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Baseball Enters the Unknown

The schedule is short. The stadiums will be empty. But the players’ biggest task this summer might be keeping the virus at bay.

Credit...Davide Barco

What kinds of moments are you missing as a fan in the stands? We’d like to hear from you in the callout at the bottom of this article.

Baseball makes you wait. That is part of its old-world charm. The story takes time to reveal itself, pitch by pitch, inning by inning, game by game by game by … well, you get the idea. Players weather a rigorous six-month schedule, with few days off. No other professional athletes spend as many days performing.

So what will it look like now, after more than four months in hibernation since the coronavirus pandemic shut down spring training in mid-March? We will find out Thursday, when Major League Baseball begins its 60-game schedule with two games: the Yankees at the Nationals in Washington, and the Giants at the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

Get ready for rule changes, extensive safety protocols and a whole lot of unknowns.

“It’s hard for those of us in baseball because we want to be knowledgeable about what’s going on,” said the longtime broadcaster Jim Kaat, 81, who pitched for 25 seasons in the majors, “and sometimes the toughest thing to say is, ‘I don’t know.’”

Of course, no one ever knows exactly how a season will unfold. But nobody living has ever seen a season like this, and not just because of the cardboard cutouts in the stands, the ban on spitting, the video-game crowd noise and the looming specter of a still-raging virus.

Baseball has not staged a schedule so short since 1878, when Providence, R.I., had a team, New York did not, and the first World Series was still a generation away.

“After the first season of Major League Baseball, 1876, the New York and Philadelphia franchises were barred from continuing play because they failed to complete their end-of-season road tours,” said John Thorn, the official historian for M.L.B. “They thought it was going to be unprofitable. So they were bumped, and the National League was left to scramble.”

That scramble resulted in a 60-game schedule, with teams playing five opponents 12 times each. This year’s scramble landed on the same number of games, after the players’ union and the owners failed to reach a negotiated agreement, forcing Commissioner Rob Manfred to impose a schedule with players getting full prorated salaries.

The contentious labor standoff, with sharp words volleyed between the league office and the union, sent ominous signals about future strife beyond this bizarre season. The collective bargaining agreement expires in December 2021, and players are wary of giving any more ground to the owners.

“The challenges are going to be amplified even more the next time, and we realize that,” said Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer, a member of the union’s executive subcommittee. “We love the game as much as anybody, and we want to see the growth of it continue in the best way possible. But you can’t work across the aisle until you have everybody functioning on your side correctly. If you start having divisions, then it doesn’t matter what the other side’s doing, you’re fighting yourself.

“We really got to see what it’s like to have guys working together — not only on our team but across the league.”

The players’ unity, fortified during the labor standoff, will be tested this season by the shared responsibility of adhering to safety protocols. Players are required to wear masks while indoors, avoid high-fives and fist bumps, use their own soap in the shower and so on.

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A sign at Fenway Park reminded players and staff members to keep their distance from one another. Credit...Brian Fluharty/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

Unlike the N.B.A., the N.H.L. and M.L.S., baseball is forgoing a contained environment, or “bubble,” and nearly every team will play at its normal home stadium (the Toronto Blue Jays are still scrambling to find a site in the United States). The league has limited travel by keeping all games within the same geographic divisions and set up extra clubhouse and dugout space to promote social distancing.

But away from the field, players are largely on their own, trusted to avoid prohibited actions like eating at public restaurants and taking public transportation to games. If a player slips, he could contract the virus and threaten his team’s season.

“You have to be the best version of yourself, the best teammate that you’ve ever been in your life,” Joe Maddon, the manager of the Los Angeles Angels, said. “That’s what we need — more than a guy that may get a knock in the latter part of a game or a pitcher that might throw a couple of scoreless innings, we need the guy that’s going to stick with the protocol and permit us to play this all year.”

Maddon and his fellow managers will have expanded rosters for much of the season: 30 players for the first two weeks, 28 for the next two weeks and, finally, 26. Extra innings will begin with a runner on second base to encourage scoring and prevent marathon games; the designated hitter will be used at all times; and games suspended before five innings will be continued, not replayed in their entirety.

But perhaps the biggest change will simply be the urgency of a schedule that is just 37 percent as long as usual. Each game will essentially count 2.7 times, relative to a 162-game schedule, so each game is roughly the equivalent of a three-game series.

“I think you’re going to see more of a playoff-attitude managing, where it’s a little bit more assertive,” Maddon said. “Probably the best way to describe it is more aggressive decision-making early in the game as opposed to what you would do in the first couple of months of the regular season.”

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“You have to be the best version of yourself,” Angels Manager Joe Maddon said of players’ responsibility to follow coronavirus protocols.Credit...Angels Baseball/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

Milwaukee Brewers Manager Craig Counsell, who is known for frequently changing pitchers, said in-game decisions might not change much. But he may adjust playing time, giving little leeway to players working through struggles.

