Search the Community

We have had Marlins, Phillies, and now Cardinals test positive. We have had replacement games with the poor Yankees having to play the highly rated Orioles. Monday the Postponed games were - Yankees at Phillies; Orioles at Marlins. Tuesday - Postponed games: Yankees at Phillies; Orioles at Marlins. Wednesday - Postponed games: Phillies at Yankees; Orioles at Marlins. Replacement game: Yankees at Orioles. Thursday - Postponed games: Phillies at Yankees; Orioles at Marlins. Replacement game: Yankees at Orioles. Today - Postponed games: Cardinals at Brewers; Phillies at Blue Jays; Nationals at Marlins. Weekend games already postponed (both Saturday and Sunday): Phillies at Blue Jays; Nationals at Marlins. And the Cardinals just left Minnesota. The Blue Jays are postponed and do not even have a home to go to. If MN is postponed will it be during the Cleveland Series and the Pirates. The first set is fine, but lets not lose out on Pittsburgh. In a 60 game season that is 12 postponed games. The end of September the playoffs are scheduled to follow the jampacked season. So we will have teams at this stage who have played 50 - 60 games. No guarantees. Fair? They are ready for double headers now with 7 inning games - how about triple headers with 5 innings each? Four game sets at three innings each? Or we just roll dice and pretend it is an APBA season. Oh yes, the question (s) - if this blows up in the next week or two - do the stats still count or will Bieber and others be short changed. I mean the games are regular season like the counting stats for Upton's 300th HR, does Kelly's suspension go away, Does Cabrera lose his three HRs as he goes for 500 or the hits as he looks for 3000?

This morning Major League Baseball was hit with another blow. The St. Louis Cardinals had two players test positive for COVID-19 with an immediate fallout of postponement of action against the Milwaukee Brewers. We’re playing through a pandemic here however, so what really was the plan? When Rob Manfred and the owners finally came to agreement on economics it appeared, they also had sorted out safety protocols. What it seems they didn’t have ironed out was the logistics surrounding continuation of play. It’s one thing to suggest that a season be decided on winning percentage if not all teams get 60 games in. That can’t happen if some only play 30 or 40 games. These teams are tested every other day, or potentially daily in some instances. Rapid tests are taken at will, and in the case of the Nationals Juan Soto, relatively indicative of what the saliva tests may show. What has to be determined, and seems like it remains up in the air, is what constitutes an outbreak and what doesn’t. Last week the Miami Marlins decided via group text to play through a game despite four players testing positive. They allowed the virus to run rampant within their clubhouse and now have over 60% of their 30-man active roster dealing with positive results. Something like that isn’t going to be overcome by a 3-man taxi squad, and very clearly isn’t as easy as calling on players from the alternate site either. On the other hand, the St. Louis Cardinals had just two players test positive following their departure from Minnesota on Wednesday night. To postpone action against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday seems to negate the planning MLB put in place. The 3-man taxi squad was not designed to account for injury, that’s why there’s an additional 30 players at the alternate site. What the taxi squad was talked about doing was providing an immediate replacement should someone need to go on the COVID-related IL. Each team has up to three players traveling with them to all away games. If they aren’t going to be immediately substituted onto the active roster when a positive tests appears, then there’s little reason for them to be subjected to travel and increase virus contraction at all. Since the beginning Major League Baseball’s goal has been to play an unprecedented season amidst a global pandemic. That’s going up against some significantly substantial odds, but if you’re going to operate like that there has to be a level of “next man up.” Postponing each game in which a test or two come back positive on any given day will certainly fail to give this season a chance. Maybe this was always