Quiz #55. No Spitting
Why does this old baseball fan think MLB and the NFL will NOT be playing in 2020. Steve's Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz for May 18, 2020.
I am just a 63-year-old man, filling time on his laptop before my stay-at-home work begins, but I spent this Monday morning, May 19th, reading the highlights of Major League Baseball’s 67-page proposal to bring back baseball this summer.
Me, above, at Shea Stadium in August 1965. I am just an old baseball fan—but I just don't see how they can play baseball in 2020.
I am no expert, but if you read highlights of the report, dubbed the “2020 Operations Manual,” it seems clear to me that this will never happen. There will be no baseball in 2020. The report itself, as near as I can tell, has not been released. Instead, it was leaked this past weekend to leading sports reporters. Further proof, it seems to me, that even at 67-pages, it’s a trial balloon--a trial balloon that I can’t see flying.
I can’t see all these proposals being agreed to by the players’s union.
Even if the union agrees to them, I can’t see them being agreed to by all the players.
Even if most players agree to them, I can’t see the proposals being followed by all players.
Even if the proposals are followed, I can’t see them working.
To bring people together--in this case, baseball players--MLB is proposing to take extraordinary steps to minimize the health risks to those players, support staff and their families. However, the reality of coronavirus is that it’s highly infectious in ways we do not fully understand. The risks can be minimalized, but they can’t be eliminated or contained once you bring groups of people together--even in an outdoor baseball stadium. To me, the great lengths and details of the 2020 Operations Manual only serve to highlight the extent of the problem.
Again, the proposed rules haven’t been released, but highlights are being reported by major news sites--including The Athletic which broke the story Saturday with Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich
Here’s a cut-and-paste of just part of the section from Rosenthal and Drellich called “Facility Protocols:”
• Communal water and sports drink coolers/jugs are prohibited. Only personal water or individually prepared sports drink bottles or contactless water dispensers with disposable cups should be used.
• No spitting, using smokeless tobacco and sunflower seeds in restricted areas. Any physical interactions such as high-fives, fist bumps and hugs must be avoided at club facilities.
• Increased availability of hand-washing and hand-sanitizing stations, preferably with contactless dispensers.
• Players and other on-field personnel should wash or sanitize their hands after each half-inning or the handling of equipment.
• Where possible, clubs will make efforts to reduce the density of individuals, discourage gatherings and promote physical distancing, and individuals should spend as little time indoors as possible.
• Meetings will take place virtually when possible. If they take place in-person, they should preferably be outdoors with participants sitting apart from each other and wearing face coverings when possible.
• Lockers should be six feet apart. If not possible, clubs should erect temporary clubhouse or locker facilities in unused stadium space, preferably outdoors or in areas with increased ventilation.
• Showering will be discouraged at club facilities.
• The use of indoor batting cages is discouraged when hitting outdoors is an option. Hitters are encouraged to use batting gloves, and batting-practice pitchers are encouraged to wear masks.
• Pitchers will use a personal set of baseballs during bullpen sessions and separate balls to demonstrate pitching grips or mechanics.
• Only necessary players will be in dugouts. Inactive players may sit in auxiliary seating areas, including adjacent in-stadium seating to maximize physical distancing.
• Dugout phones will be disinfected after each use.
• Group dining is discouraged. Buffet and communal food spreads are prohibited. Meals must be distributed in individually packaged containers or bags, in takeout form.
• Uses of saunas, steam rooms, hydrotherapy pools and cryotherapy chambers are prohibited.
Think about each of these things.
Players staying six feet apart in the dugout?
Back-up players sitting nearby in the stands?
No high-fives, fist bumps or hugs?
Pitchers using their own personal balls for practice?
Players showering at home?
Players (and staff) washing their hands after handling equipment?
No spitting?
And it doesn’t stop there. It goes without saying that the games would be played without fans. Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports that mascots--even the Phillie Phanatic--will be banned from games.
Phillies’ games without the Phanatic?
Barry Svrluga adds even more from the Washington Post.
Players and coaches "must make every effort to avoid touching their face with their hands (including to give signs), wiping away sweat with their hands, licking their fingers, whistling with their fingers, etc." No bat boys or bat girls, and balls that are put in play and touched by multiple players - a groundout, a relay throw - would be removed and exchanged for a new baseball.
"After an out, players are strongly discouraged from throwing the ball around the infield," the document reads.
And beyond the rules and proposals, there is this reality. Baseball players, support staff and family members are human beings. Svrluga again.
The proposal also offers testing for people who live with players and other staff… It discourages players and other personnel from gathering in groups away from the ballpark and cautions about the impact of irresponsible behavior.
