The 2020 season saw much controversy between players, owners and the COVID-19 virus. The season didn’t start until July due to the pandemic that has stricken the country and the world. As spring training started to shut down there was the big question: Will we see baseball played this year? After long and ugly negotiations over the protocols and how the season would operate, the two sides eventually came to a decision. The 2020 baseball season saw a 60 game schedule, for better or worse of a season we saw baseball, which was at least a good distraction letting fans watch their favorite players play for the year (from their televisions at home of course).
Now we come to the 2021 season starting to approach and the questions remain the same due to the virus’ rise in numbers, affecting thousands of people daily. Good news is that there is news on vaccines starting to be distributed and it looks like we will be seeing a more normalized version of baseball this year. However, owners are pushing to move back opening day to May opposed to its original start date in April because they want all players to be vaccinated before spring training begins to prevent another outbreak that could possibly delay the season even more. We see the NFL struggling a bit with the outbreaks and it's remarkable the job they’ve done with their protocols and adjusting scheduling, however with baseball that may be a bit more difficult since they play more than just once a week. Personally, I am all for moving the season to May, rumored to only play 130 games this year. I am in full support for this, 130 games is very similar to 162 and not as drastic as we saw in the 60 game season. I think it is long enough to get a legitimate idea of everything and not have as many doubts about performances as most fans have had over last year’s season. It would also be so much more beneficial for the game if they are able to avoid outbreaks taking players out, cancelling games etc. Of course there may be some issues that arise similar to last year in the negotiation process between the Players Association and the owner over salary proration due to owners coming off a season where they already lost a lot of money and the fact that less games will be played but hopefully the bad blood spilled won’t roll over into these next negotiations and it will be swift and clean. It’s going to be a lot of fun next year as baseball hopefully returns a bit more to normalcy for the 2021 season.
Comments