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Braves Clippings Wednesday, May 6, 2020 Braves.com

Braves' Top 5 center fielders: Bowman's take

By Mark Bowman

No one loves a good debate quite like fans, and with that in mind, we asked each of our beat reporters to rank the top five players by position in the history of their franchise, based on their career while playing for that club. These rankings are for fun and debate purposes only … if you don’t agree with the order, participate in the Twitter poll to vote for your favorite at this position.

Here is Mark Bowman’s ranking of the top 5 center fielders in Braves history. Next week: Right fielders.

1. , 1996-2007 Key fact: Stands with , and as the only to win 10 consecutive Gold Glove Awards

The 60.9 bWAR (Baseball Reference’s WAR model) Andruw Jones produced during his 11 full seasons (1997-2007) with Atlanta ranked third in the Majors, trailing only (85.7) and (79.2). was fourth at 58.9.

Within this span, the Braves led all Major Leaguers with a 26.7 Defensive bWAR. Hall of Fame Ivan Rodriguez ranked second with 16.5. The next closest was (9.6).

Along with establishing himself as one of the greatest defensive outfielders baseball has ever seen during his time with Atlanta, Jones became one of the best power hitters in Braves history. He ranks fourth in franchise history with 368 homers, and he set the club’s -season record with 51 homers in 2005.

2. , 1976-90 Key fact: Only Braves player to win two MVP Awards

Brought up as a catcher, Dale Murphy became Atlanta’s primary center fielder in 1980, and he won the first of two consecutive MVP Awards two years later. Known as one of the premier sluggers of his era, he also won five straight Gold Glove Awards from 1982-86. The Braves moved him to right field in 1987.

While serving as Atlanta’s center fielder from 1980-86, Murphy ranked first among all outfielders in home runs (220) and bWAR (34.7). The only player to more homers during this seven-season stretch was (260).

3. , 1930-37 Key fact: Served as the NL’s starting center fielder in the first All-Star Game (1933)

One of the premier power hitters of his era, Wally Berger set a rookie record when he hit 38 homers in 1930. This record stood 57 years, until Mark McGwire broke it with 49 in 1987. But no NL rookie surpassed this mark until 2017 (, 39).

A shoulder injury in 1936 ended Berger’s days with the Braves and soured what seemingly was the makings of a Hall of Fame career. Even though his ascent was cut short, he still ranks third among center fielders in club history with a 36.9 bWAR.

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WALLY BERGER (RIGHT) GIVES A FEW TIPS TO TEAMMATE VINCENT DIMAGGIO, BROTHER OF JOE, IN 1937. AP

4. , 2016-present Key fact: Won three consecutive Gold Glove Awards from 2016-18

Along with earning a Gold Glove in each of his first three seasons with Atlanta, Ender Inciarte produced a 200-hit season in 2017, the club’s first since 1996. He led all NL outfielders with 20 Outs Above Average in 2017 and ranked second with 19 OAA in 2018.

Inciarte’s 10.6 bWAR ranks fifth among the modern-era Braves who have played as a center fielder in at least 80 percent of their games with the club. 5. , 1953-60 Key fact: Hit a 10th-inning walk-off homer in the first home game for the Milwaukee Braves

Bill Bruton led the Majors in stolen bases during each of his first three seasons, and he helped the Braves win consecutive NL pennants in 1957 and '58. His 18.0 bWAR over eight seasons with Milwaukee ranks third among modern-era Braves who have played as a center fielder for at least 80 percent of their games with the club.

Honorable mentions Before the 2019 Billy Hamilton, the Braves had a Billy Hamilton, who capped his 14-season Hall of Fame career by playing with the Boston club from 1896-1901 … solidified the defense and the top of the lineup with his arrival before the start of the 1995 championship season … Multiple leg ailments limited on the bases. But he did hit .333 with a .409 on-base percentage during his one season (1997) in Atlanta.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Mike Soroka gets compared with . It’s not that crazy

By Gabriel Burns, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It was a treat watching the 1995 , which aired on Fox Sports South last week. Kudos to the Braves for doing that – at a time when we’re all desperate for sports, it was nice having that 7-10 p.m. block filled by something besides sitcom reruns and Netflix.

You’ll make endless observations watching these old games, from the players to announcers to advertising. In this instance, I especially enjoyed watching the pitching, seeing the “big three” (now an absolutely exhausted term in sports) win their only World Series. I loved seeing the Atlanta- Fulton County Stadium crowd. You could feel the liveliness and passion through the screen.

But one of my biggest takeaways, relative to the current Braves: It’s easy to see why is loosely compared with Greg Maddux.

You can call it hyperbole. That’s fair. It’s ridiculous to compare a player who just completed his first full season to one of the greatest ever. Maddux had arguably the best command of all-time. He was dominant across the vaunted steroids era. If he wasn’t the top of the 1990s, he’s in the top two.

And yet, as I watched Maddux, I kept drawing parallels to Soroka. It was a fun exercise rooted in past comments linking the pair. You’ve heard the talk. You either became insanely optimistic, rolled your eyes or found yourself teetering on the fence of fan and realist.

Still, you can’t ignore the similar demeanor, that calmness and smoothness that Soroka and Maddux share. Both pitchers always look in control. Neither was a brash personality, but the quiet confidence is palpable. They’re both control experts, focusing more on location than overpowering the opposition.

In an interview with 92.9 The Game last May, coined Soroka “Greg Maddux 2.0.” That’s coming from one of Maddux’s closest friends and teammates. A Hall of Famer who spent much of his prime in the same room as Mad Dog.

“He’s a pitcher, and that you can’t say universally in the game,” Smoltz said. “There’s a lot of throwers. There’s a lot of guys with great stuff. He’s Greg Maddux 1.0, 2.0, whatever you want to call him, and that’s a tough, kind of high compliment, to a guy that’s a Hall of Famer and one of the best in the business.”

When Smoltz made those comments, Soroka was in the midst of a phenomenal stretch. After making five starts in 2018, his ensuing season couldn’t have started any better. I stress: In a historical context, it really couldn’t have been better.

Soroka had a 1.92 ERA through his first 12 career starts, which was the all-time best result for sub-22-year-olds through a dozen outings. He finished the season with a 2.68 ERA, striking out 142 in 29 starts. He was sixth in Cy Young voting.

Maddux struggled across his first 32 starts, posting a 5.59 ERA over his first two seasons. His third season was a breakthrough, when as a 22-year- old he garnered his first All-Star appearance. It was the first of 15 consecutive seasons in which he had an ERA no higher than 3.57. He led the league in ERA four times in his career, twice earning a mark under 2.00.

Soroka, who’s already had shoulder issues in his recent past, may never be the iron man Maddux was, though that’s additionally a reflection of the times. Maddux logged 200-plus innings in 18 of 19 seasons since his breakout. He led the league in innings five consecutive seasons.

That’s a testament to Maddux’s greatness. Often when we make player comparisons, we view it too black-and-white instead of just trying to find similar facets in their skill sets. Soroka isn’t going to lead a league in innings for a half decade. He’s not going to replicate Maddux’s 20-year stretch. He’s going to make his own legacy - he and the Braves hope - that we’ll revisit down the line.

Former Braves pitching coach , who coached the great staffs of the ’90s, didn’t stray from Maddux comparisons either.

“What I like about Soroka, I love his mound presence,” Mazzone said in our conversation in March. “I love the way he changes speeds and makes the ball move. If I say he’s a poor man’s Greg Maddux, that’s a compliment. There’s a calmness going on. Just watching his mound presence and listening to him talk, watching him like that, reminds me of a pitcher, not a thrower.”

We keep hearing that line with Soroka, that he’s a pitcher not a thrower. It’s commonly used in baseball when the evaluator is trying to explain how a pitcher knows where the ball is going, rather than just firing a 99-mph and hoping it finds the strike zone. It’s even more applicable now, since so much emphasis is on velocity.

Like Maddux, you won’t find Soroka talking about the speed on his pitches. Fireballs aren’t in his arsenal. Instead he complements a four-seamer with a change-up, sinker and . Soroka’s change-up and slider produced whiff rates of 39 and 38.5, respectively. He managed to keep the ball down despite the baseball’s power surge: His ground-ball percentage was a tick over 51 percent, and he allowed only 14 home runs.

Aside from the stats, Soroka passes the eye test. In his only playoff start, he allowed one across seven innings at St. Louis. He showed a coolness superior to any of his veteran teammates. It was only one start, as many of you won’t want to be reminded, but he showed he can translate to October, when some great pitchers tend to wilt.

Mentally, Soroka is far ahead of most his age. He’s wise, well-spoken and analytically minded. You appreciate any insight from players, but he always goes over the top to explain baseball’s intricacies. He’s the rare example of a coach’s AND reporter’s dream.

Soroka checks every box needed to maximize his potential. We’ll see how his career unfolds, but don’t be too quick to dismiss the Maddux comparisons. It shouldn’t and won’t be the expectation, but there’s undoubtedly shades of Maddux here. That’s enough to be a productive 10-plus year starter in itself.

