As we creep closer to 2021, the Post-Gazette staff will look back at the strangest year in Pittsburgh sports any of us can remember. Join us each day until the calendar turns to remember what we saw and think about what we learned in 2020.
One by one, as hitters took batting practice, pitchers ran, and everyone clung to some shred of normalcy, Pirates players arrived at a makeshift interview space outside of the home clubhouse at LECOM Park.
They stood behind a six-foot barrier marked off by stanchions. None of the questions involved actual baseball. All of the answers preached safety, optimism and significant uncertainty regarding what would happen.
The previous night, Rudy Gobert had tested positive for COVID-19, and the NBA elected to halt its season. Pirates players seemed to know that it was only a matter of time before Major League Baseball did something similar.
“Regardless of what happens, I think there are going to be some real changes,” Josh Bell said. “We’re seeing this right now. We’re having this interview outside. Everything is going to change here. We just don’t know when. We’re all just interested to find out where this goes.”
Bell described the NBA’s decision as “moving the needle.” At home, his girlfriend had her in-person college classes shut down until April, as everything moved online. Several players felt the immediate impact when family members had to cancel visits to spring training.
“It’s very real for all of us,” Bell said. “We all have different people ... not affected by the virus itself, but by the rippling effects of it. We’re living that right now. Obviously we want to be as safe as possible at this level. The NBA is moving the needle. We’ll see what happens next.”
When it got weird: News that MLB would shut down for at least two weeks began trickling out shortly after the start of the Pirates’ game that day against the Toronto Blue Jays — March 12.
It became official a little after 3 p.m., while the game was still happening, and the Pirates played the final few innings likely knowing it would be their last on-field action for a while.
Speaking afterward, nobody seemed to have much of a sense of where this would go. Only that the season was suddenly disrupted, opening day likely delayed, and they would have to adjust accordingly.
“We saw all the stuff with the NBA [the night before],” Joe Musgrove said. “It’s not that crazy to believe that it happened, but it’s just kind of shocking. You never think that an organization like the NBA is just going to put the brakes on and say no more games at all. It looks like we’re heading in the same direction. Ultimately all of this is to make sure that everyone is healthy and safe and not providing a breeding ground for that stuff to spread.”
Biggest challenge: It’s baseball, the sport with the most infighting between its union-backed players and the league, and restarting the season proved to be quite an ordeal.
The two sides engaged in ugly arguments over how many games would be played, where and what type of salary players would receive, rules ... the whole thing. It became a gigantic mess, with ideas floated about maybe playing the season in Arizona or even three separate locations, adding Texas and Florida to the mix.
Once a format for spring training 2.0 and the regular season (at home ballparks) was revealed and the season finally did get off the ground, an early derailment was threatened by a bunch of positive tests within the Cardinals and Marlins organizations.
However, the tightening of protocols, and a greater adherence to them, helped baseball reduce the number of positive tests and keep the season alive. MLB ultimately finished rather smoothly, with very few positive tests and even some fans in the stands the rest of the way.
The Pirates had just one positive test after intake. That was Gregory Polanco, who smartly felt symptoms and stayed home from work, reducing any possible spread.
What we learned: That baseball could actually do this in a non-bubble environment.
Sure, the sport looked like a shell of itself. Games were eerily quiet, with obnoxious crowd noise swinging the pendulum too far in the other direction. On-field work was reduced, much of it shifted to other areas of the ballpark, and seven-inning doubleheaders were deployed as a way to tamp down the time teams spent waiting around during rain delays.
We also learned that it was possible to stage spring training in home ballparks, something that never happened before, by adjusting routines and spacing enough stuff out to utilize one field instead of six.
What proved challenging was keeping everyone healthy. MLB saw an unprecedented number of arm injuries for its pitchers due to the shortened ramp-up.
“I definitely think it took a toll, and I think it took more of a toll on relievers,” Shelton said during his Winter Meetings Zoom call. “Starters have a really clear plan in the offseason of how they’re going to prepare and what they’re going to do. With relievers, spring training is built for relievers. It’s getting used to throwing every second or third day or multiple innings.
“We didn’t have enough time to do that during spring training 2.0 and then with just three [exhibition] games, we didn’t have the ability to do that. That really led to injuries, and that’s a big concern moving forward.”
New year resolution: With the ball rolling on a vaccine, there’s hope that baseball can return for a 162-game season with fans returning at some point during 2021.
Of course, with the way cases spiked, that might seem like an overly lofty goal, but it is possible.
Right now the biggest issue is figuring out what to do between the league and the MLB Players Association; the gist of the discussions have involved potentially delaying the start of spring training to allow everyone to hopefully get the vaccine while also playing games in front of fans.
Owners, having lost gobs of money in 2020, would probably prefer the more prudent approach of a shortened season, though the players are resolute in wanting a full season of pay after taking a pretty good shave — although a necessary one — in 2020.
Another big component will be staging a minor league season, which matters for a couple different reasons. The most obvious is player development, but there’s also fear within the sport of what another summer without fan-attended games could do to affiliate cities.
Jason Mackey: jmackey@post-gazette.com and Twitter @JMackeyPG.
First Published: December 30, 2020, 11:00 a.m.
Updated: December 30, 2020, 3:21 p.m.