going to be the probable outcome. We still don’t have this under control across the country, so the feasibility of baseball being doable remained a longshot anyways. However, as unfortunate, and competitively unjust as it is, the show must go on. Either Rob Manfred has to decide that taxi squads have a purpose to fill in rosters (and maybe even expand that group), or even a limited number of positives will bring the sport to its knees. It has been a tenuous start to this whole thing, and there won’t be much more opportunity to get it right. Step back and get it together now, or we’ll continue to go through the motions on something that fizzles out shortly anyways. Side note: Young Bat Co. is giving away a Nelson Cruz bat mug! For more from Off The Baggy, click here. Follow @tlschwerz

Here are a couple quotes from ESPN - "The Minnesota Vikings announced Monday that head trainer Eric Sugarman and members of his family have tested positive for the coronavirus. "Sugarman also is the Vikings' infection control officer. He said in a statement that he and his family immediately quarantined and "are all doing fine and experiencing only mild symptoms." "The Vikings said they are sanitizing their facility and contacted anyone who was in close contact with Sugarman. The team said those team personnel have been tested "and are returning under the established guidelines." Yes, the infection control officer! "Two Monday night MLB games were postponed because of an outbreak of the coronavirus among the Miami Marlins. "The Marlins' home opener against the Baltimore Orioles is off, as well as the Philadelphia Phillies' home game against the New York Yankees. "Miami just completed a series in Philadelphia, and seven more players and two coaches with the Marlins tested positive for the coronavirus. An outbreak has spread throughout their clubhouse and brought the total cases in recent days to at least 13, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN's Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers." Half the team! CNN reports: "Eleven Marlins players and two coaches tested positive for the virus, ESPN reports. Marlins CEO Derek Jeter said the team is staying in Philadelphia, where it just played a three-game series, pending the results of a new round of testing. "Postponing tonight's home opener was the correct decision to ensure we take a collective pause and try to properly grasp the totality of this situation," Jeter said in a statement. "The positive tests come just days after MLB began its abbreviated 60-game season -- which had been delayed from its usual April opening because of the pandemic -- and already threaten to upend the young season." "In recent weeks, Miami has been one of the epicenters of the coronavirus, pushing hospitals to capacity. Miami-Dade County recently surpassed 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases." Florida has over 424,000 cases. So now what? What if the Phillies test positive? What if the umps test positive? What about the teams that they had contact with before this series? They played the Braves in an Exhibition. Think about what would happen if this was the week before the newly minted 60 day World Series. This is the Marlins so their 30 man taxi squad might be as good as the MLB roster. But are they on the 40 man? Do they bump players from the current 40 man? What about teams that didn't take the extra 30 man seriously? If I was a GM I would be reexamining the players I have on that team. For a contending team to lose 10 players for two weeks would be devastating. And what if the Marlins find that they have even more infected on their taxi and extra squad? Can they cancel the season for one team? I would. And if the Marlins infected the stars in Philadelphia, do the Phillies have any recourse? USA TODAY SAID "In hindsight, MLB never should have permitted the Marlins to take the field Sunday against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park after three players tested positive for COVID-19, just two days after another player tested positive. Marlins manager Don Mattingly said the team never considered not playing, but it is now clear that was a mistake and has put the entire season in jeopardy." CBS Sports had these quotes from Manfred "Manfred, who indicated that the Marlins could return to the field as early