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As MLB 60-game season draws near, careful optimism prevails

By David Ginsburg, Steve Megargee and Joe Reedy
AP Sports Writers
With the start of Major League Baseball’s shortened season a week away, games in empty stadiums and strange extra-inning rules are on the verge of becoming reality.

Now that players have gotten used to COVID-19 tests, social distancing and wearing masks in the clubhouse, it’s just about time to see if 30 teams can handle a 60-game schedule amid a pandemic.

“Obviously, it’s going to feel a little different the way things are going with no fans and what-not,” Brewers infielder Eric Sogard said, “but we’re all excited to get going and get back out there.”

The season begins next Thursday night with the defending World Series champion Washington Nationals hosting the New York Yankees, and the Los Angeles Dodgers welcoming the rival San Francisco Giants. The rest of the league joins the fray Friday, the common thread being that all games will be played without fans in the stands, each team will have a designated hitter and that a runner will be placed on second base during extra innings.

When summer camp began earlier this month following an extended layoff due to the coronavirus outbreak, there was plenty of doubt whether the quest to salvage the season would ever get this far.

Several stars chose not to participate from the start, and rarely a day goes by without a positive COVID-19 test in one camp or another. But here we are, mere days from launching a season that’s unique in almost every way.

“I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed every day. So far, we’re doing fairly well,” said Orioles manager Brandon Hyde, whose team opens in Boston next Friday night. “We still have a ways to go before the 24th, and I’m nervous as anybody that we’re going to be healthy.”

But Hyde remains hopeful the season will start on time and go the distance.

“People are feeling positive about how it’s worked so far and going forward,” he said.

Brewers general manager David Stearns noted the reduced rate of positive tests recently “is a really encouraging sign.”

“That gives all of us confidence in all segments of the industry that if we continue to do the right things, follow the proper protocols, that we’re going to give ourselves a pretty good chance,” Stearns said.

While there’s reason for optimism, the stark truth is that COVID-19 is not going away.

Tampa Bay outfielder Austin Meadows was placed on the injured list Thursday night after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Meadows was a first-time All-Star last season, batting .291 with 33 homers and 89 RBIs. He had not been seen at Tropicana Field by reporters since working out with the Rays on July 3, the first day of summer camp.

The 25-year-old is the second Tampa Bay player known to have tested positive for the coronavirus. Right-hander Tyler Glasnow joined the team Tuesday after missing 11 days of summer camp.

Star third baseman Yoán Moncada rejoined the Chicago White Sox after missing the start of their summer camp because he tested positive for COVID-19. He said he didn’t experience any major symptoms but it was a difficult time for him and a little scary.

White Sox manager Rick Renteria also is back with the team after leaving camp last week to go home to California for a family funeral.

Texas Rangers reliever Brett Martin was placed on the injured list because of his positive coronavirus test before the start of summer camp.

Martin, already at higher risk because he has Type 1 diabetes, had a positive reading during intake screening two weeks ago. He experienced mild symptoms of COVID-19, including congestion and fatigue.

Because Martin is on the injured list due to coronavirus, he doesn’t count toward the team’s 40-man roster limit while on the IL. The 25-year-old lefty was 2-3 with a 4.76 ERA as a rookie last season.

In Miami, outfielders Matt Joyce and Lewis Brinson were put on the 10-day injured list by the Marlins. No reasons were given, but both have been sidelined since coronavirus testing began at the start of camp.

They still have a chance to play this season, manager Don Mattingly said.

The Braves are awaiting the return of four players who tested positive: four-time All-Star Freddie Freeman, setup reliever Will Smith, right-hander Touki Tousssaint and infielder Pete Kozma.

The Pirates have been very quiet in general in terms of potential health issues related to COVID-19 or otherwise.

“There’s things that happen that we don’t discuss,” first-year manager Derek Shelton said. “We just have to adapt and adjust, and that’s what we’re doing every day.”

