DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT TODAY?

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT TODAY?

Yahoo! One of my favourite days of the year has finally arrived. I have been patiently waiting for March 26 since last October. Yes, today is the Opening Day for Major League Baseball. I know that you are just as excited as I am! On the first day of the season, all thirty big-league baseball teams practice getting comfortable in the starting blocks, ready for the race to the finish. All teams are equal, no one has lost a game yet and optimism runs as rampantly as a first-time buyer of a lottery ticket. But, of course, we know that because of the invasion by the little Corona Bugstard, the season opener has been postponed indefinitely. Despite this major disappointment, I began to visualize what the game would look like if they did start playing baseball today. Let me share my vision!

The stadium would be half-filled with fans wearing face masks and wearing rubber gloves, each fan sitting with two seats between themselves and their partner. If two seats did not provide six feet of separation perhaps three seats would be needed. Because the players could not all be crammed into one dugout they would be seated on folding chairs at appropriate distances around the inside of the park. Vendors in hazmat suits would only be selling bottled or canned beverages, and popcorn and peanuts would be in sanitized boxes.

After a virtual first pitch, only shown on the massive scoreboard, by a local doctor, not a sitting president or politician, the game would begin. Players would trot out to their positions in their new uniforms closely resembling a hospital worker in scrubs and with a plastic face guard over their white mask. They would wear blue plastic covers over their cleats and their gloves would have been wiped carefully before the game with bleach. The home plate umpire would be housed in a small plastic-enclosed sentry box behind the catcher, who would have to be stationed at least six feet behind home plate. 

Once the game began the baseball would be wiped with disinfectant between each pitch. A large plastic bottle of hand sanitizer would be located beside home plate and near every base as a precaution. Each time the players came onto or off the field, they would treat their hands to a squirt of sanitizer as a precaution.

The game would progress more slowly than usual, but safety would be the primary concern. Players would not be allowed to slide into a base for fear of spreading a virus. If any players or fans coughed during the contest they would be instantly removed from the park. At the conclusion of the game, fans would have to depart in single file in an orderly fashion. Can you just imagine the fun it would have been to go to an Opening Day game today? That is why we are going to have to wait.

Nervous owners, general managers, and players are all anxious to again get started, but I don’t think it is going to happen this year. One optimistic GM thinks the regular 162 game schedule would be possible if each team committed to playing at least a dozen double headers, comprising only seven-inning games. Another baseball guru thinks that the season can start around the beginning of August and run through December. All November and December games would be played in cities in the US south or in domed parks. He envisioned the possible seventh game of the World Series being played on Boxing Day, December 16. Something tells me his vision is being driven by dollar signs, rather than any kind of common sense or intelligence.

As a small consolation, my subscription to mlb.com allows me to watch any baseball game that was played during the past 2019 season for any team. If I don’t check the actual final scores and watch a game that has already been played I might be able to get my fix until we really hear the Play Ball call ring out again. Maybe.