Joe Henderson
Ah, Opening Day!
After nearly a four-month delay, thanks to you-know-what, Major League Baseball is back, complete with multiple mandatory safety protocols to protect players and coaches from COVID-19.
The party starts with two games Thursday night, and, appropriately, virus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci will throw out the first pitch in Washington when the Nationals play the New York Yankees.
A full schedule commences Friday. The regular season runs through Sept. 27, followed by the playoffs.
Celebrate good times.
Except in baseball 2.0, there’s no reason to sing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.” Fans can’t attend the games.
There will be cardboard cutouts placed in some seats to make it look like fans are there, complete with piped-in crowd noise, but that seems cheesy to me; like a laugh track, but for sports.
And that cliché about the baseball season is a marathon and not a sprint? Forget that. This year it’s a sprint, a 60-game demolition derby. It is the seventh shortened season in MLB history and the shortest since 1878.
This virus-forced development is guaranteed to merit a canyon-sized asterisk at the end, no matter which team wins the World Series.
Last year, that honor went to the Nationals.
But after the first 60 games, their record was 27-33, good only for fourth place in the National League East. The Nationals finished 66-36 the rest of the way, and purists take that as proof a full 162-game season is necessary.
A season of that length exposes every weakness a team has, but it also gives time for the cream to rise.
Can that happen in a microwave season?
We’re about to find out.
Here in Florida, the fortunes of the state’s two franchises appear at opposite ends of the optimism spectrum.
The highly regarded Tampa Bay Rays want to build on their 96-win season in 2019. The Rays fell one game short of reaching the American League Championship Series
Pundits generally like the Rays to at least make the playoffs. Because of their pitching depth, defense, and theoretically an upgraded offense, no one will be shocked if they win it all.
We will be shocked if a stadium plan emerges to keep them permanently in the Tampa Bay area, but that’s a column for another time.
The Miami Marlins remain in a perpetual rebuilding mode. Don’t expect much.
But who knows what to expect in a season like this? That might be the most intriguing part of what we’re about to see.
In a typical season, we already would have had the All-Star Game. The trade deadline would be a few days away. That’s when struggling teams unload high-salaried players to contenders prowling for one piece to make the difference.
But now, it’s late July and every team is starting 0-0.
In The Athletic, Hall of Fame writer Jayson Stark said baseball’s magic number this year is 2.7.
That’s because, in a shortened season, each win or loss is valued at 2.7 times more than in a normal season.
“That number, 2.7, means everything,” an unnamed executive told Stark. “That’s the most important number in baseball. There is no number being talked about more in any front office because 2.7 is an absolute obsession.
“Say you go somewhere and sweep someone. That happens all the time. But if you sweep a three-game series now, it’s like an eight-game winning streak. And that’s huge.”
This kind of intensity could be fun.
You’ll need to adapt to some rule changes this season. The designated hitter rule now applies to every team, robbing us of the chance to watch pitchers flail helplessly at the plate.
Oh, joy.
If a game goes past nine innings, a runner starts on second base in each extra frame. That rule won’t be used in the post-season.
Relief pitchers must face a minimum of three batters unless they record the last out of an inning. That should speed things up a bit.
No high fives, spitting or sunflower seeds. Bench players will occupy seats in the grandstand (with adequate social distancing). And those intense arguments we love to watch on Sports Center may be a thing of the past. Coming too close to an umpire or another player during a dispute is an automatic ejection.
Injuries are always a problem for teams, but now they could be catastrophic. Losing two or three weeks to a sprained ankle – or a positive COVID-19 test – might spell doom for a contending team.
But we’ll take it. After months of nothing to watch but replays of old games on TV, baseball offers hope that we can carry on in the face of a pandemic.
You’ll have to get your own peanuts and Cracker Jack at the store, but who cares?
Play ball!
And don’t forget your mask.
One comment
DisplacedCTYankee
July 23, 2020 at 7:44 am
I’ve been watching some of the Korea Baseball Organization games on ESPN for more than a month now. A little weird (for one thing, the games start, live, at about 5 a.m. ET), but you get used to it. At first they had cardboard “fans” in the stadiums and piped-in music, but they have stopped both. The announcers in Connecticut are not connected with the camera operators in Korea, so they can’t ask for a shot or a replay. There’s a ton of announcer banter and interviews. The KBO games still have four “cheerleaders” who bounce around on camera now and then.
Live MLB will be a wonderful respite from all the bad news these days, and I sure hope it thrives, but I’m pessimistic. It isn’t clear if just one positive virus test on a team/staff will burst their “bubble,” but it won’t take much.
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