In Atlanta, left-hander Cole Hamels (triceps tendinitis) threw a side session and will be evaluated after an off day on Friday. Right-hander Kyle Wright appears set to open the season as the fifth starter after pitching three innings in an intrasquad game.

In New York, two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom still plans to pitch on opening day for the Mets. He left an intrasquad game Tuesday with back tightness, but a precautionary MRI came back clean.

The delay to the start of the season has worked to the benefit of the Houston Astros, who were booed unmercifully during spring training in the wake of their sign-stealing scandal.

“I see more smiles. Actually I see more joy,” manager Dusty Baker said. “Four months ago, that was a tough time. A lot has happened. We’re at a different time and space than we were four months ago.”

With no fans in the stands, the Astros won’t hear any jeers. MLB is providing each club with an array of crowd sounds and a touchpad device that can be integrated into their ballpark public address system to help manage the playing of those sounds.

Marlins outfielder Corey Dickerson isn’t keen on the crowd noise being played during workouts.

“It sounds more like a sound machine to me,” Dickerson said. “I’d rather have some music playing.”

Ballparks to use crowd noise from video game during season

Big league players will still hear the roar of the crowd even though the stands will be empty when the baseball season opens next week.

Taking a cue from two European soccer leagues, Major League Baseball will play crowd noise from its official video game through ballpark sound systems during games. Stadium sound engineers will have access to around 75 different effects and reactions, according to MLB, which has provided teams with crowd sounds captured from “MLB The Show.”

San Diego Studios, a branch of Sony Interactive Entertainment, compiled the noise during games over several seasons.

Clubs started using the sounds during summer camp games and will be able to test them further during exhibition games.

“There was some reticence when you first talk about crowd noise in an empty ballpark because you don’t want to do something that is distracting,” said Chris Marinak, who is MLB’s Executive Vice President for strategy, technology, and innovation. “It is heard in a way that is natural with the play of the game and on field. The sounds do match what is happening.”

England’s Premier League and Spain’s La Liga were the first to return to action with crowd sound from video games. The leagues enlisted EA Sports to provide crowd effects they engineered for the FIFA video game franchise. Marinak said MLB talked to multiple companies before deciding to go with Sony.

Baseball is hoping the crowd noises, along with stadium announcers, walkup music and in-stadium video, will replicate the in-game experience as closely as possible without real fans in the stadium. Some ballparks are also offering fans the chance to buy photo cutouts which will be placed in the stands.

Brewers infielder Eric Sogard said Thursday that the crowd noise did help step up the competition for some guys during intrasquad games.

“You’re still focused on the game but that noise is very helpful. I could tell the first few scrimmages with pure silence was tough for some guys,” he said. “You could hear the other dugout talking and it was kind of awkward.”

The sounds will also be audible on radio and television. The Korean baseball league pipes in crowd noise at stadiums so they are not completely silent but it is barely audible during games aired on ESPN.

Some fans and broadcasters are leery of artificial crowd noise because it takes away a unique opportunity to hear players’ conversations during games this season. Alex Rodriguez noted during an ESPN conference call that the only time fans can hear that type of interaction is if they go to spring training workouts.

ESPN announcer Matt Vasgersian is hopeful there still might be some sort of audio sweet spot to provide a little bit of everything.

“I think it still allows us to capture some of that and still make the viewing experience feel right at home,” he said. “I can’t wait to hear what we hear. Nobody involved in broadcasting baseball wants to compromise strategy. We’re not looking to pry into the playbook but we do want to hear things that maybe we wouldn’t hear ordinarily.”

The NBA has been in contact with 2K Sports about possibly using its sound library when the league resumes play outside Orlando, Florida.

Cutouts provide virtual MLB audience

Gabby Adamo loved the Chicago White Sox so much it influenced how she dressed and even how she drank her favorite beverages.

“She didn’t despise Cubs fans, but she despised anything to do with red and blue,” said her father, Vince Adamo of Frankfort, Illinois. “She would not wear anything to do with red and blue in case people thought she was a Cubs fan. From a young age, she never wore red and blue together. She never held anything red and blue. She wouldn’t even drink out of a red-and-blue straw.”

