Professional sports in the United States have been put on hold as the COVID-19 crisis continues.
Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred, however, hopes the league’s 2020 season will remain largely unaffected.
“I think we need to have a regular season with a credible number of games,” Manfred said Wednesday, as seen on ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” “I think we should have a postseason format that focuses on providing the most possible entertaining product to our fans at a very difficult time in our history. And overall, I think our goal is to play as many baseball games as we can given the limitations associated with the public health concerns.”
While he wouldn’t put a hard date on baseball’s return, Manfred says it all depends on when the league gets the go-ahead to play. Though he’d like to resume sometime in May, the goal is to return to a more “normal” situation.
Manfred says the league will resume whenever health officials deem it safe enough to play. In the meantime, he thinks the league needs to “get creative.”
“I’ve had ongoing conversations (with several major league sports commissioners) about exactly where we find ourselves and what the outlook is,” Manfred said. “I think it’s important to understand where other people see the situation heading and to try and take advantage of their best thinking.”
The MLB regular season was slated to begin Thursday. It’s unclear when Opening Day will occur.