"The careless actions of a single member of the team places the entire team (and their families) at risk," it reads.
Finally, back to The Athletic--and this seems a key point--the players, support staff and their families will not be quarantined or isolated from others during the season.
• While players will not be officially quarantined, members of the traveling party are not to leave the hotel unless they receive advance approval from team personnel. The only people permitted to visit players’ rooms are immediate family members. Socializing with other family members or friends is discouraged but not entirely prohibited.
• On the road, the players should essentially isolate at hotels, with precautions such as a prohibition on buffet-style meals in place. Luggage will be sent directly to players’ rooms to avoid extra touchpoints, and players will not need to return a key or visit the front desk upon checkout. Meal money should be delivered to players in a form other than cash.
• At teams’ home cities and in spring-training cities, players can stay at their desired locations, as long as they follow best practices such as avoiding public areas.
With players, staff and families not isolated from the rest of the world, even with daily and rigorous testing--which is part of the proposal--one infected player, support staff or family member puts a whole team (and its players, support staff and family members) at risk. Also at risk, any teams the infected team has played.
Daily testing lets teams know as soon as possible if someone is infected--but it’s still not soon enough. What then? Quarantine everyone who’s had contact with that infected person for 14 days. Will there be a QL (Quarantine List)? What if it’s a whole team? Or several teams? An umpiring crew? A groundskeeper? A wife? A child?
I don’t blame MLB. Would players, support staff and families agree to total isolation for even a shortened season? Probably not—so MLB is trying to bring players, support staff and families together during a pandemic while trying to stop the spread of the virus among those people. On its own, each proposal makes perfect sense--but taken together, I think they just seem, well, ridiculous.
To me, it feels like that moment in the practical joke when you realize--and maybe you even say it out loud--”Wait a minute. You can’t be serious. This isn’t real, is it?” Until that point, you’ve been following along, saying, “Oh well, maybe…”
Everyone wants to have baseball. How would they do it?
Games with no fans? OK.
Games with limited travel? OK.
Games with social distancing in the dugouts? OK.
Pitchers using their own balls for practice? OK.
No hugs? OK.
No hands to the face? OK.
No spitting? Is that the tipping point?
When you see them all at once, I think you have to say it will never work.
Again, I’m not an expert. In fact, I am a huge sports fan--and I have been debating this issue with my son Ted who insists that the NFL will play its season this Fall because there’s too much money at stake--and they will figure it out.
I just don’t see it.
If the people tasked with writing the safety proposals to bring back baseball turn their sights on football, the document’s going to be longer than 67-pages. Football teams have bigger rosters, there’s a lot more physical contact in the game and it’s all crammed together on a more crowded playing field.
If you can’t hug in baseball, how can you tackle in football?
If you can’t sit in the dugout in baseball, how can you huddle in football?
Will football players wash their hands after every change of possession?
Sports bring us together.
In sports, anything seems possible.
We love the underdog. “On any given Sunday…”
Games unfold with their own mysteries, providing us with live action where we do not know the result.
Odds, point spreads, over/under.
I want it all back, but I just don’t see it.
Want to bet on that?
What did NOT happen?
A. I emailed a draft of this essay to several people. My son Ted responded that I was underestimating testing--and how they will keep players isolated and in a bubble. His take is that the risk to young athletes is very low and many will figure they’re probably safer playing sports. “You wonder why people say your quiz is bleak. Your take on this is pretty bleak;”
B. My college friend Brooks emailed, “I tend to think they’ll find a way to start the season if the players’ union can work out the money. At risk of being labeled a Trumpian, I am kind of in the life’s got to go on camp on this one because I really can’t see myself becoming a NASCAR fan;”
C. My fantasy football friend Ron emailed, “I completely agree with you...baseball is done for the year...football is probably gone as well… I don't see any contact sports returning until we have a vaccine or adequate testing for all of us;”
D. Bill Murphy Jr. of the Understandably newsletter emailed, “I do think you’re right that it’s about what the players and union will do. And some of these rules will never be followed;”
E. My friend Ed from local television emailed, “Put up or shut up. I’ll bet $20 there’s a major league baseball game played by July 4th.”
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Want more?
Here’s the next quiz in the series: Quiz #56. “The Friend.”
Here’s the previous quiz in the series: Quiz #54. The Weakest Link.
Here’s the first quiz in the series: Quiz #1. Stella and Social Distancing, March 13, 2020
Here is an archive of all the quizzes.
The quiz is explained here: Steve’s Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz.
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