“Hot hands and slumps, we’re all going to pay attention a little more to that,” Counsell said.

Counsell has heard the theory that pitching could dominate this season because hitters have gone more than three months without facing pitchers in game situations. But with some teams carrying 16 pitchers or more to start the season, he said, there are bound to be plenty who are not truly ready for the majors.

“If you have an average of two guys missing — on the injured list or whatever — you’re going to have pitcher No. 18 on the staff already,” Counsell said. “You’re going to have to use every pitcher on the staff early in the season — and to me, that could create a run-scoring environment.”

Pitchers who can throw multiple innings several times a week may become even more valuable if managers are reluctant to push starters after such a long layoff. The potential for a nightly pitching parade, though, might not be best for a product that is already dealing with criticism over its sluggish pace.

“It really points to the wish I’ve had for a couple of years now of having seven-inning games, because some of these games are probably going to drag out,” said Kaat, who once threw more than 300 innings in a season. “It’s not going to be a good image for the game on TV. People are eager to see baseball, but it might look like spring training, where you’re seeing a new pitcher every inning or so.”

Whatever trends prevail, a short season could produce statistical outliers. No player has hit .400 since Ted Williams in 1941, and Bob Gibson’s 1.12 earned run average has been a record since 1968. But the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger entered his team’s 50th game last season with a .404 average, and the Cardinals’ Jack Flaherty posted a 0.92 E.R.A. over his team’s final 60 games.

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An exhibition game between the Yankees and Mets at Yankee Stadium this week provided a preview of what the regular season will look like without fans. Credit...Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

Could the record book get a heavy rewrite after this season? Officially, Thorn said, any records set this season will be legitimate.

“Sure,” he said. “We don’t do asterisks. Fans are free to apply asterisks liberally. They may view the records and the outcomes as they please. That is one of the privileges and pleasures of fandom.”

Most important, Thorn said, is to understand the context of the season. Circumstances have rarely been stagnant in baseball, with integration, expansion, equipment changes, training advancements, ballpark configurations and the use of steroids and technology — both legal and illegal — influencing what we see.

The 2020 season will offer its own distinct wrinkle in the fabric of the sport — unless the virus undoes it all.

“There is one unknown, obviously, that could completely change some teams’ seasons,” Counsell said. “We all recognize that through no fault of anybody’s, a team’s season could really be sunk. That is the scariest thing for everybody this year, but we all know that’s part of it — so we have to just go for it.”

The Daily Poster

Listen to ‘The Daily’: The Battle for a Baseball Season

A conversation with the commissioner of Major League Baseball about the path to this season’s start.
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transcript

Listen to ‘The Daily’: The Battle for a Baseball Season

Hosted by Michael Barbaro, produced by Daniel Guillemette, Clare Toeniskoetter and Sydney Harper, and edited by Lisa Tobin and Dave Shaw

A conversation with the commissioner of Major League Baseball about the path to this season’s start.

archived recording

[PRESIDENT TRUMP AND SPORTSCASTER SPEAKING SIMULTANEOUSLY ON SEPARATE BROADCASTS]

mike schmidt

It’s March 11, and Major League Baseball’s commissioner, Rob Manfred, is sitting at his home in Jupiter, Florida. It’s 15 days before what will likely be the most challenging season of his entire time as the sport’s commissioner. He’s just been crushed in the press for how he’s handled a cheating scandal by the Houston Astros. Interest in this sport is waning, and attendance is down. But that night, at home, in his living room, he can see that the coronavirus is starting to engulf the country.

archived recording (donald trump)

From the beginning of time, nations and people have faced unforeseen challenges, including large-scale and very dangerous health threats.

[music]

mike schmidt

On his television, Donald Trump is addressing the country from the Oval Office. And then Manfred stares down at his iPad.

archived recording

Completely uncharted territory. And we are going to get a little more information now from Adrian Wojnarowski, which is, he is with —

mike schmidt

And he can see that ESPN has just moved a breaking news alert.

archived recording

Right now, the N.B.A. has made the decision. They have just announced that they are suspending play.

mike schmidt

— that the NBA has suspended its season. And Manfred realizes, oh shit —

archived recording

And then the league is going to use that hiatus to decide their next steps, how they’ll go forward.

mike schmidt

— my sport is supposed to begin its season, and the entire country is shutting down around me. And I have to figure out how to get my sport back on the field amid all this mess.

archived recording

And now a player has tested positive for it, the ripple effects that has on his own team, on other teams. And right now —

michael barbaro

From The New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. This is “The Daily.” Today: My colleague Mike Schmidt on the fraught weeks that led up to last night’s opening game of the 2020 baseball season from the perspective of the commissioner of Major League Baseball. It’s Friday, July 24.

