The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our lives for countless reasons.
From working from home and not seeing family on holidays and weekends to suspending and canceling major sporting events.
As the country tries to come back to some form of normalcy the major sports leagues are figuring out ways to start back up.
We haven’t seen a plan yet for the NBA or the NHL, but Major League Baseball has had some interesting ideas come out.
The earliest plan was starting the season in teams spring training facilities, splitting the league into the Grapefruit and Cactus League for the 2020 season.
While on paper this seemed to be like a good idea, the players association wasn’t behind separating players and their families for three to six months.
Another plan that came out was putting all the teams in Arizona and using a combination of Spring Training Facilities, Chase Field, and college stadiums throughout the state, but the players brought up the same concern. Creating a biosphere of just players and the essential staff wasn’t something they were willing to get behind.
There is now a plan that seems to be picking up a lot of traction with players and owners. That is if they can come to an agreement. The plan relies on minimizing travel, so teams would play in their own division more than before and then from the same geographical division in the opposite league. So that would mean the White Sox would play the NL Central a heck of a lot more.
It would be 12 games against each team in the division and six games against each non-divisional opponent.
This would minimize travel, keep division intact, and build some rivalries that may not have been there before.
Having the White Sox renew the Brewers rivalry from the 80s would be a lot of fun; being able to talk trash to Cubs and Cardinal fans is always a good time.
Expanding the playoffs would also be in this plan, the two division leaders with the best record would get a “bye” and head straight to the divisional round. The other two division winners and the wild card with the best record would play the bottom three wild card teams.
Games, of course, would initially be played without fans. And because of that owners are asking players to take a bit of a pay cut. This is going to be the biggest hurdle for getting the season restarted.
The players want to play, but they should still be compensated for that play.
Hopefully, they can come to an agreement and we can all see some live sports played this summer.
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The post How MLB Plans to Go About Restarting the 2020 Season appeared first on Chicago Sports Nation.
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