Fielding questions from a United States senator Tuesday, Major League Baseball stakeholders expressed cautious optimism about their 60-game season, insisting they’ve done all they could — at this point in time — to disease-proof their beloved game against the risks of COVID-19.
But their success will depend partly on factors outside their control, they acknowledged, which could threaten to complicate the league’s months-long preparation and force officials to improvise.
“While we certainly all want to see baseball played again, our No. 1 priority is the health and safety not only of the players and staff, but also the surrounding community,” said Dr. Gary Green, medical director for MLB.
The conversation with a U.S. senator — Republican Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, to be precise — came at his behest, assembled in a virtual roundtable format to gain insight into the MLB’s comeback before the first pitch Thursday.
All of the officials on the call — including Pirates general manager Ben Cherington, Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins and representatives from the commissioner’s office and players association — said they couldn’t wait for baseball to return and to give the world a sense of normalcy again, but qualified their confidence by saying the season could change in an instant.
Cherington deemed the league’s preparations a “monumental” undertaking that is “not going to be a perfectly smooth road,” but thus far, it’s been a successful and far-reaching collaboration between MLB, its players, its teams, health experts and government officials.
A “patient, thoughtful, analytical” and “safety-first” approach ballooned into a 100-plus-page protocol manual written from scratch, said Patrick Houlihan, MLB’s senior vice president and deputy general counsel.
Medical personnel from all 30 teams were involved, he added, as well as renowned experts in epidemiology. Dr. Green said they worked, too, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the White House Coronavirus Task Force and Dr. Anthony Fauci, who offered some guidance in a Zoom call last week.
A lab director in Utah, too, played a key role, Houlihan said, resulting in a testing program that included taking a lab previously meant for minor league drug testing and turning it into a COVID-19 testing lab for MLB. The goal was to ensure MLB players weren’t taking tests from the general public, Houlihan added, and now, they’re able to test players and staff members frequently.
All of that preparation has resulted in a much different atmosphere, the officials said.
“For our players who have been playing baseball their whole lives, it’s probably a little bit of a shock to the system,” Houlihan said. “But they’re all changes that were made for a reason and for the benefit of their health and safety, and we’re really proud of what we were able to achieve.”
Hoskins said there was some “skepticism” at first among players, but it’s since calmed — replaced by a “so far, so good” attitude that can be attributed to players taking the protocols — which include limits on where players can shower and no spitting, among others — seriously.
“We’re a couple days away. I think there’s still a few obstacles or steps to clear, but so far, so good, and we’re very, very excited to get going,” Hoskins said.
Xavier James, chief operations officer for the MLB Players Association, said there’s no way the league can mitigate all the risks, and there are no guarantees that even with the frequent testing and protocols they won’t encounter “things that we had not anticipated.” Ultimately, he said, “COVID will decide the outcome of this season for baseball and the other sports that are restarting eminently.”
Fans, however, should expect a very different presentation of the game, James said, especially on television. The challenge is to “engender that visceral excitement without fan participation at the ballpark,” he asserted, which will require officials to get creative.
Asked by Toomey if they’re giving consideration to having fans in the stands at some point this season, Houlihan said the league “will consider the question as the season goes” and “if the conditions change.”
“You don’t want to be the reason why there is an increased number of cases for the general public because of congregating in ballparks,” Houlihan said.
When the time comes, teams that want fans in their stadiums will have to get permission from their local jurisdictions and from the league’s commissioner, who will consider applications on a case-by-case basis, Houlihan said. Cherington said it’s the Pirates’ desire to bring fans back into PNC Park “as soon as it is appropriate to do so and as soon as it’s safe to do so.”
The nature of the situation has changed so quickly, Green said, that just a few months ago, it was unknown where MLB would play or if there’d even be a season. In March and April, MLB reportedly had plans to play games in regional bubbles in Florida, Arizona and Texas — states that look “very different” now in their mitigation of COVID-19, he noted.
Toomey said the season will look different, but it could “spark an even greater degree of interest in the sport.”
Asked by the senator for a prediction on the Pirates’ season, Cherington said “we’re going to continue to get better” and — after a “difficult year” last year — “continue to march toward winning as soon as we possibly can.”
Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1952, Twitter @julianrouth.
First Published: July 21, 2020, 10:37 p.m.
