Leyland doesn’t see 60 games for all clubs
How much more can MLB take? How many more COVID19 hits can it endure? How many more games will it have to postpone before it realizes the integrity of its season is destroyed?
I asked those questions to the smartest baseball man I have known.
“I’m surprised they’re getting through it. I didn’t think they would be able to do it,” Jim Leyland was saying over the weekend. “I give them an ‘A’ for effort. I know how hard they’ve worked and I give everyone credit for all of the safety measures and protocols they have in place. But I don’t think every team is going to get to 60 games. I just don’t see it. I don’t see them getting through it.”
This was after the final two games of the Pirates-Cincinnati Reds series Saturday and Sunday were postponed because a Reds player tested positive for the coronavirus. The Pirates had hoped to play a doubleheader in Cincinnati Monday — a scheduled day off for both clubs — but the games weren’t cleared by MLB. No word if
other Reds players or Pirates tested positive.
A total of 32 games have been postponed because of COVID-19. The Pirates also had their three-game series at St. Louis postponed last week in the aftermath of 18 Cardinals players and staffers testing positive. MLB is hoping, at long last, that all its scheduled games Monday can be played. That hasn’t happened since July 26.
MLB has its reasons to press on — millions, actually. But it goes beyond just the money at stake for the owners and the players. MLB knows it would look bad if it fails while the NHL and NBA are succeeding in their bubbles and the NFL has opened training camps with the plan to start its season on schedule, although that’s hardly guaranteed. Clubs also are concerned that some of their very highpriced talent will depreciate if there is no season. Then, there is the matter of keeping what’s left of baseball’s younger fans and attracting new ones. You know what they say about out of sight, out of mind.
I definitely get why MLB still is playing.
I’m also hopeful that a new saliva-based test for the virus that was approved Saturday in an emergency authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will help to keep all sports going.
But I do have to wonder if the next virus outbreak will put baseball down for the count.
Could one be happening with the Reds and/or the Pirates, who might have been exposed to the virus in Cincinnati during games Thursday and Friday nights?
Sure. But it’s also possible MLB is just being cautious in delaying its decision to allow the Reds to play again. It made the mistake of permitting the Cardinals to travel and play too soon before the full impact of the virus was known on that team.
The Miami Marlins had 18 players test positive early in the restarted season and couldn’t play from July 27 through Aug. 3. They are 7-5 since resuming, 9-6 overall and, based on winning percentage, in first place in the National League East.
The Cardinals had it much worse. They had played just five games when they had to pause for 17 days before resuming their season with a doubleheader Saturday against the Chicago White Sox. They won both games, lost to the White Sox Sunday and are 4-4.
MLB wants all of its teams to play 60 games — or a number really close to it — so its playoff field can be determined fairly. But the schedule the Cardinals have to play just to get close to 60 is brutal. The doubleheader Saturday was the first of their four in August. They also have seven in September, including three in five days from Sept. 14-18. All in all, they must play 53 games in the season’s final 43 days to get in 58 games. MLB has said they could play on Sept. 28 — the day after the regular season ends — if necessary to determine a playoff slot.
“It’s a freaking mess,” Leyland said.
I couldn’t have said it better.
It is beyond a mess for the Cardinals pitchers, who are at much greater risk for injuries. So what if the doubleheader games are seven innings each? Can you imagine managing a bullpen?
“I can’t imagine it,” Leyland said. “You really can’t manage it. You just have to shuffle people up and down [from your pool of extra players] and do the best you can and hope that players don’t get hurt. I don’t have a better answer for you.”
Leyland, 75, still does scouting work for the Detroit Tigers when he is not in self-quarantine in his Pittsburgh home. He was at PNC Park in a private box for the Tigers’ sweep of the Pirates during their series Aug. 7-9 and also has observed the Tigers’ extra players in Toledo from, of course, a socially acceptable distance.
Like most people who are in the game or love the game, Leyland is hoping for the best but is prepared for the worst.
“I’ve said this all along: The umpire isn’t making the call this season,” he said. “The coronavirus will make the call. I don’t think it’s done yet. I wish it was, but I just don’t think it is.”