It's been just over a month since baseball shut down at the spring training sites in Florida and Arizona because of the coronavirus pandemic, a move that seemed drastic at the time but now feels commensurate with everything else that's happened this spring.
A month later, the idea of baseball returning anytime soon is what seems drastic. But what's most striking is that in a sport in which there's a daily stream of information about teams with modest ambitions like the Orioles, the game has largely gone silent because of the shutdown and the ensuing uncertainty.
For the Orioles themselves, the events missed were some of the more interesting ones on the calendar. The end of spring training is always a bit hectic from a roster standpoint, and represents a time when they can catch some potential talent from other teams through the waiver process as rivals pare down their rosters.
The week between spring training ending and the season beginning would have featured a unique trip to the United States Naval Academy to play an exhibition game against the New York Mets. Then, Opening Day against the New York Yankees and a visit from the Boston Red Sox to test their mettle early.
Now, though, at a time when the major league season would be underway and the minor league season just started too, there aren't any benchmarks to mark the passage of time _ just that it's been a month since baseball ended, and it won't likely be back soon.
Credit to those who are trying every day for contingency plans to get the season going, with both the plans to house the whole league in Arizona or just run the season back at the respective spring training facilities in Florida and Arizona interesting, if probably fatally complicated.
It's served, if nothing else, to provide something to talk about without baseball to fill the daily void.
In some corners of the Orioles organization, the lack of games being played allows a lot more infrastructure and planning work to be done than previously would have been possible. The new player development staff is still knocking out some of its planning that would have been done concurrent with games while keeping tabs on the players who they hope are taking advantage of the programs the organization is putting in place to allow them to get better.
Likewise, there's nothing stopping the analytics team from working on building the infrastructure and programs that were lacking when they arrived 16 months ago _ crucial time to continue catching up without any other distractions.
On the major league front, though, it's mostly just working out and waiting for a season that might or might not come. Perhaps someone will come back with a new pitch to try and work through whenever baseball starts back up, or some of the players credited with getting stronger, like Rio Ruiz, will be even more so when games resume.
Even thinking about that point now seems far-fetched. Even on days when it's a bit of a relief not to be waiting out a possible rain delay at the ballpark, staring down the idea of no baseball for as long time isn't easy to do.
