Sometimes you just have to point out the obvious: The decision to cancel the minor league season on Tuesday was not a good one for baseball.
It wasn’t good for the Durham Bulls (owned by Capitol Broadcasting Company, which also owns WRALSportsFan, WRAL-TV and 99.9 FM sports radio stations The Fan and The Buzz) or Carolina Mudcats or any of the other 10 minor league teams. affiliated with Major League Baseball in the state of North Carolina.
Minor league baseball is as much a part of sports culture in our state as ACC basketball.
“The only thing that makes it easier today is that we’ve been waiting for him for a while,” Bulls Vice President Mike Birling said Tuesday. “The purpose definitely comes home.”
The decision, due to health concerns about the COVID-19 crisis, was beyond anyone’s control.
For once, you can’t blame MLB commissioner Rob Manfred. Nor is it a consequence of the persistent labor problems that have affected the sport in recent weeks.
It was about the pandemic and the inability to sell tickets and attract fans to the stadiums.
“Attendance drives us all,” said Birling. The Bulls have attracted more than 500,000 fans in each of the past six seasons.
There’s no television contract to float minor league teams like there will be for the MLB and its planned 60-season sprint.
The decision could be seen as a symptom of the reported organizational shakeup that hits minor league baseball: Up to 40 of the 160 affiliated teams at the Individual A, Double A and Triple A levels could be eliminated, according to a New York Times report.
“This is strictly related to COVID,” said Birling. “The complications of dealing with different states and different rules are really difficult.”
There are nine different states in the International League alone. Add the travel economy, and it would have been a losing proposition for Triple A teams that don’t have to pay player salaries (MLB teams do) but do pay for players who travel.
Baseball is a distraction for most of us in the Triangle. We are lucky to have the options we have. This will be the first time since 1979 that the Bulls have not played a season.
Even when MLB has struggled at work, as it did in 1994, the minor league program has found a way to continue.
“We have always been able to survive the ups and downs,” Birling said.
But not this summer. The Bulls will hold a movie night at DBAP on July 4. They will present “Captain America”.
That will have to be enough for the usual portion of Americana that the stadium offers.
In the announcement that the season would not happen, Birling said: “The DBAP is a place where you create hundreds of thousands of new memories every season and realize that that will not happen in 2020 if it is difficult. Here at the Bulls we are heartbroken so we couldn’t host the Bulls games this year and we’re already counting down the days until next year’s opening day. “
As a true baseball player, Birling is already looking into the upcoming season.
“One thing I will say when talking to our people is that they are already excited for ’21,” said Birling. “We are going to pull out all the stops to make it much more enjoyable for our fans.”
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