Posted on 05/04/2020 3:01:00 PM PDT by Mozilla
As Major League Baseball grows increasingly optimistic there will be a 2020 season in some capacity, more and more ideas of what exactly a campaign would look like appear to be taking shape. For well over a month now, the league reportedly has been kicking around all sorts of ideas — from playing all games in Arizona to hosting seasons at spring training facilities. And that’s just a sampling of the reported ideas from recent weeks. But in a story published Saturday by the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin, MLB does have a “preferred plan” in mind. The preferred plan would be to start play in late June or early July with as many teams as possible playing in home parks, such as the Rays at Tropicana Field, while competing in their regular divisions with an abbreviated schedule of at least 80 games. The Arizona scenario, in which all players and staff would essentially live and play in a colonized bubble, is much less likely. So, too, is having all teams play at spring sites and compete in Cactus and Grapefruit leagues. Other reports about having teams assigned to “hub” sites in Arizona, Texas and Florida, or realigned into three geographical divisions, are being downplayed or dismissed. The league reportedly is hoping to have a plan in place by the end of May, so we probably can expect more reports like these trickle out over the coming weeks.
Just Play Ball!!!
Just open it already!
And for the guy below the Mendoza line, the announcer will say, “He stays at home more than a small business owner in New York City!”
And we will see, if they strictly limit attendance to keep social distance.
Stadiums may have sparse crowds, which translates into reduced ticket revenue.
2020 may be a bad year , financially anyway. We could still see some exciting games, exciting playoffs etc even in empty stadiums.
New rules:
-No getting in the ump’s face to argue.
-Avoid spitting at the ump as you argue, preferably turning your back to him/ her as you scream and curse.
-Kicking dirt on the ump’s shoes is still permissible, even preferential, since it avoids transmission of COVID droplets
If there’s grass on the field...
- Catcher, player and coach visits to the mound must observe proper social distancing.
- The catch should socially distance from the batter, and the ump from the catcher, etc
- When the first player calls to catch a fly ball, all other players must back away to a safe social distance.
Gee . . . ain’t this season gonna be fun!!!!!!!
Will the individual records count in a 80 game like batting average, ERA, etc?
Half the MLB teams wouldn’t have to enact ANY policy at all to ensure social distancing. The ball parks are empty as they are.
(Interesting to speculate now whether there is some “pent up” interest in the game, and whether a shortened season of 100 games or less makes the pennant races better and more interesting.)
We all understand that television revenue means a lot more than ticket sales anyway, so an appropriate Plan B would be to play late June thru August in not so hot spots like Calgary, Great Falls and Fargo and maybe move back to the home stadiums on September 1 thru post season.
But if things are leveling off by season start, then playing in the home stadiums becomes viable.
Billy Martin would have been right at home
2020 may be a bad year , financially anyway.
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Prolly right. There’s a lot more than a baseball season riding on the roll out of effective treatments, and it better happen sooner reather than later. The US economy depends on it.
Vaccine will come when it comes but until then a “cure” would go a long way toward helping the country to return to some semblance of normalcy.
Late June? That’s ridiculous.
Are you aware of the potential problem with travel to Canada?
I’m ‘closely’ linked to Tv productions in Vancouver. It’s lockdown heaven over there and border guards will not allow anyone from the studios to just come in.
Get Aeon Musk to send the teams to the moon and get ready for a lot of new home run records!
Can the batboy carry out the batter’s phone between pitches so the batter can tweet something negative about the Ump in real time?
Perfect season. Just ball and no fans. A players perfect field of dreams. Although I’m sure the outfielders will miss having beer tossed down on them from the drunks.
How are the Astros gonna cheat now?
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