By: Richard Hintz

The MLB was one of the main sports jumping back into action after a questionable start. COVID has impacted many other major sports such as football and basketball. The MLB decided to start its season on July 23, 2020. This start was pushed back nearly 4 months and resulting in the season being cut drastically sort. The season normally is 162 games with multiple days of and easier travel time. With the seasoned being shortened to 60 games, a new schedule and traveling considerations are going to make the season more hectic for the players and coaches.

 

 

The MLB decided to not go with a bubble approach, but to change the schedule to limit travel to further opponents. Each team will go on to play 40 games against its own division and then 20 interleague games against its respected geographical division. This helps with reducing travel and allowing less time to be taken in between games.

With the season being short and fans not being allowed in any MLB stadium, a pay cut is bound to affect the players and organizations. Teams are unable to create revenue in ticket and concessions sales leaving players with big contracts being forced to take less money. A huge reason the season was not under way sooner was because players were fighting for their contracts and the previous arrangements for their received money. In my opinion, it was pretty selfish for players with multimillion-dollar contracts wanting to not take a pay cut which is very sad. This went on for several weeks with players trying to sort out agreements with organizations and their agents.

 

No bubble leads to COVID outbreaks and change of players lifestyles. A week into the season the Miami Marlins have an outbreak of COVID-19. Any player who had tested positive was forced into immediate isolation and relieved of team duties until their quarantine period was up. The teams following the Marlins road trip were not allowed to play at Yankees Stadium and eventually the Yankees were allowed to play games as well.

 

The Cardinals were soon right behind them with a breakout of their own. The outbreak on the Cardinals resulted from players on the organization going to the casino or club on a night off with the team. The players were fined and forced into isolation after spreading it to other players on the team. The players are forced to eat different foods and follow a different pregame routine that they didn’t do before. The COVID outbreak caused the team to miss games and result them to play two seven inning games to make up for the missed games. This is super hard for me to understand why it is okay for players to think it is okay and go out will many people are making sacrifices for the teams to be able to even play, and then teams are forced to play two seven inning games on an already shortened season.

 

COVID has ran its course on multiple MLB teams and the future of baseball in the next coming months with the post season nearing is going to be a rocky road.