Will baseball play in front of empty stands?

From the NY POST

Two items are becoming more and more probable if there is going to be a major league season this year:

1. It is going to begin without crowds.

2. It is going to begin without a standard minor league feeder system.

Central to the agreement that was reached last week between MLB and the Players Association was a good-faith understanding that there will be “best efforts to play as many games as possible.” Teams derive revenue and players earn salary from games, so both pledged commitment to a regular season as stocked with games as possible.

And it is just logical at this point, as one team executive said, “By a matter of weeks, we will be able to play games without crowds [before we can play games] with them.” Another official said, “I think the only way we play, at least initially, is without fans.”

For now, MLB has suspended operations until at least mid-May owing to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention edicts to avoid mass gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic. The agreement states that games will not resume until there are no federal, city or local restrictions on mass gatherings and until the commissioner determines, via consultation with medical experts, that no “unreasonable health and safety risk to players, staff, or spectators” persists. However, it also empowers the commissioner to discuss in good faith playing in neutral sites and without fans.Playing in empty stadiums, at least at the outset, could provide MLB a way to avoid what could be the embarrassment of small crowds while meeting the obligation to play as many games as feasible.

Part of playing as many games as possible will likely entail the addition of doubleheaders, the removal of some off days and an extension of the regular season into October. That is going to necessitate, first, the expansion of rosters from 26 to perhaps 30, especially early in the season to protect arms. But a quickened second spring training, more games in a consolidated period and the normal wear and tear of a season means more than 30 players are required as a season progresses. Normally, that means promoting players from the minors. 

Read more here.

You can read about the deal with the MLB and MLBPA here.

I guess we have to wait to see what happens. Going to have to see when this world goes back to "normal"

Dr James Andrews suspends doing Tommy John Surgeries.

From the NY POST

Dr. James Andrews has suspended Tommy John surgeries at the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine in Florida, according to the Boston Globe.

“We are not performing any non-urgent or non-emergent procedures, including Tommy John surgery, in compliance with the governor’s executive order,” a spokesperson for the Institute told the Globe. “We are adhering to these restrictions and all such cases are suspended at this time.”

In the past week, Mets right-hander Noah Syndergaard and Red Sox left-hander Chris Sale have both undergone Tommy John surgery. Syndergaard’s was performed by Dr. David Altchek at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Florida and Sale’s performed by Dr. Neal ElAttrache at the Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles.

But their surgeries have become a point of contention at a time when the U.S. surgeon general has asked hospitals to consider stopping elective procedures and some states (including New York and Florida) have taken matters into their own hands by temporarily banning them.

Read more here. 

Syndergaard got his Tommy John surgery in under the wire. BTW we haven't heard much about it. I guess the Mets realized it wasn't a good idea to make a big deal of it. The main reason the hospitals are suspending the surgeries is to save use on necessary equipment and protective gear.

Jeff Wilpon and @Mets employees celebrate Doctors and Nurses

From all of us here at the #Mets, THANK YOU to all of the health care professionals keeping our community safe. pic.twitter.com/h03UAnl1vg

— New York Mets (@Mets) March 31, 2020

In a coincidental manner, this video from the Mets
 dropped a little while ago. I wonder how many of 
the Mets employees know about that letter Gary
 Sheffield Junior posted.It is a nice move by the Mets 
to do this though to show appreciation for the people
 trying to quell this disease for us, but "timing". Still 
very nice gesture.    

I keep forgetting Jay Horwitz has a podcast.

Does anyone else forget that Jay does a podcast? I forget about it until we talk about it in the Mets Fan Advisory Board. I don't know, I kinda don't feel Jay as a host to something like this. It is cool that

he can get the guests though.

Before David Wright was quarantined with his family in Cali., he was coaching his daughter’s t-ball team. One rival coach asked him if he had any baseball background. The @Mets Captain replied, “I dabbled a little.”

Listen to David in my latest podcast: https://t.co/8tiBZAHE4J pic.twitter.com/SiWCwbyTq1

— Jay Horwitz (@Jay_HorwitzPR) March 27, 2020

Some @Mets Staff get a letter about not being able to work at Citi Field yet.

Now I wonder what staff it was sent to. Was it just seasonal workers? Staff that was just hired to fill positions in tickets sales? Security? I have no idea. This letter was tweeted by Gary Sheffield Jr.

JUST IN: Letter sent to all staff members for the New York Mets. pic.twitter.com/9NAh6diNlr

— Gary Sheffield Jr. (@GarysheffieldJr) March 30, 2020

From the NY Daily News 3/27/202. 

Last week, each MLB team pledged a combined $30 million to their ballpark employees unable to work their shifts during the coronavirus shutdown.

“I am proud that our clubs came together so quickly and uniformly to support these individuals who provide so much to the game we love,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement touting the charitable endeavor.

Two canceled games into the big league season, however, Lavoune Witherspoon is still waiting for that support. She and hundreds of other contracted food service workers at the Mets’ home ballpark haven’t received a single paycheck since the league suspended the 2020 season.

“How are people supposed to live” Witherspoon said, who is a cook for Citi Field’s Sweet Chick, a stadium outpost of the popular comfort food restaurant. “Nobody reached out to us when this happened.”

Unite Here Local 100, the union that represents roughly 340 food workers including Witherspoon, has said they’ve yet to hear back from the Mets or Aramark, the food service client that staffs their vendors with contracted workers. The union told the Daily News that 70 of those seasonal workers have worked Mets games for at least 10 years.

Witherspoon has said the non-response is especially hurtful because they’re regularly referred to as “a family” by Aramark.

“We got a newsletter before the season started [Aramark] sent everybody saying, ‘Oh, welcome back to the stadium, family... It’s gonna be a great season. We thank you for last year, all you’ve done,'” Witherspoon said. “We got that paper to come back and now that we in a crisis nationwide. Nobody is taking care of us.” 

Read more here. 

I want to know who the letter from the Mets was for. What is going on with the money that was pledged by all the teams to go to the seasonal workers. Why there isn't any kind of communications going on between them. The one hold up I can see is that Aramark is the go between the Mets and the folks who work at Citi Field in concessions. They are the ones who actually pay the employees from their contract with the Mets. From the Daily News Article above, "Aramark, which made $14.6 billion in revenue in 2018, signs their worker paychecks, while the Mets, who were almost sold for $2.6 billion in a since-botched deal, signs Aramark’s. It is unclear, however, who feels who should pay workers during the shutdown, as neither entity has yet to provide comment clarifying if or when workers like Witherspoon would receive pay.

The Mets released this statement: “The Mets will be participating in the initiative announced by Major League Baseball by contributing $1 million to support ballpark employees affected by the delay in the start of the 2020 regular season. We are in the process of carefully considering the most appropriate way to allocate these funds.”" That is why this letter is confusing to me. Who is it for?