Baseball Is Back!

Yes,  Major League Baseball has finally returned to NYC.

Baseball returned Saturday night in Queens.  The Mets hosted the Yankees at Citi Field for an exhibition game.  It was good to see Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Gary Cohen in the SNY broadcast booth. (SNY is the cable network that carries the Mets games.)  Or rather, booths — Cohen socially distanced by sitting in a different booth than Darling and Hernandez.  It was good to see the teams take the field.   

It was weird to see the coaches and umpires wearing masks.  It was weird to see the empty stands, and cardboard cutouts of fans in the seats behind home plate.  It was weird to hear the fake crowd noises.

Clint Frazier played nine innings of baseball while wearing a mask.  Even hit a home run.  No excuses, folks.

Interesting fact.  The players are being given prepackaged meals, which they are eating in the Delta Club.  That’s usually a bar/restaurant for fans; I’ve enjoyed many meals in the Delta Club.

And yes, the Mets are already breaking my heart...they lost to the Yankees ...

Sunday night the action moved 11 miles, over the Triborough Bridge, up to the Bronx, where the Yankees hosted the Mets.  The stands at the Stadium were  empty, no cardboard cutouts.  

Hernandez, Darling and Cohen were in the broadcast booth at Citi Field, using a feed provided by the Yankees YES network — apparently SNY provided the feed for the Yankees broadcasters Saturday night, and they called the game from their broadcast booth in the Bronx. It seems this will be the rule for our Covid-shortened season, the home team will provide the visuals for the visiting team, the broadcasters will not travel with the team.

The cameraman took the time to show us Monument Park ...  so much baseball history memorialized there.  You can see some of my photos of the monuments here.  (And some Citi Field photos here, here and here.)

And Sunday more heartbreak for the long-suffering Mets fans ...

Even with the weirdness, watching professional baseball felt so ... so ... so normal.  Something to root for. Something to cheer about.  And something that brings hope, that someday we’ll see the end of the pandemic and ordinary life will resume.

The season begins Thursday.  I’m psyched.