So, before we get onto the results of this survey, a quick note. Those of you who have been with us over the last year or so will remember our FanPulse surveys that went out weekly during the regular season and have started to come back over the last six weeks or so. Well, it’s not going away, but it’s getting a rebrand. FanPulse is now known as SB Nation Reacts. The link to sign up for said surveys is still the same, though, so if you were part of FanPulse you don’t need to do anything differently. If you aren’t part of it and you want to be you can sign up by following . If you see me referring to this as FanPulse, just hit me over the nose with a virtual newspaper. Now, onto the actual questions and answers.
Will baseball be ready to return in July?
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I mean, there are a few different ways to look at this question with different answers, right? If you are asking if MLB the league entity will feel they are ready to play baseball in July, it’s an unequivocal yes. If you are asking whether they will really be ready with the necessary testing measures in place that also doesn’t take away testing from communities that need it? Well, that I’m not as sure about. If you are asking whether they will be on the field in July, I am leaning yes right now, but it’s close to 50/50 in my eyes.
Will 2021 be delayed?
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This is an interesting one, and if you had asked me a couple of weeks ago I would have said yes. However, it seems like the league is afraid of a second wave (not that the first one is even over!) making it difficult to push the playoffs through November. That would be the requirement to start talking about pushing 2021 back. I think if there is a 2020 season — which again, I’m pretty close to 50/50 on right now — they’ll just shorten it and have it end at the normal time. There’s no way 2020 is going to be anything close to normal, so while I think they want to play I don’t think any plan should result in making next season weird too.
How should they play?
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Not very long ago, every leaked idea coming from the league for a 2020 season involved teams playing away from home in one, two, or three somewhat contained environments in Arizona, Florida and maybe Texas. That idea has seemingly gone out the window, with the latest and most official proposal involving teams at their home parks wherever possible with schedules changed to play only teams from your division and its interleague counterpart. I think there’s a risk that setup gets boring with so many games against the same teams, but ultimately the aesthetics of a major-league park are preferable to me over a bunch of spring training parks.
What’s a meaningful season?
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I would need to know what is meant by meaningful before I can answer this, I guess. If you are talking about a championship that everyone will consider legitimate, that’s not happening. There will be people who put an asterisk on this year no matter how it plays out, and there’s nothing the league can do about that. If you’re talking about a champion that I consider legitimate, I guess I’d be fine even if it was 60 games? Everyone is playing by the same rules, and really baseball’s postseason is silly enough as it is that legitimacy is a relatively term.
