Coronavirus outbreaks have already had a significant impact on the truncated Major League Baseball regular season, as teams such as the Cardinals and Marlins have been sidelined for extended periods since the campaign opened a couple weeks ago. That type of outcome would be even more catastrophic if it were to occur during the playoffs, so the league is at least considering a bubble format for the fall, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports.
According to Passan, the majors could mimic the National Hockey League in designating multiple cities to host its postseason. The NHL has turned to Edmonton and Toronto for its playoffs, and the league has so far been able to pull it off. MLB, on the other hand, has dealt with great adversity this year in allowing almost all of its teams to play in their home cities.
In the event baseball does follow the hockey model for the postseason, MLB would likely use “at least three hubs” during the wild-card round, Passan writes. That number would drop to two for the LDS and one or two for the LCS and World Series. There is still no one area that’s considered a front-runner for playoff baseball, but with so much revenue on the line, one official told Passan, “If we want to make sure we get through October, we really need to get this right.”
Better late than never.
There is no way in **** they were going to be able to make a 30 team bubble work.
They wouldn’t
Cuz 30 teams don’t make the playoffs chief
they wanted a 30 team bubble season but MLBPA said no.
Oh I see, I misread what he was saying in this reply
It’s called reading comprehension, Kemosabe.
But they would’ve just had three ten team bubbles.
When the regular season bubble failed a better plan would’ve been setting a combined 5 game home/away series each week between a pair of teams. Then 2 off days for quarantine/testing. The next week, new match ups in new city.
You get players quarantined 2 full days plus the morning of the 1st game in a series.
You can have stadiums idle 4-5 days between teams because of home/away for deep clean and sanitation.
Meanwhile locker attendants can test 4-5 days.
If I play sun/mon home, tues-Thurs road, my home Park was empty tues-sat until my next home game sun.
THAT’S how you minimize missed games and transmission.
Tropicana Field for ALL playoff games!! Throw another wrench into this year lol
Love it
and Oakland, watch all the veterans complain about the foul ground.
Yeah, that’s what MLB needs. All the playoff games in a tiny dome where balls bounce around off the ceiling and cat walks.
Why not? You could rename it “the bubble” for the postseason.
Given the ****show the season has been thus far, it’s the perfect ending.
Should have had a bubble for each division and had Yankee Stadium/Citi Field,Wrigley/(White Sox), Angels/San Diego. That way they could crossover for the divisions,and could technically stay in the same hotel the entire time.
But that’s Manfred for you.
The union didn’t want to bubble that long. Check facts
6 ballparks to cover as many as 15 games per day? You’d need to add more parks to your list.
Add in Philly on the east coast, Milwaukee in the Central, and LA (Dodgers) on the West. Done?
Then that would mean it’s not a true bubble. The heat waves killed the Arizona, Texas and Florida idea.
Ummm why would they use Angels and Padres and not Angels and Dodgers?
They probably don’t teach things like geography in school anymore. Just like they change history by deleting it when wanted.
And you could have also set up temporary clubhouses in the bubble where they would have never hoped around to different clubhouses. There is plenty of room in these ballparks. The Dallas Stars dresses in doublewides at their practice facility. MLB put very little effort into this. Best part,THEY COULD DO THIS NOW.
But that’s Manfred for you.
The playing surfaces would be a choppy mess. Worse than some high school fields within a couple of weeks.
Offday to resod.
It’s what MLB ballparks do when they host mid season concerts.
You’d be amazed at the magic these grounds crews work. Bring in 3 teams worth of grounds crews and they could redo a whole field in an afternoon.
*Dressed in doublewides when they first moved to Dallas*
They’d better be thinking about it. There’s absolutely no other way to make it work.
My vote is for Houston/Arlington. Not only do you have Globe Life Field, but from there you can throw a rock and hit Globe Life Park (which is being used as the Rangers alternate training site right now). Oh and only a few hundred miles away you have Minute Maid. All are major league parks, all are in a couple hundred mile bubble, and if you juggle day games night games, I think it could be done. Not to mention the minor league parks Texas has (Round Rock Express’s Dell Diamond would be the most notable).
Playing where a team recently cheated to win the World Series doesn’t have great optics.
If a couple hundres miles is your requirement, go bronx/citi, then 100 miles NE you get fenway, less than 100 miles sw you get citizens. That’s 4 ballparks. Need overflow you get Pawtucket, a AAA facility near boston, and scranton/Wilkes a AAA in eastern PA.
Please no. Cardinals will be lucky to get in 45 games at this point. Don’t punish the rest of the league for their carelessness and stupidity.
I am afraid another team pulls a stunt like the Cards did, it could end up getting the rug pulled out entirely.
The cards won’t play again til Friday. If next weekends series is canceled the league needs to put up or shut up and make them forfeit their season.
Wit the but it’s not even possible people. It’s so easy if they can get the union on board
Bubble Boys?
Vegas and Orlando
If the powers-that-be who run Major League Baseball don’t do this here bubble thingy for the postseason, they’re even dumber than I thought they were, and I don’t think that’s possible.
The bubble thing is a horrible idea for the postseason. It shouldn’t be considered at all. You can’t have alternate site playoffs. Worst idea since the all star game determined home field in the world series.