Which makes the delayed, potentially canceled season even tougher. We’ve been robbed the second full season of Soroka’s career. He’s sure to be near the top of unlimited reasons that Braves fans are eager for baseball’s return.

Baseball is back on TV: What to know about Korea Baseball Organization

By Michael Cunningham, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

There’s a new option for those hungry for live sports but not inclined to watch horses or cars race on the track. Baseball is back, just not here. The Korea Baseball Organization League opened play Tuesday, and ESPN is set to televise six games per week this season.

The catch for fans in America is the time difference. They’ll have to stay up late (or get up early) for games that start from between 1 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. ET Tuesday through Saturday, though there are afternoon rebroadcasts on the schedule, too. That’s not ideal, but time seems to have become warped for those of us staying at home, so maybe ESPN will find a significant audience for live sports after midnight.

(I lived in for a year during middle school, but I didn’t attend any KBO games. I did frequently hear “Carl Lewis” from people on the streets because the Summer Olympics were coming to Seoul, and I had a haircut like the American track star.)

Baseball is baseball, but every league has its own flavor. For expert insight on Korean baseball, I reached out to Dan Kurtz, who advocates for the KBO at his website MyKBO.net. Here are Kurtz’s (lightly edited) answers to my questions.

Q. At MyKBO.net, you write: “The site is run as a hobby by its founder for free.” What is it about the KBO that compels you devote time to your site?

A. Having been adopted from South Korea at four months old, I did not get my first exposure of the KBO until I studied abroad in Korea for a year in 2000. Ever since I attended my first game at Seoul’s Jamsil Stadium, I was hooked. Since there was a lack of English-language resources at the time, I tried to use my basic Korean language skills to help others learn more about the KBO. I continue to follow the league because I find it a high level of baseball that is both unpredictable and entertaining. It also allows me to continue learning the Korean language and keeps me connected with the country where I was born.

Q. The KBO has gained attention for dramatic bat flips by hitters after home runs. Those are forbidden by MLB’s unwritten rules, with bean balls as the penalty. Are there other noticeable stylistic differences between MLB and KBO?

A. While the game may be played the same way as it is in MLB, the KBO has its own baseball culture and its own set of unwritten rules. Flipping your bat on a (or even a long fly ball) won’t get you beaned the next time up. But the benches will empty if you are a younger pitcher who unintentionally hits a veteran batter with a pitch and don’t immediately take off your hat and bow to show remorse.

Q. Are there any major differences in game play in the KBO as compared to American baseball? A. The KBO differs from the MLB in that regular-season games end after 12 innings. While the KBO has been known to be a high-scoring league in the past, scores and home runs dropped drastically last year thanks to the “dejuiced” ball. It’s become a more pitcher-friendly league, and batters have had to adjust not being able to swing for the fences all the time.

Q. The KBO season begins with no spectators in the stands. Do you think a quieter atmosphere will affect the players?

A. The first thing new fans to KBO notice when attending or even watching a game on TV is the loud and raucous environment that the fans create. By not having fans in the stands to begin the league, I would imagine that it will take some adjusting for players, managers and coaches. All sorts of chatter, profanity, and strategy can be picked up by anyone on the field and on TV.

Q. The Seoul-based have won three of the last five championships, including the 2019 championship (their American- born pitcher Josh Lindblom, the 2019 league MVP, signed with the Brewers in December). Some people don’t like rooting for the favorite. Are there any fun underdogs to pull for in KBO?

A. One of the teams that fans may like to root for is the . They are the only KBO team not owned by a large company. They are privately owned and sell their naming rights. Kiwoom Securities bought those rights (in 2018). Due to not having a large company with large bank accounts, the Heroes are a frugal team that knows how to maximize their spending on players that perform at a high level. They appeared in the Korean Series last season and are expected to do well again this season.

Q. Some Korean players have made a successful transition KBO to MLB in recent years, including Blue Jays pitcher Hyun-jin Ryu (formerly with the Dodgers). Are there any KBO players to watch this season who we may see in MLB one day?

A. A few players that I would list as possible future major leaguers are pitcher Yang Hyeon-jong of Tigers, outfielder Na Sung-bum of NC Dinos and infielder Kim Ha-seong of Kiwoom. A few years down the road, I’d make sure to check out outfielders Kang Baek-ho of KT Wiz and Lee Jung- hoo of Kiwoom.

Q. Braves fans know Matt Williams, the former MLB star who managed the NL East-rival Nationals from 2014-15. Williams will make his KBO managerial debut this year with the . What are some challenges Williams will face as a foreign for a popular KBO franchise?

A. The first and most obvious challenge will be having to communicate via translators and interpreters with almost everyone on the team and on the field. There have been other foreign managers in the past and, as a fan, it was always humorous to watch them argue with the ump. Not only did the manager come out on the field, he brought his translator, and it was then a three-party argument. Another challenge he will face is trying to get Kia back into playoff contention. Kia is the most storied franchise in KBO history, with 11 championships to their name, so fans have high expectations.

The time made himself the Braves’ manager

By Tim Tucker, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Editor’s note: At a time when sports are shut down, we are taking a look (in no particular order) at some of the bizarre moments from sports history.

Imagine John Malone, the billionaire chairman of Braves owner Liberty Media, showing up for a game someday, putting on a uniform and managing the team.

Ridiculous, right? And unthinkable, as Malone hasn’t exactly frequented Braves games since his company bought the team 13 years ago.

But it was hardly out of character when another Braves owner, Ted Turner, made himself the team’s temporary manager in May 1977.

“We were on a long losing streak, trying to figure out what to do about it, and Ted came in and said, ‘I think I’m going to go manage the team,’” recalled Bob Hope, a Braves executive at the time. “So he just put on a uniform and took over. I don’t think there was a moment of it he didn’t enjoy.”

The times were different. Baseball was different. And the Braves owner was different.

“People say to me all the time, ‘Well, you could never get away with that kind of stuff in today’s world,’” Hope said last week. “Well, you could if you had Ted Turner as an owner.”

So on the list of Braves managers — 18 of them, including interims, since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966 — this entry jumps off the page: “1977, Ted Turner, 0-1.”

Wearing No. 27, with a wad of chewing tobacco in his mouth, Turner managed the Braves in a game against the Pirates at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium on May 11, 1977. The Braves had gone 70-92 in Turner’s first year as owner in 1976, losing 13 consecutive games at one point, and had finished in last place in the National League West. He had high hopes for improvement in 1977, but soon found his team in a losing streak even longer than the one the year before.

“After losing our 16th game straight, I decided to shake things up,” Turner recounted in “Call Me Ted,” his autobiography. “I thought about firing our manager, , but instead I decided to just give him some time off. After telling the press that Bristol was away on a ‘scouting trip,’ I put on a Braves uniform and served as the team’s field manager.

“In the , I really didn’t do a whole lot other than crack some jokes and yell encouragement,” Turner continued. “I didn’t know the signs, so I had to sit next to one of the other coaches, and when I thought we should steal or bunt, I’d have to tell him so he could relay the signal.

“Phil Niekro pitched a that night, so I never even got a chance to walk out to the mound. Despite his strong performance, we lost 2- 1, but we broke a lot of tension on the club.”

Hope, the former Braves executive, remembers Turner holding court with the media before that game 43 years ago this month. During batting practice, Turner jokingly asked Niekro where he wanted to hit in the . After some playful banter, Niekro told him ninth would be best.

The Pirates scored a run in the first inning. The Braves answered with a run in the second. The Pirates scored again in the third on a home run, the game’s final run.

Manager Turner — or the coaches working with him — deployed two ninth-inning pinch-hitters (Darrel Chaney, who hit a ground-rule , and Rowland Office, who struck out) and one pinch-runner (Pat Rockett).

It was the Braves’ 17th consecutive loss, dropping their record for the season to 8-22.

The headline on the top of the front page in The Atlanta Constitution the next morning: “Skipper Ted Takes the Helm, But Braves Are Still Sinking.”

And so ended Turner’s time as acting manager.

“The baseball establishment didn’t like the idea of me managing the team,” Turner wrote in his 2008 autobiography, “and I received a telegram from National League president Chub Feeney the morning after my debut, telling me that my first game would also be my last. I retired with a lifetime record of zero wins and one loss.”

Turner, then 38, had intended to manage the Braves for 10 days and had told Bristol to take a break of that length at his home in Andrews, N.C.

Turner wanted to use his time in the dugout to figure out what was wrong with the struggling team, he told reporters at the time. He figured most fans in the stands would do the same thing if they were the owner.

Alas, Turner’s managerial career was reduced to one game because Feeney found obscure MLB rule 20(e), which states “no manager or player on a club shall, directly or indirectly, own stock or any other proprietary interest or have any financial interest in the Club by which the manager or player is employed except under an agreement approved by the Commissioner…”

Turner was unimpressed. “They must have put that rule in yesterday,” the famously outspoken owner said after receiving Feeney’s edict. “If I’m smart enough to save $11 million to buy the team, I ought to be smart enough to manage it.”

The rule against owners managing their team was put in place sometime after 1950, when Connie Mack’s 50-year run as manager and part-owner of the Philadelphia Athletics ended.

