Major League Baseball 2020 — How’s that going to work?

So many of us have experienced an upside down turn of events in our lives because of the virus. We are all anxious to get back to some normalcy in our lives. Getting back to work, going to restaurants, kids back in school and good old fashioned baseball.

One of my pleasures in life is to kick back and relax watching baseball on TV and sipping an ice cold beverage or two. It's the passage of summer and a ritual I've enjoyed for as long as I can remember.

It's a whole different ball game this year. Like every other sport, Major League Baseball is try to salvage a portion of their season and implement a 60 game season instead of the 162 games we have come to know.

This new 60 game schedule comes with many changes including expanding rosters, making the designated hitter in the National League. It will only include division and inter-league division play in the same region. If a game goes to extra innings each team gets a runner on second base.

Major League Baseball has become what arena football was to the NFL.

One big change is that as of now there won't be any fans in the stadium. How's that going to work? How will that affect the players?

This week the Yankees have been airing their summer camp on their network YES and they've been playing inter-squad games. I've watched almost every day as it is some type of live baseball on TV.

Looking at the empty Yankees stadium was surreal. The commentators and players insist that having no fans in the seats won't be a distraction. The Yankees were piping music through the PA system just to break up the silence, but that became a little too distracting.

In Japan, a team owner who owns a robotics company put some robots in the outfield and turned them into cheerleaders. Teams throughout Major League Baseball are seriously considering cardboard cutouts for their stands.

I applaud the efforts of Major League Baseball. Getting the season off the ground won't be easy as more players are testing positive for the virus. And health experts say that when these teams start to travel and confine in places like planes, hotels and locker rooms, the virus could spread pretty quickly.

The season opens July 23. I'll be watching and hoping that America's favorite pastime doesn't become America's favorite "passed time." Good luck to you and your favorite team.