Baseball In The Bubble

I love baseball.  It's the only sport I watch and I am both relieved and thrilled that the 2020 season is actually underway and seemingly going to lurch and chug its way to some sort of World Series in October. 

Is it perfect?  No.

I have concerns.  The Covid positive tests on the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals are definitely worrisome.  This is a game where it is impossible to social distance during gameplay and difficult in the way it is difficult to maintain that 6 foot personal bubble in any team sport.  Dugouts, locker-rooms and the sport itself were never designed with a pandemic in mind.

It is also apparent that pitchers are suffering more than normal amounts of injuries, likely due to not getting a proper easing into their routines.  These are athletes that propel a ball in the 90 mile an hour range regularly, using muscles and tendons we mere mortals use to lift groceries and Amazon packages.  I appreciate that circumstances dictated the scheduling but a lot of elite pitchers are paying the price.

There's also the odd, off putting look of a multi-million dollar sport being played in an empty stadium.  The piped in crowd noise is enough to make me forget that issue during a tense, tight game but during baseball's frequent action lulls or in the midst of a lopsided game, it's really difficult to ignore the lack of atmosphere.

There are a couple of upsides though.  Always look for that silver lining and even in this weird, quiet, motionless version of the sport, there are things to relish.

First and foremost, cardboard cut outs never do the stupid shit that makes me want to punch certain fans in the stands: 

No heads buried in cellphones while superb baseball takes place yards away in real time. 

No on their phone assholes mugging for the camera while they wave at their idiot friends watching the game on tv. 

No dickheads behind homeplate waving or jumping up and down in hopes of distracting the opposing pitcher and only managing to distract and annoy the viewer at home.

Second, we are occasionally getting fun, real insight into just how hard this game is to play, even for guys who get paid millions of dollars to do just that.  I've heard the word "fuck" come from my tv more often since this season started than at any other point in history.  While I don't mind in the least, I honestly think MLB would be wise to add a parental advisory to broadcasts to cover their legal asses.

Finally we're seeing something never seen before in the venerable old game.  Baseball has changed plenty of rules since its inception a century and a half ago, but it has never had a season like this where circumstances are shoehorning in so many radical ideas in such a short time frame.  A shorter season (obviously), a universal Designated Hitter (not my favourite but I do admit it is probably better for the game, pitcher's health and the career longevity of great hitters), a taxi squad (a FANTASTIC idea that really should be the norm), a 3 hitter minimum for relief pitchers (yes!) and 7 inning double header games (not a fan of this and probably the first new idea to get dropped if and when we get "normal" baseball seasons again) all are getting stress tested this year and it is making for some novel and interesting baseball.

Will baseball ultimately survive Covid19?  I believe it will. 

Will it look like the baseball of old when it emerges on the other side of the crisis?  Not likely.

I'll still be watching, but I suspect that I may never again do so in person.