball. Here’s my suggestion.
Baseball on any normal day already has social distancing in place. A team on the baseball field stands in position separated from each other, which complies with new social distancing protocol. The other three major sports (basketball, football, and hockey) do not have this characteristic, so baseball really is a natural first choice for sports to get going this summer.
Surely players come into contact with one another, but not like the other sports. The times baseball players directly connect are at home plate, but the umpire and catcher are already wearing masks (that’s a just joke, relax). Zimmerman can wear a mask when a batter reaches first base if he wants to, but when Strasburg or Scherzer are on the mound how much of a concern are baserunners? Also, anytime a player touches another player he does so with a leather glove, consistent with new PPE standards.
The main problem is travel but the solution is very easy. Surely no one wants infected people crisscrossing the country to play in large stadiums full of people. That would be unsafe right now. So never mind the historic American and National Leagues and divide the teams by spring training location into the already established Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues, which would keep teams in either Arizona or Florida, respectively. Four teams from each league then make the playoffs with the winner of each league playing in a neutral site in Texas. This way travel is significantly reduced and therefore exposure is significantly reduced as well.
Unfortunately the games would be played in nearly empty stadiums, but playing in spring training facilities would be beneficial for the additional reason that those stadiums will be better venues to deliver this temporary version of baseball. Playing in empty Yankee Stadium could be depressing. Playing in empty Sarasota would look less odd. Visually speaking, baseball in the dialed-back setting of spring training would look more like the local games kids play. This characteristic could be very palpable to fans.
MLB TV has the best streaming service in the business, they can handle the switch. Games will mostly be TV only, fans can handle the switch.
Zimmerman also asks if the winners would be rightly crowded as champions. That question, another one that is completely out of place for him to offer, can only be answered on the field by the players who want to win.
America needs sports. These games are “a part of our past [and they] remind us of all that once was good and it could be again.” It is time to play ball.
