Yesterday, Major League Baseball released its 60 game schedule for 2020, as teams go through their Summer Camps in hope of being ready for an Opening Day in two and one-half weeks. At the same time, MLB has been shown to be spotty with providing timely COVID19 testing results for their players and associated personnel, leaving some executives, Washington Nationals GM Mike Rizzo being the most prominent, to ask if if it is going to be possible at all to stage any kind of season.
Less noted and commented upon was the announcement made last week that all of Minor League Baseball has been canceled for 2020. This will have a devastating impact in several areas.
First, from a baseball standpoint, what happens to the hundreds of players who are (barely, in most cases, as we have learned) making a living in the bushes? What happens to the development and learning curve of those players who are legitimate big league prospects? How is their development going to be set back by missing a full year of innings pitched, at bats, and professional coaching? How about those six players the Pirates drafted in the entry draft last month? What happens to them between now and next year's Spring Training (if it happens)?
The "can't miss" guys will probably be okay, although a guy like Pirate first round pick Nick Gonzales may be set back a year or so in his career advancement, but how about those marginal guys, players who may somehow break through, earn a spot on a roster and hang around long enough to make a decent living, earn an MLB pension, and then maybe go into coaching and managing down the road? I'm thinking of guys like current Pirate Jacob Stallings, and former and current Pirates managers Jim Leyland and Derek Shelton? How many guys like that, maybe seeing the end of the trail and with young families to support, may just decide to hang it up and begin a career selling insurance or real estate?
The ripple effect of a shut down minor league season may not be seen for several more years, but it's going to happen.
On the other side of this equation is what will be lost in small cities and towns all across America like Altoona, Erie, Morgantown, Akron, and Mahoning County (just to name five towns within a two hour or so drive of Pittsburgh) when the people who live there will now have one less way to spend a pleasant summer evening or afternoon. You go to a minor league game, you definitely know that it's not a major league baseball you are watching, but you are guaranteed to have a fun night in a terrific atmosphere, and you never know who you might be watching. Back in the early 1950's, Whitey Ford pitched in Butler, PA, and in the early 1990's, I saw future Hall of Famer Jim Thome playing in a Double-A game in Canton, Ohio. And then there is the effect of the loss of jobs that these teams provide to people. One of our nieces spent two summers scooping ice cream at the Bulls ball park in Durham, NC. Pretty cool job for a high school kid.
There has been a movement afoot among some in MLB to drastically reduce the size of the minor leagues, eliminating as much as a quarter to a third of all teams. Not only is this a shortsighted view from a baseball standpoint, but it will rip away huge part of the fabric of social and sporting life in smaller towns and cities across America. The complete cancellation of the 2020 minor league season may be just the excuse to implement this reduction plan come 2021. Another pyrrhic victory for the bean counting Suits in MLB front offices like (cough, cough) Bob Nutting.
We won't be seeing this sight in Altoona in 2020.
Will we still be able to see it in 2021 and beyond?
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