MLB’s delay is likely to go on longer than anyone wants to believe. Holding Opening Day in April doesn’t seem realistic.
MLB announced on Thursday that they were delaying Opening Day by at least two weeks. That two-week timeline always seemed to be incredibly optimistic.
Andy Martino of SNY is reporting that there is widespread skepticism that MLB will play at all in April. Martino points to the number of states that have banned public gatherings until May as one reason why league officials are skeptical.
Martino even goes as far as saying that nobody seems to think baseball will be played in April. That leaves the season in limbo.
The coronavirus outbreak has just begun. Things are going to get much worse than they are now with some estimations believing that anywhere from 21-45% of the population of the country could get infected.
That made it extremely unlikely for a start date anytime soon. Even the beginning of May seems optimistic. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility that MLB has to cancel the season due to precautionary measures.
Nobody wants that to happen, and it would be a last resort. MLB wouldn’t resort to canceling the season unless they were instructed to do so by health experts, but it shouldn’t be counted out.
COVID-19 is a worldwide pandemic. The first with this level of worldwide infectivity since the Spanish Flu. That means the world is going to change rapidly. Sadly, one of the first things to go is public gatherings and that means no sports for the foreseeable future.