Coronavirus in Major League Baseball

Media by ESPN.

Did you know that a virus could postpone or cancel big league sport seasons? It’s something that has never happened before, until the Coronavirus entered the world. This virus has affected many lives in the sport world and outside of it, including professional leagues like the MLB. Now the question is: How long we must wait for Major League Baseball to start up again?

COVID-19 has pushed back the start of the 2020 season of Major League Baseball. On March 12, 2020, MLB decided to cancel the rest of spring training with two weeks to go and push back opening day at least two weeks. With the National Basketball Association canceling the day before because of players testing positive for the COIVD-19, they decided it was the best for the safety of the players and fans to postpone opening day.

Media by Yankees Media.

Yankees’ outfielder, Giancarlo Stanton agreed with the move about shutting the season down for now. “It’s unfortunate, but I think it’s the proper measure we need to take now, given the situation the country is in and the world is in,” Stanton said at the Yankees camp in Tampa. “It’s important to know that some things are bigger than baseball [and] bigger than sports now. Once we’re able to hopefully get a hold on some things and get some questions answered, we can figure out when things can continue” (New York Post).

Media by Denny Larrondo.

There have been three MLB players who have tested positive for the Coronavirus. The first to have these results was Yankees pitcher Denny Larrondo. The other two have not been released yet. Two have come from the New York Yankees Minor League team and one from the Boston Red Sox Minor league team. These two teams have sent their players to their homes or hotels to self-quarantine while this was happening. Larrondo has fully recovered after 14 days.

The teams have kept their spring training workout complexes open to the players that want to stay and continue their training for when the 2020 season comes back.

Commissioner Rob Manfred is still trying to figure out the unknown. “One thing I know for sure is that baseball will be back,” Manfred said. “Whenever it’s safe to play, we’ll be back. Our players will be back. And we will be part of the recovery, the healing in this country, from this particular pandemic.” The MLB will have to get creative for this year as they probably won’t play the usual 162 games since the earliest that they can start in May. Then Mr. Manfred has talked to a lot of people about how to do this. One agent has said this, “The season could begin on June 1 or July 1 with a 162-game or 144-game season respectively. In that structure, the postseason would extend into December with a Christmas World Series played at a neutral site” (ESPN).

Media by MLB.

“It could be awhile before opening day will be as the pitchers will need at least 4 to 6 weeks to get back their stamina to go deep into the game. This means that we have at least 8 more weeks to go before MLB could get started. Then they must decide how long the season will be.” This was said by Mike Trout on MLB Network TV.

Zach Levy is a fan of watching MLB games and he shared his thoughts on about MLB pushing the season back. “My thoughts on the MLB pushing the season back is that the situation in our society is getting crazy but knowing that everyone will come out safe makes it worth it. We will have a baseball season after this is all over.” Since he can’t watch baseball games, Levy has been watching more actual tv shows and a lot more Netflix than he has in a long time but he is ready to be able to watch some good baseball again!

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