Empty seats in a Cactus League without joy
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The day was as gray as a road uniform. At least a uniform before baseball jerseys became a swarm of red, blue or, in the case of the San Francisco Giants, black.
It’s been cold in Arizona, and two days ago it was wet, rain. The weather forecast is for better days before the weekend, however, temperatures in the high 70s.
Maybe life will feel more like what we knew as normal.
It still doesn’t feel that way down here, even with balls flying off bats or thudding into gloves. Roger Angell wrote about the sounds of baseball, the conversations in the stands, the cheers. In the first two weeks of Cactus League, it’s mostly been the sounds of silence.
The game, as everything else, remains haunted by the virus. Restrictions persist; attendance for the Giants’ 5-4 win over Cleveland Friday at 10,000-seat Scottsdale Stadium was only 1.507.
People want to go, want to talk, want to cheer, but they can’t. Tickets were going for $100, but few were available. “It was dead in the stands,” said one woman able to attend. “It wasn’t any fun.”
For the players and management, fun is incidental. The purpose of the exhibition season, the Cactus League here in the desert — places like Scottsdale and Mesa, Goodyear and Surprise — and the Grapefruit League in Florida is to prepare for the regular season.
For the fans, exhibition games are a time to escape winter and connect again to the joys of baseball, to buy a beer or a Coke or a hot dog. But there were no roving vendors at Scottsdale, no programs, no souvenirs.
There’s not much joy in a ballpark when most of the seats are empty.
Until this year, only catchers wore masks; now everybody must wear one, of course, and be socially distant. How can you argue Mays vs. Mantle with the guy next to you when there’s nobody next to you?
There’s no argument about the performance of Logan Webb, who started for the Giants on Friday against Cleveland in that chilly, lonely ballpark. He struck out six, including four in the first inning; a passed ball by Buster Posey after one of the strikeouts in effect giving Cleveland the ”extra” out.
Is pitching ahead of hitting in spring, or vice versa? Whatever, Webb was incredibly sharp for a Giants team in need of pitching. When asked if that was as good as he’s seen Webb, Giants manger Gabe Kapler said, “He was doing exactly what he needs to be doing, using his secondary weapons.
“It’s as good as I’ve ever seen his changeup look. I don’t want to overdo it here, but he’s been really impressive in this camp.”
Posey was one of the few recognizable names in the Giants’ starting lineup. Another was Austin Slater, who hit a three-run homer as the Giants built up a 4-0 lead. Then it was a home run by Curt Casali that was the winner after the Indians tied it up.
If the Giants’ batting order seems confused, that’s because it is. Brandon Belt still hasn’t played. He underwent heel surgery; then was stricken with the coronavirus; then while recovering from that, Belt was hit with mononucleosis.
“I tested positive (in January),” Belt said. “I didn’t have any symptoms at first until I reached the end of my quarantine when I was working out, I started feeling really winded, really lightheaded, really dizzy and lost all energy after about 10 minutes of working out.”
As soon as Belt started to feel better, he was diagnosed with mono.
“I had to deal with (COVID-19 symptoms) for about three to four weeks,” Belt said. “And right at the end of that three to four weeks is when I got mono. All of that kind of came together and I got hit pretty hard.”
There had been suggestions this might be the final season for the 32-year-old. Now you wonder if he’ll make it that far, although not in Belt’s mind.
“Now I feel pretty dang good, and every couple of days I’m taking huge jumps forward,” he said. “I feel like I’m pretty close to getting back to normal. It was a long ordeal, obviously wasn’t that fun, but right now I feel like I’m getting back on track.”
You would hope we could say the same for baseball.