He doesn’t know when, but MLB’s Rob Manfred made one promise: ‘Baseball will be back’
On the night before what would have been Opening Day, and Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is still trying to figure out the unknown.
The 2020 MLB season is on hold, postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. When exactly that pause will be lifted is uncertain.
But on Wednesday night, in an ESPN SportsCenter interview with Scott Van Pelt, Manfred gave his first public update since play was suspended on March 12, two weeks before the regular season was set to begin.
“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.”
Right now, based on recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the earliest possible resumption of normalcy in the baseball world is mid-May. Factor in the likely need for a mini training camp of sorts to get players ready, and real games probably aren’t starting until June if all goes according to plan.
A full 162-game schedule is “probably not” happening, Manfred said. The league will also have to be creative with regular-season and postseason schedules. Seven-inning doubleheaders are a possibility that will garner discussion.
Manfred wants to see “a credible number of games” played should the regular season happen. How many games would be enough? Manfred wouldn’t say.
“The exact number that we’ll see as reasonable is going to depend on when we get the go-ahead to play,” Manfred said. “I don’t have some absolute number in my mind that’s a make or break. I think we have to evaluate the situation. I also think that we need to be creative in terms of what the schedule looks like, what the postseason format looks like. Obviously, our fans love a 162-game season and the postseason format that we have. We’re probably not going to be able to do that this year. I think that’s clear. It gives us an opportunity to do some things, to experiment and to make sure we provide as many games as possible and as entertaining of a product as possible.”
And then there’s the worst-case scenario: What if baseball can’t be played this year?
“We’re not in control of that worst-case scenario,” Manfred said. “I think that if in fact the situation with respect to the virus is such that it’s not safe to resume play whether it’s in alternate sites, empty stadiums, whatever it is, we have to accept that as a reality. It would be a tremendous hardship. It would be a hardship for our fans. It would be a hardship for our players. Frankly, it would be a huge economic hardship for our owners. It would be a real tragedy.”
But whether it’s this year, next year, or some unforeseen time in the future, Manfred knows there will be another Opening Day.
“I think it will mark a real milestone in the return to normalcy,” Manfred said. “I think you saw it after 9/11 in terms of the resumption of play. I was there in Shea Stadium that night that we began playing. It was one of the most memorable games I ever attended. It’s an honor for our sport to be regarded in a way that we have been part of our country coming back from some horrific events. We hope we can play a similar role with respect to this one.”
.JPG)