Probably one east coast and west coast, New York and LA seem to have the most stadiums in a small area, maybe include Pac Bell for style points.
The Bubble would be best in AZ. One dome and 11 spring training sites. October in Phoenix is great. It could even go into November to give STL and Miami time to finish their seasons.
I think AZ would work best as a bubble for the regular season but for playoffs they will not need to use that many stadiums, and can do more regions.
Warm weather states with multiple stadiums such as Florida (for East Division teams), Texas (Central) and SoCal (West)?
The locations of the bubbles do not necessarily have to align with the locations of the participating teams, since there aren‘t any travel days regardless.
So they would probably do this but with a different state instead of Florida, since no one likes the Trop.
If the lack of a bubble would gum up the playoffs, they have to use Wrigley Field.
“According to Passan, the majors could mimic the National Hockey League in designating multiple cities to host its postseason.”
I told Manfred (assuming he reads this site) months ago to just do everything Gary Bettman does and changed the word “hockey” to “baseball” and “NHL” to “MLB”.
Better late than never.
The NHL has done an amazing job giving fans high level sports while protecting player safety. MLB…has not.
Or maybe what we really learned is that (somehow) hockey players are worse behaved on the ice/field than off it, whereas baseball players are better behaved on the field than off it.
Takeaway: one group exercises common sense, the other doesnt. If you didn’t have clevinger/plesac types in MIA, STL, and apparently CLE, we wouldn’t have cancelled games/series.
I’m honestly surprised the CLE series isn’t postponed given how clevinger travelled with the team after speaking on plesac’s behalf in the team meeting.
Fully support. At least after the first round of the playoffs where it goes from 16 teams to 8 teams. Easier to handle 8 times in one singular dome. Safeco Field in Seattle?
So, 16 teams in round 1, 8 games per day. We’d need two fields at one location, contesting 4 games each day. That’s one full round daily. After week 1, it gets easier.
All umpires, players, team staff and dugout personnel should be required to pass C-19 tests daily for two weeks PRIOR to traveling to the playoff site. Any player testing positive or breaking protocols two weeks prior to opening the site would be required to quarantine for 7 days THEN pass two consecutive tests BEFORE being allowed on site.
Parking lots at the stadiums are empty, so teams would set up temporary trailers, pods, mini houses, allow players’, umpires, etc. to set up their own campers or mobil homes, whatever. NOBODY leaves the parking lot during the post season, including local residents working there. After the post season, all the temporary housing used could be donated to our Vets, kids’ camps, homeless facilities, colleges, k-12 schools, etc. and written off as ‘donations’.
Another option would be to convert all the stadium’s suites, skyboxes, etc. into temporary living quarters. I’ve never seen an actual stadium’s blueprint to know just how many such areas could actually be converted. I wonder…?
This might make way too much sense though. Plus, we would have to expect these people to NOT gather in large numbers to tailgate, play cards, video game together or party for 3 weeks.
This could be planned for, implemented and stocked (food, drink, supplies, etc.) from now until the last out. Fields could be readied now or upgraded if necessary. Any spring training complex should already be able to handle this, no?
Every one of these players can afford their own R/V, most probably already own them. 16 x 60, plenty of room in a stadium complex parking lot that houses multiple venues to park 960 r/v’s. Hell, if more than one field is used, players can drive themselves!
Isn’t MLB Tonight sponsored by an RV dealer?
Step up to the plate, Camping World.
“We’re going to expand the postseason so a sub .500 team and a superteam will both have to play a 3 game series in the first round. Don’t worry, we’ll reward the superteam by letting them be at home all 3 games.”
One month later:
“Actually…”
NBA and NHL have not had a single case inside their respective bubbles.
Mlb is just irresponsible and reckless
New Zealand would be perfect for all games. Ship all the players and personnel and ARod could watch the games on TV and give us his sparkling insight. Haha
Not mentioned yet: Kansas City/St Louis as a bubble option. Yes that is only two fields, but Arrowhead is right next door; Other teams could play in Edwards Jones and Busch.
That’s 4 fields, so only 2 games each day at each field. Play Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday and that gives Arrowhead enough time to reconfigure.
By second round, you don’t need the football fields or you don’t need St. Louis.
They’re not going to play at football stadiums.
The best way would probably be to isolate two pairs of Opening Round Series at one stadium each, with the intent on having the winners play in the Division Series. Then have the would-be LCS opponents in their own nearby bubble, in order to limit travel.
Example:
Dodger Stadium: NL Mini Series 1 and 2, Winners play in the NLDS.
Angels Stadium: NL Mini Series 3 and 4, Winners play in the other NLDS.
Series winners play in NLCS.
Marlins Park: AL Mini Series 1 and 2, Winners play in ALDS.
Tropicana Field: AL Mini Series 3 and 4, Winners play in other ALDS.
Winners face each other in ALCS (probably have all games in one city to limit travel).
Then you just have to pick a spot for the World Series. Maybe have the league who starts a day earlier be the one that travels since they’ll be guaranteed an extra day off before the series.
From what I see in the aerial views of the NBA’s Disney bubble in Orlando, there are a lot of baseball fields. The NBA has been successful through the seeding games. That may be an option for MLB.