Birdland Crush

According to MLB on FOX and The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, Major League Baseball informed the Baltimore Orioles and the rest of the league’s teams today that exhibition games would be permitted in Spring Training 2.0. The league will allow teams to schedule up to three (3) games before the end of Spring Training 2.0. Or summer training; however you want to call it.

In short, if teams don’t have other teams close in their vicinity, they can schedule those games against their Opening Day opponent. In the Orioles’ case, those two elements could well be the same. It would stand to reason that the Birds’ exhibition opponents would include (and perhaps be limited to) Philadelphia and Washington. But those are also two National League teams that will feature prominently on the Orioles’ regular season schedule. Perhaps even on Opening Day.

Both of those cities are within driving distance of Camden Yards. The Orioles could bus to either one, and either team could bus to Camden Yards. Again, it’s unclear if fans would be admitted to these events. What’s also unclear is whether or not these games would be fully covered by the local media the way that Grapefruit League games are done. As I said in an earlier column, baseball 2020 is just a fluid situation. As is the entire world right now.

The Baltimore Orioles sent out a release yesterday to the general public with a few details of the 2020 season. Much of it we already knew, but now it’s on paper. Keep in mind however that as is the case with society, baseball’s in a fairly precarious state in 2020. All things are fluid and subject to change at the drop of a dime.

Training camp will begin on July 1st, which if you’re keeping score at home is next Wednesday. It will be held at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It will probably consist of mostly workouts, drills, and scrimmages. However the team might schedule an informal exhibition game or two against another team. Presumably that other team would be either Washington or Philadelphia.

The formal season schedule needs to be agreed upon by the league and the player’s association. That should be done within the next week. One thing we do know is who the Orioles will be playing. Of the sixty games, forty will be against the regular AL East opponents. The remaining 20 will be against the NL East – Miami, Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia, and the New York Mets.

When the season begins teams will be allowed to have a 30-man roster. Two weeks in that’ll go down to 28, and two weeks after that (the “midpoint” of the season) it’ll go down to 26. It’s expected that there’ll be a 10-day DL, but also a separate list for players who are ineligible due to Coronavirus.

What’s not addressed is the admission of fans. I don’t know this for a fact, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see MLB do something similar to what the NFL is planning on doing, which is to leave it up to the teams and local governments. Again to be clear, I don’t know that. It’s just a prediction.

The Orioles have been mum on this issue as well. However Maryland is seeing daily drops in it’s infection rate. So if there’s a team who might be in a position to admit fans to home games, the Orioles would be a candidate. This isn’t to say that every seat would be available for sale, as I suspect social distancing measures would have to be in place. But I do think there’s a way it could be done safely. How many people are willing to come to games given the health situation is another story. But time will tell.

Despite the cumbersome process to get there and the less-than-satisfactory situation, it appears that Baltimore Orioles baseball might be on the verge of coming back. Last night MLB released the following statement:

“Today, the Major League Baseball Players Association informed us that they have rejected the agreement framework developed by Commissioner Manfred and Tony Clark. Needless to say, we are disappointed by this development.

“The framework provided an opportunity for MLB and its players to work together to confront the difficulties and challenges presented by the pandemic. It gave our fans the chance to see an exciting new Postseason format. And, it offered players significant benefits including:

1) The universal DH for two years
2) A guaranteed $25 million in playoff pools in 2020
3) $33 million in forgiven salary advances that would increase the take home pay of 61% of Major League players
4) Overall earnings for players of 104 percent of prorated salary
5) Over the last two days, MLB agreed to remove expanded Postseason in 2021 in order to address player concerns

“In view of this rejection, the MLB Clubs have unanimously voted to proceed with the 2020 season under the terms of the March 26th Agreement. The provisions listed above will not be operative.

“In order to produce a schedule with a specific number of games, we are asking that the Players Association provide to us by 5:00 p.m. (ET) tomorrow with two pieces of information. The first is whether players will be able to report to camp within seven days (by July 1st). The second is whether the Players Association will agree on the Operating Manual which contains the health and safety protocols necessary to give us the best opportunity to conduct and complete our regular season and Postseason.”

Courtesy of mlb.com

In short, the agreement between the player’s association and the league on March 26th gives the commissioner the right to effective impose the season. It’s believed that Commissioner Manfred will impose a season of approximately 60 games (as opposed to the previous number of 50), and that it could begin over the weekend of July 24-26th. Spring training 2.0 would in theory begin July 1st.

This is all far from ideal. Obviously baseball deciding to have labor strife in the middle of a global pandemic rubs a lot of people the wrong way – including me. With people out of work and countless other sick and suffering (or deceased), it really hasn’t been a great look for the league. And now on top of that we’re going to see a 60-game season.

Someone asked me last week if I thought there should be an asterisk by this year in terms of whomever wins the World Series. Should they be considered legitimate champions and so forth? And my answer is that there should be no asterisk, and yes they’ll be legitimate champions. Everyone’s playing by the same rules and parameters. As long as that’s the case, whomever wins this year should be considered legit.

The presumption is that home parks will be used for this year, although MLB has reportedly revisited the bubble idea as well given recent Coronavirus spikes in various parts of the country. However those spikes include both Florida and Arizona – the two places that were being considered to host the bubbles.

