D-Backs Shortstop Nick Ahmed Has Weirdest Idea Yet for How MLB Should Start 2020 Season
By Evan Wolff
Right now, we should be five days in to the MLB regular season. The dugouts should be filled with players buzzing over the promise of a new campaign. That includes Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed, but unfortunately, the new reality is that sports are a distant goal right now as the world itself placed on pause due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sports leagues all across the country, including the MLB, are trying to figure out the best time to action, with both fan and player safety in mind. Ahmed, as eager as anyone to get back on the field, has now suggested an unorthodox way to get games back underway, even if it means playing without fans for the beginning of the season: make every player wear a protective mask.
#Dbacks shortstop Nick Ahmed says he’s not sure how practical it would be to actually have social distancing in any sport but golf, but if players had to wear masks just to play baseball, he’d be all for it, at least at the outset.
— Bob Nightengale (@BNightengale) March 31, 2020
It's an innocent suggestion from a player who just wants to get back to what he enjoys doing, but it may not be the wisest to have players in the kind of close contact that baseball inevitably requires. Even if global COVID-19 cases have noticeably declied by summertime, wearing masks may not be enough, since players will be laying their hands on all manner of objects and surfaces.
— Jon Nichols (@jon5cts) March 31, 2020
Getting the MLB season underway will be difficult no matter when it rolls around. Just having the players wear masks may be the least of the problems for teams across the MLB to solve, but at least Ahmed is thinking outside the box.