Baseball during pandemic
The Brewers learn quickly that it’s COVID-19 that dicates their schedule.
The original 60-game schedule for the delayed 2020 major-league season had the Milwaukee Brewers opening with six consecutive games, followed by an off day, then 17 games in a row. Pretty stiff challenge after taking 31⁄2 months off, then scurrying through a threeweek summer camp.
As the Brewers quickly learned, however, COVID-19 really doesn’t care what the schedule says.
Through no fault of their own, the Brewers did not play even one of their scheduled three weekend games against NL Central rival St. Louis at Miller Park. After the Cardinals had some positive tests for the virus, they were sequestered all weekend at the Pfister Hotel while undergoing further testing.
So, combined with a scheduled off day Thursday, the Brewers went four days without playing. They will try once again to play their home opener Monday night, this time in interleague action against the Chicago White Sox.
In the meantime, the Brewers held an optional workout Sunday at Miller Park. Pitcher schedules were thrown off by the postponements, including that of left-hander Brett Anderson, who was set to come off the injured list (finger blister), only to see his first start of the
season postponed three consecutive days.
As for the fits and starts to the Brewers’ early season, left-hander Brent Suter said, “We’ll do the best we can with it. It’s already a bit of adversity. We’re trying to stay physically and mentally locked in, as best we can.”
As the union representative for the Brewers, Suter was the team’s point man in getting information from MLB and the players association regarding the ongoing testing and results from the Cardinals’ travel party. He said the information flow was constant, keeping the Brewers apprised of the latest developments and what the likely next step would be.
“On the communication front, it has been about as good as you could ask for,” Suter said.
Suter knew MLB didn’t want a repeat of the scene the previous Sunday in Philadelphia, where Miami was allowed to play the Phillies despite having three positive test results that morning. When it evolved into a large-scale outbreak among the Marlins’ travel party, both teams were shut down for the remainder of the week.
“We knew the Marlins’ situation made them be cautious,” Suter said. “They were trying to avoid that from happening again.”
The Brewers absorbed an even bigger blow over the weekend when Gold Glove center-fielder Lorenzo Cain decided to opt out of the remainder of the season. Cain, 34, came to spring training on a mission to bounce back from a subpar offensive showing in 2019 and carried that over to the delayed season, batting .333 with a .429 on-base percentage before deciding that was enough.
Asked if Cain’s decision to leave surprised his teammates, Suter said, “Some of us knew he was thinking about it. When he finally did it, it was a little bit surprising. But we totally support his decision.”
As for the possibility that more teammates will decide to opt out, Suter said, “It’s tough to say. I would say ‘no’ right now, but you never know.”
While the Brewers prepared to return to their regularly scheduled programming, the Cardinals weren’t done having their travel plans altered. Originally, they were to play games in Detroit on Monday and Tuesday, then return home for more games against the Tigers on Wednesday and Thursday.
Instead, St. Louis is being given a day off Monday to continue monitoring their COVID-19 situation before playing three days in a row in Detroit, including a doubleheader Wednesday.
The logic in altering that schedule was that it’s best for the Cardinals to limit their time on airplanes over the next few days.
“The thinking was that we’re flying there and it just doesn’t make sense to fly back and be on a plane again,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
That’s assuming the St. Louis travel party is allowed to leave the Pfister on Monday. There were reports Sunday that further testing was yielding more positive results, making some fear that the Cardinals were facing a repeat of the Marlins’ outbreak.
Brewers third base coach Ed Sedar often jokes that when he waves a runner home, it’s “only a suggestion,” particularly if it has a poor result. The 2020 schedule quickly has become more of a suggestion as well, depending on what COVID-19 has to say about it.
“We’re hanging in there, trying to stay positive,” Suter said. “Everybody wants to play but we want to stay safe, also.”