There’s a plan for a major sports league to start playing again this summer.
According to high-level national baseball sources, Major League Baseball owners have approved passing a plan on to the players’ union plan that would start the baseball season around Fourth of July in ballparks — without fans of course.
A meeting involving owners, the league and the MLB Players Association Tuesday will involve negotiations of how to implement a shortened 82-game season. An intradivision-heavy schedule would be to limit travel — with teams possibly traveling by bus to nearby cities. The logistics of starting a baseball season while the coronavirus pandemic continues requires the players’ support.
Spring Training, which had started as usual in March before everything was canceled, would start again sometime in June, but involve players working out at their home parks and not spring training games. Other parts of a hastily-played 2020 season:
- An expansion of playoff teams from 10 to 14
- The use of home stadiums in areas that have local and state governmental approval
- Geographical schedules, in which teams play only in-division opponents and interleague opponents in a similar area (i.e., American League Central teams play only AL Central and National League Central teams)
- Using designated hitter in both leagues, as there will be more interleague play
- A 30-man roster with a taxi squad that would have upward of 50 players available