Anyway, Turner was forced back to the box seats as the Braves completed the series at Pittsburgh on May 12, 1977. Bristol was still away, so one of the coaches, , served as manager. The Braves beat the Pirates 6-1, finally breaking their long losing streak.

Even then, Turner hadn’t given up on the idea of managing the team. He appealed Feeney’s ruling to , the baseball commissioner. Kuhn’s quick written decision was read by public address announcer Marshall Mann to fans at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium when the Braves started a homestand the next day: “Given Mr. Turner’s lack of familiarity with game operations,” Kuhn wrote, “I do not think it is in the best interests of baseball (for him) to serve in the requested capacity.”

The gathering crowd booed the announcement.

Turner had run afoul of Kuhn months earlier. In January 1977, the commissioner suspended Turner from baseball for one year for violating anti- tampering rules in the signing of free-agent outfielder Gary Matthews. (Turner’s offense? At a cocktail party, he told the Giants’ owner that he’d sign Matthews at any cost.) Turner filed a lawsuit against Kuhn in March 1977, putting the suspension on hold.

He was awaiting a court ruling when he made himself manager. About a week later, a federal judge let stand the suspension of Turner, but overturned another part of the punishment that would have stripped the Braves of their first-round draft pick.

Turner spent most of his suspension at the America’s Cup yachting competition in Newport, R.I., “without people wondering why I wasn’t at the Braves games,” he wrote in his autobiography. Managing the Braves for a day was a mere footnote in the career of a man who built a Superstation, won the America’s Cup, founded CNN, was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year (in 1991), donated $1 billion to support the United Nations, became the nation’s largest private landowner (until being surpassed by Liberty Media’s Malone) and, yes, still owned the Braves when they won the . But Ted Turner’s one day as manager underscored the passion and the utter unpredictability that endeared him to many Braves fans.

Turner lost control of the Braves through two corporate mergers — first Turner Broadcasting’s with Time Warner, then Time Warner’s with AOL. Now 81, Turner disclosed in 2018 that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disease.

Back in 1977, the Braves wound up losing 101 games and again finished in last place. Bristol, who returned from his brief absence to resume his role as manager, was fired after the season.

At that point, the Braves replaced him with a far more conventional choice than the guy who took the job for a day in May. In November 1977, Turner’s Braves hired as their manager, for the first time, .

The Athletic

Schultz: Downtime with family has provided Chip Caray with emotional healing

By Jeff Schultz

When it’s May and there is no baseball, a broadcaster who has spent more time sitting on airplanes than at his kitchen table with his family becomes lost. He passes time tutoring his 11-year-old son in math, or playing backyard Wiffle ball, or breaking into impromptu play-by-play when his wife walks in with the groceries.

“Here’s Susan Caray. 5-9 out of Clemson University and Flagler College. Oh, there’s the romaine lettuce! That goes into the drawer! Followed by the tangerines! Now, the spaghetti sauce goes on the shelf. Might want to turn the label the right way! Thank you very much!”

Yeah. Chip Caray’s losing it.

“I have an alter ego,” he said. “I call him Biff Barf. Whenever I do him, everybody in the house wants to throw up in their mouth.”

Caray, who for most of his adult life has lived by baseball’s calendar, is “trying not to go stir crazy” during these sports-less times. His hope is that life returns to some form of normalcy soon and Braves games come back with it. His emotions fluctuate with every new when-is-baseball-starting rumor.

In an uninterrupted world, the Braves would be 39 games into the season after finishing a nine-game trip Wednesday night in Philadelphia. But we still haven’t even seen Opening Day. Misery abounds.

Well, not completely.

Caray’s broadcasting bloodlines are well known. His grandfather, Harry, was like everybody’s grandfather and the legendary voice of the . Caray’s father, Skip, was the lovable and curmudgeonly punctuation in the Braves’ booth. The part of the Caray family story that isn’t often told is that Chip barely knew his grandfather and was separated from his father for most of his youth.

Chip grew up in St. Louis. Harry lived in Chicago and was divorced before Chip was born. Skip lived in Atlanta and was divorced when Chip was 4. Chip rarely saw his father until he left St. Louis to attend college at Georgia.

Caray considers himself incredibly fortunate to have the job he does. He gets paid to watch baseball games and travel first class. But it’s only natural that he has pangs of regret for the time he spends on the road, away from his family in St. Augustine. Hotel nights often serve as reverse flashbacks to his youth, when he knew his father only through television broadcasts.

But this pandemic, while horrible, has at least afforded him extra weeks of family time that he would have otherwise missed.

“I’ve actually broken down before when I’ve thought about the fact my daughter is 22, she graduates college in three weeks, and I’ve missed half her life because I’m in Pittsburgh covering a ballgame,” Caray said. “But as John Schuerholz used to say, that’s the choice we made. This job has allowed me to live a lifestyle that I never dreamed of growing up in St. Louis in a broken home.”

When Summerlyn, now near graduation at the University of San Diego, was only a year and a half, Caray said goodbye to her when it was time for him to fly to Chicago for the start of his then broadcasting job with the Cubs. He vividly remembers it. “I was hugging my daughter, and I was bawling. Because I knew I wouldn’t be there, and I would miss out on all those little moments and little achievements. And my wife said, ‘Don’t worry I’ll bring her to you.’ My wife has raised four incredible kids. I say this all the time: The moms are the real MVPs.”

Growing up, he lived in St. Louis. His father was in Atlanta. They generally saw each other twice a year — when the Braves came to town and a week or two during the summer when Chip got out of school and headed south.

Chip grew up a baseball fan. The sport defined his connection to Skip and Harry. Chip would fall asleep at night while listening to Cardinals games on a transistor radio hidden under his pillow. When cable TV brought superstations in Chicago and Atlanta into everybody’s living rooms in the 1980s, he would come home from school and watch Cubs games in the afternoon and the Braves in the evening.

“That’s how I stayed in touch with them,” he said.

It was like Zoom in the 1980s, except he couldn’t talk to either one on TV.

“Sure, I could,” Chip said.

Unfortunately, Harry didn’t know his own grandson any better than he knew you.

“This is not a knock on my grandfather but he was an orphan, he didn’t have much of a family life in St. Louis when he grew up, so he didn’t know how to be a dad or a grandfather,” Chip said.

One story. Tough story.

Harry’s wife, Dutchie, had a son two years older than Chip. They played high school baseball together.

“We had just finished up a game, and I was packing up my stuff, and a kid cames up to me and says, ‘Hey, your grandfather is here,’” Chip said. “I thought, ‘Really, ?’ So I told my coach, and I walked by, and I waved to him. He didn’t know who I was. I was obviously heartbroken by that.”

Chip walked away and choked back tears. His coach called him over and walked with him toward Harry.

“My coach says, ‘Hi, Mr. Caray. We have a fine young ballplayer who wanted to say hello,’” Chip said. “So (Harry) stuck out his hand and said, ‘Hey young man, what’s your name?’ Before I could answer, my coach interjected, ‘He’s your grandson.’ You could’ve heard a pin drop. I waved and walked away. Then he came over and gave me a hug, and it was the old $20 handshake. It wasn’t malicious. But as for this perception of me growing up with a silver spoon, I didn’t know Harry until I was (broadcasting ) games. By then I was 24, and I was in the club. I turned down the Cubs job the first time, and he didn’t speak to me, but there were myriad reasons why I couldn’t be there. It was a complicated relationship. I mean, I would’ve given anything to ride on the airplane or in the limo with him and listen to what it was like to watch play or tell me about or the 1945 World Series. Not to mention all the family stuff that he missed out on.

“(Harry liked) beer, babes and baseball,” Chip added. “My dad was much more reserved. All he wanted to do was entertain the audience and then go home. I kinda think I fall somewhere in the middle.”

Baseball caused heartbreak. Also healing.

Chip enrolled at UGA to be to his father. He worked in Orlando, then Seattle, then nationally with Fox. He eventually took a job with the Cubs in February 1998 to work alongside his grandfather. But Harry died a short time after, and that generational pairing never happened.

But when Chip signed with TBS in 2004, he finally had a chance to work — and be — with his father.

“I could take him to lunch and hear his take on what it was like to be Harry Caray’s son,” he said.

Now, he’s trying to maximize his time during his son Tristan’s pre-teen years. His 20-year-old twin sons, Christopher and Stefan, attend UGA. His daughter is in San Diego. Family time has been good. But he needs to work.

He also needs to get paid at some point. The Braves are paying employees through at least May, but Caray is an independent contractor for Fox Sports South. Parent Sinclair Broadcasting pays broadcasters, cameramen and crew members per game. And there are no games.

“When something is taken away from you, it’s really hard, and not knowing when it’s going to come back is really scary,” he said.

And then: “I’m trying to find the hope in this. I worked for the Cubs — I learned how to sell hope as well as anybody.

“Look, from an economic and professional standpoint, I hope it’s yesterday. It’s hard sitting back and not getting a paycheck. This has taught a lot of us how much we miss this, how much it means to us and hopefully how much people love what we do. I just want to go back to work. I want to hang out with my partners and provide for my family, and hopefully provide a diversion for all the stuff that’s going on in the world.”

