FORT WORTH, Texas — Construction has not yet begun at Colonial Country Club for the Charles Schwab Challenge, the UFC will have fights on an island, and now MLB is considering a plan to play games in empty stadiums.
It will be like every game is in Oakland.
Television is so starved for live sports programming that despite the circumstances the PGA Tour may yet play in Fort Worth next month for the Charles Schwab Challenge. One week, or so, later Arizona could be the home to all of Major League Baseball.
According to reports from ESPN and the Associated Press, MLB and the MLB Players Association have considered a plan to start the 2020 season with every team housed, and playing regular-season games, all over Phoenix.
You know how the old saying goes, “If you really need the money, you’ll play baseball in front of zero fans, in 115-degree heat, under a coronavirus quarantine.”
Meanwhile, the PGA Tour has yet to formally announce any change to its event in Fort Worth, scheduled for May 21 to 24. Colonial members are hopeful some form of the annual tournament will take place, but as of Tuesday construction of the temporary structures for the event had not started.
Take that as a sign.
We all crave for sports to return because it will be a sign that our lives will have returned to normal, too.
Exploring every option is a good idea, even if the concepts themselves are not.
We have to wait. All of us.
Until you can come back, neither can the players.
Players play the games, but you all make the atmosphere. Sports needs fans.
Without you in the stands, every game becomes that much “easier.”
You don’t know it, but you make the games much harder. Without you, it’s a pickup game, a scrimmage, or another round of golf.
The Oakland A’s, Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays would disagree, but to play an MLB game in an empty stadium, save for TV cameras, is not an MLB game. It’s an MLB practice.
We in here talkin’ about practice. NotAGame. Not a game! We talkin’ about practice. Not the game, man. How silly is that?