as Wednesday -- as a home team in Baltimore -- with "acceptable" testing results, responded that "[a] team losing a number of players that rendered it completely non-competitive" would be standard for considering a pause at the team level. That would of course require subjective judgment to determine whether a team had been reduced to "non-competitive" status, but it's at least a standard of some kind. "He was asked a similar question earlier this month as part of an appearance on Dan Patrick's radio show. Here's what Manfred said: "I don't have a firm number of days in mind (to pause the season). I think the way that I think about it, Dan, is in the vein of competitive integrity, in a 60-game season," Manfred said. "If we have a team or two that's really decimated with a number of people who had the virus and can't play for any significant period of time, it could have a real impact on the competition and we'd have to think very, very hard about what we're doing." "Despite having a call with the 30 team owners at 12:30 p.m. ET, the word is that MLB has no plans to cancel or pause the season at the present moment." https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/heres-what-rob-manfred-said-it-would-take-to-pause-2020-mlb-season-over-covid-19-concerns/ Chicago Tribune added this frightening note - "The news got worse for the White Sox hours later when it was revealed manager Rick Renteria awoke with coronavirus symptoms and was taken to a Cleveland hospital to get tested. The Sox announced Renteria would not manage Monday’s game, which was later postponed. The Sox had two players test positive before camp, including third baseman Yoan Moncada, and right fielder Nomar Mazara was placed on the injured list with no designated injury." https://twitter.com/MLBNetwork/status/1287893850833457152?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1287893850833457152%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlb.com%2F

The Covid sickness that hit coach Tommy Hottovy created a memorable video https://www.espn.com/mlb/ as he discussed his case - it is good to watch since so many act like the Covid-19 is just another flu. As the TD contributor Doctor Gast states - the video is mostly about the pain of separation. Should you want to know more about the survival from this virus you might want to read this San Francisco report - https://www.sfgate.com/news/editorspicks/article/What-they-don-t-tell-you-about-surviving-15347792.php or this description of the Brain Fog that comes after the virus by the American Psychological Association https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/09/aftermath-covid-19. The choices of Ian Desmond, Ryan Zimmerman and Jo Ross not to play should be applauded for their courage just as the Twins decision to protect their oldest coaches was wise and prudent. As much as I want to see and read about baseball I do not want to read about tragedies. When we are young we all make poor decisions based on our own sense of mortality. I made climbs, ran rapids, and pushed the envelop thinking that nothing could happen to me. My son, at age 21 did the same thing, and he died as a result. Age does not protect us. Nor does physical fitness. This is a serious time and now we learn that there is a new swine flu that might follow Covid. It is frightening. And maybe time to remember how we can be chopped down by microscopic organisms in the prime of our life. Baseball players are constantly facing injury - concussions, thoracic injuries, Tommy John surgery, broken bones. The good thing about them is that they heal. Bad backs ruined careers and freak accidents like the gas that Christy Mathewson was exposed to during training. His respiratory system was weakened and resulted in contracting tuberculosis, from which he died in Saranac Lake, New York in 1925. He was only 45. Tuberculosis also took seven other players who are mostly lost to memory because their careers were too short and too long ago. We watched drugs ruin careers like Doc Gooden and Daryl Strawberry, two more who had a HOF path ahead of them. And Sandy Koufax had his amazing career stopped at its peak because of arthritis. Like so many elderly people I can only relate too well to the pain that he suffered from this debilitating disease. I remember when J R Richards suffered a stroke and