When sports leagues have spoken about their intentions to return as soon as possible amid the pandemic, we have had to take their statements with a grain of salt. The reality is that no one working in the game of baseball, or any other sport, has the ability to forecast exactly when it would be safe to return to the field.

On the contrary, Dr. Anthony Fauci is man who’s word on the matters of COVID-19 hold weight, as he has been the nation’s top infectious-disease expert. Fauci has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, and has become a staple of all coronavirus coverage.

When asked about the possibility for sports to return this summer, Fauci actually laid out a potential path of return for any sports league that wants to resume play.

Similar to the reports we have been reading on this matter, Fauci suggests that sports could resume under the condition that all players and personal remain isolated from the general public.

Speaking with Snapchat’s Peter Hamby, Fauci explained that testing and isolation could be enough to resume sports.

“There’s a way of doing that. Nobody comes to the stadium. Put [the players] in big hotels, wherever you want to play, keep them very well surveilled. … Have them tested every single week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family, and just let them play the season out.”

Fauci spoke about the interest to watch sports again and how people would definitely watch, even if they could not attend games.

In regards to Major League Baseball, commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed a desire to be the first league to return to action, similar to the way that baseball returned first back in 2001 after 9/11. Manfred is part of advisory panel that President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday to get sports back in action to help jump-start the economy.

The other members of said panel include all the other major sports commissioners including Adam Silver (NBA), Roger Goodell (NFL), Gary Bettman (NHL) and Jay Monahan (PGA), as well as UFC president Dana White and NASCAR CEO Lesa France Kennedy. Team owners Jerry Jones (Dallas Cowboys), Mark Cuban (Dallas Mavericks) and Robert Kraft (New England Patriots), will also be on the panel.

In the press conference in which he announced this advisory panel, Trump was very adamant in his desire to get sports back soon.

“We have to get our sports back. I’m tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old,” Trump said. “But I haven’t actually had too much time to watch. I would say maybe I watch one batter then I get back to work.”

All of this momentum is clearly a positive sign that the New York Mets will return to the field at some point this summer. Hopefully when they do, a system will have been put in place that will keep everyone healthy and safe from COVID-19.