Hey, have you heard? Baseball is back. Finally.

Pending any issues related to COVID-19, MLB players are set to report for Spring Training 2.0 by July 1st and a 60-game regular season will begin on July 23rd. This final decision didn’t come without lots of drama and drawn-out public negotiations, though.

Despite everything the league and players’ union has put us through over the last few months, I’m stoked there’s a chance of getting some real baseball played this summer and fall. However, the circular route MLB traveled to get to this point took a toll on even the most diehard fans, let alone the casual ones.

This stoppage of play could’ve been an opportunity to actually grow the game beyond its current audience, but that didn’t happen. If anything was accomplished, it drove people on the fringe further away from baseball. With MLB slated to come back, though, there’s still a chance to gain new fans thanks to having a captive and sports-deprived audience.

The upcoming regular season is going to be different than any other we’ve experienced, and for baseball purists, some aspects feel nightmarish. You know, like the universal designated hitter and starting extra innings with a runner on second base. Many of us may not be thrilled about that (myself included), but it could be a way for others not previously interested to give baseball a chance.

Even if that is the case, those two changes feel kind of gimmicky. There are a couple other ways MLB could connect fans with players and possibly expand the game’s reach, though.

Mic The Dudes Up

Before Spring Training 1.0 was halted, we saw more players get mic’d up during broadcasts than ever before. The early returns on that experiment were promising.

Broadcasters got a kick out of it, players seemed to really enjoy it, and many of the lighter moments easily went viral on social media. Remember some of the funniest moments the New York Mets created when it was their turn to get mic’d up?

Pete Alonso even said he’d be willing to have conversations at first base with opposing players mic’d up. There would be kinks to work out, but this is such an easy way to humanize players, show their personalities, and ultimately make them more marketable when they’re not playing games. Mic’ing players up periodically during the season especially makes sense in 2020 because there will be many times when stadiums are completely empty or far from full due to social distancing guidelines in various cities.

It’s a way help fans stay connected since a vast majority of them won’t be able to step foot in a stadium this year for a variety of reasons.

Air More Games During the Day

I can’t take credit for this idea. I was scrolling through Twitter yesterday and happened upon the following tweet:

This idea is brilliant after just considering my situation for a couple minutes.

I have a three-and-a-half-year-old son who is interested in baseball and has asked to watch “baseball highlights” a number of times since Spring Training got shut down (his middle name is Wright, so he has no choice but to be a Mets fan). During the 2019 regular season, we could sit and watch a few innings together at most maybe once or twice a week because nobody needed him getting riled up by TV right before bedtime.

I’d love the opportunity to watch live day games with him three or even four times a week, and I know there are plenty other young parents who feel the same.

This makes sense when thinking about general logistics, too. Teams won’t be traveling out of their region, so it’s not like there will be any grueling coast-to-coast travel going on. If stadiums are going to be half full or less, it doesn’t make a ton of sense to flip on the lights every night, either. And if there’s a way to eliminate real late nights and early mornings because of travel, that’d be a good idea for everyone’s immune systems.

Plus, wouldn’t it be fun to watch Jacob deGrom have more chances to pad his already ridiculous 25-11 record and 1.85 ERA during day games?

If MLB wants to engage the younger generation and get them interested in baseball, it’s all about access. Give them more access to get to know players, like by mic’ing them up. Make it easier to catch games by scheduling more during the day.

These ideas feel simple, but we’ll have to wait and see if anything is done to potentially take advantage of an unusual situation in a meaningful way. Judging from the past three months, I’m not going to hold my breath, but I can at least be hopeful while waiting to find out.