had to leave the field. This great Astros pitcher seemed like a sure HOF player, a person who would hold all the Astros records - he averaged 16 wins per season his first five years. In 1980 he was 10 - 4 with a 1.90 era and he was in magnificent physical condition. In two years he was homeless and sleeping under a bridge. He went on to the ministry and preached to those same homeless individuals. It was a big fall from the top. Jimmy Piersall suffered from mental illness and a potentially great career was ruined by bipolar disorder and still he was so good he managed 17 years. When it comes to disease what baseball fan does not know of Lou Gehrig and ALS - now called Lou Gehrig Disease. The Iron Horse was toppled and dead at age 38. He seemed invincible but disease does not avoid the strong and healthy. Ross Youngs died at age 30 of Brights Disease (a kidney disease). He played 10 years with a 322 BA. Dave Parker, former Pirate and one of my favorite players lives with Parkinson's disease a serious and long term disease that impacts so many aspects of your body functions. Kirk Gibson lives with Parkinsons and Dee Gordon plays baseball with it. But this is serious and life changing. HOF pitcher Addie Joss from Wisconsin attended St. Mary's College (later part of Wyalusing Academy) in Prairie du Chien and the University of Wisconsin. "In April 1911, Joss became ill and he died the same month due to tuberculous meningitis. He finished his career with 160 wins, 234 complete games, 45 shutouts and 920 strikeouts." Wikipedia provided this list of type 1 diabetes sufferers from MLB Ron Santo, Chicago Cubs (1960–1973) and Chicago White Sox (1974) infielder, type 1, deceased (2010 at age 70). Sam Fuld, Chicago Cubs (2007–2010), Tampa Bay Rays (2011–2013), and Oakland Athletics (2014–) outfielder, type 1.[13] Mark Lowe, Seattle Mariners (2006–2010, 2015), Texas Rangers (2010–2012), Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2013), Cleveland Indians (2014), Toronto Blue Jays (2015), and Detroit Tigers (2016–) pitcher, type 1.[14] Brandon Morrow, Seattle Mariners (2007–2009) and Toronto Blue Jays (2010–2014) pitcher, type 1.[14] Dustin McGowan, Toronto Blue Jays (2005–2008, 2011, 2013–2014), Philadelphia Phillies (2015), and Miami Marlins (2016–) pitcher, type 1. Jackie Robinson, Brooklyn Dodgers (1947–1956), type 2, deceased (1972 at age 53). Bill Gullickson, Montreal Expos (1979–1994), type 1[15] Adam Duvall, Cincinnati Reds (2015–), Type 1 James "Catfish" Hunter, Kansas City/Oakland Athletics (1965-1974) and New York Yankees (1975-1979) pitcher, type 1, deceased (1999 at age 53 of ALS) There are more stories of Alzheimer's that may have come from concussions, cancers, and other, but finally, we should look to the Spanish Flu - "the flu took: Cy Swain, a minor leaguer from 1904 to 1914 who slugged 39 home runs in 1913; Larry Chappell, a big league outfielder for the White Sox, Indians and Boston Braves between 1913 and 1917; catcher Leo McGraw, a minor leaguer between 1910 and 1916; catcher Harry Glenn, a minor leaguer from 1910 to 1918 who spent time with the 1915 Cardinals; minor league pitcher Dave Roth, who played between 1912 and 1916; and minor league pitcher Harry Acton, who played in 1917." https://baseballhall.org/discover/1918-flu-pandemic-didnt-spare-baseball The Twins have their own tragic stories too - Danny Thompson, a promising shortstop was diagnosed with Leukemia when he was 26, in 1973. He played four more seasons and died ten weeks after his final game. Walter Bond - died of Leukemia in the closing weeks of the 1967 baseball season — a year during which he had made the Twins' roster coming out of spring training. Wikipedia entry says this about the end - "Bond made the team and batted .313 in part-time duty during the season's first month. But the Twins released him on May 15, and although Bond caught on with the Jacksonville Suns, his declining health forced him to the sidelines after only three games.[2] He entered a Houston hospital for treatment, but died there at age 29. Said his physician, Dr. Hatch Cummings: "He showed the strength of character and will that only champions possess. It was an exhibition of courage, and in the best tradition of baseball." We want baseball, but we can live without it if it comes down to a threat to players health and lives.

