As the global pandemic carries on sports executives and even our President have made it known that they want leagues to return as soon as possible. President Trump when addressing the media last week stated, “They need to come back”. While they are focused on getting the league to return for economic reasons, the return of sports may help bring some sort of social normality back to the lives of fans at home. The MLB was slated to begin in late March, however due to the circumstances suspended play as every other major sport did. They however have been the first to conjure a plan that can possibly have us fans watching the sport as early as the middle of May. The idea is being called “Baseball City”, as every game would be played in the vicinity of the Arizona Spring League where there are over 10 stadiums available for use. The plan would be to essentially create a “bubble city” for players and vital staff members for each team. Players and staff would stay in nearby hotels, where they’re travel would be extremely limited. The players would go from the hotel directly to the stadium, and then right after the game return to their respective hotels.
When it was first discussed several days ago it seemed the players would be against it, one for health concerns and two for the fact that this is unprecedented. The driving force for the players to return though is obvious, if they don’t play this year, they don’t get paid. This doesn’t affect mega stars like Mike Trout and Gerrit Cole, but guys who just cracked into the league making the minimum are definitely looking to return to play this year. So many questions and rules need to be put in place before this idea comes to fruition. Will players be able to leave the “bubble”? Can they return, and if so, will they be quarantined for two weeks? Can players simply refuse to return to play because they feel unsafe? Fans want the sport back, but right now with all these open questions this seems more like a fantasy than a reality.
Published By Fran Cava
TheBuzzedBeat 
Great article. As with all aspects of society no one knows when things will progress from this virus. I would love to see baseball come back soon even in this format if for no other reason but to have a familiar distraction to ease our mental health. If testing is done to all players and staff and daily checks such as fever gauges I suppose it could work, butI agree with you that this is a fantasy because it would still put too many people at risk with all but essential workers being asked to leave their homes it would be unwise to have hundreds of players and media to travel and gather everyday. At this point when it looks like we might be turning the corner and still trying to figure out what next!
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