GLIMMER OF OL’ BASEBALL
As MLB plots coronavirus return, there are signs of life at Yankee facility
TAMPA — As this city tried to get back to its new “normal” on Wednesday morning, the Yankees minor league facility sat quiet, fields pristinely manicured, but mounds covered. Next door, in the Raymond James parking lot, the huge tents and orange cones were all that remained of what was one of Hillsborough County’s drive-thru coronavirus testing sites. On the corner, about a dozen people, some dressed in red-white-and-blue sequins held up signs in front of TV camera, demanding Florida reopen bars.
Across the street, however, there was one small, tangible sign that something resembling normal was going on inside the locked gates at George M. Steinbrenner Field. A roughedup, battered and freshly bruised batting practice ball was nestled into the hedgeline, just outside the park. Inside the double fences, behind privacy screens, about half a dozen position players including Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Miguel A n d u j a r, worked out on the backfields at the complex as they have done for most of the last 10 weeks, in hopes of a 2020 baseball season.
As Major League Baseball and the union continue to try and lay down a health, safety and financial foundation to restart baseball, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis threw open the gates to try and lure MLB and other pro sports to the state.
“We would love to have Major League Baseball. And I think the message is that our people are starved to have some of this back in their lives. It’s an important part of people’s lives,” DeSantis said.
The league and the union have huge issues to overcome, including keeping not just players but essential team and game personnel safe from the virus that had killed more than 93,000 Americans as of Thursday morning. They also have to figure out how both sides can overcome a huge economic impact to the industry, with owners asking players to accept over 50% in salary cuts.
But in Florida, there were actual signs of life with baseball.
Monday, DeSantis continued to reopen the state of Florida (which had more than 2,000 COVID-19 deaths) after over a month of shutdowns, adding public gyms to the list of businesses that could open their doors with reduced capacity and with new hygiene and social-distancing rules in place. The state’s two major league team’s responded by opening up their facilities on a limited basis to their players on the 40man roster.
The Marlins allowed players to use their batting cages and mounds at the spring training facility in Jupiter on Tuesday. According to reports, just a few returned to the complex. The Rays will open their big league facility, Tropicana Field, to players on their 40-man roster on Monday, for very limited workouts, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Rays players will be limited to using the field for playing catch, running and other cardio exercises and some light weight work. They initially will not be allowed to throw off the mounds, hit in the batting cages or go into the weight room or clubhouse, the Times reported.
When MLB ordered teams to shut down back in March, the league left a gray area for players and teams about workouts at team facilities. Players who were receiving injury rehab treatments or who lived near the facilities were allowed to still report to the complex and use the facilities under supervised CDC guidelines.
In Clearwater, for instance, the Phillies have had several rehab players and “some volunteer” players who have been working out at their complex, according to a team source.