OPENING DAY FOR HEALING
Players turn to charitable causes to help others during COVID-19 crisis
Baseball has an innate ability to unite. Its absence arrives at a time when all must be apart, only deepening the desolation derived from the coronavirus pandemic.
A club’s roster or overall makeup does not matter, nor do the preseason expectations enveloping it. Opening day offers optimism for everyone. All 30 Major League teams enter on equal footing for perhaps the only time all season.
Pre and postgame pageantry allows all to appreciate the sport’s ethos as a national pastime. An entire team — not just the starting nine — is introduced prior to first pitch. One by one, the players and personnel exit the dugout to applause: the first presentation of a team to a city craving a winner.
“I have been anticipating opening day 2020 for 481 some odd days now,” wrote Lance McCullers Jr, the Astros pitcher who missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. “What it would sound like and feel like to be a real part of the team again. I have missed the roar of (Minute Maid Park) and baseball all together.
“After all this time, we will have to wait some more.”
Uncertainty surrounds almost all aspects of everyday life. Baseball is not spared. The sport is shut down with no clear timetable for a return.
Questions surround when it will return. Others quietly wonder if it will at all. Commissioner
Rob Manfred is not among them, proclaiming Wednesday night that “baseball will be back.” His most optimistic view has the sport “gearing back up” in May.
“I think it will mark a real milestone in the return to normalcy,” commissioner Rob Manfred said on Wednesday night.
“I think you saw it after 9/11, in terms of the resumption of play ... It’s an honor for our sport to be regarded in a way that we have been part of our country coming back from some horrific events, and we hope that we can play a similar role with respect to this one.”
Along with 14 other ballparks, Minute Maid Park primed for a sellout Thursday night. Assailed for three months following their electronic sign-stealing during the 2017 season, the Astros would at long last put their focus on the field and begin to repair their tarnished reputation.
Mike Trout loomed in the opposing dugout. The Angels debut of Rice product
Anthony Rendon — World Series hero and hometown heartbreaker — added another intriguing layer.
Astros ace Justin Verlander would be unavailable to make a third straight opening day start, but a brawny batting order promised more than enough support against starter Andrew Heaney.
Shortstop Carlos Correa could start another quest for a healthy season. Alex Bregman’s insatiable search for perfection would resume against Trout, the man to whom he finished runner-up for American League MVP honors.
Storylines like this seem so trivial. The sport’s focus now centers on “flattening the curve” and “social distancing.” Two weeks ago, few players could claim any knowledge of either method. Thursday, they spent their opening day reinforcing its importance.
Outfielder Josh Reddick recorded a video reminding fans to wash their hands and stay six feet away from other humans. Bregman shared a similar public service announcement made by the Astros.
He put the finishing touches on his new charity — Bregman Cares — which, according to his website, is scheduled to debut Friday. The foundation will be “committed to helping provide awareness, support, time, and resources to children with autism, high school athletes, and first responders.”
Correa and McCullers provided a catered lunch for nurses and medical staff on the COVID-19 team at Houston Methodist Hospital. Nurses and other hospital personnel thanked the two players on a video posted to Correa’s Instagram account. Correa called them “the real heroes.”
“Thank you to the healthcare workers and EVERYONE in this amazing city and country helping us get through this time period,” McCullers added. “Y’all are heroes to us. I hope y’all are taking this time to better yourself in any way possible.
“Whenever opening day comes, we’ll be ready.”