Baseball was reborn on the 3rd of July, at Guaranteed Rate Field, Wrigley Field and everywhere else on the major league map.
Bats cracked. Gloves popped. Practice was — even just for a sight here, a sound there — perfect.
Too soon, though? With COVID-19 persisting, and, in some big-league locales, surging, did teams really need to get back on the field in July? Or at all in 2020?
In this week’s “Polling Place” — your home for Sun-Times sports polls on Twitter — we asked if three weeks of workouts and a July 23 or 24 Opening Day is, given the risks involved, overly ambitious.
“Any sport that tries to play this year won’t finish,” @Thom3700 commented.
We sure hope he’s incorrect about that, but he’s far from alone in his skepticism. As 30 teams awaited, and began to share, results from intake screening, players, coaches, front-office execs and all others involved with the game — media and fans, too — undoubtedly felt concern about how this will go.
Must the games go on? Perhaps not, but go on they shall. That’s the hope and the plan, anyway.
We also asked how MLB’s plan to have teams at their home ballparks compared with the NBA’s “bubble” plan in Orlando, Fla., and also — sniff — how much voters have just plain missed the fun and games of sports.
“I would miss sports a lot more if we didn’t have a toddler and a baby,” @CheerTheAnthem wrote. “They have a way of sucking up all your time. Single me would be melting down.”
Let’s leave the meltdowns to the little ones, shall we?
On to the polls:
Poll No. 1: Given concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic, did MLB start things back up too soon?
"Polling Place" is back. It's probably too soon for a @Russ_Dorsey1-themed set of questions, so that'll have to wait. Meanwhile: V-O-T-E!
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) July 2, 2020
1/3: Given concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic, did MLB start things back up too soon?
Upshot: Not exactly an overwhelming show of confidence in what baseball is doing, is it? But the “nos” have it, and things are in motion regardless. A smooth restart would’ve been just about impossible to process, anyway, after weeks of bitter, bumbling negotiations involving owners, the players’ union and the commissioner’s office.
Poll No. 2: Is the NBA’s “bubble” approach in Orlando, Fla., a better or worse plan than MLB’s?
2/3: Is the NBA's "bubble" approach in Orlando, Fla., a better or worse plan that MLB's?
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) July 2, 2020
Upshot: Disney World isn’t necessarily going to be the happiest place on earth as the temporary home to the NBA, but maybe having one site (albeit a sprawling one) is safer in the long run than having a bunch of them? That’s what the vote indicated, anyway, though @real_pbd is unconvinced: “The NBA’s bubble approach is a better plan than MLB’s, but it’s still a horrible plan because Florida is a COVID cesspool with little hope of improving.”
Poll No. 3: How much have you missed sports?
3/3: How much have you missed sports?
— Steve Greenberg (@SLGreenberg) July 2, 2020
Upshot: There’s only so worked up sports fans on the whole are going to get when there are vastly more important things happening out there. As @jbuckle3 put it, “I cannot emphasize enough that the only reason I missed sports less than expected is all the other storylines during this shutdown.”
