Remainder of Spring Training Cancelled; Opening Day Delayed 2 Weeks
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak – and then the suspension of the rest of the NBA season – MLB has postponed Opening Day by at least two weeks and cancelled the rest of Spring Training. Following some cancellations of spring sports in the NBA, the NCAA announced today that there would be no championships held for spring sports, meaning the College World Series is off (which makes sense given how few teams may have wanted to compete for it).
Minor League Baseball, an operation that relies so much on gate revenue from opening day, is also postponing its season. I would imagine we’d see MLB and MiLB trying to align their moves going forward, and I’d imagine that cancelling the entirety of the 2020 campaign is on the table given the spread of the virus.
With news that NBA players Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell have tested positive, the NBA now has the task of tracking down who all they may have come into contact with. One such person may be Mitchell’s father, who works for the New York Mets. With reports continuing to come in about people who’ve tested positive, it’s almost certain that at least a few MLB players already have it, or at the very least, will get it soon.
In a time of unease and crisis, we used to come together around sports. I’m not really sure what can fill that void right now, but I will say I’m going to enjoy watching March Madness, empty arenas and all. For years, people told us sabermetrically-inclined bloggers to get our heads out of a spreadsheet and watch a damn game. We always loved watching games; the critique was always wrong from the start. But just remembering those arguments feels surreal now. We’d ALL love to watch a damn game, and then some of us would like to glean what we could from data produced in that game. I really don’t know what we’ll do for a while. Any suggestions are welcome.
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Could Root Sports play the entirety of the September 1995 pennant chase (say, one game a night)? That was fun and it ended well. Plus that was the last season to miss a number of games.
AWESOME IDEA! Except start from Aug.12. It was Junior’s first game back. He hit a home run and we won the game. And the pennant chase was on. My.Oh.My.
Except March Madness has now been cancelled as well, so that’s gone . . . I’m starting to see people speculating about how much the birth rate is going to jump this December and January.