Bubble concept resurfaces in Bryan
Proposed event in June would put 100 players in one hotel for a week
Some of the world reacted in incredulity to the Arizona plan, Major League Baseball’s first publicly leaked contingency to save its 2020 season. The idea involved sequestering the entire league in one state to form something like a baseball bubble.
Logistics made the plan, on paper, seem unfeasible. Thousands of highly compensated people agreeing to shelter under lock and key in a hotel seemed far-fetched. Players pushed back at the thought of being away from their families for five months amid a global pandemic. Various other dilemmas were debated throughout the coming days. From it all, Uri Geva got an idea. “Let’s do it like a College World Series with a double-elimination tournament,” Geva said.
The Bryan Bubble was born. On Monday, Geva announced plans for the Collegiate Summer Baseball Invitational, a three-day, four-team tournament scheduled for June 4-6 at Travis Field in Bryan. If Geva’s grand idea survives much skepticism, it will attract 100 collegiate ballplayers, major league scouts and live sports to the city.
“We’re only doing it for a week, so it feels a lot more doable than Major League Baseball and the logistics of how to do it in multiple cities,” said Geva, the CEO of Infinity Sports and Entertainment.
Geva owns three summer league baseball teams, including the Brazos Val
ley Bombers of the Texas Collegiate League. His tournament’s director of baseball operations — Brian Nelson — is the Bombers’ coach. The club calls Travis Field home.
Geva’s tournament idea functions almost identically to the Arizona plan. In a telephone interview on Monday, Geva cited continuous consultation with Baylor Scott and White Medical Center in BryanCollege Station. He “ran it by mayors and different city staffs to make sure they were OK with this idea coming to Bryan-College Station.”
All 100 players, along with “20 or 30” staff members, will quarantine in one Bryan-College Station hotel, leaving only to be shuttled to and from the ballpark. Meals will be ordered from local restaurants and delivered to each room, Geva said. He said he is “in negotiations”
with different hotels within the city to house the people but has not yet signed a deal with one.
Players will report to Bryan on Monday, June 1 and immediately be tested for COVID-19. As of Monday, Texas had tested fewer than 400,000 people. In Brazos County, just 1,680 tests had been administered, according to the department of state health services. The overall lack of available or administered tests signals at least some alarm.
“It’s not like Major League Baseball where we’re talking about 100 people per team,” Geva said. “This is 100 athletes total that will get tested plus another 20 to 30 people on our staff that will be there, on-site. Not including the people off-site. It’s not like we’re going to eat away at a bunch of tests that our community here in Bryan-College Station doesn’t have.”
Players will only be permitted inside the ballpark after they’ve tested negative for COVID-19.
“Health care officials here are going to help us dictate the timeline of when we get results, how quickly we get results and the testing continues to evolve and change for COVID-19,” Geva said.
“Some tests you can find out in 15 minutes, some are taking a few days. Obviously we’re going to go to the faster test.”
Three days of workouts will precede the tournament, which will only be open to media and scouts. Law enforcement will guard the gates to ensure the park is empty, according to the tournament’s website. Plans are in place for media and scouts to use separate entrances and restrooms than those of players and staffs.
Unless reporters or scouts have been tested for the virus, they will be prohibited from speaking to players face-to-face, according to Geva. Phone interviews could be coordinated in that scenario.
“Could we hit a snag between now and there? Absolutely,” Geva said. “But I think we’ve got the right team (and) right people in place and we have the support of our community.”
One obvious question remains. What if a player gets sick during the tournament?
“Like a torn ACL?” Geva asked. No, like with fever.
“If a player has fever, obviously they get retested immediately and get sent over to the medical facilities
here in Bryan-College Station,” Geva said. “We’re very well prepared for that. If a player shows up and tests positive, they wouldn’t be allowed to continue. If they test positive in the middle of this thing, we’ll have to have some procedures as to what that means for the entire event.”
Those still must be ironed out. If the tournament happens, it could afford much-needed exposure for college players who had their regular seasons cut short and could face a summer without their usual wood-bat leagues.
Geva said he’s “had conversations” with players from LSU, South Carolina, Arkansas, Kansas, McNeese State and Oklahoma about participation.
To build more interest, the tournament plans to gradually announce its committed players on social media in the ensuing days. All, Geva said, are from Texas. On Tuesday, Texas Tech sophomore righthander Hunter Dobbins — a Bryan native — became the first player to officially commit. Most of the other players who’ve already signed on are also from Texas, Geva said.
“We’re looking for the best talent. A lot of that talent actually is from Texas to begin with, which is also going to help,” Geva said. “One of the challenges is the logistics of travel, and we know that, so we’re trying to make it as easy for these players to get to Bryan-College Station as possible.”
Geva intimated “pre-testing” has been discussed for those who travel from out of state but offered no other specifics. He does not want players to pay any out-ofpocket money to participate.
The tournament is selling streaming packages for the threeday event on its website — as cheap as $49.95. Geva said they’ve partnered with a non-profit organization to which they’ll donate a portion of the proceeds. The rest will go toward tournament expenses, testing and other costs.
Geva said he’s solicited feedback from a few major league teams, all of which were excited at the possibility.
“We don’t want to be quarantined,” Geva said they told him, “but we don’t want to miss an inning of this thing.”