Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Scottsdale Stadium, the spring home of the Giants, was devoid of Giants personnel on Friday. A few security guards remained, a few construction workers climbed up and down ladders. The insides of the facilities were populated by cleaners who scrubbed every inch for a second straight day, such is the concern about germs and sickness and the coronavirus.
Those were the only people present — no players, no executives, no coaches (though a few had returned Thursday to retrieve a few loose items) — on a day the Giants originally were scheduled to host the Diamondbacks. Until Monday, when the doors will re-open, Giants camp is a ghost town, and its ghosts don’t wear baseball uniforms.
In the next few weeks, the bustling ecosystem that it had become since spring training opened last month will evolve. MLB and the Players’ Union met and agreed to allow players to go home or the club’s home city as camps are suspended. Or else, the player can remain in camp, though only the workout facilities — indoor cages, mounds and weight rooms — will be open, according to the New York Post. It is likelier for pitchers to remain than hitters, such is the fickleness of arms and how carefully they need to be built up to be ready.
A Giants player, reached early Friday afternoon, said none of this had been relayed to him just yet, awaiting a message because the team couldn’t meet at its own facility to discuss the next steps. The team eventually will get together to talk after MLB on Thursday, following the lead of the NBA, MLS and NHL, shut down operations, canceling spring games and pushing Opening Day back two weeks, which would make April 9 the Giants’ 2020 debut. But as players can leave the facilities and take time to themselves to keep safe distances from the rest of the world, the amount of ramp-up time the sport requires suggests this two week-hiatus can mushroom.
Gatherings of more than 250 people are banned temporarily from San Francisco, versions of the same health order implemented in cities across the country as the United States tries to contain the infectious disease.
There are no shortage of questions that need to be answered in time: How long will this season be, provided it starts April 9? Will there be a second spring training? What about the players with March opt-outs? Will checks continue to be paid to all players? Speaking of which, will the Oracle Park workers be compensated if games are missed? What about the Scottsdale Stadium staff?
Manager Gabe Kapler did not immediately respond to a message about what he and his staff will be doing during this interruption, and the Giants did not make anyone available to media as they debate. The seriousness of the pandemic is not lost on the team.
“You have to trust the higher powers that are making these decisions that are more informed than all of us are and just roll with it,” Buster Posey said Wednesday, two days and a lifetime ago. “… Baseball’s so secondary when something like this is going on.”
Money will be lost just about everywhere from Scottsdale to San Francisco. Concessions food was still cooled in Scottsdale Stadium refrigerators; the merchandise shop was packed with jerseys and paraphernalia.
One of the few workers remaining at Scottsdale Stadium on Friday reflected on his abbreviated camp experience, in which he stamped hands of ticket-holders entering the stadium. An older man touching hand after hand, thousands of them each game day.
“What if I were a carrier?” he said.
Baseball will try to be safe, as will the Giants as they decide their next move.
