Imagine representing your favorite baseball team _ be it the Cubs or White Sox _ by wearing a blue or black pinstriped face mask at the ballpark this summer.
We're not there yet, of course, because we don't even know if there will be a baseball season. And there's still a debate over whether those who haven't tested positive for the coronavirus should be wearing face masks in public.
But it's something I've been thinking about since learning of the collaboration between Major League Baseball and its official jersey manufacturer, Fanatics, to address the shortage of protective masks and gowns for hospital workers on the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fanatics executive chairman Michael Rubin, who also is a co-owner of the 76ers and Devils, recently came up with the idea of using fabric meant for major-league uniforms to make masks and gowns for a local hospital near Philadelphia.
According to a company spokesman, Rubin recently woke up in the middle of the night and thought about what he could do to help alleviate the problem caused by the lack of personal protective equipment during the pandemic. He quickly realized he had a million yards of fabric for baseball uniforms at the company's manufacturing facility in Easton, Pa., that was not going to use.
Since there would be no baseball for the immediate future, there was no need to make the jerseys. While the company was looking into the logistics, it received a call from St. Luke's Hospital in nearby Bethlehem asking if they could bring their own material to the facility to cut PPEs. The company was glad to help, but the hospital then said it was too difficult to do and asked if Fanatics could simply make the masks themselves.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf called Rubin and asked for help in making masks for hospitals state-wide. Rubin then got in contact with MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and asked if they could halt production of jerseys to make the masks and gowns out of the material.
Manfred's response was, "How quickly can we get started?"
That's all it took.
The costs of making and delivering one million masks is estimated at $3 million, a spokesman said, with the cost being split by Fanatics and MLB.
One week after a sleepless night started it off, Fanatics began delivering masks to St. Luke's. Its goal now is to make one million masks available to to deliver to Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey hospitals.
The raw fabric used for the masks and gowns is a polyester mesh material originally intended for making Phillies and Yankees jerseys. The masks are non-surgical grade and single-use only, which means they're not a replacement for the N95 masks being used by hospital workers treating coronavirus patients.
But they are being employed by emergency management workers and other hospital workers who are on the frontlines of the pandemic.
Illinois currently is not on the list of states for deliveries of the PPEs from Fanatics, but the company hopes to expand its plan whenever it's feasible to do so.
So Cubs and Sox masks may be in the offing some day, though it's too soon to say whether members of the public will be able buy similar PPEs for their own daily use.
Let's hope so. If there's one way to make people more aware of the need to help flatten the curve, it's by letting them show their colors by representing their favorite sports team. I've never rooted for the Sixers before, but Rubin has made a new fan.
Like other sports leagues currently in limbo during the crisis, MLB is navigating things as best it can while facing an uncertain future. But while dealing with difficult decisions such as how to fairly compensate multimillionaires during the shutdown, whether it can begin considering starting up again, and how long the season could last if they do, MLB also needs to show it's doing whatever it can to help out.
Manfred's quick decision to help Fanatics implement its plan was a great start.
"When Michael called me about this, it was the first piece of good news in a while," Manfred told the New York Times. "I really hope it's just the first step in baseball contributing to the country getting back on the road to normalcy."
With all the great minds in baseball _ and with many of the game's front offices filled by Ivy Leaguers and other highly-educated employees _ there should no shortage of new ideas to help out in the crisis.
The new buzzword in America is "pivot," with companies pivoting to address the needs of workers in areas that may be outside their expertise. Among those is Bauer, a hockey equipment manufacturer based in New Hampshire that is repurposing to begin mass producing medical face shields for doctors and nurses.
Bauer CEO Ed Kinnaly told the Boston Globe that two employees called him with the idea and sent him drawings a day later. The single-use device, which costs $3 to make, is similar to a welder's shield.
The company is making up to 4,000 masks a day, though Kinnaly told the Globe he has not asked for permission to continue making them during the shutdown for nonessential business in the places they're manufactured.
"If we're told to shut down, we will, and we'll eat the expenses associated with making masks," he said. "We think the risk is worth it. It's for the greater good."
Doing the right thing is the only thing that matters. And who knows what else businesses can do to help our doctors, nurses, first responders, grocery store workers and others on the front lines of the pandemic. Maybe plexiglass panels meant for hockey arenas could be transitioned for use at grocery store checkouts?
The possibilities are endless.
This is what makes me optimistic about the future. While some of us are fretting over when our favorites players will return to action, ordinary people are coming up with ways to make things safer for the real heroes, the ones making sacrifices to help save lives.
