COVID Concerns Still Stifle Baseball
ALSO: BASEBALL CAN DO WITHOUT BEER VENDORS
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know ...
Denver’s Coors Fields is the leading active park for three-homer games (24) . . .
Who would have guessed that Dom Smith and not Pete Alonso would hit the first Mets home run of 2021? . . .
Nate Lowe, who moved from Tampa Bay to Texas during the winter, knocked in a Texas team-record 14 runs in the first five games of this season . . .
Mazel tov to AJ Hinch, who notched a win in his first game as manager of the Detroit Tigers . . .
Hinch was helped by his oldest player, Miguel Cabrera, when the 38-year-old first baseman hit the season’s first homer — into a snow squall so blinding that he failed to see the ball clear the wall.
Leading Off
Covid Continues To Affect Major League Baseball In 2021
By Matthew Veasey
“Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...”
That was the tagline catch-phrase written by Peter Benchley to accompany the first-ever true summer blockbuster motion picture, 1975’s Jaws, which was adapted from Benchley’s hit 1974 novel of the same name. A similar phrase could be used to describe the first weekend of play in Major League Baseball this year.
Last year, the season was wilted down from the usual 162 games to 60 thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic outbreak. But for fans of Major League Baseball, a sense of normalcy was beginning to return to our national pastime during spring training 2021. Fans were allowed to return to Florida and Arizona ballparks after being banned a year ago. Sure, it was with limited capacities, socially-distanced seating arrangements, with fans wearing masks and other safety measures in place. But the cheering, bustle, natural crowd noise, and electricity supplied by “live” fans were back.
All spring long, baseball announced tremendous results from the ‘COVID-19 Health Monitoring & Testing Plan’ of players, coaches, and other team personnel. The report released by MLB on March 26 continued to reveal such results: 78,227 tests conducted, with 33 total positive tests (25 players, 8 staff members) for a 0.04% positive rate. And so, with a virtually unaffected exhibition schedule in the books, baseball prepared for what promised to be a joyful Opening Day. And for 26 teams playing in 13 different cities across the country, it was exactly that.
In Philadelphia, the host Phillies walked-off the division-rival and three-time defending NL East champion Atlanta Braves. In Detroit, 38-year-old Miguel Cabrera blasted the 488th home run of his future Hall of Fame career. Two of the greatest pitchers of this generation, Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, delivered polar opposite performances. Kershaw was ripped at mile-high Coors Field by the host Rockies while Greinke produced a gem in Oakland.
In Boston, the host Red Sox game with the visiting Baltimore Orioles was postponed due to a forecast of inclement weather. Turned out there was no such inclement weather when the actual game time arrived.
But down in our nation’s capital of Washington, D.C. the teams and fans only wished that the host Nationals game with the New York Mets was called off over such a relatively trivial issue.
In a nightmarish flashback to a year ago, the entire weekend opening series between the Nats and Mets would end up postponed due to a COVID outbreak in the Washington organization. The coronavirus outbreak caused 10 Nationals players to be placed on the COVID Injured List, four of them actually testing positive for COVID-19 and the rest put into quarantine due to direct exposure.
The outbreak would cause the Nationals to also postpone Monday’s game with Atlanta, with that game made up as part of a doubleheader on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the organization scrambled to add veterans, including free-agent catcher Jonathan Lucroy, to help fill out their roster for this week’s games.
When asked his thoughts on the situation, Nationals’ manager Dave Martinez pragmatically stated “We’re still in the midst of a pandemic. We really are, ya know. We can’t forget that, what this pandemic has done. Many, many lives in our country and other countries. So, we gotta be careful.”
Three approved vaccines in the United States to date have been distributed for months now, with the numbers of those successfully vaccinated rapidly rising with each week. In fact, I received my own second shot of the Moderna vaccine on Tuesday, and by April 20th will be considered as “fully vaccinated” against the virus.
MLB does not mandate vaccinations of players. However, they are now trying to encourage it as much as possible. Earlier this week the league began an education campaign to get players on board who may be balking at receiving a vaccination.
