This is not baseball. An opinion.

[now]

So you’re looking forward to the revival of the national pastime? May as well stick with the replays and simulations, if this is what it comes to. MLB is considering a new 67-page rulebook for how to play games in this not-so-brave new world we find ourselves in. Among the stipulations (reported by Steve Melewski

• ·         Avoid high fives and shaking hands after wins.
• ·         No pregame exchange of lineup cards.
• ·         Umpires throwing a baseball out of play after several players have come into contact with it.
• ·         A maximum of 50 players at spring training.
• ·         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.
• ·         Lockers should be six feet apart. If this is 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.

(Jeff Passan paints a fuller picture of what the in-game and day-to-day complications entail, here.)

Only some of these rules impact in-game play… but will there be any fans in the stands? Will fans be separated by empty seats? Players have already been tasked in baseball’s new normal to assimilate a vast array of analytics. Now on top of that responsibility they must observe a new tier of regulations.

Will there be any room left in this hyper-controlled environment to enjoy the game they have worked all their lives to play? Will fans be denied the fully authentic experience of the national pastime, as Bill Gates has suggested, perhaps forever?

Wherever we stand on the politics of covid, we share common ground in our love for baseball. Are we witnessing the sacrifice of that iconic social and cultural experience, on the altar of new standards of sterility and distance? This fan can only lament such a prospect, forced upon the game we loved.

[o'sfansince1970]

Will the players union agree to pay cuts? They should so I doubt they will.

Edited May 18, 2020 by o'sfansince1970

[Frobby]

It’s not perfect, but it’s 1,000,000 times better than having no baseball.   And these conditions aren’t permanent.   So, go to it, I say!

[Redskins Rick]

Not sure how Bill Gates has got to such a prominence that he has become a medical SME for all things viruses and vaccination related.

 

[Frobby]

9 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

Not sure how Bill Gates has got to such a prominence that he has become a medical SME for all things viruses and vaccination related.

 

Well, I do not want to divert this thread from it’s baseball-related topic.    But the Gates Foundation has been working on infectious disease issues for more than a decade.    So, while that doesn’t make Bill Gates a medical expert, he undoubtedly knows a lot more about the spread of infectious diseases than 99% of people do.   
 

Now back to baseball....

[CallMeBrooksie]

Of course it's still baseball. Baseball is whatever MLB says it is. They tweak and change rules all the time in order to put out a product that they think is best (to mixed results at times), as they should.

It's either they put out this Twilight Zone version of baseball to appease the players union that their mega rich and healthy players are "safe", or we go another year without baseball and risk all kinds of terrible things happening to the sport.

We have to start thinking survival of the game at this point, not about "purity of the game" (whatever the hell that is). I know it sounds dramatic/alarmist, but I really believe this.

[DrungoHazewood]

8 hours ago, now said:

So you’re looking forward to the revival of the national pastime? May as well stick with the replays and simulations, if this is what it comes to. MLB is considering a new 67-page rulebook for how to play games in this not-so-brave new world we find ourselves in. Among the stipulations (reported by Steve Melewski

• ·         Avoid high fives and shaking hands after wins.
• ·         No pregame exchange of lineup cards.
• ·         Umpires throwing a baseball out of play after several players have come into contact with it.
• ·         A maximum of 50 players at spring training.
• ·         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.
• ·         Lockers should be six feet apart. If this is 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.

(Jeff Passan paints a fuller picture of what the in-game and day-to-day complications entail, here.)

Only some of these rules impact in-game play… but will there be any fans in the stands? Will fans be separated by empty seats? Players have already been tasked in baseball’s new normal to assimilate a vast array of analytics. Now on top of that responsibility they must observe a new tier of regulations.

Will there be any room left in this hyper-controlled environment to enjoy the game they have worked all their lives to play? Will fans be denied the fully authentic experience of the national pastime, as Bill Gates has suggested, perhaps forever?

Wherever we stand on the politics of covid, we share common ground in our love for baseball. Are we witnessing the sacrifice of that iconic social and cultural experience, on the altar of new standards of sterility and distance? This fan can only lament such a prospect, forced upon the game we loved.

