Twins pitchers and catchers are due to report to Ft. Myers on Friday, February 19 to start preparations for the 2021 season with position players reporting the following Tuesday. Normally I would have been in Ft. Myers for almost two months and I would have been out to the CenturyLink Sports Complex numerous times checking on the early arrivals and getting a few pictures but life is still not back to normal and I don’t see it happening in the near future.
Instead I find myself back home in Minnesota where the temperatures are colder than Mitch Garver’s bat as I wait for my second COVID vaccine and then with a bit of luck we might head south to enjoy what beautiful SW Florida has to offer. The question is what will fans get to see when and if they do go down to Ft. Myers? The Twins spring training complex has historically been one of the best spring training sites to get up close and personal and watch the players get ready for another baseball season. Don’t count on that this year.
With COVID still very much part of our life will MLB even allow fans to get near the ballplayers? I doubt it but I have not heard anything from MLB or the Twins on what will MLB spring training sites will be like. Travel is discouraged now days but I am sure there are Twins fans that would like to make plans to fly down to Ft. Myers and check out some baseball action but who wants to take the chance that they won’t even be allowed to enter the complex at all? The fields at the complex are spread out but the area for fans to observe the action are crammed together and social distancing would be next to impossible. I just don’t see how it can be done.
I have seen reports that MLB will allow about 2,400 fans to attend each of the exhibition games but I would guess most of those would be used up by the ST season ticket holders so few if any tickets will be available to the single game attendees. ST exhibition game tickets will probably be selling on eBay for stupid prices as baseball starved fans try to see some live baseball action in person.
MLB ST schedules were recently revised and teams will be staying close to home and playing a handful of teams that train in their general vicinity. I wonder if ST rules for how many major league players needed to go to away games will be even more relaxed then they are now?
The TV broadcast schedules for ST exhibition games should be announced soon and that might be the best choice for fans assuming that MLB will even allow that. Broadcasting games takes people and the more people there are the greater the COVID risk. I guess it is just another one of those things that we will have to wait and see how it pans out.
Maybe MLB and the Minnesota Twins should put some camera’s on the various ST fields and stream the action and give fans a view of what is going on. Lots of fans are lucky enough to get to their favorite teams ST sites and watch the action but many more don’t have that opportunity so why not give them that chance in these difficult times?