As pandemic keeps raging, doubts increase about summer sports
Updated Monday, April 20, 2020
Baseball in Arizona in July. With no spectators present. Of course not. Who wants to be in an outdoor stadium in the desert in the summer? There’s only one ballpark in Arizona with air conditioning, the Diamondbacks’ Chase Field, and it can’t accommodate 30 baseball teams.
Ten spring training parks could be used, in addition to Chase Field. This would be a different sort of baseball, with as much social distancing as possible, players sequestered in hotels – perhaps one hotel, probably without their families. This would be the ideal time to introduce MLB to robot umpiring.
The players will not be sitting side by side on the bench but will be scattered through the dugout and grandstand. There should be little chance of coronavirus. Heat stroke is another matter.
Hopefully we soon will have a reliable test for antibodies. People who have had COVID-19 –- whether symptomatic or not — theoretically are immune from contracting it again. These untold thousands, perhaps millions, could attend ballgames without fear.
Even with no fans or just a few, baseball should be OK for TV. My guess is the ratings would be high with the sports-starved public.
From the White House, Donald Trump calls for sports on television, with or without spectators. “We want to get our sports back,” he said. This is significant because it indicates forgiveness if the virus hits a sports team. Not an automatic shutdown if a few athletes get sick.
But the more you ponder this new surreality, the murkier it gets. Like, what about the minor leagues? What about rehabs? There’s discussion of 30-man rosters and a 50-game season. But Clayton Kershaw and many other players are not on board.
Of all the team sports, baseball is the least fan-dependent. I covered the Atlanta Braves back in the day when there were typically fewer than 2,000 in the stands. From the press box I could hear a foul ball bouncing around the stadium and sometimes foul language emanating from the mound. Certainly it would have been a better spectacle with a crowd attending, but the essence of the game was there.
In football, basketball and hockey, however, the crowd is an essential element. The athletes speak of being energized by their fans. Every effort is made by visiting teams to “keep the crowd out of the game.”
That said, an unattended game appeals to some football players. Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins said, “Honestly, to go out and just play the game would kind of be refreshing, a breath of fresh air.”
The less audience, the less pressure on a quarterback notorious for not responding in prime time.
The NFL remains determined to open on time in September, but I don’t see how. This is the ultimate contact sport, the one that’s far and away the most vulnerable to the pandemic.
Players huddle together, literally. We’ll have 70 coaches and players streaming out of each locker and assembling on each sideline, along with training staff. Lots of human density.
Underscoring the threat: Last week two NFL players tested positive and suffered COVID-19 symptoms: Brian Allen, starting center for the LA Rams, and Von Miller, former Super Bowl MVP for Denver.
As for the NBA, hope remains for a centralized postseason, with Las Vegas the likely venue. Some proposals have the playoffs ending on Labor Day, the Draft to follow a few days later. I don’t see any point to resuming the regular season in basketball or hockey. Let it go. I know it’s not fair to teams that have played more than their share of road games, but nothing’s fair about this pandemic.
As much as Trump pushes to Make America Work Again, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver did not sound optimistic in Friday’s conference call with media. “There’s too much unknown to set a timeline,” he said.
Meanwhile, the National Hockey League ponders a 24-team postseason beginning in July in a remote location, such as North Dakota. Alas, that state last week reported a surge in the pandemic. Overall, there’s less buzz about the NHL reopening than the NBA. Conflicts over border issues put an additional chill on hockey. Blessed with a government that believes in science, Canada has one third the rate of Covid infection as the USA and doesn’t want an open border any time soon.
Lately I’ve been watching horse racing on TVG and Fox Sports1, and I don’t miss the crowds at all. I don’t think the horses miss them either. Fans can still bet on line. In fact, the handle is up more than 70% from last year at Oaklawn, Gulfstream and Tampa Bay.
The Kentucky Derby is a special case, the scene as important as the order of finish. If the management of Churchill Downs doesn’t want to run it without the fans and hats and mint juleps, I doubt anyone, not even the President, can force the issue.
