It was the most polite crowd in the history of New York baseball. The Mets’ Jeff McNeil slid into second base before the tag in the fourth inning of their season opener on Friday, but the umpire called him out. The scoreboard showed the replay as the umpires deliberated. McNeil was safe, clearly — but there wasn’t a peep from all those folks dressed in orange and blue.
You could hardly blame them, though, because every fan at Citi Field was a two-dimensional cutout, voice box not included. The umpires gave McNeil his double, and when McNeil was promptly thrown out at third, nobody booed him, either.
This is baseball in the time of coronavirus, opening day without a crowd at Citi Field as the Mets played the Atlanta Braves. The airplane noise from La Guardia Airport was authentic, but the murmur of fans was fake, piped in over the loudspeakers. Foul balls landed untouched in the seats. Coaches, bat boys and umpires wore masks.
But it was still baseball, and it was so much better than nothing. The Braves’ Ender Inciarte made a leaping catch at the center-field wall. The Mets’ shortstop, Amed Rosario, wore stylish striped stirrups. And Jacob deGrom was his usual Cy Young self, humbling the opposition (five innings, no runs, eight strikeouts, one broken-bat single) while getting no run support.
Same as it ever was for deGrom, and oddly comforting in a way.
“For us, it’s going to be to have fun,” Luis Rojas, the Mets’ rookie manager, said before the game, describing his message to the team. “We get to play the game we love; we get to represent the game this year. It’s been such a tough year to get us to where we are today. This is going to be history, just how long we’ve waited.”
The wait consumed 266 days, from Daniel Hudson’s final pitch in Game 7 of the World Series to Max Scherzer’s first one against the Yankees on Thursday. It was a longer absence than the self-inflicted hiatus a generation ago, when a strike canceled the 1994 World Series.
- Pelosi again rules out a short extension of $600 unemployment benefits, pushing for broader aid.
- A new C.D.C. statement on schools calls for reopening and downplays the potential health risks.
- A number of virus clusters in the U.S. have been traced to school-related events or gatherings of teenagers.
There is no telling what we missed, of course, but what we have is the shortest season since 1878, and almost definitely the strangest one ever.
Thursday’s opener in Washington, a 4-1 victory for the Yankees, was the most-watched regular-season game on any network since 2011, according to ESPN. But while we can excuse the errant first pitch from Dr. Anthony Fauci — maybe he just wanted the ball to land a safe six feet (or more) from the plate — the night underscored just how much is out of baseball’s control.
The Nationals’ offensive headliner, Juan Soto, got a positive test result for the coronavirus just hours before game time. A storm cut things to five innings, forcing viewers to endure an embarrassing rain-delay interview with Commissioner Rob Manfred in which the noted journalist Alex Rodriguez — who just happens to want Manfred’s approval as the potential next owner of the Mets — fawned transparently over the man who once vigorously pursued his cheating, leading to a yearlong suspension.
Rodriguez, of course, has transformed himself from a disgraced steroid goon to an officially sanctioned ambassador of the game, embodying the enduring American fixation with celebrity. He does project genuine affection for the sport, but his role as lead analyst for baseball’s return was an off-key note for the league.
“Tails you win, heads you win more,” Rodriguez said at one point, fumbling around to describe a bunt by Tyler Wade. “He gets a sacrifice, on top of a sacrifice it’s a base hit; now you got first and second and the Yankees are set up.”
The last part made sense, at least, on Thursday and in general. The Yankees do look set up for a run at their first championship since 2009, though the surprise new playoff format that was approved at the last minute does not help their chances.
In the new 16-team arrangement — officially announced during the game — all playoff teams must survive a best-of-three series to start the postseason. Imagine if the Yankees run away with the top seed, then lose two of three to a No. 8 seed with a losing record and go home by Oct. 1. There is a very real chance that could happen.
The Coronavirus Outbreak ›
Frequently Asked Questions
Updated July 23, 2020
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What is school going to look like in September?
- It is unlikely that many schools will return to a normal schedule this fall, requiring the grind of online learning, makeshift child care and stunted workdays to continue. California’s two largest public school districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said on July 13, that instruction will be remote-only in the fall, citing concerns that surging coronavirus infections in their areas pose too dire a risk for students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll some 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country so far to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classrooms when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution won’t be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are devising hybrid plans that involve spending some days in classrooms and other days online. There’s no national policy on this yet, so check with your municipal school system regularly to see what is happening in your community.
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Is the coronavirus airborne?
- The coronavirus can stay aloft for hours in tiny droplets in stagnant air, infecting people as they inhale, mounting scientific evidence suggests. This risk is highest in crowded indoor spaces with poor ventilation, and may help explain super-spreading events reported in meatpacking plants, churches and restaurants. It’s unclear how often the virus is spread via these tiny droplets, or aerosols, compared with larger droplets that are expelled when a sick person coughs or sneezes, or transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces, said Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert at Virginia Tech. Aerosols are released even when a person without symptoms exhales, talks or sings, according to Dr. Marr and more than 200 other experts, who have outlined the evidence in an open letter to the World Health Organization.
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What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
- Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.
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What’s the best material for a mask?
- Scientists around the country have tried to identify everyday materials that do a good job of filtering microscopic particles. In recent tests, HEPA furnace filters scored high, as did vacuum cleaner bags, fabric similar to flannel pajamas and those of 600-count pillowcases. Other materials tested included layered coffee filters and scarves and bandannas. These scored lower, but still captured a small percentage of particles.
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Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?
- So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.
For the Mets, though, the deeper field helps. Every team with a winning record last season would have qualified for the playoffs, including the Mets, who were 86-76. That wasn’t enough to save Mickey Callaway’s job, but Rojas, his twice-removed successor — remember Carlos Beltran? — loves the lineup possibilities he inherits.
“They all look right, because of the depth we have,” Rojas said. “When we were on the break, I had plenty of time to think about lineups.”
His opening lineup included Yoenis Cespedes at designated hitter, the first appearance for Cespedes in more than two years. The Braves used a Mets castoff, Matt Adams, at D.H. Their options were depleted by the loss of Nick Markakis, who opted out of the season, and the scuttled free-agent deal for Yasiel Puig, who tested positive for the virus.
Both teams have pitching troubles not related to Covid-19. Atlanta’s Cole Hamels is on the 45-day injured list with a triceps issue, and the Mets’ Marcus Stroman sustained a torn left calf muscle last Friday when a line drive struck it in an intrasquad game.
“I got hit with a rocket in my leg,” Stroman said. “My leg was literally blown up. Massive.”
Even so, he said he was not worried, and vowed to heal quickly. There is no time to waste in a 60-game season, and while those cardboard cutouts are well-behaved, the human fans are more demanding. They have reason to expect a postseason berth.
Whatever happens, simply making it to October would be a victory for everyone in the game, considering the challenge and uncertainty of playing in 30 stadiums — including the Class AAA field in Buffalo for the exiled Toronto Blue Jays — during a pandemic.
Baseball reported hopeful data on Friday, announcing that it had conducted 10,939 tests for Covid-19 in the last week, and only six had come back positive (four players and two staff members). So while the specter lingers, those facts are encouraging. The odds of pulling this off might be better than a coin flip, after all.
Tails you win, heads you win more. Best not to think about any other outcome.
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