Sergio Estrada-USA TODAY Sports
There are so many seemingly insane rumblings about what a solely-Arizona MLB season could look like in May or June. Enough for many fans, at least, to call them insane.
Yet, it does not sound as if the ideas being flung against the wall are causing players to slam any doors.
According to Larry Baer, the early reaction from those who would have to play daily in triple-digit heat, who perhaps would not see their families for four months, who would go from hotel to ballpark and back every day without side trips, is an openminded one.
“The feedback we’re getting, I think Farhan [Zaidi is] getting, that Scott Harris is getting, is that the players want to play,” the Giants CEO said on KNBR’s “Tolbert, Krueger & Brooks” on Thursday. “‘Give us the ground rules, we’ll work on it, we’ll talk to you about it.’ I think we’re getting overwhelming feeling — it’s great because it’s aligned with the owners.”
Yes, the owners would like the players to play, ensuring some money is brought in this season — and likely a lot of it with a TV audience so desperate for sports in a COVID-19 era that traps everyone inside.
And the players would like to play, too, as their wallets could be padded and they wouldn’t miss a year in a sport that comes and goes so quickly. Still, would they be willing to quarantine themselves from the world, including their families? It’s what many foreign-born players do, and what many American players playing overseas resign themselves to. But 900-plus athletes agreeing to these terms is unlikely.
And all of this hinges, of course, on whether quick testing for the coronavirus can be developed; there are enough “ifs” and conditional statements here to fill a geometry book.
Still, the two groups are actually seeing eye to eye.
“It’s really simple alignment. The players want to play, the owners want to deliver baseball to the fans. That part’s aligned,” Baer said. “Whatever public-health work rules will have to be implemented to make that happen. I believe the players have signaled really, really good flexibility along those lines.”