Over the past week, Major League Baseball has made it clear that they have every intention of playing their season, with hopes of being the first professional sports league to return amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Plans have been floated regarding how the season could return through functional isolation, in which the entirety of the MLB’s operations would be locked down to specific safe locations that would keep everyone healthy from the coronavirus. The most likely scenario would be for the season to be played at team’s spring training facilities, where they are more closely populated instead of spread out across the country.
While there are sure to be plenty of players willing to play baseball under whatever conditions the MLB lays out for them, other players have more important things that will keep them from signing up to play a season in isolation. For former Met Zack Wheeler, family comes first.
Wheeler and his wife Dominique are expecting the birth of their first child in July, which could be around the time the season starts or is already in full swing. Speaking with John Clark of NBC Sports Philadelphia, Wheeler voiced his concerns about the MLB’s plan and expressed his intent to be there for the birth of his child no matter what.
“I am not going to miss the birth of my first child. I don’t care, I’m going to be there for her and the birth of my child. That’s a fact. I think anybody would do the same thing.”
The issue that the Wheeler family has with this plan is one that is likely felt throughout the sport. As of now, all reports indicate that families would be forced to be separated during the season, leaving them away from their loved ones for months at a time.
“They are saying your significant other would not be allowed to be with you. That makes no sense to me.” Wheeler told Clark. “If we’re gonna be stuck in quarantine, then why can’t they be stuck with us in quarantine?”
How many stories like Wheeler’s are out there when you are talking about the thousands of people that would be required to get this season off the ground?
This stretches beyond just the players, as coaches, umpires and other league personal would be forced to adhere to these guidelines as well. Whether it be the birth of a first child, or any other family issue that could arise, getting everyone to sign up for this radical isolation plan is going to be a difficult task for the MLB to accomplish.
A simple solution would be to allow immediate families to accompany players in their isolated homes during the season, but at the same time, that would increase the quarantined population immensely. If social distancing has taught us anything, it’s that the more people that are around, the greater the risk of an outbreak.
At the end of the day, Wheeler is going to prioritize family and rightly so. Many others may follow suit, creating a ripple effect that could create more problems than the MLB can solve.
Time is everyone’s best friend at this point. Hopefully things get better sooner rather than later and the solutions to starting the baseball season don’t have to be as radical as the one’s that are being suggested now.
