The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Virus outbreak alters trajectory of season
Indians team, front office in holding pattern until all-clear is given
For months, Cleveland Indians senior vice president for public affairs Bob DiBiasio pointed toward March 26.
For months, Cleveland Indians senior vice president for public affairs Bob DiBiasio had been pointing toward March 26.
The Indians would open the 2020 regular season that day against the Detroit Tigers at Progressive Field. Pomp, circumstance and first pitch at 1:10 p.m.
It would be the franchise’s 119th home opener and the 41st for DiBiasio as an employee of the team he faithfully followed while growing up in Lakewood.
All the plans DiBiasio and his front-office cohorts were making for that annual celebration of baseball’s return were stopped dead in their tracks on the afternoon of March 12.
That’s when Major League Baseball announced it would “suspend baseball operations indefinitely” to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The 65-year-old DiBiasio was in Arizona that day, at the team’s year-round training complex in Goodyear. He’d spent three weeks at spring training and was scheduled to return to Cleveland on March 13 to zero in on the earliest date for a home opener in franchise history.
“We’d all heard news reports about the virus and the impact it was having in other countries, but at spring training, we were full-steam ahead,” DiBiasio said.
Two hours before MLB’s announcement, DiBiasio was part of a discussion on whether to push back the start of that day’s exhibition game against the San Diego Padres to improve the chances of getting it in with weather on the iffy side.
The game against Kansas City on March 11 had been canceled because of rain. With a scheduled off day on May 10, Indians manager Terry Francona and his staff were keen on playing the game and stretching out pitcher Shane Bieber, the designated opening day starter.
Then came the MLB dictum. Spring training as it began in mid-February was over. The start of the 2020 season was delayed indefinitely.
“In an instant, we went from talking about changing a game time to spring training has been canceled and everybody has to hold tight until we determine the next step,” DiBiasio said.
“Our first thought was, let’s get home,” he added.
A few minor-league players have been authorized to remain in living quarters at the Goodyear complex.
Otherwise, all of the team’s 600 or so employees are dispersed and working from home. That includes all major-league and minor-league players, managers, coaches, coordinators, front-office employees and support staff.
Only a skeleton crew tends to basic maintenance at the ballpark and adjacent team office.
“This is uncharted water for us,” DiBiasio said. “We are still in business, putting together a game plan and moving forward. That starts with a solid communications plan. We are fortunate to have the technology we do to communicate effectively within a large group.”
DiBiasio said the assumption is when the government and health officials determine the spread of the virus has been arrested sufficiently to resume larger public gatherings, professional baseball will resume with the start of a second phase of spring training.
The length of that second phase will depend on how much longer the current shutdown lasts.
In 1995, there were two phases of spring training because of a players strike that began in August 1994. Owners used replacement players to start spring training in 1995. Late in March, a federal court injunction ended the strike and ushered in a second spring training for returning players that lasted three weeks.
The Indians played their 1995 home opener on May 5 and beat Minnesota, 5-1.
“When the time comes
and the government gives everybody the all-clear, we have to be ready to go,” DiBiasio said. “We have to be ready to open our ballpark and help restore a sense of normalcy. That will be an exciting time. We look forward to playing a significant role in making people feel good again.”
DiBiasio pointed to home openers as being one of baseball’s most anticipated events.
His list of personal favorites among Indians home openers in his lifetime includes being among 40,462 fans in the stands at Cleveland Stadium on April 8, 1971.
Reserve infielder Gomer Hodge rose to folk hero status that day when his tworun single in the bottom of the ninth inning propelled the Indians to a 3-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
The home opener on April 7, 1979 was DiBiasio’s first as an team employee. Left-hander Rick Waits pitched a complete game one-hitter as the Indians bettered the Red Sox, 3-0, in front of 47,231 fans.
DiBiasio cited the April 5, 1993, home opener against the New York Yankees as being the most emotionally draining he can remember.
The day originally was planned as a celebration of the last home opener at Cleveland Stadium. However, 12 days earlier in Florida, a boating accident on a spring training off day claimed the lives of Indians pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews.
Another Indians pitcher, Bob Ojeda, was seriously injured in that accident.
DiBiasio said he vividly remembers many of the Indians’ players openly crying during the player introductions in front of a sellout crowd of 73,290. The Yankees beat the Indians, 9-1.
For much more joyous reasons, DiBiasio identified the home opener on April 4, 1994, as a personal and professional favorite.
That was the first regular-season game played at what then was called Jacobs Field. Among the tasks DiBiasio handled during the elaborate pregame ceremony was escorting President Bill Clinton to the mound to throw the ceremonial first pitch in front of a capacity crowd of 41,459.
The Indians christened the new downtown ballpark in style, beating Seattle, 4-3, on Wayne Kirby’s pinch-hit RBI single in the bottom of the 11th inning.
“It was a 180-degree difference from 1993,” DiBiasio said. “The mood was ebullient. It was the beginning of the renaissance of Cleveland baseball.”