Covid at the Bat The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day: The score stood four proposals down, with one idea more how to play , And then when Clark died with the first, and Manfred did the same, A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast; They thought, "If only Manfred could but get a whack at that— We'd put up even money now, with owners and union both at bat." But Clark preceded Manfred, as did also Buster Olney’s take, And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake; So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat, For there seemed but little chance Covid would let us bat. But Players let drive a single, to the wonderment of all, And Manfred, the much despised, tore the cover off the ball; And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred, There were players taking practice safe at parks and a-hugging third. Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell; It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat, For Covid, mighty Covid, was grabbing at the bat. There was ease in Covid’s manner as he stopped them in their place; There was pride in Covid's bearing and a smile lit Covid's face. And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat, No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Covid at the bat. Ten thousand eyes were on it as players rubbed their hands with dirt; Five thousand tongues were silence when they rubbed it on their shirt; Then while the writhing pitcher wiped the virus that hung upon his hip, Defiance flashed in Covid's eye, a sneer curled Covid's lip. And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air, And Covid stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there. Close by the sturdy virus the ball unheeded sped— "That ain't my style," said Covid. "He tested positive!" the doctor said. From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar, Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore; "Kill him! Kill the doctor!" shouted someone on the stand; And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Covid raised his hand . With a smile of unChristian charity great Covid's visage shone; It stilled the rising tumult; the game would not go on; It signaled to the Phillies, and once more the Blue Jays flew; But Covid still ignored it and the doctor said, "that’s two!" "Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!" But one scornful look from Covid and the audience was awed. They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain, And they knew that Covid wouldn't let us play ball again. The sneer is gone from player’s lips, their teeth are clenched in hate, He pounds with cruel violence his infection upon the plate; And now the owners hold the ball, and now they all let go, And now the air is shattered by the force of Covid’s blow. Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright, The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light; And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout, But there is no joy in baseball —mighty Covid has struck them out. AND HERE IS THE ORIGINAL - MY APOLOGIES TO MR THAYER Casey at the Bat Ernest Lawrence Thayer - 1863-1940 The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine that day: The score stood four to two, with but one inning more to play, And then when Cooney died at first, and Barrows did the same, A pall-like silence fell upon the patrons of the game. A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast; They thought, "If only Casey could but get a whack at that— We'd put up even money now, with Casey at the bat." But Flynn preceded Casey, as did also Jimmy Blake, And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a cake; So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy sat, For there seemed but little chance of Casey getting to the bat. But Flynn let drive a single, to the wonderment of all, And Blake, the much despisèd, tore the cover off the ball; And when the dust had lifted, and men saw what had occurred, There was Jimmy safe at second and Flynn a-hugging third. Then from five thousand throats and more there rose a lusty yell; It rumbled through the valley, it rattled in the dell; It pounded on the mountain and recoiled upon the flat, For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat. There was ease in Casey's manner as he stepped into his place; There was pride in Casey's bearing and a smile lit Casey's face. And when, responding to the cheers, he lightly doffed his hat, No stranger in the crowd could doubt 'twas Casey at the bat. Ten thousand eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt; Five thousand tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt; Then while the writhing pitcher ground the ball into his hip, Defiance flashed in Casey's eye, a sneer curled Casey's lip. And now the leather-covered sphere came hurtling through the air, And Casey stood a-watching it in haughty grandeur there. Close by the sturdy batsman the ball unheeded sped— "That ain't my style," said Casey. "Strike one!" the umpire said. From the benches, black with people, there went up a muffled roar, Like the beating of the storm-waves on a stern and distant shore; "Kill him! Kill the umpire!" shouted someone on the stand; And it's likely they'd have killed him had not Casey raised his hand. With a smile of Christian charity great Casey's visage shone; He stilled the rising tumult; he bade the game go on; He signaled to the pitcher, and once more the dun sphere flew; But Casey still ignored it and the umpire said, "Strike two!" "Fraud!" cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered "Fraud!" But one scornful look from Casey and the audience was awed. They saw his face grow stern and cold, they saw his muscles strain, And they knew that Casey wouldn't let that ball go by again. The sneer is gone from Casey's lip, his teeth are clenched in hate, He pounds with cruel violence his bat upon the plate; And now the pitcher holds the ball, and now he lets it go, And now the air is shattered by the force of Casey's blow. Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright, The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light; And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout, But there is no joy in Mudville—mighty Casey has struck out. This poem is in the public domain.

