Players adjust to new rules
BRIDGEPORT — Many pro sports teams have gone “into the bubble” to return to play and fulfill their television contracts as the COVID- 19 pandemic continues. Major League Baseball teams are preparing to play a normal schedule, or as normal as 60 games without fans can be.
Their youthful counterparts are returning to the fields and courts themselves as restrictions ease in different parts of the country. Connecticut’s phase two reopening brought many sports back to play last month, even if their postseason tournaments have already gone away.
On the fields, on the rink, it’s more or less business as usual, with a handful of very- 2020 differences, not to mention the realworld intrusion of physical distancing.
“It’s difficult depending on how many people are on the bench,” hockey player Dan Finizio said at a summer league game at the Wonderland of Ice this week.
“Everybody’s trying to do the best they can. Obviously this rink is doing a great job making sure nobody has a fever, nobody’s coughing.”
Unlike the pros, amateur athletes aren’t sequestered from the public in nice hotels to minimize potential coronavirus exposure. Unlike some college athletes, they’re not being tested regularly. That forces other measures, rules changes and equipment policies.
Most sports’ national governing bodies have issued guidances on how to return to play as safely as possible. Some don’t go much further than the PSAs on television every night. Others run over multiple web pages, including advice on returning a young athlete to strenuous activity after what may have been an extended idle period.
Local organizations have put out their own guidelines. Shelton Little League’s runs six pages. It requires assigned spots in the dugout or outside the fence for baseball and softball players, coaches and managers; sanitizing dugouts and press boxes between games, and individual equipment for each player whenever possible.
Alex Loparco, one of the coaches of the Greenwich Senior American Legion Cannons baseball team, said the Cannons have applied similar measures for their practices and games.
“As an organization, we talked about what we needed to do, and this is the first year we decided to get all the kids their own helmets,” Loparco said. “Every kid on our team has their own helmet. There is also no sharing of bats and the same goes for gloves, which, when it comes to gloves, is not normally a problem anyway.”
The Cannons are competing in the seven- team Fairfield County Baseball Summer League, formed after the American Legion canceled its 2020 baseball season. Other similar leagues sprouted up around the state.
Few players are allowed in the dugout for the Cannons: the pitcher, the catcher and the next three batters due up. Loparco said many players bring a lawn chair and sit outside the dugout.
Each team in the FCB Summer League is following similar precautions, Loparco noted, with many players sitting along the fence down the line.
“Any time you have groups of kids who had their high school seasons canceled and are eager to get out on the field, you worry if they will follow the guidelines that are in place, but the kids have been great so far,” said Loparco, a Greenwich High School graduate who played baseball at Western New England University.
“I’m glad this league was allowed to be formed. As coaches, we’re making sure everyone is healthy each day and our players have been transparent to us.”
Loparco noted that the home team is responsible for supplying the baseballs for each game, and umpires are careful not to handle the baseballs much.
“Players from each team are throwing the ball to their own players,” Loparco said.
Back at Wonderland, the dressing rooms are closed. Players are dressing outside and, if possible, putting their skates on outdoors, too. ( Goalies get more leeway to don their equipment in the lobby.) Finizio said he has a spray that’s good for sanitizing.
“You can bring a water bottle, but you shouldn’t, really,” Tiernan Curley said. “You don’t know who’s going to grab it, and you don’t want to grab someone else’s, either.”
The temperature and symptoms check at the door, that’s new. The game on the ice isn’t changed just yet: there’s no bodychecking in these summer games.
But naturally, the traditional handshake is out. It will “be replaced by a friendly wave to the opponent,” says the Stratford Brakettes’ three- page, 28- point safety protocol for softball at DeLuca Field.