Spring openers welcome back fans
Optimism abounds as play returns in Arizona, Florida
Brian Delaney checked his ticket, found his seats and then sat down for a minute in the sunshine. It wasn’t a typical late February day in Arizona — a little cool, a little breezy — but Delaney didn’t complain a bit.
“You ever been through a Colorado winter?” the Colorado Rockies fan said with a grin.
The good humor and smiles were easy to find as baseball fans streamed into Sunday afternoon’s spring training opener between the Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks. A downward trend in COVID -19 cases throughout most of the country has meant that a limited amount of fans are allowed back in spring training facilities throughout Arizona and Florida.
At Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, the crowd was capped at about 2,200 fans, which is 16% of the usual capacity. Delaney said he never hesitated to get tickets for himself and Debra Mierzwa once they went on sale a few weeks ago.
“Oh yeah,” Delaney said. “We were never worried. This is great.”
The happy and halfway-normal scene on Sunday was a far cry from 353 days ago, when incredulous fans stood outside Salt River Fields and digested the news that baseball — and pretty much the rest of the world — was being shut down because of the spreading coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly a year later, things are very different.
“It seemed like forever,” said Brandon Ramsey, who lives in the Phoenix area and went to the Reds-indians game in Goodyear on Sunday. “Last year got cut a little short. To come out here for opening day is just fantastic. They did a great job in socially distancing. They made sure we were safe.”
Aside from the World Series and NL Championship Series held last October at a neutral-site park in Arlington, Texas, this marked the first time fans were allowed at big league baseball games since March 12.
By now the safety protocols for sports events have become familiar. Fans in Scottsdale are spread out in small pods of two, four or six people. Masks are worn except when eating and drinking. People sitting on blankets in the grass beyond the outfield wall were given spray-painted squares to stay separate. Cleaning crews are ubiquitous.
But spring baseball appears to have a considerable safety advantage over its NBA, NHL and college basketball counterparts: It’s played outdoors where studies have shown the virus is less effective at spreading.
“We feel really good about our
ability to host spring training in the safest possible way,” Cactus League executive director Bridget Binsbacher said.
All 30 teams in Major League Baseball are allowing fans at their spring training facilities in Arizona and Florida, though capacity will be severely limited. The Chicago Cubs are welcoming the most fans (3,630 per game) while the San Francisco Giants will have the fewest (1,000 per game).
The Yankees and Twins have the largest percentage of seats available, with the potential to reach 28% of capacity.
Fans certainly seem excited about getting back to the park. The players have missed them, too.
Oakland right-hander Daulton Jefferies got a thrill from facing the loaded Los Angeles Dodgers lineup with fans in the seats at last. The limited
crowd of 1,998 was a sellout at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, Arizona.
“Even though it’s 20percent capacity it didn’t feel like it. Everyone was very loud. It was just a lot of fun. I think we truly underestimated how much we missed it,” he said.
The regular season opens April 1.