MLB has stated that stricter protocols will be relaxed once a team reaches 85 percent of Tier 1 individuals being vaccinated. In a memo sent to each of the 30 ballclubs, the league stated that those who are able to reach the 85% threshold will no longer have to wear masks or tracking devices in the dugout and bullpen, may restore clubhouse amenities, and all vaccinated players, coaches and staff members would be allowed to eat in restaurants.
There are a number of further benefits for teams reaching that 85% vaccinated mark. They could bring families with them on road trips and would be allowed to gather without masks in hotel rooms. They also would have the option of decreasing testing to twice per week and will not have to quarantine should they come within close contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19, as long as they themselves were asymptomatic.
The message is clear – get vaccinated as soon as you are able, ballplayer or no. And another message should also be heard loud and clear. As Martinez said, we are still in the midst of this pandemic. It is not over yet. We are getting there but still need to be careful. The Washington Nationals were example No. 1 for the 2021 Major League Baseball season. Hopefully, there won’t be any more of those postponements.
Matt Veasey is retired after serving three decades in Philadelphia law enforcement. He hosts @PhilliesBell on both Twitter and Instagram, providing Philadelphia Phillies news and history. You can also find him on Twitter @MatthewVeasey for more than just baseball. His email is matthew.veasey@verizon.net.
Cleaning Up
Loving The Lack Of Ballpark Beer Vendors
By Dan Schlossberg
If there’s one silver lining to Pandemic Era Baseball, it’s the lack of vendors in the stands.
Nobody is shouting “Beer here” — or spilling it after selling it — and no one is flinging bags of peanuts as if auditioning for a spot in the bullpen.
While I can’t begrudge the vendors, who are only trying to make a living, I love not having them block my view of the game, interrupt my conversation, or just creating a general nuisance by yelling over the general ballpark din.
So what if fans have to get up and go to concessions stands? The results may be fewer beer sales (a bad thing for teams) but fewer drunks (a good thing for fans, ballpark security, and police patrols on the highways after the game).
I’m not in favor of prohibition but am in favor of confining beer drinkers to their own separate sections of the stadium. Before the pandemic wreaked havoc with seating capacity, too many teams did the opposite — confining non-drinkers to their own sections.
With smoking already banned by city or state ordinance in most ballparks, I would consider that baseball is 1-for-2 — a .500 batting average. A home run for the smoking ban but a strikeout when it comes to booze.
Ballparks should not be, and never should have been, vast outdoor saloons where alcohol-fueled misbehavior by patrons is not only tolerated but accepted.
Beleaguered Commissioner Rob Manfred, already taking flak for removing the National League DH, allowing the “designated runner” in extra innings, and moving the All-Star Game for political reasons, gives nothing more than lip service when he says baseball is a family game.
If he really wants to brighten his legacy, he should stifle the decibel level of the loud rock music that routinely blares between innings and do something about the beer vendors before they return en masse.
Some teams limited or eliminated strolling vendors on their own — even before Here’s The Pitch promoted the idea. The San Diego Padres, always enlightened in the area of concessions, even introduced wine sales at their stadium.
And yes, I’d rather nurse a glass of Beringer White Zinfandel during a game than have to constantly pass overflowing beer cups down the aisle.
The late Johnny Carson once said that he ordered a beer at a game but everyone who touched the cup took a sip before they passed it to his end of the row.
Carson had a good point.
And we think we do too.
Timeless Trivia
Blake Snell, now with San Diego, did not complete six full innings in any of his 17 total starts last year, counting both the regular season and the playoffs . . .
Southpaw Steven Matz, traded to Toronto by the Mets, fanned nine in his first game for the Blue Jays . . .
The 2020 Texas Rangers lost 24 of their 30 road games . . .
Rookie Yermin Mercedes is the first player in the Modern Era (since 1900) with a dozen hits in his first for career starts — all in the first week of the season . . .
The Cincinnati Reds scored a franchise-record 46 runs in their first five games, topping Reds teams of 1895 and 1976, who plated 44 each . . .
Three current Braves are wearing numbers that should have been retired: Cristian Pache (25, worn by future Hall of Famer Andruw Jones); A.J. Minter (33, worn by Lew Burdette); and Max Fried (54, worn by legendary pitching coach Leo Mazzone).
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Brian Harl [bchrom831@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
I love the beer vendor idea!