In the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, the sports world has begun taking necessary precautions to protect the health of athletes, team employees and fans.
With two Utah Jazz players reportedly testing positive for COVID-19, the NBA announced that the 2019-20 season will indefinitely come to a halt. Prior to that, the NCAA revealed that its annual March Madness tournament will continue as planned, but without fans being allowed to attend the games.
As for Major League Baseball, commissioner Rob Manfred continued to assess the situation on a day-to-day basis. The first step taken was limiting clubhouse access to only players and essential staff members.
MLB also encouraged players to reduce interactions with fans at the ballpark. While that is a blow to those who look forward to potentially meeting their favorite players, Los Angeles Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman revealed that the organization distributed cards for players to sign and hand out ahead of time, via SportsNet LA:
“The social gatherings with our players and things like that. Autographs, we are providing cards and trying to encourage our players to sign those and hand them out to fans. Limiting that exposure right now — for everybody — is a smart thing. And it’s something from the CDC and Public Health Department in Los Angeles, we’re trying to learn as much as we can and share that with our players, our staff, as we are coming up with policies as we start to set out on a season.”
Friedman made his remarks prior to MLB officially suspending the remainder of Spring Training, indefinitely postponing World Baseball Classic qualifier games, and delaying Opening Day by at least two weeks.
The Dodgers already were facing uncertainty with Opening Day at Dodger Stadium in the wake of the California Department of Public Health officially suggesting public gatherings of 250 or more people be cancelled across the state at least through March.
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