Baseball players could be swinging for the fences as early as this week now that the province has given team sports permission to play ball.
The province announced June 9 that team sports could resume in Alberta with restrictions as early as June 12 as part of the second stage of its COVID-19 relaunch plan.
But as most St. Albert sports facilities were still closed as of June 10, it’s unclear which sports will actually get to take to the field.
Baseball will be one of the first, as St. Albert’s ball diamonds were open as of June 10.
“The city gave us approval to start whenever we want,” said Kurtus Millar, president of the St. Albert Minor Baseball Association, and he is polling local families to see who still wants to play ball this season.
Still, Millar said it is unlikely anyone would be out playing ball on June 12. Baseball Alberta has directed teams to stick to training camps for now, and those aren’t to start before June 15. St. Albert camps would start June 16 at the earliest.
St. Albert’s football fields were still closed as of this writing, so those players won’t be getting off the bench anytime soon.
Football season is usually in the fall, with the spring and summer used for training, said St. Albert Minor Football Association president Rob Patrick. Local teams are waiting on direction from Football Alberta before they start scheduling training camps.
“We’re all excited, I know that.”
Whole new ball game
The province released guidelines for how to safely play team sports on June 9. Players are to stay two metres apart where possible, sanitize any gloves or shared equipment between uses, and play outdoors if there is to be any close contact. Locker room use is to be limited, and transportation restricted to be amongst people in the same household.
The guidelines say teams should form a cohort or mini-league of up to 50 people (players and support staff included) from the same geographic region in order to limit the potential spread of the coronavirus, and only play games within said leagues.
Millar said this would likely mean splitting teams up and having them play against each other in a city-only league. For football, Patrick said mini-league play could mean smaller 6-on-6 games instead of the usual 12-on-12.
Millar said teams would likely have to buy many more baseballs than usual so they could be swapped out and sanitized. Bats wouldn’t be a problem, as most players have their own. Teams might also have to ban tag-plays (where you touch a player with the baseball) and keep players out of dugouts to encourage physical distancing. As for the umpire, they might have to make calls from the pitcher’s mound instead of home base.
“Obviously, he’s going to miss a couple (of calls) here and there,” Millar said.
Patrick said there would definitely be a bit of a learning curve when it comes to playing football under the guidelines.
“How do we even huddle? We don’t know that yet.”
The guidelines say cheering and yelling amongst spectators (crowds of which are capped at 100) are “strongly discouraged,” as those activities can spread infectious droplets – advice Patrick found “very strange.”
“It’s human nature to cheer for your child,” he said, adding he’s not sure how they’d enforce this rule.
He is also bemused by the rule discouraging handshakes, fist-bumps and high-fives – the guidelines seem to say it’s okay to tackle someone but not to help them to their feet afterward.
While he doesn’t expect to see the full membership back this year, Millar said there are definitely a lot of high-end players who are itching to play this season.
“We’re very excited to see the fields full of kids again.”
