Polling place
Baseball was reborn on the 3rd of July, at Guaranteed Rate Field, Wrigley Field and everywhere else on the majorleague map.
Bats cracked. Gloves popped. Practice was — even just for a sight here, a sound there — perfect.
Too soon, though? With COVID-19 persisting, and, in some big-league locales, surging, did teams really need to get back on the field in July? Or at all in 2020?
In this week’s “Polling Place” — your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter — we asked if three weeks of workouts and a July 23 or 24 Opening Day is, given the risks involved, overly ambitious.
“Any sport that tries to play this year won’t finish,” @Thom3700 commented.
We sure hope he’s incorrect about that, but he’s far from alone in his skepticism. As 30 teams awaited, and began to share, results from intake screening, players, coaches, front-office execs and all others involved with the game — media and fans, too — undoubtedly felt concern about how this will go.
Must the games go on? Perhaps not, but go on they shall. That’s the hope and the plan, anyway.
We also asked how MLB’s plan to have teams at their home ballparks compared with the NBA’s “bubble” plan in Orlando, Florida, and also — sniff — how much voters have just plain missed the fun and games of sports.
“I would miss sports a lot more if we didn’t have a toddler and a baby,” @CheerTheAnthem wrote. “They have a way of sucking up all your time. Single me would be melting down.”
Let’s leave the meltdowns to the little ones, shall we?