Everybody thinks I’ve, like, never been to a baseball game.

mike schmidt

No, I was actually told that before we started.

michael barbaro

That’s not true. I grew up in the United States of America.

mike schmidt

There’s like a pre-briefing now for you, and they’re like, yeah, he’s never been to a baseball game.

michael barbaro

So let me get this straight, somebody stands in the middle and throws a ball.

speaker

Yes, sounds good. Let’s do it there.

michael barbaro

OK. OK, we’re going to start.

mike schmidt

All right.

michael barbaro

Mike, for the past three years, we have talked to you about the president, Russia, the F.B.I., national security. We have not talked to you about baseball. But here we are in this Hangout for you to tell us a story about baseball. So just explain that.

mike schmidt

During the three years covering the Russia investigation, Mueller, whether the president obstructed justice, to understand the story, I focused on the characters who I thought drove it — the former F.B.I. director Jim Comey, the former White House counsel Don McGahn. But earlier my career, in my first beat, when I covered baseball, the Comey and McGahn of that story for my reporting was a little-known labor lawyer named Rob Manfred.

archived recording

Waiting the start of the first of two days of hearings on the use of steroids, performance-enhancing drugs, in baseball.

mike schmidt

He was the official in the commissioner’s office who had to deal with the steroids scandal that was engulfing the sport.

archived recording

Mr. Robert Manfred, the executive vice president for labor and human resources of Major League Baseball.

archived recording (rob manfred)

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, Committee Members, I especially appreciate the opportunity to speak with you.

mike schmidt

Manfred and I had a pretty rough start to our relationship. I was an overaggressive young reporter.

michael barbaro

(FEIGNING DISBELIEF) No.

mike schmidt

And he was this pugnacious, in-your-face, takes-no-prisoners lawyer who had the sport’s biggest problem on his desk. And we would just get on the phone. We’d get on speakerphone. He’d put me on speakerphone. And he would scream at me. And I would push back at him. And after a while, a few years of this, I think we both sort of looked down at our hands and realized that our hands were sort of bloodied, but we hadn’t really gotten anything out of it. And we started to build a much more constructive relationship.

michael barbaro

Did you finally get off speakerphone?

mike schmidt

No. Rob’s the kind of guy that will put you on speakerphone and tell you what he’s really thinking. Rob is not someone who waxes poetic about baseball. He’s someone that ended up working at baseball and is going to do everything in his power to support and defend that sport. So I went on to do other things. And he became the head of the sport. But as the coronavirus was engulfing the country, I said to myself, there’s a lot of weighty, really important things going on right now. But the idea of Rob sitting at home by himself trying to figure out how to save his sports season, how to save the summer, was pretty appealing to me. So I reached out to him, and I said, look, you are going to be spending the rest of your career explaining how you dealt with this season. And you and your sport both face an existential threat. If you don’t have a season, your sport’s going to lose even more money. It’s going to be your legacy. Let’s get on the phone and talk about what that’s like.

mike schmidt

Rob?

rob manfred

Yeah, just give me one second.

mike schmidt

And he agreed.

rob manfred

All right, I got to do this call with Schmidt. I’ll call you in one minute, OK? [INAUDIBLE]

mike schmidt

So the first time I call him is on May 20.

rob manfred

All right, Michael, what do you want to talk about this morning?

mike schmidt

He’s still at home in Florida. Like many people working from home, he’s taking Zoom calls.

rob manfred

Yeah, and literally what I’m doing is I got a regular series of calls to get feedback on —

mike schmidt

And it’s clear that he’s immersed and knee-deep in the question, how do you take a sport that’s normally played in stadiums in front of thousands and thousands of people, players are right up against each other on the field, and every few days, teams, like a traveling roadshow, go to another city to play another team that’s coming from another part of the country? So how do you do that in the age of Covid?

rob manfred

How do we get back to playing? One of the things that floated up from one of the experts is, gee whiz, a way that you can do this is to quarantine the players, right? And then —

mike schmidt

He explains to me that there was initially an idea to quarantine all the players in a bubble. Essentially the players would go to a location and be cut off from the rest of society as they played the season.

rob manfred

And then you’re going to start a four and a half month season. And your life is going to be hotel to ballpark, back to hotel, room service, not see your family.

mike schmidt

You can’t see your families. You can’t be with your families.

rob manfred

Yeah, I mean, that’s one of the — I mean, look, one of the quarantine — you know, so then we realized, gee, that’s pretty tough. So then we started talking about including families. And then you realize as you move into that phase that you get into quarantine numbers that are insane.

mike schmidt

So he says there was another plan, that baseball was essentially going to play in three hubs — Arizona, Texas and Florida.

