Sam Kennedy is keeping his fingers crossed.
While it sure seems like a pipe dream given the continued uncertainty surrounding both the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 Major League Baseball season, Kennedy explained Thursday on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” that he’s still “hopeful” the Boston Red Sox will host games with fans at Fenway Park at some point in 2020.
“As we know here in Massachusetts, everything is going to be guided by data, and it looks like the data continues to improve and get better,” Kennedy said. “So we are hopeful that at some point in this season that we might have the opportunity to have fans in the park. But obviously those decisions will be made by our government leaders. So we’ll take it one step at a time. We’ve got to get a deal done with the players association to get going.”
More MLB: Torii Hunter Shows Love For Red Sox After Team’s Powerful Statement
It’s unclear what the MLB season will look like, as the owners and players have been unable to reach an agreement on a return-to-play plan despite back-and-forth negotiations. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred guaranteed Wednesday night there will be baseball this year, though, much to Kennedy’s delight.
“No one was happier than me to hear the commissioner’s guarantee (Wednesday night) that we will absolutely have a season,” Kennedy said. “It’s been a tough spring for everybody. Obviously much more important issues going on in the country with the pandemic and lots of people out of work and hurting. But it has definitely impacted our organization and we’re ready to play baseball and get going.
“A summer without baseball at Fenway is not something we’ve ever experienced. The season will take a different form, obviously, given that we are already here in mid-June and we haven’t started the season. But we are ready to get going as soon as possible and fired up for the Bruins and Celtics to get going. And it will be great to have live sports back hopefully sooner rather than later.”
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker recently gave the state’s professional sports teams the green light to reopen practice facilities, marking one small step toward normalcy.
That doesn’t mean we’ll see fans flocking to Fenway Park anytime soon, especially with Boston mayor Marty Walsh downplaying the possibility last month, but we all could use a little optimism right now.