Rosenthal: Though one team has discussed a July 1 MLB return, no plan is close to firm

By

There is no plan, can be no plan, until gains a clearer perspective on which states are containing COVID-19 well enough for games to be played safely in their most stripped-down form, without fans.

Assuming the league even reaches that point, the plan will need to be adaptable, because the coronavirus is unpredictable. The season will look like no other season, featuring not just a shorter schedule, but also one subject to frequent change.

According to sources, officials from at least one team, the Indians, gave their players a “mark in the sand” Tuesday for Opening Day — July 1, the same date former major leaguer Trevor Plouffe had mentioned in a tweet Monday.

Indians officials, on a Zoom call that included about 70 members of the organization, estimated the season would begin after a three-week ramp- up, putting the start of 2.0 around June 10, another date Plouffe specified. But the officials made it clear the dates were mere targets, fully expected to change. They simply wanted players to be prepared if the league meets all of the logistical challenges necessary to play.

Which still is no sure thing.

League and club officials remain confident the sport will return in 2020, but a number of team executives were fretting Tuesday over the possibility of outbreaks of the virus in states starting to open up, such as , Texas and Arizona, which often are mentioned as potential hubs in various startup plans. New surges might lead to additional shutdowns, making it difficult for baseball to resume.

The league’s goal, according to sources, is to open in as many home cities as possible, a scenario that would be more convenient for the players than out-of-town hubs, particularly if Spring Training 2.0 also takes place mostly in home parks. Playing at home, even without fans, also would be a sign of normalcy returning in those cities, an idea that appeals to many politicians as well as league officials.

The stakes are enormous for commissioner Rob Manfred, who remains clear that health will be the No. 1 consideration as baseball plots its course. The league will follow the lead of its medical experts, knowing that a serious illness or death would be not only a terrible tragedy, but a poor reflection on the sport. The need to shut down the game after it had resumed would present its own issues. Yet with so much unknown, Manfred is taking a chance with whatever decision he makes.

Right now, he has little choice but to wait. The virus in the U.S. is not even close to being as under control as it is in South Korea, where the Korea Baseball Organization began play Monday night. As The New York Times reported Tuesday, “any notion that the coronavirus threat is fading away (in the U.S.) appears to be magical thinking, at odds with what the latest numbers show.”

Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at the University of , Irvine told the Times, “If you include New York, it looks like a plateau moving down. If you exclude New York, it’s a plateau slowly moving up.”

The next three weeks, then, are critical for baseball. If the virus erupts in enough places, the league might need to rethink any possibility of starting spring training in early June and the season in early July. The threat of a second wave of COVID-19 hitting in the fall might leave the sport even less room to maneuver.

Sounds discouraging, but we’re talking about a snapshot in time. One league official points out that at the end of March, few would have predicted optimism about the sport’s return only a month later. At one point, starting the season with all 30 teams quarantined in Arizona seemed the most likely scenario for a restart. Now, it is considered the least desirable option.

Greater availability of testing is a must; players will need to undergo regular tests and daily temperature checks to ensure the infection of one team member does not require an entire club to shut down. A vaccine will not be ready in time for this season, and maybe not even next season, creating potential issues for 2021. But the development of medicines to effectively treat COVID-19 would reduce the health risks, and if the numbers trend in the right direction, the sport might push forward with a shortened season and adjust as warranted.

Make no mistake, adjustments will be warranted.

Say, for example, the Reds begin the season at home but after a month the virus flares up in Cincinnati. The state of Ohio might enact strict stay-at- home measures, and the league might need to relocate the team to its spring training facility in Goodyear, Ariz. Travel plans would be disrupted. Broadcast capabilities are more limited in spring training facilities than they are in major-league parks. But those are the types of inconveniences that the sport will need to tolerate if it wants to have a season.

“If everyone is expecting baseball to look like and feel like and be the way it’s been over the past 10 years, it’s going to be really hard to get through the season,” one executive said. “If teams and players are willing to be flexible and adaptive, that gives us the best chance to get through.

“We have to be prepared for postponed and canceled games, and not have the expectation we’re going to get every single game in. Hopefully that doesn’t happen. Hopefully we get back playing and it’s smooth sailing to play the way we expect. But hope isn’t a good plan. “The reality is, we don’t know what’s going to happen over the next five months. I would guess there are things that aren’t going to go the way we planned. Our ability to adapt is going to be really important.”

Perspective is important: Presuming everyone stayed reasonably healthy, a chaotic, disjointed season would be better than no season at all. Fans, reporters and teams would need to abide by any perceived scheduling inequities that arise. An acknowledgment of the big picture also will be helpful if an economic dispute between the owners and players is the last obstacle to resuming play.

The players already have agreed to prorate their salaries, with union chief telling the Associated Press, “that negotiation is over.” The league does not agree, saying further adjustments would be necessary because in games without fans, the clubs would spend more on salaries than they would earn in revenue. The union disputes that point of view.

The extent to which either side is posturing is not known, but both surely grasp the backlash a financial conflict would generate at a time of great economic hardship. Both parties will need to build from the premise that the game’s return in any form would leave them better off than a canceled season, knowing that going dark for 18 months might severely damage the sport.

The scary part is that such an outcome might occur anyway, because of circumstances beyond baseball’s control. Even if play resumes, all the sport can do is proceed one day at a time. At least for 2020, no one knows what tomorrow might bring.

Bowden: How each National League team would fare with a universal DH for 2020

By Jim Bowden May 5,

There have been a lot of ideas thrown out there about how baseball might begin its season. The 30 major-league clubs and the Major League Baseball Players Association have been in discussions and, interestingly, appear to be more open-minded to radical rule changes if and when the game comes back this year. Both parties feel one possibility for this unique moment would be to experiment with some unorthodox ideas to see if they would work — and possibly make the game better. Some of those ideas include league and division realignment, seven-inning doubleheaders, starting the 11th inning with a runner on second base and implementing a universal . Most executives believed prior to the coronavirus shutdown that the latter would be implemented by 2021 or 2022.

However, with the real possibility of geographical realignment for this truncated season, a universal designated hitter is at least being discussed and considered for this year if games are played. There are some GMs who opine they’d prefer to have advanced notice so the National League teams could prepare for the extra bat in the lineup and have an opportunity to sign a free agent bat or trade for more power. But because of the uniqueness of this season and all the difficulties surrounding it, GMs are becoming more open to trying it this year.

There is no doubt that teams like the Dodgers, Mets and Brewers are better prepared than some of their NL counterparts when it comes to the implementation of a universal DH. That being said, there is no doubt that all 15 teams could transition immediately if that were in the best interest of baseball in this unique pandemic-shaped season.

Therefore, let’s take a look at the immediate impact the universal DH would have on the 15 National League teams and their respective players if implemented this season.

Arizona Diamondbacks

The Diamondbacks have good competition at first base with Christian Walker coming off his best year after slashing .259/.348/.476 with 29 home runs and 73 RBIs that led to a 3.0 WAR and 111 OPS+. Jake Lamb is finally healthy and the left-handed hitter is looking to get back to his 2016-17 form where he averaged 29.5 home runs and 98 runs batted in. However, add the DH rule and suddenly both players have spots in the D-Backs’ lineup and the lineup gets lengthened instantly with better left-right hitting balance.

Atlanta Braves

Before the stoppage, and both had strong springs and were running neck and neck for the Braves’ third base position. Riley, 23, was hitting .357 in spring training with a couple of home runs while Camargo, 26, was hitting .286. Camargo is more consistent defensively while Riley has significantly more power and overall upside — several scouts have compared him to former Angels Troy Glaus. The designated hitter rule would allow both players to not only make the team, but to start. The DH spot could also be shared among multiple players including and outfielders and Ender Inciarte. The Braves certainly have enough options to fill the DH part of the lineup.

Chicago Cubs

The designated hitter rule would allow Kyle Schwarber to move from left field to DH full-time and that would open up opportunities for Steven Souza Jr., Albert Almora Jr., Ian Happ and whoever doesn’t win the second base job between Jason Kipnis and rookie sensation Nico Hoerner. Souza, 29, is the most intriguing possibility because of his strong defense and the hopes that he could return to his 2017 form when hit 30 bombs with 78 RBIs and had a .351 on-base percentage with the .

Cincinnati Reds The Reds upgraded their offense significantly in the offseason when they signed both outfielder Nicholas Castellanos and to four-year, $64 million contracts. But questions still remain on what their overall team defense would look like. The DH rule would give the team tremendous flexibility and allow them to share the DH role amongst their regulars and sit their below-average defenders in key games. The players who would benefit the most would be outfielders , , and , who right now are fighting for playing time for two of the outfield positions. This would give them an additional spot in the lineup to fight for instead.

Colorado Rockies

The Rockies have a glut of competition right now at first base, second base and left field with Daniel Murphy and Ryan McMahon fighting for the first base gig; Garrett Hampson, Brendan Rodgers and McMahon competing at second base; and , and all grinding it out for the left field at-bats. The Rockies would probably end up using Murphy and/or Desmond at the DH position, which would allow their younger players to get more major-league development time at their future positions.