Gabby Adamo rooted for the White Sox even during a three-year battle with leukemia. But she never got to attend one of their opening day games.

Eight months after she died at the age of 22, her parents are doing what they can to rectify that. With no spectators permitted at stadiums due to the coronavirus pandemic, the White Sox are among Major League Baseball teams giving fans the opportunity to fill some seats with their photographs on cutouts.

So when Chicago opens July 24 against the Minnesota Twins, a cutout featuring a smiling Gabby wearing a White Sox jersey and cap will be in the stands. “We’d always talked about going to opening day,” her father said. “She just always talked about the next time she’d go to a game.”

The Chinese Professional Baseball League also put cutouts in the stands when it started playing games without fans in April. But the example MLB teams have cited as they offer this promotion is a German soccer club that put about 13,000 fan cutouts in the stands when the Bundesliga resumed play in May.

“The idea resonated with us,” said Rick Schlesinger, the Milwaukee Brewers’ president of business operations.

The Brewers sold out 500 cardboard cutouts in 90 minutes. They promptly put another 500 on sale. Now they’re also planning a “Pets in the Park” section for cutouts featuring photos of fans’ dogs or cats.

Cutouts at Miller Park will be placed in the back rows of the uppermost level behind home plate, where there is also a statue of Bob Uecker.

The opportunity enticed Will Piper, a fifth-grade teacher from Mequon, Wisconsin, who watched a 2018 NL Championship Series game from that section with his wife. He’s hoping to see himself on television.

“I’m planning on making it a game — who can find virtual ‘Pipes’ — and hopefully get some of my friends and their families to do so as well,” Piper said.

Other teams such as the San Francisco Giants want virtual fans closer to the action. The Giants will put up photos of fans alongside cutouts of Bay Area celebrities such as Tony Bennett and Joe Montana.

“I think it’s kind of fun,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said.

Some teams will raise money for charity in the process.

The Oakland Athletics offer a wide range of prices, but fans who pay $149 will have cutouts of their likenesses placed on the first-base side of RingCentral Coliseum and get an autographed photo from outfielder Stephen Piscotty. Proceeds benefit the Piscotty family foundation that’s seeking a cure for ALS, the disease that killed Piscotty’s mother.

If a foul ball happens to hit a cutout, the owner receives a baseball signed by Piscotty.

“I’ve already got a bunch of texts saying, ‘Ooh, I want one!’” said Piscotty, who indicated the promotion was his father’s idea. “Obviously, we’d love to sell that section out. That would be really cool.’’

MLB parks generally won’t have as many cutouts in the stands as that German soccer club. How often the cutouts will appear depends on the team.

The Giants and New York Mets are offering cutouts to all their season-ticket holders for no extra charge and expect to use them at all home games. The Giants are also selling cutouts for $99 to fans without season tickets. The Dodgers are charging $149 to $299 depending on where the cutouts will be seated, with all money going to the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation.

Rather than going with individual cutouts, the Twins are seeking submissions for a mosaic featuring photos of over 3,000 fans to go in the left-field stands at Target Field.

The White Sox are only planning to use their cutouts for the first home series, though they’re considering the promotion for other games as well. They sold out their allotment of 1,500 cutouts for that opening series, with the $49 sales benefiting White Sox Charities.

“It’s an emotional purchase for some folks,” said Christine O’Reilly, the White Sox’s vice president of community relations and the executive director of White Sox Charities. “It’s a fun purchase for some folks.”

Michael and Megan Izzo of Oswego, Illinois, wanted to take their 2-year-old daughter, Aria, to her first White Sox game this year. When the pandemic spoiled that plan, the Izzos made sure to get their daughter’s face on a cutout that can eventually become a family keepsake.

They selected a picture with Aria holding a sign bearing this message: “Aria’s first Sox game, well, sort of.”

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