Writing from home means you don’t take the city bus too often. Today was an exception. I volunteered at my son’s school and that meant taking the bus downtown and then back again. The group was a large one, probably 30 or so kids and they all played, grabbed, and poked at each other while waiting at the bus stop. It was nine in the morning and the bus was filled when it arrived even before dumping a bunch of school kids into it. I found myself packed into the back, standing room only, with nothing to do but watch everyone else. It was there that I realized it is next to impossible to control the spread of the coronavirus.
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Kids were wiping their hands and touching the poles, people were sneezing and coughing, itchy noses were scratched whereupon figures were returned to whatever stationary object was used to avoid toppling over when the bus took one of its many sudden turns. It’s worth pointing out this was this morning, or as it’s being referred to on the news, the middle of a pandemic, as well. Everyone knows not to touch their face. Everyone knows to cover their sneezes and coughs. Everyone knows to use hand sanitizer and to wash their hands until the skin around the knuckles cracks. We all know this. And yet, in the moment, we can’t resist. We are all so conditioned to do the things we do, act how we act, and move our bodies how we move them, that all the warnings, all the news bulletins, all the internet hand washing memes, don’t phase us. That, in short, is why we are in such trouble.
While we all go about our lives, the virus is gaining ground. Someone who is sick touches something, you touch it, you rub your eyes, you’ve got it. And you don’t know it. You touch something, I touch it, I rub my face, I have it, and I don’t know it. This is how viruses work. It’s how the flu is passed, how colds are passed (I have one right now, in fact), and the like. The difference is we don’t have a vaccine that clears this up, not yet. And the way it spreads, the one way that things get worse for us as a community, is us going about our daily lives doing what we normally do every day.
This is bigger than the Orioles, bigger than Major League Baseball, bigger than sports in the US in general. But that doesn’t mean the Orioles aren’t involved. That doesn’t mean Major League Baseball doesn’t have a role here. It absolutely does. As a part of our community, Baseball has a role, a responsibility even, to keep us safe. It’s come around to that role more slowly than it should, but in 2015 Baseball took that responsibility seriously enough to play a game in Baltimore without any fans because it was too unsafe to ask fans to come to the game. It’s not that no fans would’ve come. Some surely would have come. It’s not that Baseball wouldn’t have made money from the sale of those tickets, from sales of beers, merchandise, and the rest. They would have. It’s that the responsibility to the fans was recognized, and in the fans’ best interest, the game was closed off to spectators.
That is exactly where we are now. But, if I might be so bold, this is bigger in scope. The virus is all across the world, not just in Baltimore, and it spreads when we get together. Baseball is all about getting together. The crowds, the concourses, the lines, the bathrooms, at a baseball game we are nothing if not together. And so Baseball has a responsibility to us, the fans. And right now, they are failing at it.
The Governor of Washington State has temporarily banned large gatherings in Seattle and surrounding areas in response to the spreading of the virus, and this is going to effect the Mariners early home schedule. Some games will have to be postponed or cancelled outright. Baseball will lose revenue. Fans will lose baseball. It sucks for everyone, but it’s a small price to pay to keep more people healthy. Unfortunately this is only in one state and only effects one team’s home games. Orioles games, Nationals games, just about every other scheduled regular season baseball game, are still planned to go on.
Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the corporation that owns the Washington Capitals, Washington Mystics, and Washington Wizards franchises, in addition to owning and running Capital One Arena where they all play, has issued a statement essentially thumbing their noses at that responsibility and in direct opposition to the recommendation of the Washington DC Department of Public Health. Caps and Wizards and Mystics games will go on as scheduled and paying crowds will be welcomed and encouraged to come. Because of this, people will catch the virus at these games. They will get sick, and they will come into contact with others who will also get sick, because that is how viruses work.
Make no mistake about this situation: decisions like this are not about individual freedom, the freedom to go to a game, attend a concert, etc. This is about collective responsibility, and decisions like this by Monumental, by Major League Baseball through its own inaction on this issue, are an abdication of that responsibility.
This is where the Orioles come in. They need to do what all the health professionals and health organizations are saying must be done in the face of this pandemic. They need to close down the games to fans. Whether they play without fans, cancel the games outright, or attempt to postpone them somehow is immaterial. The point is it is unsafe for fans to attend baseball games now and for at least the foreseeable future. It is the Orioles’ responsibility to make that decision for us, for our safety, like they did back in 2015. The Orioles and the rest of Major League Baseball, who make their living off of the fans, owe us that much.
Orioles Analyst
Matthew Kory is a Orioles / MLB Analyst for BSL. He has covered baseball professionally for The Athletic, Vice Sports, Sports On Earth, FanGraphs, and Baseball Prospectus. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his wife, two boys, and his cats, Mini Squeaks and The President. Co-Host of The Warehouse.