rob manfred

Arizona for the West Coast teams, Texas for the Central teams, somewhere in Florida for the East Coast teams. That makes sense because those states seem to be more receptive to letting us play.

mike schmidt

The three parts of the country that had not really been hit heavily by the virus.

michael barbaro

Mm-hmm. Not at that point.

mike schmidt

Right. But as they are weighing this plan, the country starts to open up. So baseball again shifts its plan, and says, OK, the teams will play in their stadiums and we will have a game, but it will have many, many new restrictions that me, as a fan, and many fans, never could have fathomed.

mike schmidt

What would a game look like now, as things are in place, based on what you have? You know, the Yankees and the Red Sox are playing tomorrow. What would that look like?

rob manfred

Look, it’s 67 pages of stuff. I mean, it’s really thorough in terms of what people can — you know, no high-fives, no spitting, hands sanitizing in between innings mandatory. No exchange of lineup cards at home plate. It’s done via an app. Players who are not likely to play in the game are outside the dugout in the first couple of rows of the stands. The players —

michael barbaro

So a pretty different version of baseball than we’re used to.

mike schmidt

Totally. And there’s an economic issue. The owners and the players know that if they return to the field, it will almost certainly be a shorter season and there will be less money to go around. And Manfred, as the representative of the owners, thinks that he has an understanding with the players about how that issue will be resolved.

rob manfred

We advanced them about $170 million of salary. But they agreed in return that they would only get paid their salaries based on a prorated number of games. So in other words, if we only played 81 games —

mike schmidt

So it appears like the only thing standing in the way of baseball returning to the field is the virus. And Manfred, as confident as an executive as I’ve ever had to deal with, sounds confident about this, and says, we’re going to make this work.

rob manfred

Hey, Michael, I got to run for today. I’m happy to pick up the next time —

mike schmidt

That’s fine. Let’s do that. That’s fine.

rob manfred

OK. All right. Good to talk.

mike schmidt

I appreciate it. OK.

mike schmidt

But by the next time we got on the phone, on June 11, everything had changed.

[music]

archived recording 1

Let’s kick it off with Major League Baseball and what’s going on.

archived recording 2

The players thought they had a deal for 100 percent prorated salaries. And the owners are saying, nah, you misunderstood.

archived recording 3

We’re not asking for our full salaries. We’re just asking, whatever games we play, we’d like to get our game check for that game.

archived recording 4

Wait a second. You’re telling me you’re not going to go to work to play a game we would all kill to play?

archived recording 5

Bro, play for the love of the game, man. What’s wrong with you, bro? Money should not be a thing.

archived recording 6

Bro, I’m risking my life.

archived recording 7

I don’t believe that the players are going to look good when you’ve got 33-plus million people that have already filed for unemployment.

archived recording 8

The subject comes up when, oh, greedy players, they make millions. And it’s pointed out that the owners make billions. Like a lot of people, they got all worked up. (MOCKINGLY) There’s not going to be any baseball. Look at this. They’re so far apart. And I’m like, this is what they call negotiation. Am I right or wrong?

archived recording 9

100 percent, 100 percent.

mike schmidt

What’s going on today?

rob manfred

Well, you tell me. So it’s the afternoon of June —

mike schmidt

It’s clear that the season is in doubt. But now it’s not because of the virus. It’s all about that deal with the players.

michael barbaro

And Mike, what’s the crux of this labor issue that the commissioner is suddenly encountering?

mike schmidt

So at this point in the pandemic, it is clear to the owners and anyone else paying attention that the last thing to come back is going to be mass gatherings. And that means no fans in the stadium for any of the season. Typically, at a game, you have anywhere from 20-, 30-, 40-, 50,000 people there. All those seats will be empty. And all that revenue will no longer be there either. So the owners want to negotiate new terms for what the players are going to be paid per game. Because the owners say, we’re going to be making even less money than we thought because there will be no fans in the stands.

mike schmidt

What was the lowest moment of the past week?

rob manfred

[SIGHS] Oh, you know, I think the union’s last proposal, when they stayed at 100 — You know, their failure to move, in response to what we thought was a pretty good proposal, was disappointing.

michael barbaro

And what’s the response from the players?

mike schmidt

The players say, we’re already taking a huge pay cut. A shorter season means fewer games. We’re paid per game. And this is a lot less money. So now, even though we’re having a shorter season, you want us to take more of a pay cut? The players say, look, we only have a couple of years in which we’re in the league. The average career is five years. And you’re asking us to give up more money? What about the owners, who will be there for many, many more years and are worth billions and billions of dollars?

mike schmidt

Has there been a point in this where you sort of said to yourself, like, gosh, this is worse than I thought it would be? Because you’re thinking, I’m going to go down as — well, because it’s an existential threat to the sport, right?

rob manfred

Right.

mike schmidt

It’s an existential threat to you.

rob manfred

Right.

