COVID-19 Interruption: Say It Ain’t So, MLB!
The popular phrase, “Say it ain’t so, Joe” referred to Shoeless Joe Jackson. A newspaper reporter shouted this as Joe came out of the courtroom. Shoeless Joe and several White Sox teammates were accused of taking part in a gambling scheme to throw the 1919 World Series.
The Black Sox incident was a very dark period in the history of Major League Baseball. As a result, Kenesaw Mountain Landis became baseball’s first commissioner in 1920.
Landis “ruled” with an iron fist. All eight White Sox players involved received lifetime suspensions from baseball. Even though these players were not the ringleaders, someone had to be made pay in order for baseball to move on. The great Shoeless Joe was quite possibly an innocent pawn, but he became the face of this scandal, or rather its scapegoat. Landis couldn’t let anything tarnish the national pastime.
Another serious set of circumstances has risen to become a threat to almost every aspect of the American way of life. The coronavirus (COVID-19) has even begun to wreak havoc on our beloved game and present a challenge to the 2020 season.
As of the first week in March, opening day was all set to start, as scheduled, on March 26. At the time, I thought the biggest obstacle would be the story that wouldn’t go away, the sign-stealing scandal. That is a mere blip on the radar in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the month of March entered its second week, MLB lets us know that opening day would be pushed back to April 9. It’s only a delay of a couple of weeks. No worries yet.
Next, however, MLB closed all spring training facilities. The players are encouraged to go home at this point, yet they can elect to stay at the spring training facilities knowing there is little to no staff at these sites.
Then, on March 15, after conferring with all 30 team owners, MLB announced baseball operations will not resume until the middle of May “at the earliest.” I’m sure we would have been given a definite date if those in authority had some answers concerning this invisible enemy. Safety of both the players and the fans must be the top priority. Each team has pledged $1 million to help cover the lost wages of ballpark employees. This staff of game-day workers, most of them paid on a per-game basis, includes vendors, concession workers, ushers, janitorial staff and ticket takers.
There will be games missed. The owners depend on revenue from baseball operations to pay expenses. When there are no games being played, there’s no TV revenue to be collected. These lucrative contracts are counted on to help meet the huge payrolls which many teams carry. Paychecks will be missed in April and May.
However I’m sure the MLBPA will have something to say about this. Even if the season does start in the middle of May, note this date is a best-case scenario, we will still have a truncated season and not play the full 162-game schedule. MLB is already figuring out different “if-then” cases as far as the number of games to be played depending on when the season starts. When baseball does resume, it’s very likely games will be played in empty stadiums with no spectators. That will be weird to see, but at least there will be baseball. Strange, indeed, with no cheering of the crowd, but at least we can see it on TV.
At this time, no one has the answers.
Remember the strikes or “work stoppages” of 1981 and 1994. Baseball’s reputation suffered quite a bit, and it took awhile for baseball to come back from those obstacles. Now, we face an even bigger challenge with how to handle the season during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is uncharted territory. There is no blueprint and no instructions. Safety is the main concern in confronting COVID-19. This is a challenging time for owners, players, MLB and fans. Everyone needs to work together and compromise. Now is not the time to get greedy.
I can’t say it any other way, but this SUCKS! Our lives have certainly been interrupted, but we just have to be patient and have confidence in Rob Manfred and MLB to make strong decisions.
I realize it’s just baseball. However, baseball is historically a big part of the American way of life. Nothing can tarnish our national pastime. If baseball can take steps toward normalcy, then perhaps America and the rest of the world can, too. For this reason, I would really like to hear the words, “play ball!”