Los Angeles Dodgers

The Dodgers have so much depth that the DH rule probably helps them as much as any other team. and Cody Bellinger are cemented in right and center, respectively, is a lock for and we’ll see at third base. But almost every other position is expected to have some mixing and matching going on. A.J. Pollock and are expected to share most of the time in left field but Enrique Hernández and Chris Taylor are both in the mix. Max Muncy will get most of the playing time at first, but he’ll also play some second. will play mostly second but could get some time in left while Taylor can also play some short and Hernández some second. Let’s not forget about the left-handed-hitting Matt Beaty. Enter the DH, and there’s just that many more at-bats to go around for the deepest team in the league.

Miami Marlins

The Marlins’ best play might be to move newly acquired Jesús Aguilar to designated hitter full-time which would allow them to start rookie Lewin Díaz at first base. Diaz, 23, wowed the Marlins’ brass in spring training, hitting .304 and showing off serious power in batting practice. Díaz was acquired from Minnesota in the Sergio Romo deal. He’s belted 55 career home runs with 171 extra-base hits in his 427 minor-league games since 2014. The Marlins could use the DH for , Harold Ramírez, , and in some type of shared role. In addition, if the multi-talented top outfield prospects like , Jesús Sánchez and JJ Bleday are ready mid-season, then that would allow them to move one of their other corner outfielders to the DH spot as well.

Milwaukee Brewers

The DH rule would certainly extend the career of the 36-year-old , who would be able to play more games if he could take over the position full-time. Braun can still hit, as shown by his .285 average, 22 home runs and 116 OPS+ in 459 at-bats in 144 games last year. But his body is not bouncing back like it once did, and the wear and tear of playing in the field is catching up to him. For him to maintain his offensive production, an (almost) full-time move to DH would definitely benefit both him and the Brewers. The DH rule would allow newly acquired outfielder Avisaíl García, infielder Jedd Gyorko and first baseman Justin Smoak to get more playing time if Braun moved to DH.

New York Mets

The Mets are planning on Robinson Canó playing second base and Jeff McNeil starting at third. With the time off, it now appears that Yoenis Céspedes will be healthy enough by the new Opening Day to be the starting left fielder and a possible Comeback Player of the Year candidate. With entrenched at first base and their everyday , where does that leave J.D. Davis? Filling in on all four corners? Introduce the DH rule and problem solved. Now Cespedes and Davis can share left field and DH, which would allow both to get everyday at-bats. Davis, 26, is coming off his breakout season, slashing .307/.369/.527 with 22 doubles and 22 home runs in just 453 plate appearances. It would be a shame to put him on the bench again. A full-time DH rule would put the Mets in solid shape.

Philadelphia Phillies

Phillies prospect Alec Bohm impressed the team’s brass during spring training, hitting .409 and going 9-for-22. The former first-round pick slashed .305/.378/.518 with 30 doubles, 21 home runs and 80 runs batted in between A, Double A and A last year. Bohm can play the corners but is presently behind first baseman Rhys Hoskins and third baseman Jean Segura on the Phillies’ depth chart and is expected to start the year in Triple A because of it. However, bring in the DH rule and boom, here’s a way the Phillies can have Hoskins, Bohm and Segura all in their starting lineup. Another option would include veteran , speedster , or infielders Josh Harrison and Neil Walker in a mix-and-match type concept. The Phillies could also use the DH spot for outfielder Andrew McCutchen if his knee isn’t 100 percent by Opening Day.

Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates would probably use the DH spot initially for infielder/outfielder José Osuna, who can hit with average projected power. Osuna is not a great defender, but the Pirates like his bat. The problem is he’s probably not going to do enough offensive damage for the lineup spot. Their best option might be when third base prospect Ke’Bryan Hayes is major-league ready. Then they could put Hayes at third base and that would allow them to move Colin Moran (a left-handed hitter) to platoon at DH with Osuna (a right-handed hitter).

St. Louis Cardinals The Cardinals are committed to third baseman Matt Carpenter, 34, who last year looked like he was starting to decline. They might be able to lengthen his career and improve his productivity by splitting his playing time at third base and designated hitter. They have Tommy Edman who can man third base while Carpenter is at DH, and Edman could play left field while Carpenter is at third base. This would open a DH spot for one of the Cardinals outfielders. Presently, it appears that will start in right field with Harrison Bader in center field. Their best outfield prospect is Dylan Carlson, but there is debate around if he is major-league ready. If he is, then he starts in left field and Carpenter and Edman share third and DH. If he’s not, the Cards could consider using the extra spot in the lineup either in left field or DH for some combination of Tyler O’Neill, Lane Thomas and Brad Miller.

San Diego Padres

The Padres would have three viable options for the designated hitter position, with being the front runner. The Padres acquired Tommy Pham from the Rays in the offseason and he’s expected to start in left field. They traded for from the Brewers as well and it looks like he’ll start in center field. If right field is going to be manned by Franchy Cordero, that would leave Myers available to DH full-time. If Myers ends up starting in right, then a solid backup plan would be to platoon the right-handed-hitting veteran Brian Dozier, who can still rake against left- handed pitching and the left-handed-hitting Josh Naylor who can hit, but is a below-average defender at both first base and left field.

San Francisco Giants

The Giants have been in recent talks with free-agent outfielder Yasiel Puig even though they were expected to start an outfield of in right, Billy Hamilton and Steven Duggar competing in center and Alex Dickerson in left with Hunter Pence and Austin Slater coming off the bench. Signing Puig makes a lot of sense, not just because he actually profiles as an overall better player than any of the outfielders mentioned above, but more importantly it would allow the Giants to move Yastrzemski to left field and utilize the DH spot mostly with a platoon of the left-handed-hitting Dickerson and right-handed-hitting Pence.

Washington Nationals

The Nationals would certainly benefit from the DH rule because it would allow them to have more at-bats for the trio of veterans — , and Howie Kendrick — who are expected to share first base. It would also give them an opportunity for outfielder Michael A. Taylor and infielder Asdrúbal Cabrera to get more at-bats. If their top infield prospect, Luis Garcia, continues his rapid development and somehow surprises us all with a late-season arrival, it would also allow the Nats another spot in the lineup for veteran second baseman Starlin Castro.

ESPN

'We want to play,' but focus is on MLB players' health and safety, union chief Tony Clark says

Marly Rivera

Tony Clark was first familiar to fans from his playing days as a switch-hitting slugger, hitting 251 home runs over a 15-year career in the majors. During his career, he became active in the Major League Baseball Players Association, including being a team player representative. He moved into a full-time role with the union in 2010, and was elected as the first former player to become its executive director in December 2013. He was leader of the players' association during negotiations for the current collective bargaining agreement with MLB in 2016, which expires on Dec. 1, 2021.

With questions about player and fan safety during the coronavirus pandemic, the status of the 2020 season and a future deal beyond 2021 all yet to be determined, ESPN's Marly Rivera caught up with the union chief last week to find out where the players' association stands and how he has responded to the unprecedented challenge of the pandemic as one of the industry's leaders, as a former player and as the father of a ballplayer.

How has the pandemic affected you personally and your family?

Tony Clark: We've been very fortunate to not have my immediate family or even extended family test positive and experience the challenges and loss that come from contracting the virus. We're very fortunate in that regard. I remember in 2001 as a player when 9/11 happened, being separated from my family during that time. That was remarkably difficult. This time, although I am physically separated from our two oldest daughters who are in Charlotte, North Carolina, and in Dallas, respectively, I am with my wife and my high school son. I take some solace in that.

Regarding your son, Aeneas, who is a high school baseball player, how is he dealing with this as a student-athlete?

Clark: It's challenging. I think any young person, even if he or she is just a student, particularly when they are a student or an athlete in their senior year, they come into that year with lofty expectations and hopes and plans ahead of stepping out of the nest and into college or into the workforce. This pandemic has changed those plans. My son is dealing with it as you might anticipate any senior student-athlete or student is dealing with it, uncertain about tomorrow, upset about the near-term changes to school in general and changes to the athletic season, but attempting to stay positive throughout. I am glad to be able to spend time with him and my wife during this window of time, providing support, tangible or otherwise, as he chooses what tomorrow looks like as best he can for continuing his athletic career as well as his academic career. But he is challenged like all young people who are concerned about tomorrow and uncertain with what's going to come out today as a result of what we're experiencing.

I know it's a broad question, but what has been the biggest challenge in terms of your responsibilities, leading the MLBPA during this unprecedented time?

Clark: To make sure that we stay engaged with our membership and access expertise and experience in the areas that we need to in order to provide substance to that engagement. The uncertainty is the challenge; the unknown is the challenge.

As ballplayers, we're used to putting together a game plan and doing our best to execute that game plan, most of which is under our control. In addition, we're used to starting our season at a particular time and used to being busy during a six-month period that is our regular season, and then having an offseason in preparation for the next year. All of that is in question. Not to mention the support that we often provide for our families, immediate and extended. In a time when millions are out of work, ballplayers are experiencing a lot of those same things. And that's the challenge.

Even as you provide information and updates and engage players, you still don't know yet a definitive date on the calendar when things might return to some level of normalcy. You continue to work through it as best you can while remaining available to answer as many questions as you can, even if there aren't answers to them all.

