There’s a lot of unknown right now surrounding Major League Baseball as the season continues to be on hold during the coronavirus outbreak.
Spring training already has been canceled, while Opening Day was postponed indefinitely. And with an unknown start date, it’s fair to wonder what that means for the All-Star Game.
The Midsummer Classic is set to take place July 14 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. But if the season were to begin in late May or June, is it really feasible to play the All-Star Game a mere weeks after the regular season begins?
Well, according to Yahoo! Sports’ Tim Brown and Hannah Keyser, the league has talked about when a good time would be to play it.
Check out this excerpt from their report published Tuesday:
But, if the season were to start in late June or July, it hardly makes sense to pick All-Stars after just a few weeks. And on the scheduling side, skipping what has become a four-day break in the regular season would allow them to fit in as many as 60 games (15 games times four days), even without doubleheaders. Count the All-Star Game among the many aspects of the season that will be determined by when the season can start.
A team official said he sees almost no scenarios in which the All-Star Game is played on the date it is scheduled. One alternative that’s been discussed is setting the All-Star Game for an eventual day between the league championship series and the World Series, a showcase featuring players from all but the two remaining teams.
That’s … interesting.
If this were to be the case, it may end up being like the NFL’s Pro Bowl (which as you know if played the week before the Super Bowl), with players skipping out who are in the National and American League Championship Series.
Of course, only time will tell what MLB decides to do once the 2020 season begins.
