SI's Bri Amaranthus and Chris Halicke discuss how Major League Baseball can learn from how other sports return from the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00As the MLB and other professional sports leagues try to come up with plans that are safe while
00:06also being entertaining, what do you think is something that baseball can take away from
00:11those other sports that have picked up, like NASCAR, Korean baseball, European soccer?
00:15I know what I think, because I talked to JJ Barea of the Dallas Mavericks last week, and
00:20I said, hey, JJ, what do you think about NBA players getting miked up?
00:25Of course, it would be a little bit of a risk, but it also would be highly entertaining without
00:29having the fans there at the game.
00:31You could really get an inside look into what the NBA is going to be like.
00:35How would this maybe work for baseball?
00:38Well, if the baseball health and safety restrictions are as tight as they look like they're going
00:43to be, or at least what they were whenever they gave their initial proposal to the players,
00:48then I think miking players up would definitely up the entertainment value.
00:53Players were miked up during spring training, and the reviews were over the top positive.
01:00Many, many fans were enjoying it a lot.
01:04Freddie Freeman-
01:05It's so much better than just forcing in noise from fans, like fake fan noise, silly.
01:11Yeah, Freddie Freeman was having a conversation with Chipper Jones, who, obviously, Chipper
01:18Jones, longtime Brave, and he was in the booth on commentary, and Freddie Freeman and
01:24him were going back and forth as he was at the plate.
01:27Joey Gallo had an awesome little montage of recordings that the Rangers social team put
01:34together, and just a lot of gold is there for players being miked up, so that would
01:39definitely be good.
01:41In terms of health and safety restrictions, it could possibly be very, very tight, even
01:46though MLB is saying no spitting, no use of smokeless tobacco or sunflower seeds, which
01:52are way over the top.
01:54Some of those players don't like them.
01:55Stephanie Epstein of Sports Illustrated had a nice story just the other day where Charlie
02:02Blackman was saying, no, I'm 100% going to spit.
02:05It's just going to happen.
02:07Who knows how it's going to happen?
02:09They can watch these other leagues and learn, absolutely, and learn what works and what
02:13doesn't work.
02:14Obviously, you should err on the side of caution.
02:16The virus should not be taken lightly, but at the same time, leagues are going to have
02:20to figure out ways for these to be entertaining, especially with no fans in attendance.