How are you staying engaged with your membership when you -- and all the union reps -- are used to being around the players day in and day out? In a practical manner, how do you stay engaged?

Clark: It's a different challenge and one that requires adjustments so that you can continue to engage. Technology provides a lot of those forums and formats to do so. Whereas we are not able to have face-to-face interactions, we focus on individual calls or conference calls or texts or emails or daily briefs, along with communication with the agent community, so there is a three-way method of communication that's consistent, there's continuity in the messaging. All of that has to be taken into account during unprecedented times, particularly the one that we're in right now.

How do you deal with this new part of your job description as a leader, helping players to deal with that anxiety when facing the unknown?

Clark: It goes back to helping them to handle uncertainty. In the world we compete in, there is more certainty and control. While being in an atmosphere that is beyond your control, we have to anticipate what type of support and engagement players need. Our group is very diverse, which means there are language components to it as well. We have to do our best to communicate often and substantively with all of our players. There are often going to be misses, where emails end up in spam folders and texts go to wrong numbers, and those types of things happen. But you remain diligent in that engagement. While in the past that may have been once a week or biweekly or even monthly depending on the topic or issue, now we have extensive daily communications.

If sports are a reflection of a healthy society, how does one strike the balance that returning to baseball is important, but not above health and safety? How do you serve your membership and keep that perspective?

Clark: It is a very delicate balance. We've had some experience, either as players or as a media group or even as an industry as a whole, navigating historical challenges; this one is different. You attempt to keep your finger on the pulse of your individual communities. You keep your finger on the pulse of what's going on in your state and federally. You keep your finger on the pulse of what's going on internationally and watching how certain folks are responding to the same situation. Some folks are further down the road than we are. Some folks are further behind than we are.

If you understand that there may never be a perfect time or that you may not be able to align yourself with that perfect time, you take in all the information that you have, you put all the safety measures in place that you can and you make the best decision you can at that time, with the hope that when the first pitch is thrown that it is indeed the right time. That folks are in a position to tune in, watch, and have a respite from the challenges that we all know exist beyond our front door right now.

It is a delicate balance. It always has been. This one is different or includes different moving pieces into the equation. We'll continue to work internally against the backdrop of all the information and experience we can gather, and then hope to be able to work alongside the league to find that right spot in time to get us back on the field. And we do hope it is sooner rather than later.

Heading into a CBA year, how has working together through this crisis affected your relationship with commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB?

Clark: The lines of communication have remained open even during the challenging windows that we've had, and there will undoubtedly be more. I can tell you that in the nearest term and in the foreseeable future, the lines of communication are open, and as long as they are open, there's an opportunity to work through and try and find common ground despite our differences.

I've heard from a lot of players, and you've seen some of the comments out there from stars like and , who have spoken out against some of the proposals to resume play. Quoting Carlos Correa, he told me he doesn't believe the right plan to bring baseball back is out there yet. Is there a proposal out there that seems to have the best chance?

Clark: Despite all that has been floated and all the rhetoric that is out there, we have not received anything formal that details an actual plan. To Carlos' point, unless or until we see and receive an actual proposal with a plan or plans -- because my guess is there's going to need to be flexibility in whatever is going to be considered -- it's all assumptions. It lends itself to the uncertainty because there's a lot of ideations, but not any substance behind them just yet.

I don't know that there is a definitive plan yet. We continue to engage our experts to best appreciate a number of the logistics and challenges associated with playing in this climate, in this atmosphere. Unless or until we receive something and are able to work through it, anything out there is just a best guess at this point.

We want to play. As players, we want to play. As these ideas find their way into mainstream media, there are some ideas that seem to make sense, there are others that don't track very well. All of them are being viewed against the backdrop of getting back on the field and affording our guys an opportunity to do what they love to do. At this point, it's unfortunate that there are things that keep finding their way into the conversation and are being represented as proposals when they aren't.

We have to provide fact and separate that fact from fiction and do so daily at this point in order to make sure that players have a reference point that they can inquire about or a line of communication that they can reach out to to confirm what it is that they are hearing or not confirm it.

Can you describe the language negotiated last month when it comes to players' compensation?

Clark: We have an agreement in place that speaks to a reduction in player salaries in a season that's less than 162 games. That agreement is in place. Any further discussion, then the league has the ability to make additional proposals against the backdrop of situations that may have been contemplated in the initial agreement but are different or may be different moving forward, and we have the ability to respond.

Having said that, we've talked a lot today about health and safety. That is going to be the biggest challenge. That is where the focal point of any discussion moving forward needs to be. That's what we will be focused on. We'll see whether or to what extent the league is focused on something different. Our position is that with respect to player salaries, we've had that discussion already. Our focus now is on health and safety moving forward.

Is it fair to say that your membership will not come to an agreement to start the 2020 season if they don't feel that the necessary preventive measures are in place?

Clark: It would be difficult for us or our experts, in a scenario where risk is not mitigated significantly, to make that recommendation. That's why we have the folks working with us in force in the fashion that we do, so that we can find ways to do exactly that.

Can you comment on how much discussions about a new CBA have been part of the current discussions about resuming play?

Clark: There have been no discussions about a new CBA as part of the resumption of play for 2020.

You have seen comments out there from some of the top agents, who don't seem to agree with a lot of things that the union has agreed to. How does that relationship with the agent community play out in this crisis?

Clark: We remain in contact with our agent community. There are often going to be disagreements, but more often than not there is agreement in what are the best interests of those that we represent.

Do you think we can create a playing environment that's safe from infection? Do you think it's possible?

Clark: We are working with experts and anticipate working with the league to mitigate as much risk as possible. But those discussions have not been had formally yet.

During the discussions that you've had with MLB, have you discussed what would happen if an active player gets infected after returning to play?

Clark: We have discussed it and will continue to.

How do you deal with liability? Has that been resolved or is that part of the discussion? If a team opens for business and someone gets the coronavirus ...

Clark: That is an ongoing discussion as well.

New York Times

Taiwan Says ‘Play Ball!’ (With Cardboard Fans and Robot Drummers)

Players must submit to temperature checks several times a day, but games go on amid the coronavirus pandemic, even if the stadium is empty. By Javier C. Hernández

TAOYUAN, Taiwan — On a balmy Saturday evening inside one of Taiwan’s largest baseball stadiums, the floodlights flickered to life and the players took their positions.

Cheerleaders began their rah-rah routines. Organ music blared through the speakers.

But as the first batter stepped up to the plate and the pitcher took a deep breath, the only fans inside the 20,000-seat stadium in the northern city of Taoyuan were cardboard cutouts and plastic mannequins.

Some wore hot-pink wigs and surgical masks. Others held signs with this cheery message: “We will always be with you!” A five-member band of robots played drums from the stands — a substitute for the usual cacophony of live music.

“Welcome to the one and only live sports game on the surface of the planet,” an announcer said.

With sports events canceled across much of the world because of the coronavirus pandemic, Taiwan, which has so far kept the outbreak under control, is pushing forward with the rarest of spectacles: a professional baseball season.

Sports officials are adapting the game to the coronavirus age, filling the stands with fake spectators instead of real ones, stocking locker rooms with bottles of sanitizer, and urging players and coaches to keep a distance.

Spitting is prohibited. Chewing sunflower seeds is frowned upon — what would one do with the shells? Players are encouraged to bump elbows rather than give each other high-fives.

Players and coaches say they feel fortunate to be able to host games at all when many cities in the world remain under lockdown.

“We know many people are still keeping their eyes on us, even though there are no fans,” said Chiu Chang-Jung, the manager of the CTBC Brothers team, which on Saturday took on the Rakuten Monkeys at the stadium in Taoyuan, about 30 miles west of Taiwan’s capital, Taipei. “Playing these games is a very lucky and blessed thing.”

But the restrictions have sucked some of the life out of the game, giving high-stakes matches the feel of everyday practice.

The noise at the field on Saturday paled in comparison to the typical atmosphere at games in Taiwan, where baseball has been a part of the culture for more than a century, since the days of Japanese colonial rule.

Fans in Taiwan are notoriously rowdy and devoted, pounding clappers, blaring vuvuzelas and availing themselves of any other noise makers they can find from start to finish. Music blasts throughout most games, with cheerleaders leading fast-paced routines atop the dugouts.

The fake fans are meant to ease the players’ sense of loneliness on the field. They are getting mixed reviews.

“At first, everyone felt it was a bit weird,” Chu Yu-Hsien, a player for the Rakuten Monkeys, said of the cardboard cutouts. “But as they grew in number day by day, we started to see it more as an unusual marketing campaign.”

Since the season began last month, fans in Taiwan have found other ways to participate in the game, by watching broadcasts and recording virtual messages of encouragement for their favorite players.

But players and coaches say they miss the adrenaline rush that real crowds provide.

“It just lacks a bit of energy, that kind of excitement of a real game,” said Tseng Hao-Chu, manager of the Rakuten Monkeys.

Mr. Tseng is offering his players “imagination training” in the dugout, urging them to envision fans jumping up and down in front of their televisions at home.

