Questions outnumber answers as pandemic stoppage takes hold
Baseball is officially in a standstill, more or less, although Trevor Bauer did what he could by staging a sandlot-style wiffle ball game in Arizona.
James Fegan wrote a wrap-up story from White Sox camp, where players and staffers are allowed to stay if they so choose, because none of them have shown any symptoms of the new coronavirus.
As for some of the questions Josh and I discussed on the shutdown show, Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich got to one of them. Regarding service time, Major League Baseball and the union would need to agree on the number of days required for a full year of service time, since there’s no way anybody is getting to 172 this season.
Jerry Reinsdorf may have dropped a hint about another question he’ll face when the former Opening Day rolls around. The Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks announced Saturday that they will pay the gameday employees at the United Center for the remainder of the originally scheduled season.
Nobody with the White Sox has answered questions about the fates of Guaranteed Rate Field personnel, although given the freshness of the news and the cushion before the original schedule would have started, they deserve a little time to mull it over (look at O’Hare for the value of thinking through a plan). That Reinsdorf’s Bulls are taking care of the United Center’s crew is an encouraging start to resolving such hardships at 35th and Shields.
At any rate, keep washing your hands, disinfecting your phone, and stay put the best you can. I’d say to stay out of Wrigleyville, but I don’t think anybody here needs that advice.
This weekend, in the place where I work we were asked to work from home until the 1st week of April, and only come to the main office if strictly necessary. This helps parents too because our government in Ontario shut down all schools for 2 extra weeks after Spring (ours) Break that start next week. I guess having the kids at home for 2 unplanned weeks wreaks havoc on everybody’s schedule. Already offered to babysit my four nieces and nephews while I work from home.
I think the most efficient way to get back to normalcy is stopping the spreading, and this can be done by social distancing. Let the virus die out rather than multiply, then restrict travel to countries that were not successful to stop the spreading.
2020 is gonna be a heck of a year. The amount of money in my retirement I have already lost is an staggering 5 figures number…in just a couple of weeks. But I am not close to retire yet, but I imagine people who are retiring this year will have a tremendous impact. I hope our government gives them a tax break or something.
US still hasn’t taken really draconian steps – much of Europe is shutting businesses and Austria banned gatherings of more than 5 people – so it may have a ways to go to get its arms around this. No one seems to know what to expect from this virus. So, regarding baseball, I question not only will it start but when would it finish. For example, if the virus dies down but there is fear of a Fall resurgence, MLB might need to make sure it completes early.
Megan McArdle from WaPo has had really good columns this week putting the US outlook into a historical context and comparing our prospects to what’s happening in Europe (bad) and Singapore/South Korea (good). Without sugar-coating, she’s talked about some built-in advantages for the US (but also acknowledges that we did a good job squandering some of the head start).
If the virus infections flatten out by 3/31 I think MLB might do this 1) like at the end the 95 strike, reopen the spring training camps for 2 weeks for player conditioning 2) reopen the season in mid April but as a precaution play in empty stadiums for at least 2 weeks which will allow them to obtain the TV radio and streaming revenue monies.3) Finally sometime after 5/1 reopen the stadiums. Hopefully also they will reduce the schedule by about 40 games eliminate the All-Star game which will end the season by 10/31.
Please MLB no Thanksgiving baseball.
With the caveat that I have no idea what will happen, that strikes me as awfully optimistic. You can look at countries where this fired up with a 4 or 8 week headstart on us and see what the good and bad cases look like for mid-April and -May. Pritzger already said he’d like for there to be no events here until May.
The union told players to go where they feel most comfortable living for the next four to six weeks. That implies the players don’t even see spring training starting until May in the most optimistic scenario. (Which I imagine will be out the window a few days from now.)
I would get used to savoring games you have on your DVR, or if your local sports channel shows classic games. I have the good fortune to be watching SNY right now, so I have a 2016 Mets-Padres game. You know, the one where Bartolo Colon homered off of James Shields shortly before That Trade.
Also, new CDC guidelines:
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Two MLB teams, excluding all personnel other than players, have 52 people.
I expect these recommendations will get more, not less, stringent over the next two weeks.
This doesn’t prevent the Marlins or Rays playing home games though?
I could live-tweet this game, but as Yoenis Cespedes just sent a James Shields changeup into the upper deck, I figure people here are already feeling bad enough without that information.
Reading the comments here about the effects of the coronavirus, I see some sane and sober thinking. Plaudits to those here. I especially liked the idea of playing a few weeks without crowds before opening the stadiums.