MLB Tells Announcers to Stay Home for Road Games During 2020 Season and That May Just Become Permanent

The 2020 MLB season is going to be different from any other, as changes will be made in almost every aspect of the gameday experience. Even the broadcast booth will have to deal with a new statute that restricts travel in the name of reducing interpersonal contact.

As one of the many changes to the normal MLB routine amid the coronavirus pandemic, TV and radio announcers will call 2020 road games from a local broadcast studio or their team's home ballpark, with monitors used to aid them.

All MLB announcers( TV and radio) have been told they will be doing all 2020 road games from a local broadcast studio or home ballpark with monitors as their guide.
— Bruce Levine (@MLBBruceLevine) June 4, 2020

Fans unwilling to accept change in any capacity might not be crazy about this decision, but this could have a minimal impact on the viewing experience itself. If anything, what is amounting to essentially a trail run of broadcasting games from remote locations might actually work out in the league's advantage,

After the remote NFL Draft ended up as a clear success in practice, there is a chance announcers calling games remotely will be the newest innovation in sports broadcasting.

The question now is: after the virus, do team announcers ever go back on the road full-time? https://t.co/j1ikOijjKD https://t.co/KjlQSn2VAA
— Bryan Curtis (@bryancurtis) June 4, 2020

Announcing games remotely might suck a touch of the excitement out of the game day experience for the fans, but this is all in the name of safety (and cost-cutting), and it's easy to see why they instituted this temporary rule.