Yes, the outcome of no games is a massive threat to the good of the game.

mike schmidt

Remember, the sport has these other problems. Basketball has more of a cultural following. Football has better ratings. There was the Astros cheating scandal. There is the decline in attendance. And if baseball doesn’t come back amid a pandemic, at the same time that other sports are, because players, many who are millionaires, and owners, many who are billionaires, are having a fight over money, it could have a devastating long-term impact on the sport.

[music]

And of course, looming in the back of Manfred’s head, and everyone else in baseball, is the fact that, in the sport’s recent history, they did lose a season because of labor issues. And baseball paid enormously for it.

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

mike schmidt

So as all this is going on with Manfred, I’m thinking of 1994.

michael barbaro

And what happened in 1994?

archived recording

It’s Opening Day ‘94. Huge crowd. And oh, boy, the weather could not have been more cooperative. [SPORTS BROADCAST MUSIC]

mike schmidt

I’m 11 years old. And I am into baseball more than I’ve ever been.

archived recording

Yes, 11 games being played this afternoon in Major League Baseball on Opening Day 1994, including President Clinton at Jacobs Field in downtown Cleveland.

mike schmidt

I feel like I know nearly every player on every team.

archived recording (announcer)

The Yankees on top. And Mike Stanley to lead things off.

mike schmidt

I’m looking at the box scores every day. I’m watching SportsCenter in the morning.

archived recording (announcer)

Look at this. [INAUDIBLE] Now, wait a minute.

mike schmidt

We just got a computer in the house. I’m printing out pictures of Yankee players, and pasting them onto cardboard and putting them up in my bedroom.

archived recording

And here is perhaps the most popular Padre of all time, Tony Gwynn, stepping in.

mike schmidt

It’s also a magical season.

archived recording

— is the right-hander. A ground ball, through the middle into center field. That’s a base hit.

mike schmidt

It looks like the all-star Tony Gwynn is going to hit .400.

archived recording

And it’s a home run! Three home runs in a row!

mike schmidt

Looks like the home run record may be broken.

archived recording

Uh oh, America likes that. It’s gone. And the Yanks ride the home run out of the park with a 5-3 win.

mike schmidt

The Yankees are back. They’re great again. I’m a Yankee fan.

archived recording

And the Expos have won 13 of their last 14. And now they’re on a pace to win a 110 games. And in this, when I’m literally sitting at the edge of my seat as a fan, more engrossed in the game than I’ve ever been before —

The Expos leave the field in first place, yet wondering if their best season ever is in jeopardy. Even so, they’re prepared to sit it out for as long as it takes.

mike schmidt

— the season is stopped.

archived recording (expos player)

We didn’t want to strike. We didn’t want this to happen. But we have — we didn’t have no other choice but to go out and take care of ourselves and the game of baseball.

mike schmidt

In the middle of the summer, the players go on strike in a dispute with the owners about money. And then —

archived recording (bud selig)

But I’ll say what I’ve said to many of you, either independently or collectively.

mike schmidt

The baseball commissioner at the time comes out —

archived recording (bud selig)

Like a lot of things in life, you anticipate something and fear that it’s coming, hope that it isn’t.

mike schmidt

— and announces that the World Series will be canceled.

archived recording (bud selig)

And when the day is here, there is an incredible amount of sadness.

mike schmidt

There will be no more baseball in 1994.

michael barbaro

And how is young, baseball-crazed Mike feeling as he hears that the World Series has been canceled, the season is officially over?

mike schmidt

I was crushed. I was crushed. And there was nothing really to compare it to. What I saw in that moment as a kid is something that I understand better now after covering it, which is that there’s two sides to baseball. There’s the romantic side. But there’s the other side of it, which is that it is a business. And baseball runs into problems when business rears its head. And it rips the romanticism right out of it. And what’s interesting is that the commissioner at the time, in 1994, the guy who actually had to cancel the season, was Bud Selig.

michael barbaro

What do you mean?

mike schmidt

Different from Manfred, he’s a baseball romantic. If you get on the phone with Selig, you always have to listen to him regale and tell stories about baseball history. Just a deep-seated love of the game. And he was the person that had to cancel the 1994 season. He was the one that had to put his name on the statement that came out and said, there will be no World Series.

