Friday marked the one-year anniversary of Major League Baseball suspending the remainder of 2020 Spring Training and delaying the start of the regular season by at least two weeks due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Of course, Opening Day would not be held until that July. “I recall that I thought it was going to be very short and temporary,” Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts reflected on the initial shutdown.
“To look back a year and still kind of going through things, still kind of getting adjusted, certainly is not something we anticipated. It was just an abrupt stop at that point in time. You’re kind of wondering when and if we’re going to go back.”
MLB’s decision to shut down came on the heels of the NBA suspending their season indefinitely after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus. “I just remember I was watching the basketball game and saw them running off the court,” Clayton Kershaw said.
“And then Mark Cuban’s reaction, I remember watching that. I think we ended up coming in the next day to practice and it was kind of like, ‘Alright, that’s it. Everybody go home.’
“I don’t think I really understood — like a lot of people — what was really going on or what was going to go on. Thankful that we seem to be getting closer to a resolution, which is awesome.”
When MLB announced it was putting the 2020 season on hold, players were asked to leave camp and return home. “It was strange,” Corey Seager recalled.
“It went from, ‘Kind of be careful and stay away from people’ to ‘go stay at home and not leave.’ It was definitely a shell-shock. Here we are now and hopefully we don’t have to do that again.”
While significant progress has been made since last March, the Dodgers are remaining vigilant to ensure the virus doesn’t affect their clubhouse this season. “I don’t think anybody saw it being like this, getting to the point it did and lasting up to this point,” Chris Taylor said.
“Who knows when this thing is going to be over. We all know it’s a serious situation and obviously we’re taking it seriously. We’re trying to be responsible to make sure we don’t bring it in to our own environment.”
Beaty looking forward to more normal times
When MLB resumed play last summer, it was unlike any season in history as the schedule was trimmed to 60 games and fans could not be in ballparks.
Looking ahead to the upcoming campaign, there figures to be more normalcy as teams prepare to play a regular 162-game schedule with a limited amount of fans present in most cities.
“It was obviously new for everybody throughout the world. I think it’s something we’re going to obviously all remember,” Matt Beaty said when reflecting on the 2020 season.
“We’re going to remember ’19 and ’20, for sure, and hopefully we’re trending in the right direction and start to leave some of those bad memories behind us.”
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