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No showering at park? Ron Wotus on proposed MLB safety protocols

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Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports


Ron Wotus, a baseball lifer who has seen the game from every angle, understands the need for reform if Major League Baseball is going to coexist with the coronavirus.

He also understands some of the changes would be deeply weird.

“We’ve been doing this our whole life. It’s professional sports. The bottom line is everybody wants to get back to work,” the Giants’ third-base coach said on KNBR on Monday. “Everyone’s on board. The players obviously will have a big say on some of these things that they can stomach and some they can’t. Honestly, to me, if I’m going to play a sport on the field, I want to be able to shower at the facility.”

Yet, under the proposed safety protocols, that would be frowned upon. Showering at the parks would be discouraged, one of hundreds of steps the league wants to take to get baseball played this season. Players and coaches would be asked to shower at their homes or hotels — hotels, by the way, that they essentially should not leave while on the road, but go directly to the park.

The list of no-nos is steep and includes spitting, group dining, communal water coolers, hydrotherapy pools and sunflower seeds. The way of life that baseball players and coaches have enjoyed for more than a century would be upended in the name of keeping everyone healthy during a pandemic.

Wotus said he and the coaches have seen the proposals, which the Players Association has not yet responded to. The list “is still in flux,” Wotus said, adding, “I just hope not too many of these items are going to really affect the job that I have to do on the field.”

He likely would need to wear a mask at third base, so he’d have to perfect his signaling.

Of course, this is all under the assumption the MLBPA and MLB agree upon a deal that would get the season off the ground. Wotus said he anticipates that if they get the green light, there would be about a three-week spring training “that guys will go in in the best shape possible,” as they’ll need to be ready quickly.

Monday, Gov. Newsom suggested there could be pro sports (without fans) as early as the first week of June in California. The Giants would have a decision to make on the location of camp, as Scottsdale is better prepared, but the weather will be better in San Francisco, and they would like to practice on their own field.

“I don’t know where it’ll end up,” Wotus said on “Papa & Lund.” “But I do know it’s a real possibility to try to have spring training in San Francisco.”