[music]

[phone ringing]

mike schmidt

So as this season — the 2020 season — looked in doubt, I thought, the person to call is Bud Selig.

bud selig

Hello.

mike schmidt

Commissioner.

bud selig

Can you hear me all right?

mike schmidt

I can hear you very good.

bud selig

Good.

mike schmidt

Because he understands more than anyone else the situation that Manfred finds himself in. So we’re looking at the whole question of a baseball season.

bud selig

Right.

mike schmidt

Take us back to 1994. Tell us that story. And tell us why a baseball season is so important.

bud selig

Well let me, as I always do, Mike, give you a little history.

mike schmidt

So like I said, Selig starts with some baseball history. He goes back to World War II. Hundreds of players were sent off to fight. But even as they were at war —

bud selig

FDR had written a letter in December of ‘42, 1942, urging baseball to continue.

mike schmidt

The season was not in question.

bud selig

And so, through this unbelievable Second World War, they did play baseball. So we go to 1994. I guess it was about the 16th of September. If my memory serves me well, and I think it does, I was in County Stadium, and we were going to have to announce that there would be no season. And that night I came home, and I sat upstairs in the den, and I replayed every World Series from 1945.

archived recording (don dunphy)

Good afternoon, everyone. This is Don Dunphy speaking for Bill Coram and Bill Slater.

bud selig

My first recollection was the Cardinal St. Louis Browns.

archived recording

Here it comes. He swings on it, hits it over Marion’s head in left field for a hit.

bud selig

So I just sat there very quietly, in deep thought.

archived recording

Man on first, one away. Third baseman Mark Christman.

bud selig

Replayed all that. And I was heartsick. It’s one of the low, low moments of my career and in my life. Because a World War couldn’t eliminate the World Series.

It was really sad.

mike schmidt

When you’re sitting there that night in the den, what else is going through your head?

bud selig

Well, one thing I don’t think any of us ever really understood was how much it was hurting the sport. Fans were angry. And we dragged them through the mud. I mean, it’s now 26 years ago, and the pain, as I sit here and talk to you, comes back to me. And I was worried. It scared me.

[music]

archived recording 1

How do you feel about a baseball strike?

archived recording 2

I think it’s stupid. I think the players are just being selfish.

archived recording 3

So do I.

archived recording 4

You think the players are being selfish?

archived recording 5

Yeah. They make enough money anyways.

archived recording 6

It would be pretty boring without baseball in the summer. It just ruins the game the way they’re striking.

archived recording 7

I don’t know. I think everyone’s money hungry.

archived recording 8

I wish they’d sign an agreement and keep on playing.

archived recording 9

Should they play for free?

archived recording 10

Yeah.

archived recording 11

Why?

archived recording 12

Because it’s just a game. It doesn’t matter how much money you get.

archived recording 13

And the owners, they say they don’t make enough money. Well, the question is, what is enough money?

archived recording 14

So what are you going to do?

archived recording 15

I don’t know. I guess just watch minor league baseball.

archived recording 16

I already know what I’m going to start doing. I’m going to start rereading Dante’s “Inferno,” because that’s where I think they should send the whole lot of them.

michael barbaro

So as you probably suspected, it wasn’t just 11-year-old Mike who was mad at baseball. It was —

mike schmidt

No. And as bad as ‘94 was, ‘95, ‘96 and ‘97 were just as bad because fans were so upset by the strike that the sport had to rebuild itself and rebuild its credibility with the fans.

michael barbaro

Mike, how much do you think 1994 is on the mind of Manfred?

mike schmidt

Enormously, huge, front of mind. Because that labor lawyer who I met back when I was covering drugs in baseball, he was just starting out in baseball in 1994. And he was a junior lawyer who was deeply involved in the strike and trying to help the owners win the labor fight.

bud selig

And that’s when I met him. And the more I saw Rob, the more I liked him. And he and I worked well together. Somebody asked me the other day, how often did you talk to Rob back then? Maybe 10 times a day, even. More than he wanted, I may add. [CHUCKLES]

mike schmidt

So after Manfred became commissioner, Selig tried to give him some space and some distance. He didn’t want to look like the father telling the son how to run the sport. And a bit of distance grew between the two of them. But —

bud selig

One thing we’ll say to each other, Mike —

mike schmidt

— as Manfred found himself in this situation, he began to lean back on Selig.

bud selig

I’m the only other guy on the face of the earth that understands exactly what the pressure is and what the situation is.

mike schmidt

And they talked more than they had at any other point since Manfred had become commissioner.

bud selig

Since I’ve done that job for 22 and a half years. And I’m the only one who understands what he’s gone through. So yeah, there’s no question about it.

mike schmidt

I really appreciate it.

bud selig

Well, great. Well, I hope you enjoyed it. It was a pleasure to do it. And we’ll talk soon.

mike schmidt

Thanks.

bud selig

Bye.

michael barbaro

So what happens next in the story, Mike?

mike schmidt

So at this point, it’s been more than a month since my first conversation with Rob. And things are getting really nasty between the owners and the players.

[music]

archived recording 1

— the middle of June. And boy, what Astros fans would give to be sitting in the stands at Minute Maid Park right about now.

archived recording 2

It’s true. And we were hopeful.

