Are You Ready for Pandemic Baseball

July 14, 2020

With the coronavirus wreaking havoc on the country, Major League Baseball will attempt to play a 60 game schedule with playoffs starting in October. When baseball shut down in early March, the plan was to start the season at the end of May. They may have thought the virus would be somewhat under control and they could have a season before the second wave. The problem is, the first wave is still here with no end in sight. After much bickering, the owners imposed the 60 game season, starting July 23.

In order to have a season they prepared a safety protocol plan that includes constant player testing. The major hiccup is that it takes too much time to get the results. Therefore, the possibility exists that while waiting for results you may have an asymptomatic player on the field. But the games have to be played. If there is an uptick of COVID-19 infections, it could derail the season.

When the season starts, you will notice some changes. The National League will adopt the designated hitter. Although some fans don’t like it, this was bound to happen. I don’t believe the league will ever revert back to pitchers batting. To speed up the game, relief pitchers have to face a minimum of three batters. Managers don’t like this because it makes their jobs harder. No longer can they manage the late innings making multiple changes from batter to batter. I’ve seen managers use four pitchers for one inning. Television stations will hate it because of the loss of commercial time each time a pitching change is made. Fans should embrace this new rule. If you like bunts, you’ll love extra innings. With a runner starting on second, managers will call for a bunt more often than not to move the runner to third. Hence, he can score on a sacrifice fly, infield hit, etc. Hopefully, when the game goes back to a full season they will discontinue this awful new change.

The NBA and NHL are ready to start. Why leagues are practicing in Florida with the most coronavirus cases in the country, is beyond me. Both sports have many players have already caught the virus. Being a contact sport, there is no point in returning as more cases are sure to pop up. The NBA plans to resume with 16 teams with best records. The excluded are talking about playing each other. If you love bad basketball this is for you. The NHL is insane, having 24 teams in the playoff. The top four will play for seeding while all the other teams will play best of five series to advance. For Chicago fans, this will give a chance to see all the inadequacies of the Blackhawks playing a vastly superior Edmonton Oilers team on their home ice. I’d be surprised if the Hawks won one game. Football, whose camps open in late July will also battle outbreaks of COVID-19..

On Deck: White Sox and Cub Outlooks