Chicago Cubs might just be ‘essential personnel’ for fans during this crisis

Chicago Cubs: Scared to take the field

Right now everyone from the commissioner to the bat boy wants to be watching, playing and enjoying baseball but realistically – everyone is afraid. Can you blame them?

Because of the high risk, everyone involved in the entire process (drivers, kitchen staff, coaches, cameramen) and I mean everyone, would have to do a 14-day mandatory quarantine screening followed by testing and then couldn’t have contact with anyone else except those groups and ‘other’ similar groups (the other teams, staffs, potentially families).

But it could be done.

When I proposed this a month ago, the first reactionary stories published were titles like, “Cubs say virus bigger than baseball,” and others in the same vein. I understand, they were scared and didn’t realize that going through this process to play ball again would be utterly chaotic but equally patriotic.

As this is a different type of war not being fought in battlefields but in our communities, these days we are saluting doctors and nurses instead of soldiers. MLB is beginning to look a little foolish sitting on the bench, if you excuse the pun. Why can’t they play games without any fans? Now it seems that MLB is finally going to take the advice.

What took so long? Fans are beginning to think that maybe those huge salaries that baseball players collect might finally be justified if players take to the field as essential personnel. America needs it now, not in a month from now.

Chicago Cubs: Are players essential personnel at this time?

At least once a year someone comments on how outlandish athlete salaries have become. I guess we never looked at how much it cost to put your life on the line? However, a 22-year-old staff sergeant working as a U.S. Army Combat Medic Specialist (68W) tops out at $4,172.10 per month. This person would work in a hospital or medical setting and have very close contact with patients and infected people every day. This is the type of person that is risking their life right now and there are 39,000 active duty, Reserve and National Guard Combat Medics in the U.S. Army today.

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Even Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner and countless other young big leaguer surpass such pay and yet they won’t get tested and quarantined to do ‘their job’ during a national emergency? That’s how fans feel about players’ salaries and their response during this crisis.

Some suggested that players would lose sight of the seriousness of the game after a couple of games. Something like the NFL’s Pro Bowl became a joke and players hardly tried to play full capacity during the game. Fans suggested that they needed to be in the stands to fuel their teams and add to the atmosphere and intensity of the game. One fan even mentioned the 2015 Chicago White Sox and Baltimore Orioles game played without fans due to recent unrest and riots in the city. To this day, many claim it was one of the weirdest games to watch because of how quiet it was, almost like a tennis match.

My idea capitalizes on player, staff and crew families which become the audience for the games. All these folks would have been quarantined and tested together with the teams. Of course they won’t fill the stadium but at least provide some faces behind the plate and dugout.

Why couldn’t fans log in through Facebook live and be flashed up on all the electronic boards so the players do see their fans cheering. You could also do the lip-sync thing and run recorded crowd noise during the game to make it feel more realistic.

As more folks get cleared and get some kind of identification which states they are clear, maybe they can attend at a distance (the bleachers). For now, fans want their Cubs back on the field and America needs baseball back on the field so the rest of us, to steal a baseball term, can be: ‘safe at home’.