1-Man’s Opinion on Sports–Thursday “Baseball–Starting–Not the Same”
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“Baseball–Won’t Be the Same”
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Baseball teams head back to spring training camp on July 1st.
Who knows what the health of the US will look like in a week. This week has not brought good news as Covid positive tests and hospitalizations have rocketed.
Baseball will surely look different starting next week, with a 60-game schedule, a rebuilt schedule, increased rosters, rule changes and more.
There will be intensive Covid testing next week, deep nasal, blood tests, temperature checks once they report to Petco Park, and then daily testing each day of spring training. Positive tests have shown up at spring camps in Florida and Arizona, so there are some infections out there.
What happens when you bring 30-major league players and 30-taxi squad players together, no one knows.
Everyone will be watching the Padres, Dodgers, Angels and all the other teams as baseball opens.
The NBA was the first to come up with a plan, the bubble playoff plan in Orlando, but that is in jeopardy, considering the huge jump in positive tests in Florida as ICU’s fillup in the Sunshine State.
The NHL is about to name the 2-hub cities that will host their playoffs, possibly Las Vegas and Edmonton. They don’t open camp in hockey till July 10th, but the numbers in Nevada are spiiking up and they just ordered everyone to wear masks in Las Vegas.
And then there is the NFL, a crisis awaiting, where more questions about how to bring 90-players and 60-employees into facilities for 5-weeks of training camps. The NFL was so stoic in saying, we will play games and fans will attend, now has to face different realities.
Tampa Bay, Dallas, Houston are among the teams with positive tests popping up involving players and training staffs.
Now the NFL is deciding, no early rookie camps in late July, camps opening in August. Cut backs in the number of preseason games. And now the NFL is considering less than 100% stadium attendance, including putting tarps with advertisements up on lower bowl seats.
And who knows about college football, when you consider the positive tests that spilled out at LSU, Clemson, Florida State, Houston, Boise State, creating havoc. And the pandemic driven questions about how to protect 105-players in each college camp.
So when they yell ‘play ball’ at Petco Park,there will be alot of uncertainty about baseball but everyone else in sports will be paying attention.
Nothing it seems will be the same in all these sports starting next week.
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