Can Baseball Survive Covid-19?
Major League Baseball’s 60-game season begins, with empty stadiums and virtual fans. Like so much else, America’s Pastime has been transformed by the pandemic.
The long-awaited return of live baseball may be brief. On Sunday, the Florida Marlins delayed their return to Miami from their opening series in Philadelphia due to a Covid-19 outbreak. At least 13 people with the organization have tested positive, and several games have been postponed. Other teams, including the Yankees, Reds and Red Sox, have also had players test positive for the virus; Major League Baseball’s pandemic-shortened 60-game season is only days old, but it may already be in peril.
For the moment, however, it’s time to play ball. The league is hoping that sports-starved fans will be willing to overlook the many adaptations that the coronavirus has brought to America’s Pastime — empty ballparks, cardboard fans, teleworking commentators, and piped-in crowd noises (lifted from the video game MLB: The Show) that accompany even routine plays. Strong television ratings on Opening Day suggest that Americans are indeed eager for any glimmer of normalcy amid economic crisis, social unrest, and Covid-19 fears. But the game itself offers no escape: Like every other activity in daily life, the visual landscape of baseball has been remade by the contagion, from the panorama of vacant seats to the masks on coaches, umpires and sometimes players.