[music]

archived recording 3

Baseball, negotiations grinding to a halt.

archived recording 4

Like, we’re almost to July now, and there’s still nothing. I mean, we’re still in the same position that we were in at March.

archived recording 5

And if they don’t do something about it, the sport is going to fade even more.

archived recording 6

How are you a commissioner — like, baseball should have been back a month ago. They should be basically saying, here’s our opportunity to recapture an audience.

archived recording 7

It’s just it’s unfortunate that it’s been so public. I think fans have been turned away a little bit.

archived recording 8

There’s a reason Major League Baseball’s executive office is filled with labor lawyers. Because there’s a labor fight every 12 years in this league.

mike schmidt

So Manfred becomes so frustrated that he decides to go out on television and say —

archived recording (rob manfred)

Well, I know the owners are 100 percent committed to getting baseball back on the field. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you that I’m 100 percent certain that it’s going to happen.

mike schmidt

You know, I said there was going to be a season. But actually, now, I’m not sure.

michael barbaro

Hmm.

mike schmidt

And he’s trying any attempt to restart the negotiations, get the players back to the table and move forward. That ultimately doesn’t really work. And he has to go out on his own and announces that a 60-game season will start on July 23.

michael barbaro

So Mike, he can do that, just call a 60-game season without a deal between the players and the owners?

mike schmidt

It wasn’t his first choice. He wanted both sides to buy in. He wanted a better deal on how much the players would take a reduction in salary. But without any other choice and his deep desire to have a season at pretty much any cost, that was his only option.

michael barbaro

So is this seen as a win for the players or for the owners?

mike schmidt

Both and neither. The players are going to get paid their full salary for the games that they play. Manfred is going to get his season. But neither of them are walking away feeling good about their relationship. And in the two months that they’ve taken to resolve this labor issue, they’re now back to a health and safety problem. Because in that time, Covid has exploded and spread to new states. And actually, today, as I was preparing to talk to Rob for the final time, news broke that the all-star player on the Nationals, Juan Soto, had tested positive for Covid. So here’s Manfred, on the cusp of having the season he fought so hard for, learning just hours before the first pitch, that one of the star players may have the virus.

michael barbaro

Not ideal.

mike schmidt

Another “oh shit” moment in a long season.

[music]

mike schmidt

Commissioner.

rob manfred

Hey, Schmidt. How are you?

mike schmidt

Hell of a day.

rob manfred

Well, we’re going to make it to the starting line. [CHUCKLES] Everybody seems excited, like we’ve done something. All we did was get out of the gate, you know what I mean? [CHUCKLES] The hard part is playing 60 games, you know? Anyways, I’m glad we are where we are. You know, I feel pretty good about it.

mike schmidt

Where are you right now?

rob manfred

I’m in Washington. I’m at Nationals Park.

mike schmidt

What’s the feeling in the air? You’re at opening day with no fans and just the members of the staff. What does that feel like?

rob manfred

Like no opening day I’ve ever seen, I’ll tell you that. [CHUCKLES] It’s really different, Mike. I mean, it’s very stark right now. It’s early still, but it’s very stark right now.

mike schmidt

When you heard today that Juan Soto contracted Covid — we’re talking about the all-star on the world championship team — are you like, oh no, we can’t do this? What’s your mindset?

rob manfred

I mean, look, my initial reaction is I can’t believe this is happening on opening day. But then I dropped back and I thought about, we knew we were going to have positives. It’s unfortunate that it was opening day and that it was Juan Soto. But the protocols were built to deal with this. The whole point is you’ve got to build a system that’s flexible enough to deal with what’s coming. We knew it was coming.

mike schmidt

I’m mindful that today is July 23. The first time we spoke was May 20. It’s been two months. What we’ve got now is pretty much the plan that you had back then for the virus. But in this period of time, you went through this whole tumultuous thing. If you could go back, would you have done anything differently? And is there any mistakes you made in the process?

rob manfred

Well if I could go back, I’d love an opportunity to replay that hand. I really would, Michael. I think that one thing I can certainly point to, the whole, from the very beginning, the back-and-forth in the press and all that. I just — I tried to avoid it. I didn’t manage to do it. I’d love to have had a chance to go back and do it over again and be better at it.

mike schmidt

Do you think there’s long-term damage from it?

rob manfred

You know, I think that — I do think it was unsightly and we should not have allowed it to happen. I think we sort of have a debt to our fans.

mike schmidt

Let me ask it this way. The two months of nasty, public, back-and-forth negotiations between the owners and the players, do you think that will have long-term damage to the sport going forward, similar to ‘94?

rob manfred

I just — I don’t know what to say to that one, Michael. I just don’t know.

