Today is opening day for the Giants, but it will be different.
Giants hit the road for opener in L.A. as league faces numerous challenges due to the coronavirus
SAN FRANCISCO >> Dave Groeschner, L.J. Petra and Abe Silvestri aren’t established major league players or high-level front office executives, but they rank among the most important members of the 2020 San Francisco Giants.
If the Giants hope to find success in a daunting 60-game season, they’ll need Groeschner, their senior director of athletic training, Petra, the newly-installed infection control prevention coordinator, and Silvestri, a first-year traveling secretary, to log extensive hours and seamlessly
execute complicated plans.
“We have a lot of trust in L.J. Petra, Dave Groeschner, our head athletic trainer and any time we’re setting up itineraries by way of example, my goal is to make sure that it’s run by them and our strength and conditioning department as well, so that our medical staff has signed off on it,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said.
After securing a 4-2 exhibition win over the A’s on Tuesday at Oracle Park, the Giants officially wrapped up a successful three-week summer camp in San Francisco and moved on to a new, equally challenging itinerary.
The team is bound for Los Angeles, a coronavirus hotspot, for a four-game series with the Dodgers that opens today. Players are leaving their Bay Area homes and
boarding chartered buses. They’ll fly together on a chartered plane before busing to a Southern California hotel.
With the virus spreading throughout the country, it’s fair to ask — Is this safe?
“Obviously the risk of infection is there, but let’s just assume that people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing,” said Dr. George Rutherford, a professor of epidemiology at UCSF. “They’re wearing masks, they’re keeping some distance, and I realize that’s tough on planes, but I assume they’re putting them every other seat. They have single hotel rooms, and these guys are also tested a lot.”
All players and coaches will be tested for the coronavirus every 48 hours, with results expected to be available before a subsequent test. Masks will be required on buses and planes for all members of the Giants’ traveling party. If players plan to leave their hotel rooms, they’ll be expected to follow state’s mask mandate and wear face coverings any time they’re indoors.
Some players might choose to order takeout or from a food delivery service, but it will be possible for players to remain sequestered in their hotel rooms, save for when the Giants leave for Dodger Stadium each day.
“We don’t want guys going stircrazy, and they’re adults. They can do what they want, but we’re going to have that option available for every city we go to,” Groeschner said. “If you don’t want to leave the hotel besides go to the field, 100% that’s going to be easy to do. We’ll have a grab-and-go room at the hotel where you can swing by, grab some meals and snacks and coffee until you go to the field.”
When the Giants do arrive at the ballpark, coaches and staff members will remain in masks. On the field, players are free to remove their face coverings, but Rutherford said he’s confident in MLB’s ability to limit the number of people who become infected.
“Yes I am,” Rutherford said. “First of all, it’s outdoors, which is huge. Second is they’re heavily tested. Third, they’re not really going to come into contact with anybody else.”
Face coverings are not required for umpires, which represents a potential flaw in MLB’s health and safety protocols. During exhibition games in the Bay Area this week, however, umpires chose to wear face coverings, which can wbe particularly important in reducing the possibility of transmission between a home plate umpire, a catcher and hitters in the batter’s box. That’s three people, in a line no more than a few feet in length.
Rutherford said a select number of players could also take extra precautions by wearing face coverings on the field, but reiterated the risk of transmitting the virus is lower outdoors than indoors.
“If you’re going to come into a lot of contact with the other team like the catcher, a first baseman or the middle infielders, maybe, I could see that,” Rutherford said of players who would benefit from wearing a mask. “Or you do it when you get on base. It’s about other people. But I think the risk given that they’re so heavily screened is minimal.”
Since initial intake testing for summer workouts at Oracle Park, the Giants have not announced any new positive coronavirus tests. MLB doesn’t have a “bubble” in place like the NBA or NHL, but at least in San Francisco, the protocols appeared to work.
Groeschner and Kapler cited
several reasons the Giants believe they expect to enter the season with a healthy roster. One is Petra’s dedication to mastering his new role as the team’s infection control prevention coordinator, a position MLB is requiring teams to staff in the 2020 season.
“He’s super organized, on top of things and not afraid to raise concerns,” Groeschner said. “In thinking about those things, this is definitely the type of person we need. Then I think it’s experience and education as an athletic trainer in the medical field. Certainly he’s not an infectious disease expert, we just don’t have one on staff.”
Another is the example coaches and several veteran players have set in wearing face coverings, even outdoors. Hunter Pence and Brandon Crawford were rarely seen on the field during summer workouts without a mask on, except for when they participated in live scrimmages.
During practice viewing windows open to reporters, Kapler never took his mask off.
“The (coaches) have been great role models for players in listening to protocols that are in place to keep everyone safe,” Groeschner said. “And of course, Kap is our leader. He’s on board with it. If he’s not on board, the ship doesn’t go the way it’s supposed to.”
The Giants acknowledge there’s no question that trips will bring new challenges. Within the next five weeks, the club will travel to L.A., Houston and Phoenix -- all areas that have seen recent spikes in COVID-19 cases.
Additionally, the ballparks in Houston and Phoenix are indoors,
which make it easier to spread COVID-19.
A nightmare scenario is a player unknowingly contracting the virus and spreading it to teammates through careless interactions in the dugout or in other confined spaces.
The Kansas City Royals announced Wednesday that outfielder Hunter Dozier has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing symptoms only a day after he appeared in an exhibition game against the Houston Astros.
Concerns regarding the potential transmission of the coronavirus and maintaining player health and safety will remain at the forefront of conversations about the 2020 MLB season, but the Giants’ Opening Night matchup with the Dodgers also gives teams and fans a chance to focus on what’s taking place on the diamond.
There won’t be fans in the stands, and high fives or fist bumps will be banned from the field, but that hasn’t kept the Giants from maintaining an optimistic outlook in what’s considered a rebuilding season.
“That competitive fire that you have as a major league player, we’re going to find a way to get that motivation and try to be zoned in every day for these 60 games,” outfielder Alex Dickerson said.
Each game now counts nearly three times as much as it would in a regular 162-game schedule.
“Who would have thought the Washington Nationals were going to win the World Series last year? Nobody,” rookie Mauricio Dubón said. “At the end of the day, it’s what happens between the two lines.”