While baseball across the country has been placed on an indefinite hiatus, some professional coaches are trying to offer their educational services while fundraising to support COVID-19 research. It’s called COACHES vs COVID and the concept was created by former Minnesota Twins’ minor league catching coordinator and current New York Yankees catching director and quality control coach Tanner Swanson.A month ago, Swanson was acclimating himself to pinstripes in Tampa. Then, days later he was back at home in Seattle, battling the global pandemic from the indoors during the extended rainy Northwest spring. Now with the season on hold, he began fielding questions from fellow coaches who were interested in his guidance. He would set up a Zoom session and talk shop, educating others on how he had pushed player development from a catching standpoint. “I found myself over the course of a week doing a lot of one-on-one interactions and I figured there would be a more efficient way to do this,” says Swanson. “I also saw there was an opportunity to contribute to the greater cause.” Swanson rallied some personal friends, contacting Kainoa Correa with the San Francisco Giants and former colleague and current Twins’ minor league infield and baserunning coordinator, Billy Boyer. “We’re both on the Twitter world so we get asked questions quite often,” says Boyer, “and Swanny had the idea that if we are going to share some information, use this time to fundraise for a good cause and use our platform to do that.” The concept is to amass a collection of coaches willing to share their insights to their audience in exchange for donations to aid in COVID-19 research. Coaches like Swanson and Boyer will be hosting weekly Zoom webinars that will focus on professional development for coaches looking to expand their knowledge. Swanson says the list of participating coaches is growing by the day. The experience will be fairly organic, giving attendees access to the minds of coaches at the forefront of their specialties. “We’re pitching it as a unique opportunity to speak specifically about our position expertise,” Swanson envisions. “Billy and Kai are going to do something on infield play. I’m going to offer a weekly, 30-minute session on catching development. Really just a Q&A, open-format, just to facilitate some dialogue and answer some questions and be available to help amatuer coaches as needed.” Swanson will be focusing on his strength -- catching. He’s received his share of national notoriety for helping Mitch Garver improve his defense in 2019 and now hopes in doing the same with the Yankees’ Gary Sanchez. “Whether you are a coach or just an avid fan, there’s a lot of curiosities about these recent trends in catcher development,” Swanson admits. He welcomes non-coaches to participate, either through donations or the webinar. The new catching philosophies have made people ask a lot of questions, such as how can they block or throw out runners from that position. “All questions will be fair,” he says. Similarly, Boyer doesn’t foresee his interaction time to be limited to just those who are career coaches. He wants to reach all kinds of coaches -- from those working with prospects to little leaguers. “It doesn’t have to be baseball,” Boyer says. “It could be fast pitch. It could be other coaches. We’re just trying to get some information and maybe the art of coaching and be able to share as much as we can at a time where everybody is hungry but now that we’re fighting COVID and everybody is at home, it’s a good opportunity to share and learn for personal growth reasons.” Boyer has been at the forefront of the infield development for the Minnesota Twins, an area of the game that has potentially lagged behind other areas when it comes to improvement through analytics or altering techniques. This past January, Boyer spent time in Minnesota and presented at the MN BAT Summit, educating local high school and college coaches on the on-going evolution of the infield landscape. Boyer points to Swanson’s time with the team and his data-driven approach to catching that changed the entire philosophy of that position and he sees a future where infield play undergoes a similar revolutionary transition. “We’re trying to use analytics to enhance our ability to defend but we’re also trying to advance our techniques to take advantage of analytics,” Boyer said this spring. The online seminars will be free, with links being tweeting out by Swanson and Boyer, respectively, but donations to the Seattle-based research hospital, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, are encouraged. Both coaches, who call Seattle home in the offseason, have a personal connection to that cause (Boyer’s wife lost her father to melanoma skin cancer at a young age and Swanson’s sister passed in 2018 after a battle with breast cancer) while the center’s research on COVID-19 has been groundbreaking. “It’s a large organization out here in the Northwest and doing some really important work,” Swanson says. “It’s something that is really close to both of us,” adds Boyer. “We’re trying to give back, especially in a time of need. We just felt that anything we could do to make some money for them and help the fight was a worthy cause.” Anyone can donate to the COACHES VS COVID cause while those interested in attending the webinars should follow Swanson and Boyer on Twitter for updates and join them this Saturday to learn more about the game. One hundred percent of the donations will go to the Fred Hutchinson Research Center. Click here to view the article

