Will Free China Save Season for Big League Ball?
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Why doesn’t America test like South Korea? Keep the economy partially open like Sweden? Control behavior like Singapore? Keep tabs on everybody’s cellphones like Communist China?
Nah. If we want to learn from others’ response to the pandemic, our best course is to emulate the one country that, crisis be damned, enjoys America’s pastime — Free China.
As Ira Stoll noted first in these pages, America should not let a summer go to waste without baseball. After all, the game survived our largest crises — financial ruin, world wars, September 11.
(Mr. Stoll, a Red Sox fan, failed to mention an extra incentive to conduct a great 2020 Major League Baseball season: this year the Yankees have a real chance to get to the World Series and win it.)
For the time being — and until the leagues’ bigwigs come up with a scheme to comply with Anthony Fauci’s guidelines (the good doctor recommends no-fans, Olympic village-style cordoned areas for players, umpires, broadcasters, groundskeepers, etc.) — we have Taiwan.
The island’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, Time magazine reports, opened the season April 11. Robots root for the league’s five teams, as human fans are banned from the stadiums. One team, the Rakuten Monkeys, live-streams its home games complete with English-language commentary. Baseball-starved American fans can watch (at 5:30 am New York time) on Twitter @ElevenSportsTW.
As of yet, Taiwan is alone in playing America’s game. Baseball in South Korea, Japan, and Latin America is still absent. Our MLB’s latest scheme — all teams play an abbreviated season in Arizona, where the essentials get tested often and live together in hotels — is yet to materialize.
Even if played, an asterisk will surely accompany all 2020 win-loss records. The World Series, if it’s even played, won’t carry the same weight. And can an MLB season even start without minor league play? Also, the Mets’ owner, Fred Wilpon, proposes pay cuts for the game’s star players (good luck).
All true, and all are considerations to be heavily pondered. MLB, though, isn’t Washington or the UN. It’s a commercial enterprise and a national treasure. It’s expected to fulfill its responsibility to the nation with some competence. Enough with the bickering. Play ball.
Twitter @bennyavni