1) The main problem I see is that MLB decided to write 67 pages on a topic that could have been covered by a page or two of bullet points.  Melewski wrote an article critiquing it, and I can guarantee he just skimmed over it.  No sane person would read the document, including any of the authors; I'm sure it's like a 1000-page bill in Congress that the Congresspeople themselves don't read.

2) Baseball under the guidance of an inscrutable bureaucratic tome is way better than all the Orioles sitting at home watching the cooking channel.  The CPBL, KBO, and this weekend's return of the Bundesliga are way better than watching ShamWow infomercials that all the RSNs are playing 24/7.

[Redskins Rick]

20 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Well, I do not want to divert this thread from it’s baseball-related topic.    But the Gates Foundation has been working on infectious disease issues for more than a decade.    So, while that doesn’t make Bill Gates a medical expert, he undoubtedly knows a lot more about the spread of infectious diseases than 99% of people do.   
 

Now back to baseball....

But Gates was quoted by a poster:

Quote

Will fans be denied the fully authentic experience of the national pastime, as Bill Gates has suggested, perhaps forever?

So technically this is baseball related.

If Gates thinks the national pastime is perhaps forever gone.

[DrungoHazewood]

8 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

But Gates was quoted by a poster:

So technically this is baseball related.

If Gates thinks the national pastime is perhaps forever gone.

We'll all be better off if we don't fall into the trap of melodrama and believing that one person's opinion represents huge swaths of the population.  We're not going to have a situation where years from now sports stadiums are restricted to 20% capacity, not unless some dramatically more lethal thing happens.

Baseball will be fine, and sometimes lumbering old organizations need external threats to shake them awake and get them to consider changes that were never on the table because of tradition and inertia.  If not for the Black Sox the deadball era might have lasted many more decades, if not longer.  The threat of TV, franchise movement, and a third league resulted in nearly doubling the size of the Majors.

[wildcard]

I am looking forward to MLB baseball in July.  Even it some of the best players opt not play.  Even with not fans in the stands.   Even if the O's are the worst team in baseball.

[Redskins Rick]

11 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

We'll all be better off if we don't fall into the trap of melodrama and believing that one person's opinion represents huge swaths of the population.  We're not going to have a situation where years from now sports stadiums are restricted to 20% capacity, not unless some dramatically more lethal thing happens.

Baseball will be fine, and sometimes lumbering old organizations need external threats to shake them awake and get them to consider changes that were never on the table because of tradition and inertia.  If not for the Black Sox the deadball era might have lasted many more decades, if not longer.  The threat of TV, franchise movement, and a third league resulted in nearly doubling the size of the Majors.

I think Gates is trying to stir the pot, to help line his pockets, if you ask me.

Baseball survived 1918 pandemic, both world wars, not to mention Korea and Vietnam.

Baseball will survive the 2020 virus.

I do believe baseball needs tweaking, but not a major overhaul, to come back into focus for the younger generations. IMO

[Redskins Rick]

1 minute ago, wildcard said:

I am looking forward to MLB baseball in July.  Even it some of the best players opt not play.  Even with not fans in the stands.   Even if the O's are the worst team in baseball.

True,

NASCAR is racing without fans in the seats.

[TommyPickles]

Players opting not to play over pay disagreements would be so so lame. (I'm sure the owners are being greedy too; I don't think that negates the original point)

[Redskins Rick]

4 minutes ago, TommyPickles said:

Players opting not to play over pay disagreements would be so so lame. (I'm sure the owners are being greedy too; I don't think that negates the original point)

The power has gone to some of them, they think they are bigger than the sport.

[Can_of_corn]

2 minutes ago, Redskins Rick said:

The power has gone to some of them, they think they are bigger than the sport.

I'm fine with them wanting to get as much out of the owners as they can. 

I just get offended when they talk about how they would be putting their lives at risk.  To me that's offensive to all folks that have been working throughout this pandemic from the medical personal to the folks making minimum wage in retail.