A source tells the Associated Press that Major League Baseball owners have approved a plan — pending players’ union approval — to start an abbreviated MLB season around the Fourth of July. Games would be played without fans in attendance.
I certainly hope this is true — sports, and baseball in particular, punctuate the summer months and provide an escape from workaday tedium. It also makes sense for a sport like baseball to return, since — save the catcher-batter-umpire pileup at home plate and plays at each base — players are often six feet apart from one another.
I do hope Commissioner Rob Manfred will refrain from using the virus as a pretext to further upend the game by introducing things like an electronic strike-zone or other novelties to feed his appetite for revolution. Yes, bring the MLB back — just make sure it’s still baseball and not something else.