We are just days into this global pandemic and so far, COVID-19 has taken a multitude of normalcy away from our daily lives. Forced to reconsider how we’ll operate in the weeks ahead; we no longer have baseball (and sports as a whole) to view. While that’s disappointing, it is in these passions that people have long since become a unified community. Major League Baseball shelved operations in the Grapefruit and Cactus Leagues last week. We now have seen teams disperse, with players returning home to the extent of some even leaving the country. As things stand right now, resumption of the sport couldn’t be more distant. First pitches were supposed to be thrown out on Opening Day’s around the league in less than two weeks. That has been taken away from us. Amidst this unfortunate revelation, we’re forced to consider what aspect of the sport really brings us together in the first place. Statistics, analysis, and fandom is generated by the on-field play of athletes we follow. Baseball is a labor of love requiring buy in over a long seasons that tracks many months. The level of consumption can be different for each fan, but the outlets and offerings available to us are plentiful and provide something for everyone. It’s in this time of stoppage that we can shift a focus to where we’re all at, and that’s a reality of togetherness. Sure, there’s no breakdowns of Spring Training action or roster movement taking place right now. We don’t have highlights to pour over or tickets to buy. What we still have however is a community of people that share a passion towards a singular subject. While we’re all divided by teams and players, baseball is the greater thread that brings it all back together. In this downtime there’s more than a handful of great writers putting out content. There are websites still pumping out great pieces. There have been a handful of awesome books published over the past couple of seasons. Heck, Twitter allows for immediate dialogue and interaction amongst an endless number of participants. Really, it’s baseball that has brought us all together, but not the on-field product that keeps us here. Hopefully sooner rather than later we’ll have a return to action on the field. In the meantime, though, the fan wins alongside every other fan going through the same experience. Find different ways to consume this passion. Strike up new conversations, read new writers, join new communities. The impact of this experience, and the way we’re able to consume a sport that has temporarily been taken away, is entirely up to each individual. There won’t be any box scores when it’s all said and done, but the appreciation and love of the game can be certain to grow along the way. For more from Off The Baggy, click here. Follow @tlschwerz

Today in Fort Myers there was a big-league game as well as some minor league intrasquad action. Across the entire landscape though, it was the fallout of Coronavirus that was being felt. Major League implications were now in place, and minor league changes had come as well. With the Governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, placing a ban on public gatherings in an attempt to cease the spread of COVID-19 the Minnesota Twins had officially felt their first 2020 impact. Scheduled to play the Seattle Mariners for their second series of the season, those games must now be relocated. Talk has been that they could happen in Arizona, where the Mariners hold their Spring Training, but the situation remains fluid. This isn’t a one city ordeal either. San Francisco has limited public gatherings of more than 1,000 people, and with Oakland just across the bay, a disruption of Minnesota’s Opening Day affairs could soon follow. The NCAA has determined a fan less March Madness will take place, and many individual conferences have followed suit. In response to the newly discovered health scare, many are erring on the side of caution. It wasn’t until today that the Twins decided things would translate to the minor leagues as well. I talked with a couple of players earlier in the week, and they’d noted having been given instruction and direction relating to Coronavirus. On Wednesday however, the Twins had roped off significant portions of the minor league fields at the Lee Country Sports Complex, and ushers were put in place to interrupt the flow of foot traffic. A full-on quarantine of the athletes from bystanders had now been instituted. I’m not old enough to understand what the SARS outbreak looked like, and regardless of any research, living this is bordering on interesting to say the least. It feels akin to something like a video-game-esque zombie apocalypse and I feel as though we’re just beginning to see the total fallout. Having had discussions with those more in the know, I’d be greatly surprised to see Major League Baseball play a full 162-game slate in 2020. The logistical hurdles ahead are going to be immense, and without clarification on what could be yet to come, a simple delay could be more straightforward that the nightmare of reactive decisions. We likely won’t know the overall societal impact of this situation for years to come, and it’s almost assuredly going to be a benchmark in history books. While sports play a very small part of the overall social landscape, they are front and center when determining what many citizens gravitate towards. Unfortunately, I think this gets worse before it gets better, and the fallout we see from that could be unprecedented. For more from Off The Baggy, click here. Follow @tlschwerz