Covid-19 threatens to shut down Major League Baseball's season barely 1/6 of the way through its abbreviated schedule. And yet there's still a
Field of Dreams gimmick game scheduled to be played in Iowa for some reason. Why was this game kept on the schedule at all?
The fact that this game wasn't removed from the 2020 schedule is an illustration of the wishful thinking underlying, and now undermining MLB's Covid-19 plans. Compared to other sports leagues in the US and around the world, Major League Baseball's plan to avoid Covid-19 looks more like a plan designed intentionally for players to catch and spread the virus as much as possible.
There was a half-assed effort to reduce travel in the 2020 season by limiting each team's opponents. But how does forcing the White Sox and Cardinals to travel to Iowa for one game reduce travel? (Aside: it should have been the Reds instead of the Cardinals (or the initial opponent, the Yankees) to oppose the White Sox. Reds vs. White Sox would be a rematch of the 1919 World Series that Shoeless Joe played in, but that's besides the point)
The schedule change was superficial and insufficient. And this purely promotional Iowa game was kept on the schedule as an indicator of the lack of serious thought MLB put into their plan: Teams weren't isolating themselves from the public, the schedules were adjusted to minimize the number of different opponents, but there wasn't much of a change to the basics of how a baseball schedule works; with 3 game series, along with some 2 and 4 game series mixed in. And games would still be played in every team's home ballpark.
The Red Sox will play the Orioles 10 times in 3 series. That could have easily been two series of 5 in each team's ballpark. The Sox will move cities 12 times in 65 days, moving every 5.4 days. That's way too high.
Which begs the question: why are teams playing in their own ballpark at all? I get that baseball fields have more unique characteristics from park to park compared to other sports. It's hard to imagine a Red Sox season without the Green Monster, or a Yankees season without the swaths of empty executive seats behind home plate.
But this isn't the time for sentimentalism. This isn't the time for clinging to the status quo as much as possible. There was NO evidence to suggest Major League Baseball could run a semi-normal season the way it always has, with 15 games played in 15 ballparks each night.
To save the season, baseball could make bubbles for each of its three regions, with all games held in a limited number of cities:
East: New York + DC/Baltimore (4 ballparks)
Central: Chicago/Milwaukee + Cleveland (4 ballparks)
West: LA/San Diego + Oakland/San Fran (5 ballparks)
Yes, many teams would not get to play in their empty home ballparks. Yes, there would be many cases of stadiums hosting 2 games per day (or you could play in nearby college or minor league parks). But travel would be dramatically minimized. Instead of 30 teams playing in 26 cities, with teams bouncing around them every 5 or 6 days, you'd have 10 teams playing in 2 bubbles each. The Red Sox could stay in New York for a few weeks playing the Yankees, Mets, and "hosting" other East teams, or being "hosted" by other East teams.
And no games in Iowa just for promotional reasons.
If you build the bubbles, they will stay uninfected.