What’s also unclear is whether fans will be admitted. It wouldn’t shock me to see some teams allow fans and implement some sort of system whereby fans can social distance themselves. But that remains to be seen, and probably has a lot more to do with each individual area than it does the league.

But one way or the other, for better or for worse, it appears that baseball is on it’s way to returning in some form. More as we hear it.

The Baltimore Orioles should be playing the Chicago White Sox right now in a Memorial Day matinee at Camden Yards. Of course we all know why that isn’t the case, but we go onward. And we hope that baseball returns to us soon.

However one thing that isn’t different is that today is Memorial Day. Today our nation pauses to remember our war dead and to give honor to both they and the families they left behind. And I want to make something clear; this isn’t the moment to throw Coronavirus victims and first responders into a place of honor. I’ve heard several folks suggest it would be an opportune moment to recognize them as well.

And the answer is no – today is about our war dead. It’s not even about vets or active service members. It’s about those who never came home. We owe it to those people and their families to always make it about them. I have no issue with a day honoring those people, it just can’t be today. Today’s about those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country in war.

And again, we can’t ever forget that. We can’t ever forget that there are Gold Star families out there who were altered forever when their loved one died in war. And that’s why we have the ability to watch baseball. Which hopefully returns to us soon. As the title states, SOME GAVE ALL.

Baltimore Orioles fans might not have to wait much longer for news about the 2020 season. Multiple reports came out yesterday suggesting that within the next week the league will submit a return-to-play proposal to the player’s association. It’s unclear what that proposal will entail, however the word on the street is that the league wants to start the season in late June or early July.

First off keep in mind that the players will have to come to terms with the league on some major things, including salary. There are virtually no scenario’s out there which involve fans being able to be admitted to games – at least at first. If situations in certain cities improve over the course of the season, perhaps that could cease to be the case. So the owners are presumably going to want the players to agree to further pro-rated salaries given the loss of gate revenues.

Again, word on the street is that the league will look to start “Spring Training 2.0” sometime during the second week of June or so. It also appears that will be occurring in teams’ home ballparks. So the O’s would be training at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

What’s unclear is whether or not a slate of exhibition games would be included in this “Spring Training 2.0.” If teams are training in their home parks, I would assume that might not necessarily be the case. You might have some teams such as the O’s and Washington, the NY teams, Chicago teams, etc, who might consider setting up joint practices or perhaps the equivalent of NFL scrimmages of yesteryear, however I wouldn’t think teams would be traveling to other teams’ parks to play formal exhibition games. But I could be wrong.

There are all kinds of rumors in terms of how the season will unfold in terms of the divisions, but the most feasible idea I’ve seen is putting the O’s in a division (only for this year) with Miami, Tampa, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, the NY teams, Boston, and Toronto. Those teams would make up the entire 2020 schedule. But time will tell how that turns out.

And that’s another reason why this is taking longer than it probably should. Baseball can’t just start games up where teams would be have been in their schedule otherwise. They’re going to have to release an entirely new schedule with new dates and new games. It takes awhile to postulate how that’s going to work, and presumably that will be part of what’s rolled out to the players in the next week.

Greetings and salutations, Baltimore Orioles fans! We’ve all heard the potential contingencies for getting the season started, and there are positives and negatives to them all. The question is where exactly do we stand?

You can go on message boards and Facebook sites and get a wide array of opinions. From some saying “shut it down” and “we just have to accept that there’ll be no baseball maybe until 2021 or even ‘we,” to “play now with fans in the stands.” My personal opinion on the matter is that this is the moment to at least discuss what MLB will be in 2020. The curves do appear to be flattening. So it’s worth discussing.

Baseball’s in a much different and frankly better spot than sports such as hockey or basketball. They were in the home stretch of their respective seasons. But baseball would have just begun a couple of weeks ago. Baseball also has the ability to schedule doubleheader’s, thus getting in more games. That doesn’t happen in other sports.

I’ve advocated the idea of scrapping the AL and NL for one season, and playing the Grapefruit League against the Cactus League. My Pearson’s view is that’s a better alternative than the entire league going to Arizona. Teams have their own facilities in those respective places, and it would still give them a sense of playing “at home.” Not totally, but at the very least you’re playing in a ballpark that you feel is “yours.”

This past week we also hear another idea, that of putting the league into regional divisions and you play games in your division only. The O’s would have been lumped in with Washington, Philadelphia, both NY teams, and probably Boston. Something along those lines. It’s unclear exactly how the standings and/or post-season would have worked, but I digress. This would also allow for teams to play games in their home ballparks.

The one thing that all of these plans (and presumably the contingencies of which we haven’t heard) has in common is that they don’t allow for fans. Teams would be playing in empty ballparks. And I think it would have to be that way – at least at first. I don’t deny that it’s possible (albeit unlikely) that teams could admit fans later in the summer. But we would have to cross that bridge when we would get there.

What happens remains to be seen. But America needs sports. People can say it’s not essential and so forth – and that may be true. However it gives people repose from the real world. So my hope is that one of these plans, or one of which we haven’t heard, moves forward. And soon at that.