When the coronavirus first forced professional sports to put their seasons on hold, Major League Baseball found itself in a uniquely bad position among the major North American leagues.
The NFL was a month into its offseason. Both the NBA and NHL had about a month of the regular season left before the playoffs that they just had to figure out a way to get through. Meanwhile, MLB was just ramping up its season. Spring training was underway with a 162-game regular season approaching. Then came March 12, the day MLB paused its preseason slate and began a four-month process of figuring out how to play organized baseball amid a global pandemic.
While the NHL and NBA were able to create bubble environments for a set number of teams to finish out their respective campaigns, MLB started from scratch and started its season with a back-and-forth between the union and team owners that seemed, at some points, like it would never be resolved.
One year later, the relationship between the two sides isn’t much better, but MLB has figured out a game plan for hosting a season even as the pandemic dragged on. There were road bumps including outbreaks by teams like the Miami Marlins (20 positive tests) and St. Louis Cardinals (13) before going 58 straight days without a positive test. That streak ran all the way up to the decisive Game 6 of the World Series, when Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner was pulled midgame after it was discovered he had tested positive (and then, to the chagrin of many, ran out on the field to celebrate when the Dodgers won the title).
Yet as early as in Summer Camp (MLB’s second attempt at a spring training), there were many around the game who were skeptical even a shortened 60-game season could be completed. The first early snag came July 4 weekend, when the league’s Utah-based testing laboratory experienced delays in processing results. The Nationals were among several teams that opted not to practice until those tests came back, prompting Nationals GM Mike Rizzo to voice his concerns with his players’ safety.
“Per MLB’s protocol, all players and staff were tested for Covid-19 on Friday, July 3rd,” Rizzo said in a statement. “Seventy-two hours later, we have yet to receive the results of those tests. We cannot have our players and staff work at risk. Therefore, we have canceled our team workout scheduled for this morning. We will not sacrifice the health and safety of our players, staff and their families.
“Without accurate and timely testing it is simply not safe for us to continue with Summer Camp. Major League Baseball needs to work quickly to resolve issues with their process and their lab. Otherwise, Summer Camp and the 2020 Season are at risk.”
MLB sorted out the delays with the testing center and didn’t run into the same issue again the rest of the season. It utilized a series of temporary rule changes to minimize postponements and protect player health. Those rules included expanded playoffs, taxi squads, a universal DH, changes to protocols for weather-delayed games, seven-inning doubleheaders and a free runner on second base in extra innings.
While only a few of those rules are sticking around in 2021, there’s much more optimism around baseball that MLB will be able to complete the season.
“On a personal level, I feel better this spring training than I did spring training 2.0 last year because [we have] a lot more information, we’re much more organized and ready to take on the complications that the protocols are involved,” Rizzo said when spring training began this year. “So I feel more confident. I know the players feel more confident and the protocols that we have, we bend over backwards to keep them safe and any slight type of positive or inconclusive result throws us into just-keep-the-players-safe mode.”
MLB now has the added benefit of not only its own experience, but seeing how other leagues have operated as well. The NBA required all of its players to use health-monitoring wristbands while inside the bubble last summer. MLB will have wristbands of its own this season. The NFL started opening up its stadiums to fans in a limited capacity. Many MLB teams (though not the Nationals quite yet) are on track to do so as well.
On March 5, MLB reported 10 positive tests out of the 29,224 conducted — for a rate of 0.04 percent — during monitored testing. That number will go up in the next update after the Houston Astros saw eight of their pitchers test positive for the coronavirus on Friday. In addition, players on both the Cleveland Indians and Chicago Cubs have been sent away from camp to quarantine after breaking COVID protocols.
It’s virtually impossible to guarantee no one will contract the virus when playing outside a bubble environment. But with the updated and ever-evolving protocols in place, even players such as first baseman Ryan Zimmerman — who opted out of playing for the Nationals last season — feel more confident this time around.
“I obviously didn’t go through it last year but I’ve been very pleased with obviously the setup and the attention to detail and I think a lot of these guys obviously were used to it after going through it for a year,” Zimmerman said early in camp. “I think you kind of get into a rhythm with it and because we’ve all been going through this stuff for about a year now, I think you get more used to it.
“I don’t feel like anything has stopped any of us from getting work in or getting ready to prepare so I have to commend the organization and MLB for what they’ve done to let us get ready and prepare in a safe way.”
Article From & Read More ( MLB was first ‘Big 4’ sport to have a full season during COVID. What has it learned? - NBC Sports Chicago )https://ift.tt/3vd0GG2
Sport
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "MLB was first ‘Big 4’ sport to have a full season during COVID. What has it learned? - NBC Sports Chicago"
Post a Comment