They consider October baseball in a bubble. The word they use is “contingency”, so nothing is certain, because nothing is certain anymore. Everything after breakfast is a crapshoot. They would shrink the game from 30 mobile habitats for bubble-ish to one or two or three, a plan they hope would protect the playoff money first and then the poor souls who generate the playoff money.
This is a great idea, because people have a practice of acting very much like people, which is sometimes really great and other times they can’t help but sneak to The Lodge or such a sweet Eden. They will call it a ‘transition’ in the bubble (s). Because men are men and young men are bulletproof and beer is beer, it will look like a transition in the way a bridesmaid walks from the car to the church door in a rainstorm.
So, Rob Manfred grabs the umbrella from inside, Tony Clark chases the dress train, brides skating, makeup running, bouquet slumping and then the photos come and everyone laughs and asks why they did not park closer to the door to join start.
If they open that bubble, there’s a good chance the game will fall over the threshold, of exhaustion.
Just Tuesday, three weeks into the 2020 season: Fury Road, the Cleveland Indians put two starting pitchers – Zach Plesac and Mike Clevinger – on their restricted list. While they were in Chicago last week, they were supposed to have gone over the wall for a stretch of Saturday night and are currently isolated. Their next COVID-19 test is scheduled for Wednesday. Plesac apologized, was put in a car and sent home to Chicago, while Clevinger apparently took the team charter before the team was on him.
So when manager Terry Francona of the two said, ‘I think they are probably in different stages of understanding. … They are probably in different stages [of] acceptance, ”you can probably guess who is who. (By Tuesday night, Clevinger had issued a statement saying he was sorry.)
Plesac and Clevinger, adult men, educated, aware of the world and important figures in the micro-culture that is a baseball team, which means they care about others, made their choices, which is not yet President Chris Antonetti nor Francona detailed during a call Tuesday.
The players are likely to measure their actions against risks involving teammates, coaches and a manager who are vulnerable to a very average and pertinacious virus. They were probably aware that the Miami Marlins had almost lost their season for a few among them who also made their choices. And that the St. Louis Cardinals, whether through bad behavior or bad luck, did not play any baseball game in August. The Toronto Blue Jays were a real home team for the first time Tuesday night – in Buffalo. The Pittsburgh Pirates had no one to play against Tuesday night. Two teams had run aground in the dirt in Oakland on Sunday afternoon. League discipline came Tuesday, but the consequences will at best not be known for two or three test cycles.
Also in her own dugout, two Cleveland coaches chose the season and Francona missed eight games due to unresolved health issues. He has undergone several procedures since the spring in connection with a gastrointestinal issue and said Tuesday, “I can not promise that this will go perfectly, but I will certainly give it the best shot I can.” He praised his doctors and added, “As long as they keep trying I keep trying” to solve it.
Story goes on
“I still think that as a group our boys have done an extremely good job and they have been very consistent,” Francona said. ‘This is painful. And we also talked about it a bit today as a team, and we will treat it like we always do. We care about each other. Does not mean you are not disappointed with each other or sometimes sometimes crazy about each other. But what concerns me is making it better. Do not be sincere. Just trying to figure out, OK, how do we make this better so it does not happen again. And the players will have a lot to say here. Taking ownership of what we do is really important. ”
Which is to say that it certainly sounds like Plesac and Clevinger messaged and also that they are not alone and the best that anyone can hope for is a knuckleheaded move that is disappointing and preventative and not tragic.
It’s bad enough out there, without filling in the self-inflicted things. It’s bad enough if the only thing they risk is a stupid old baseball season.
Three weeks in, the season is most striking for the Cardinals to have played five games. That and how much underwear the Blue Jays had to turn from the inside out and wear again.
In October, which will start with 16 teams, there can be no breaks, no major delays, no substantial outbreaks. The hockey and basketball bubbles work. While a regular season baseball bubble was both unsatisfactory and unpopular, a month-long postseason was limited to Southern California or Chicago or, perhaps, New York would soften the risks. No planes. Stricter protocol. Less variables.
MLB is working on the sketches. People there call them event plans because you never know, but they would know it. Those who have to last October – general managers, for one – believe that a bubble is irreversible and the only chance to place a champion at the end of 2020. They have not seen the last bad choice. They have not seen the last bit of bad luck. That’s what the real world looks like. That they should try to build their own.
