THIS IS NOT A DRILL - BASEBALL IS BACK!
The backend of the blog is fucked and I can't upload a picture but I do not care. BASEBALL. IS. BACK.
I REPEAT -- BASEBALL. IS. BACK. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
Trust me, I know a lot of baseball fans are upset that the negotiations went to the lengths that they did, and ultimately no happy medium was ever actually met. And I know we'll have the football hardos and the hockey hardos in here talking about how baseball is boring and yada yada yada. Could not give a fuck less about that crowd. Was the long, drawn out negotiation between the players and owners embarrassing? Yes. Was it bad for the sport? Yes. Was there damage done that could take years to repair? Yes. Am I agitated that it went on for as long as it did, even though we ended up getting baseball back anyway? Uh huh. But in this very moment, the moment after finally hearing the official word that there will be baseball played in 2020, that is the only thing that matters to me. Baseball is back.
Without a doubt in my mind, I will more than likely look back on the 2020 baseball season as that year. The year that left a bad taste in all of our mouths over all the bullshit arguing that transpired, halting what could've been a triumphant return for the sport when the country desperately needed a distraction. Instead, we'll get the two sides limping back to their training facilities after fighting like cats and dogs for three months. I do fear that the arguing back and forth turned away some of the fringe baseball fans, but at the end of the day, baseball is not a fringe fan sport. It's a diehard fan sport. They (usually) play 162 of these fuckin' things, and baseball broadcasters basically become a part of your family, as you welcome them into your homes just about every single night for half the year.
The diehards will come back. It's a sickness. We're all addicted to watching our teams, however great, awful or mediocre they may be. And while I would've loved to have had a full 162-game season this year, I'm kind of warming up to the social experiment that this 60-game season will become. You've got a bunch of factors in play here. Is it a marathon? Not really, no. Not by their standards, at least. Is it a sprint to the finish line? Well, sort of, yeah.
But should it be? Some of these guys have been sitting on their asses for the last three months, waiting to be told when and where to be. Pitchers specifically, so you have to wonder what their workloads will look like at the start of the season. You also have the factor of these guys being able to go out there and empty the tank because they're being asked to play 37% of a big league season. Let it eat.
Baseball's a weird sport, man. We do weird shit. It's probably the only sport where you can watch the game for a hundred years and still witness something you've never seen before in that hundredth year. That's why I love it so much. There's nothing like it. And in 2020, there will (hopefully) be nothing like this season. I'm excited to see how this all shakes out. But most of all, I'm just happy to have baseball back.
PS -- If the virus shuts down the season, I will fucking lose it. Straight up padded walls-type shit.