mike schmidt

So tonight, on the field, will be exactly what you mapped out. The players will be distanced, no high-fives, no spitting. What is your hope for how this game feels to the fans watching at home.

rob manfred

Honestly, I hope that at the end of the night, what fans are thinking is, you know what, it’s not everything that we’re used to and love about the game, but you know what, it’s great to have baseball.

archived recording

In an empty stadium, and no acknowledgment from the fans, and no acknowledgment to the fans from those there.

mike schmidt

We’re done. That’s it.

rob manfred

Thanks, Schmidt. I’ll talk to you soon, huh?

mike schmidt

Bye.

archived recording 1

— we get a real good feel for tonight. And now one of the more well-known Washington National fans, Dr. Anthony Fauci, to throw out the first pitch.

[music]

archived recording 2

Dr. Anthony Fauci!

michael barbaro

So Mike, I am talking to you at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday evening. The game is currently underway. And the first pitch was thrown out by Dr. Anthony Fauci, and it was pretty wobbly. I assume you’ve been watching the game.

mike schmidt

Yes. And we’re now in the middle of a rain delay.

michael barbaro

Right. Which is perhaps why you’re talking to me. I know you didn’t set out to be philosophical about baseball with this assignment, but if we could get philosophical for just a moment I wonder how you’re thinking about baseball and this game right now.

mike schmidt

Look, I told you about my first realization when I was 11 years old, that baseball walks a fine line between being a game and a business.

When I became a sports reporter, I covered the darkest underbelly of the sport, and saw it in probably a nastier light than most fans could ever dream of. And in the years after that, I had a hard time falling back into the romantic fandom of baseball. I had just seen too much. But last year, almost a decade after I left sports, I got my fandom back. I caught the bug again. And as 2020 started, I was ready to continue that and to try and be that fan again. These negotiations brought back those feelings of the two-headed monster of baseball, and the business head becoming too big. But at the end of the day, there’s going to be a season. And it’s going to look weird and feel very, very different. But it’s a season. And it’s baseball.

michael barbaro

In other words, you’re still a little bit of a romantic.

mike schmidt

Look, I’ll take it. I’ll take it for now.

[music]

archived recording

— games last season, a couple of very difficult I.L. stints really prevented him from accomplishing much of anything.

michael barbaro

Mike, thank you very much. Enjoy the game. Enjoy the season.

mike schmidt

Thanks for having me.

archived recording 1

Swung on and hit high in the air to left center. That ball is high, it is far, it is gone. Way back in the left-center field seats.

archived recording 2

Had there been fans in the ballpark, it was a guy that bought the worst seat that would have gotten that souvenir.

archived recording 3

Oh, what a shot by Stanton. It’s a two-run dinger. And the Yankees immediately take a 2-0 lead.

archived recording 4

He turned around a 96-mile-an-hour fastball 459 feet. What’s the saying we always have? The harder it comes in, the harder it goes out.

archived recording 5

And that’s the MVP swing that the New York Yankees acquired from the Marlins.

archived recording 6

[CHUCKLES] As the old line goes, the ball went so far they should serve a meal on it. So the Yanks take a 2-0 lead. That was Stanton’s 21st career —

michael barbaro

We’ll be right back.

[music]

Here’s what else you need to know today. On Thursday, the United States reached a new milestone in the pandemic, with 4 million known infections. Infections are now on the rise in 39 different states; Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

archived recording (donald trump)

Everything was going well, a tremendous list of speakers, thousands of people wanting to be there, and I mean, in some cases, desperately be there. They wanted to attend.

michael barbaro

At the White House, President Trump said he would cancel the public portion of the Republican National Convention scheduled for August. To avoid strict social distancing rules the president had moved the events from North Carolina to Florida, which now has the highest infection rate in the country.

archived recording (donald trump)

But I looked at my team and I said, the timing for this event is not right. Just not right with what’s happened recently, the flare-up in Florida, to have a big convention. It’s not the right time.

“The Daily” is made by Theo Balcomb, Andy Mills, Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Annie Brown, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Dorr, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Jonathan Wolfe, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, Kelly Prime, Julia Longoria, Sindhu Gnanasambandan, MJ Davis Lin, Austin Mitchell, Neena Pathak, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Daniel Guillemette, Hans Buetow, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, Bianca Giaever, Asthaa Chaturvedi and Rachelle Bonja. Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Mikayla Bouchard, Lauren Jackson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Nora Keller and Travis Shaw of the Toronto Blue Jays.

That’s it for “The Daily.” I’m Michael Barbaro. See you on Monday.

Empty stadiums

Tyler Kepner has been national baseball writer since 2010. He joined The Times in 2000 and covered the Mets for two seasons, then covered the Yankees from 2002 to 2009. More about Tyler Kepner

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: The Wait Is Over. Now What?. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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