“I’ll tell them: ‘This is your job. Your job is to perform the best for your fans,’” he said. “Maybe they are not here but they are still in front of television and cheering for us.”

The games have become a source of national pride for Taiwan during the pandemic, and a symbol of the island’s success in battling the virus. As of Tuesday, Taiwan, with a population of about 23 million, had reported 438 cases of coronavirus and six deaths, far fewer than many countries of similar size. With new infections now near zero, officials in Taiwan say they might soon open up baseball games to a maximum of 250 fans at a time.

Viewership of online broadcasts has surged, and sports commentators around the world, with little other material to work with, have started featuring baseball games from Taiwan.

John Foster, a former pitcher for the who is now a coach for the CTBC Brothers, said many people outside Taiwan had never heard of its league, the Chinese Professional Baseball League, before the pandemic. Now, he said, even ESPN is showing highlights from the games, and his American friends are jealous that the Taiwan teams are able to play. “It adds intensity for me,” Mr. Foster said, “because I know we’re the only ones in the world.”

The Taiwan league will soon have company: South Korea is set to start its regular baseball season this week.

The measures to fight the virus have upended the game day routine. Players must submit to temperature checks several times a day, and they are banned from eating at restaurants, which are still open in Taiwan, for fear that they might be exposed to the virus.

Chou Szu-Chi, an outfielder for the CTBC Brothers, said the rules were necessary to ensure the games could continue.

“We are changing some old habits,” said Mr. Chou, who is president of the players’ association. “The culture has shifted.”

Some traditions have not changed. On Saturday, players from both teams celebrated home runs with high fives to teammates in the dugout.

In the stands, though, home run balls bounce aimlessly with no fans to catch or fight over them. The concession stands sit idle beneath signs for fried dumplings and strawberry ice cream.

Cheerleaders — all women, with a male coach — have more down time now, which they use to interact with fans on livestreaming platforms.

On Saturday, Ni Shiuan, a cheerleader for the Rakuten Monkeys, hosted a live broadcast as she barbecued meat in the stands, dangling each piece for viewers to see. “We care about the pandemic so we try to bring positive energy to the world through our cheers,” Ms. Ni said.

As the game reached its conclusion, with the Rakuten Monkeys beating the CTBC Brothers 16-11, their 1,000th victory in league history, a few fans gathered on the sidewalk outside the stadium to celebrate, across from signs reminding the public that no visitors were allowed inside.

They raised their fists, adjusted their surgical masks and shouted, “Go Monkeys!” And then: “Go Taiwan!”

Watching South Korean Baseball on TV? Let Us Help

There are bat flips galore, but spitting isn’t allowed. And here’s a crop of players to keep an eye on who may land in the American major leagues.

By Andrew Keh

Josh Lindblom, a pitcher for the , was not expecting a lot last weekend when he turned on his television looking for sports. But what he found was a bit much.

“They had two guys on there playing Tetris against each other,” Lindblom said, laughing.

But now, American sports fans starved for live games may find a measure of salvation from an unlikely source: South Korean baseball. The Korea Baseball Organization season begins Tuesday, and ESPN has announced plans for live broadcasts of its games.

Lindblom, 32, planned to be watching. The right-hander, currently riding out the pandemic with his family in Lafayette, Ind., pitched four and a half seasons in the South Korean league, winning back-to-back Choi Dong-won awards (given to the league’s best pitcher) in 2018 and 2019 and the league’s Most Valuable Player Award last year.

On behalf of baseball aficionados eager for some live action, then, The New York Times asked Lindblom and a group of insiders for advice on how best to savor the South Korean brand of baseball.

“People are clearly looking for something to cheer for,” Lindblom said, “something to follow other than the news.”

The league has a wide-ranging talent pool.

Baseball on the other side of the world is still baseball — even if spitting on the field has been temporarily banned. But American fans will notice subtle differences and quirks in the South Korean game.

There is, for example, a ton of variability in talent on K.B.O. lineups. A team might field a player who could be a star in Major League Baseball but also play someone who would just barely make an M.L.B. bench and others who would fit best in the minor leagues.

“There’s 65 or 70 high schools that play baseball in Korea, so they’re drawing from a much smaller talent pool,” said Aaron Tassano, an international scout for the , whose season-opening game against the NC Dinos aired on ESPN on Tuesday.

The K.B.O. is regarded as an offense-centric league, with cozy ballparks. But the league has taken steps in recent years to shift the advantage away from its hitters, including “de-juicing” the ball and expanding the notoriously small strike zone.

And while the Korean game has more firepower and players swinging for the fences than the Japanese league, it might still come across to fans as “refreshingly old school,” Tassano said. “There’s bunting and stealing,” he said. “Their game has not been taken over by launch angles and spin rate to the degree it has here. I love those things about the game here, but there’s a purity to the game there that I enjoy.”

Every person interviewed for this story rued the same thing about Korean baseball’s current chance in the spotlight: the lack of fans because of restrictions related to the virus.

Korean games provide nine innings of near constant noise and color: Each club has a cheerleading team that guides fans through buoyant singing routines, with bespoke songs for every batter who steps up to the plate.

“And they’ll be singing even if you’re losing, 15-0,” said Brett Pill, who played for the Kia Tigers from 2014 to 2016 and is now the hitting coach for the Tulsa Drillers, the Dodgers’ Class AA team.

(Lindblom noted that Pill, who played 111 games over three seasons with the , had one of the catchiest songs in the league: “Tigers’ Brett Pill. Woahhh-Woah-WOAHH!” At 0:39 of this video.)

The typical K.B.O. game, then, combines the raucous energy of a college football stadium with the subject-specific singing of an English soccer match.

“They can make a 20,000-seat stadium sound bigger than the 50,000-seat stadiums we have in the States,” said Eric Hacker, who pitched in South Korea from 2013 to 2018.

For now, though, the ballparks have been so quiet that the sound of players swearing and umpires making calls could be clearly discerned on preseason broadcasts.

Who are the Yankees of the K.B.O.?

Dan Kurtz, a stay-at-home father in Tacoma, Wash., created the website MyKBO.net in 2003 for the small community of English-speaking fans of the league. These days, the website, which maintains its charmingly homemade aesthetic, remains one of the best sources of up-to-date results for teams and players.

Asked which teams American fans might want to follow, Kurtz noted that fandom does not always adhere to some complex logic. He joked, for instance, that anyone who used a Samsung phone could root for the Samsung Lions.

The Doosan Bears have had the most success recently, making it to the championship series in each of the past five seasons and winning it three times. And the Kia Tigers have the most historical success, with 11 championships, leading fans to compare them to the Yankees, even if they have been less than stellar in recent years.

Kurtz said Mets fans, on the other hand, might relate to the L.G. Twins, who play second fiddle to the Bears in Seoul, have not won a title since 1994 and, to really drive home the comparison, have a reputation for falling short of expectations.

Heed the unwritten rules.

Most baseball fans now know that celebratory bat flips, frowned upon or worse in the M.L.B., are prevalent and accepted as harmless in South Korea.

Korean baseball, then, clearly has its own decorum.

For instance, if a pitcher hits a batter with the ball, there is an expectation that he will tip his cap or make some other conciliatory gesture toward his opponent. And in a country where age-based hierarchies often dictate interpersonal behavior, apologies toward older opponents tend to be even more pronounced.

“If you’re a 24-year-old-pitcher and you hit Lee Dae-ho, you better take off your hat and bow,” Kurtz said, referring to the 37-year-old slugger for the . “Benches have cleared because of things like that.”

Lindblom said he embraced opportunities to offer displays of sportsmanship to highly regarded opponents like Lee Seung-yuop, the K.B.O. career home runs leader, who retired after the 2017 season.

“Every time he would step in the box, I would bow, just as a sign of respect,” Lindblom said of Lee, who hit a combined 626 homers in Korea and Japan.

Get to know South Korean stars.

Fans in the United States might naturally be drawn to the American players in the league — teams can have up to three international players on their rosters — or Korean players who spent time in the major leagues.

But our experts encouraged fans to learn more about lesser-known South Korean players. Pill was most enthusiastic about a pudgy 33-year-old pitcher for the Doosan Bears named Yoo Hee-kwan, who throws a that sometimes hovers around 50 miles per hour.

“He’s this very small, little left-handed pitcher, who probably tops out at 83,” Pill said, referring to his fastball velocity. “But he would hit the inside corner every time and then throw a that just fell off the plate. You saw the ball well, but you couldn’t hit it.”

Lindblom said the best overall player in the K.B.O., in his opinion, was Yang Eui-ji, the 32-year-old catcher for the NC Dinos.

“He’s a really smart player, a great situational hitter and is also a guy who’s got some power.” Lindblom said. “He’s just a tough out. He’s one of the better defensive , also.”

Kurtz mentioned three Korean players who seemed most likely to make the jump to America in the coming years: Kim Ha-seong, 24, a gifted shortstop who batted .307 last season, with 19 home runs; Na Sung-bum, 30, an athletic outfielder with good power and a strong arm, who is trying to come back from a serious leg injury he suffered in 2019; and Yang Hyeon-jong, who compiled a 2.29 ERA and 163 in 184.2 innings last year and has won two Choi Dong-won awards in his career.

