For many Americans that are stuck inside due to the COVID-19 pandemic, quarantining has become especially frustrating with no professional sports to watch on television. Naturally, a bit of stir-craziness is expected when one is stuck in their home for weeks, and even months at a time. Nonetheless, boredom has hit particularly hard for baseball fans in the absence of America’s favorite pastime, baseball.
On March 11th, the National Basketball Association engaged a domino effect between professional sports leagues when they officially suspended the 2020 NBA season. Quickly following, on March 12th, the National Hockey League announced that they were to suspend the 2020 NHL season, indefinitely. Hours later, the Nation College Athletic Association canceled their men’s and women’s basketball tournaments that were set to begin only a few days later. On the afternoon of March 12th, several professional golf, and tennis tournaments were postponed or canceled. Lastly, on the evening of March 12th, Major League Baseball announced that they were planning to suspend the rest of its Spring Training games and were going to postpone Opening Day, which had been set for March 26th.
The loss of baseball, along with other professional sports, only deepened the sadness that surrounds the time that we are living through. The lack of sports, coupled with the necessary precautions of isolation and social distancing, only furthered the sadness that surrounds the COVID-19 pandemic, with the loss of life and livelihood. Recognizing the role that they play in keeping peoples’ spirits up, managers, players, and league commissioners of all different professional sports leagues have tried to keep fans updated, as regularly as possible.
Many potential plans for the future of the baseball season have been floated to the public, all suggesting a shortened season with televised games, with the largest caveat being that there will be no attendance for fans. The first potential modification for the season that was suggested by the MLB was to have the season played at Spring Training stadiums, in Arizona, Texas, or Florida. Another possibility was to have the season played exclusively in the desert in Arizona. However, these ideas did not carry much support and sent Rob Manfred, the commissioner of the MLB, back to the drawing board.
The most recent blueprint for the 2020 Major League Baseball season is organized to eliminate travel as best as possible for baseball organizations. The plan is to ignore the six, five-team divisions for the shortened season, effectively eliminating the National and American Leagues. There is a plan to have three, ten-team divisions. There would only be inner-division games, with no official plan for the postseason. This means that teams would only play against the nine others in their league. There will be no fans in attendance, but games will be televised, perhaps returning some optimism to the lives of baseball fans, across the country.
