SI's Bri Amaranthus and Chris Halicke discuss the health and safety protocols that could be in place that will impact the look and feel of the game.
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00:00Now that NASCAR and some golf and soccer have started back up, it feels like the restart to the 2020 MLB season is near.
00:08I can almost taste the hot dog and hear the clang of the bats hitting the balls.
00:13The latest plan involves a second spring training in mid-June with a start in early July.
00:20Chris, what do you think the 2020 MLB season looks like?
00:24And no matter what angle you look at this from, the baseball season is going to look very, very different.
00:30First off, the season is going to be shorter.
00:32There's no way they fit a 162-game season in.
00:34Even if they wanted to be ambitious and fit over 100 games in or around 100 games, that's more than likely not going to happen.
00:41And the current proposal that the league and the players are talking about now is, you know, rumored to be 82 games.
00:49So this is definitely going to be a very, very different season.
00:52And some of the on-field restrictions are going to make it even more bizarre.
00:57And that's going to be things like discouragement of spitting, of using smokeless tobacco or sunflower seeds,
01:05no handing in of lineup cards, no mound visits, and a plethora of many, many other restrictions or discouragements
01:15just on normal things that you don't even think about.
01:18You know, when a pitcher wants to, you know, lick his fingers just a little bit to help with the grip on the baseball
01:25or just to help, you know, keep the skin moist.
01:28Whatever they want to do, you know, there's nothing coming from the mouth.
01:32That's going to be very, very different.
01:34And this is going to be a very interesting season.
01:37Whenever you see the number of hurdles that NLB and its players are going to have to leap over in order to get a baseball season in,
01:44you might wonder, is it going to be worth it at all?
01:46And I can almost guarantee that NLB and its players definitely look at it as,
01:51even though there might be a lot of restrictions, it's going to be worth it just because the loss of revenue
01:55and the loss of an entire baseball season, especially if other leagues find a way to come back,
02:01that's going to be detrimental to the game of baseball.
02:03Baseball has to find a way to get back.
02:05And even with these on-field restrictions, if they are in place, yes, it's going to make the game very, very different,
02:12but it's going to be better than no game at all.