San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Baseball is back, but don’t expect it to be an escape
Baseball is going to try to start a season.
As a justification, the sport has — in a pattern repeated through its history — wrapped itself in a swath of civic duty, patriotism and moraleboosting gauze in an attempt to obscure the jagged bottomline reality of why it is trying to rush a fake little season into the middle of a pandemic.
Do we really need this? Are we really falling for it? Believe me, I’d love some carefree sports viewing, but this is unlikely to be that. And judging by the vast majority of feedback I’m receiving, most of you aren’t buying what baseball is trying to sell, either.
In reality, baseball won’t be an amusing diversion for a frustrated audience, but could prove to be a very difficult watch. Just as the NFL has become almost impossible to view without flinching at every hard hit, without a looming sense of doom about the future health of the players involved, baseball viewing will carry a new anxiety level.
A sense of dread. Who is going to get the coronavirus next? Where is the roulette wheel going to stop? What will be the repercussions be for that player’s or coach’s family? Will the games have to abruptly end?
A welcome distraction?
Not likely. Not when we know that the baseball players we’re watching are each receiving multiple tests a week so they can play some games that will carry asterisks forever.
They are getting tested for the coronavirus while the average person can’t get a timely test, and if we manage to get one we must wait for days, even weeks to get the results. Essential workers wait in lines in brutal heat for the right to get their nose swabbed so they can scan your groceries or babysit your kids. But Alex Bregman can get tested constantly so he can stand at the plate in an empty stadium and take a ball? A fun escape?
Not while we’re trying to teach our kids at home and wondering whether college will be an option in their near future. Not while we’re trying to figure out how to work at home if we’re still lucky enough to have a job. Not while the American public is shedding jobs, homes, wealth and future security as the virus soars through communities, pingpongs around states, defies all attempts by politicians to harness it or minimize it or flatout pretend it isn’t happening.
And just wait until that predicted, dreaded “second wave” — another surge — happens right around the time of the bogus playoffs and World Series.
That will be terrific for morale!
Those platitudes about baseball being good for our spirits and national healing have been tossed around since the moment the sport shut down. Commissioner Rob Manfred said it would be an honor for baseball to be part of the country’s comeback. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the sport would be “a great morale boost for the country.” Agent Scott Boras, busy reaping millions in contract commissions, intoned that baseball can “help our nation heal,” and that it has always “been there in times of loss.”
This is an ongoing time of loss. How do you “heal” when things aren’t under control? And how soothing is the season when we know the push is just to get to the playoffs and the associated revenue?
But … but … but … what about baseball in South Korea and Japan? What about soccer in Europe? This is why we can’t have nice things like sports. We rushed to get things reopened and never, not even remotely, got the virus under control as a country. Those nations where sports are being played? They did the hard part, listened to the scientists and now are able to track and isolate flareups. MLB is attempting to open a 30team sport, all around the country without quarantine, without those abilities.
The concern about the entertainment value in watching this bogus baseball season doesn’t even extend to competitive aspect of play. But that’s certainly also in question. In a 60game season, some teams will fall behind quickly and will, for all intents and purposes, be out of the running after a few weeks. What about those players? Are they supposed to stay motivated under these bizarre, restrictive circumstances? What is the point of playing out a meaningless string in a pandemic, where your loved ones could be put at risk?
Baseball is trying to play games. It would be nice to see a fun pastime, something actually like a normal baseball season with a team winning legitimately at the end.
But the winner will be the coronavirus. As we’ve already found out the hard way, it always is.