Major League Baseball players are creatures of habit. Get into a routine. Tweak it some, but stick with what works. That could mean anything from the clothes you wear under your uniform to the way things are arranged in your locker. Nothing is left to chance.
Now these players – like most everyone else on the planet – have been violently jolted out of their routine by the pandemic. They’ve all had to make adjustments in how they live. How they eat, sleep, shop, relax and of course, work out.
Theoretically of course, it should be a very welcome change to be able to finally be able to report to work and get back into that coveted routine. Except…well, not exactly. Not for this partial season, anyway.
The new safety guidelines set up to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 within the game – players, coaches, umpires, support crew, everyone – will all but destroy the pre-game routines players are used to. The question is, how much will this disrupt them and impact the quality of the product we see on the field?
Every home game day begins at home. Rather than spending a casual morning with your family, then getting dressed and heading to the ballpark just after lunch sometime – many players typically arrive for a 7 p.m. game six hours early (coaches will routinely get to work right after breakfast). You can’t arrive early for early work and down time with your teammates. You and your face mask have to undergo at least four temperature tests and a lot of other stuff before you can even enter the locker room – at a designated time.
Players have to put on their uniforms before they head to the ballpark, rather than in the locker room when they get there. Yes, we did this in high school, college and even sometimes in the minor leagues – in some towns you’d dress at the hotel – but in the big leagues? Keep in mind that players wear very different clothing for pre-game work and batting practice. Pre-game work is not done in uniform. Some guys even take a shower after BP before they put on their game uniform depending on how hot it is outside. And they’re not supposed to shower at the ballpark after the game, either.
On the road, you’re pretty much quarantined at the team hotel. No going out for meals or after the game. Room service is great, but if you’re in a place for four days, you’re going to get a little stir crazy.
A lot of us would take mass transit or a taxi to the ballpark when we were away from home. Not allowed this year. Then again, while it might make it easier to tell a cab driver where you want to be taken, how foolish would a guy feel riding the subway to a game in his full uniform? Players can walk (in uniform?) or hire a private driver, or just take the team bus, which they must wipe down. Again, no arriving early for extra hitting or fielding work.
This is going to drive Nolan Arenado crazy.
Come to think of it, I doubt there will even be any on-field batting practice. Heck, once any baseball is put into play, it’s taken out of the game and placed in a five-day quarantine. Really. Even the big leagues could run out of baseballs this way. No BP will mess up a lot of players pre-game preparation and impact the quality of their performance.
Milwaukee Brewers Manager Craig Counsell thinks the biggest adjustment for the players will be competing with no fans in the stands. With all due respect to a guy I used to play catch with when he was a youngster, I disagree. Craig’s underestimating the importance of pre-game routines. How you prepare is how you play most of the time. If players can’t prepare the way they are used to, how can they be expected to perform up to the standards they and others have set?
It’s no one’s fault that the pandemic has dropped a hammer on all of us. But in our rush to make sure we have some semblance of a baseball season this year, we’re overlooking the fact that these safety precautions – as necessary and valuable as they are – could render Major League Baseball almost unrecognizable in 2020.
And we haven’t even gotten to the “on-field” part. Yet…
Listen to Mark Knudson on Monday’s at 12:30 with Brady Hull on AM 1310 KFKA and on Saturday mornings on “Klahr and Kompany” on AM 1600 ESPN Denver.
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Incredible points. Great arguments. Keep up the great spirit.