Well today should have been Opening Day for Major League Baseball and it hurts not seeing baseball’s biggest stars take the field. I’ll have to save my “Happy Opening Day,” article for a little later this year, but today we did get some encouraging news from MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred. Yesterday he vowed to fans that baseball will be back and in that return, a place for people to come together and put the struggles of the past few months behind them. Part of that returning to normalcy in our lives is the return of sports and Manfred says baseball will be apart of that recovery process.
Wednesday Manfred was interviewed by ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt to address some of the biggest questions fans have going forward with the season. He’s hopeful that they can begin preparing for a season in May , but states that, “nothing is off the table.” But made sure tell us that at some point baseball will be back in our lives and not only that, fans will be in attendance. He knows that baseball will be apart of the healing that our country needs. With that said, we might be getting a season unlike any we have seen before and MLB is going to use whatever resources they can to play as many games as possible. It is going to take a little creativity from MLB and the MLB Players Association to make this thing happen, but there have been a few ideas thrown around out there. Unfortunately it’s becoming more and more likely that a full 162 game season won’t be played this year, but Manfred says that the players have been very open to experimenting to not only get as many games as possible in, but provide a great product for its fans.
“Whenever it’s safe to play, we’ll be back. Our fans will be back. Our players will be back. And we will be part of the recovery, the healing in this country, from this particular pandemic.”
Manfred vows play will return via ESPN.com
One of the many possibilities Manfred said they have been discussing was the addition of more double header games during this makeshift season. The one thing we won’t know until later is if these games would be played as full two nine inning games or two seven inning games. Both have their positive and negatives. Playing two full nine inning games puts a lot of stress on the players, especially during a a 162 game season. This is the reason why we don’t see it often, unless it becomes necessary to have. I believe this would also lead to MLB expanding their team rosters to allow for more guys to be available, so players aren’t getting burnt out playing all these games. Now MLB could also go the two seven inning games route, as seen in college baseball. I have even played one nine inning game and then a seven inning game in one day to try and avoid such long and tiring days. The only problem the players would have about the shortening of innings would be how it would affect them statistically. For example say a starting pitcher throws a no hitter for a seven inning game, can you say for certain that it is legit even though you didn’t play a full nine inning game?
Sports Agent, Scott Boras even pitched an idea to have most of the games played with a World Series being held in December. If everything went according to his scheduling, a possible game six of the World Series would be played on Christmas day. Kind of wild to think about opening presents while the Yankees win the World Series, but at this point I’m open to anything. It wouldn’t be a perfect scenario by any means, it would most certainly mean that the World Series would be played in a neutral sight that won’t be affected by the weather. Postseason games would be scheduled to be played in eight domed stadiums and three Southern California stadiums. I couldn’t imagine playoff baseball not being played in teams home stadiums. Home field advantage is a real thing and it’s the incentive for teams to win as many games as possible, so in the playoffs they have that extra edge. It would also give an advantage to those cities that have domed stadiums that would be playing in the postseason. A likely scenario would be the Astros and Yankees meeting in the postseason and Houston does have the luxury of an indoor stadium. I’m sure many players and fans wouldn’t be happy with that, but at this point if you want a full schedule these are the things you are going to have to deal with. Teams that play in cities that were highly impacted by this pandemic might have to start their season in their respected spring training stadiums before it becomes safe to play in their home cities. Boras has been in favor of having the World Series in a neutral sight much like the Super Bowl. Instead of a weekend event, this would last longer and would try to recoup some of the revenue they are destined to lose because of the shutdown.
So there’s going to be a lot of give and take between the players and MLB, but it seems to be trending in the right direction. This is an unusual time, so it comes with an unusual solution. It’s not going to be easy, but the one part that remains positive is that they are optimistic to have a 2020 season. We will surely be getting more information as the days pass, but for now I wish you a happy almost* Opening Day! (Hopefully)
The Washed Up Athlete 