“You’ve got to have an open mind,” Kurtz said “You’re going to see some good players, and you’re going to see some stuff you’ve probably never seen, even in the minor leagues. But that’s why you watch.”

The Bumpy Road to Restarting Even Small Sports Leagues

Social distancing snafus, athletes in isolation and cities uncomfortable with traveling teams. This is not going to be easy.

By Victor Mather

When you restart a major sports league with carefully constructed safety rules, make sure the players get the message.

Salomon Kalou, an Ivorian soccer player who plays for Hertha Berlin, was suspended by his club, and blasted by Germany’s health minister, for shaking hands with his teammates at a training session. Kalou was caught after posting a video of the greeting on his Facebook page.

In Kalou’s favor, the handshakes did take place after the entire team had tested negative for the virus. He apologized and deleted the video.

“It was important that the club show there were consequences after this video,” the German health minister, Jens Spahn, told Deutschlandfunk radio on Tuesday. “And I hope that everyone has now understood that this is about something serious.”

Of course, it takes two. “The fact that other team members returned the handshake shows that the regular information on the distance and hygiene rules must be even more intense,” the team said in a statement.

And in another setback for German soccer, which is expected to get the go-ahead from German authorities on Wednesday to restart on May 15, Erzgebirge Aue, a second-tier club, sent its entire team into isolation after a staff member tested positive.

Australian Rugby: No Longer Welcome

We’ve been following the travails of Australia’s National Rugby League as it tries to restart on May 28: players being fined for violating social distancing, other players coming down with flulike symptoms. In the latest blow, a city where a team had planned to train decided to yank away the welcome mat.

The Melbourne Storm had expected to start training in the city of Albury in New South Wales, Australia, on Wednesday. But the City Council rejected the plan on Tuesday, citing health concerns. The state of Victoria, where the Storm are based, had already ruled the team could not train there, either.

Craig Bellamy, the team’s coach, said that he was itching to get started … somewhere, anywhere. “I think we are going to be able to start contact on Saturday,” he told News.com. “You’d love to be able to start it on Wednesday. We’re not going to just let them go bashing into each other straight away. They are going to have to let their bodies adjust, but come Saturday I think there’s only about two and a half weeks before the first game.”

On the plus side, Coach Trent Robinson of the Sydney Roosters, who was feared to have the virus, has tested negative. It was just a sore throat. The league will take any good news it can get.

Soccer’s Slow Return to Play

Slowly, slowly, world soccer creeps back. For so long it was only Belarus and Nicaragua. Now a few more countries are ready to play games this weekend. South Korea, which has started its baseball season, will get soccer rolling on Friday, 6 a.m. Eastern time, with a match between the defending champion, , and Suwon Samsung Bluewings. The opening had been postponed since Feb. 29.

And we’ll have Premier League soccer on Saturday. We’re talking Faroe Islands Premier League soccer, to be exact. The league is starting earlier than most in Europe in part because the remote Faroes, 200 miles north of Scotland, have been almost untouched by the coronavirus, with no deaths thus far. And there’s a great game to start the season: the defending champion, Klaksvikar Itrottarfelag, hosts B36, last year’s runner-up.

Daily Tests and Individual Workouts

The National Women’s Soccer League is moving closer to beginning its season. The league announced on Monday that clubs could allow players to use outdoor playing fields for individual workouts beginning Wednesday. Players will have to undergo daily symptom tests, and a staff member will be allowed to oversee the workout.

Players will not be allowed to enter locker rooms and weight rooms. Training rooms will be open for players who need medical treatment.

The N.W.S.L. season was supposed to begin on April 18. There is no new date set. A leaguewide ban on team training is in place until May 15.

Wall Street Journal

America Wanted an Astros-Dodgers Showdown. The Coronavirus Could Make That Happen.

Temporarily ditching the American and National Leagues and realigning teams by geography is one of the zany ideas MLB has for a 2020 season

By Jared Diamond

If Major League Baseball somehow figures out a way to play games this year amid the coronavirus pandemic, it won’t resemble a normal season.

And yet, there is some good news. The ongoing scramble to salvage the 2020 campaign could give everybody exactly what they’re dying to see: a monthslong clash between the , who illegally stole signs on their way to a championship in 2017, and the , the team they might have cheated out of a title.

That’s what could happen if MLB manages to pull off the latest of several ideas it has floated to rescue its season. It involves temporarily ditching the American and National Leagues in favor of three divisions of 10, divided by geography. Teams would then square off in empty stadiums exclusively against opponents in their region in order to reduce travel. This plan has gained traction as a viable possibility among baseball officials in recent weeks, overtaking previous suggestions of staging an entire campaign in limited locations, such as Arizona and Florida.

A lot still needs to transpire before baseball could even realistically proceed, even without spectators: The testing infrastructure must improve, to the point where MLB can ethically gain access to enough kits to regularly screen thousands of people. The league has to devise a workable protocol for what happens if somebody contracts Covid-19. Government support would be required on the federal and local level, not to mention settling the economic issues that would have to be worked through with the players’ union. Even the best-case scenario would mean opening day being delayed another six or eight weeks.

But let’s put all that aside for now and dream. With fans around the country desperately missing honest-to-goodness sports talk, we thought it would be fun to plot out a season with this proposal and think about how it might go. Which teams would benefit from the realignment? Which would suffer? And what might an expanded postseason with as many 12 participants look like?

So with that, The Wall Street Journal presents its completely unscientific, totally hypothetical look at Baseball 2020: Pandemic Edition.

Baseball 2020: The Pandemic Edition

Major League Baseball is considering radical realignment to stage a season. One idea is to create three divisions of 10, based on geography. Here's what it might look like.

The new divisions

East Division (in projected order of finish*): , Tampa Bay Rays, , , , , , , ,

The new-look East has the fun twist of pitting the defending champion Nationals against the Yankees, the perennial juggernaut who restocked this winter by adding ace pitcher . The Yankees were going to be difficult for anybody to beat no matter who was challenging them. But after that, things get interesting. With postseason heroes Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg and Patrick Corbin all returning, the Nationals boasted the best starting pitching in the (former) NL. The Rays, led by , and Tyler Glasnow, had the best rotation in the AL. Throw in the Mets’ duo of Jacob deGrom and Marcus Stroman, and it seems clear that runs will be at a premium in the East all season long. (The absence of Mets right-hander , who underwent Tommy John surgery in March, would loom particularly large.)

Hit hard by the arrangement are the Mookie Betts-less Red Sox and ’s Phillies: In this fantasy version of baseball, the top four teams from each division advance to the playoffs.

Central: , Atlanta Braves, , Chicago Cubs, , St. Louis Cardinals, Milwaukee Brewers, , Kansas City Royals,

The NL Central looked to be a serious battle, with four teams—the Brewers, Cardinals, Cubs and Reds—all in contention for the top spot. But they’re all in big trouble now, as two significant World Series contenders enter the fray in the loaded Central.

The Twins, fresh off a 101-win 2019, were seen as big-time favorites of the old AL Central. They set a new MLB record by bashing 307 home runs last season and then went out and signed free-agent slugger . The Braves, meanwhile, claimed the NL East crown in each of the past two years, led by a burgeoning superstar, the 22-year-old outfielder Ronald Acuña Jr. They would probably duke it out for supremacy, with Donaldson perhaps emerging as the X-factor: Donaldson blasted 37 homers for the Braves last season. Now he’s with their new biggest rival.

The extra playoff teams should help the Indians, who fell short of the postseason last season for the first time since 2016. That leaves just one hypothetical spot for the four NL Central squads. The Reds improved significantly with the acquisitions of Mike Moustakas and Nicholas Castellanos. But we’ll take the Cubs to rebound in David Ross’s first year in the manager’s seat—they want to prove their window hasn’t closed quite yet after all.

West: Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, , , Arizona Diamondbacks, , , , San Francisco Giants,

Well, this is juicy. Should this universe come into existence, it would mean the Dodgers and the Astros—who weren’t previously scheduled to play in 2020—would be in the same division.

For those of you who can’t remember back 1,000 years ago to February, Cody Bellinger, the reigning NL MVP, went nuclear on the Astros, saying to reporters that, “Everybody knows they stole the ring from us.” Now the two teams will have a chance to duke it out. Will throw at Bellinger? Will Clayton Kershaw bean José Altuve? Will George Springer and Justin Turner start wrestling at third base? Who knows, but we look forward to finding out.

Speaking of the Dodgers, there’s no team in the sport that stands to lose more if there is no season this year. They traded for Betts in February, convinced he was the missing piece that would finally propel them to a championship after seven straight division titles and two pennants without one. If the season is canceled, Betts would become a free agent before playing a single game for the Dodgers.

Beyond the Dodgers-Astros showdown, the West has this to look forward: Shohei Ohtani, the Angels’ two-way sensation, is expected to be back on the mound in 2020 after an elbow injury limited him to hitting-only last year. In these times, the more Shohei Ohtani, the better.

*This is all in good fun. No, we don’t hate your favorite team (unless we do).