We're six weeks into what should have been the major league baseball season, and we'll be lucky to see a game anytime in the next six weeks. This is not the time for a return to baseball as we know it.
This is the downtime for creative minds to give baseball an imaginative makeover.
When the major leagues play again, they almost certainly will do so without fans. Do not fret over what you might fear as the joyless spectacle of tens of thousands of empty seats.
Instead, think of it this way: Baseball will be played in a giant television studio.
TV executives could lead the way in reinventing baseball as entertainment, building a bigger audience and inspiring dramatic changes that could outlast the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Even if none of this had happened, you can look at the ratings of baseball and see they are starting to trend downward," ABC senior vice president Rob Mills said.
"It needs to be freshened up. If we were looking at this as a TV show, we'd say, 'What can we do to refresh it, to look at it from an entertainment standpoint rather than a sports standpoint?' "
Three television executives offered suggestions. We set two priorities: make baseball more fun to watch, and get fans more involved.
The 2020 season promises to be one big baseball laboratory. Try everything. If it doesn't work, scrap it and move on.
Diet Coke worked. New Coke bombed. We all lived.
And now ... it's showtime!
