Doctor, doctor, give me the news! I’ve got a bad case of loving baseball! Well there’s nothing much to say I guess as it’s just the same as all the rest, and I’m trying to wrap my mind around a summer without baseball as we know it. May is just around the corner though and that gives us some hope of a baseball in a bubble.
Major League Baseball has considered holding baseball in a bubble of the Cactus and
Grapefruit Leagues Spring Training Facilities to help stop the spread of COVID-19. Can
baseball be played safely in a bubble? Dr. Fauci thinks it just might work… if we aren’t there.
The idea is simple. Teams would play in empty stadiums, players would be restricted to the
ballparks and their hotels, and the fans can’t be there to watch. This move should open
everyone’s eyes to the fact that baseball is a business. Professional baseball is not always run
for the love of the game, but for paychecks and profits. There is nothing wrong with that, and
there is nothing wrong with loving the game. Would baseball in a bubble be worse than no
baseball at all? Are my hopes for baseball in a bubble just selfish? Maybe so.
Players appear to be in favor of the baseball in a bubble idea, as I’m sure they are anxious to get paid, I mean play. Yet this plan gives no mention as to what to do with the players’ families if they are on a strict lockdown? Talks have not determined if families would also be put up in the players hotels and there is no telling how the body of players would respond to the situation. Justin Turner of the Los Angeles Dodgers said it would be easy for him because although he is married, he and his wife Kourtney do not have any children. He sees how difficult and lonely it would be for single players, as well as the additional burdens the players with children will carry if they are gone for so long. Turner’s teammate Clayton Kershaw said last week that if his family were not with him, he wouldn’t play. Kershaw’s reasoning is that their 3 month old child has done so much in that time that he would hate to miss out on all he would do in the 4 months that he would be away, and he simply wouldn’t do it. How many more players feel that way, and what would the game look like without superstars like Kershaw? Having children myself and having spent some months away from them even as young adults is difficult, and it’s much worse for everyone when they are younger
I miss baseball. I want to watch baseball games, and I want to go to baseball games; but I don’t want to be selfish. I would watch baseball in a bubble, but I would think of the players and coaches if they are left without their families and friends. No, their lives would be far from those serving in the military, or anyone serving time in jail; but anytime your freedom is taken from you that burden wears on your spirit, and would ultimately change the game.
Dugout Tales 