NINE THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT 2020
This Major League Baseball season will look like no other. Here's a look:
1. The regular season is scheduled to last half as long (60 games) as the shortest season on record (1981), and the playoff field will be expanded from 10 to 16 — or 53% of the MLB's 30 teams.
2. No bubble here. Teams will play home and away games as usual and use their home parks. One team, however, the Blue Jays, is scrambling to find a "home" park after it was barred from playing in Toronto.
3. The DH will be used in both leagues, and extra innings will begin with a runner on second base.
4. Somebody could hit .400 this season, and a starting pitcher could post a sub-1.00 ERA. The home run champ might not hit 25 dingers, or even 20. A pitcher could win the Cy Young Award with a half-dozen wins.
5. Missing players include Buster Posey and David Price, who are among the list of a dozen or so opt-outs.
6. Players are prohibited from spitting or high-fiving. Baseballs that are touched by more than one position player will be taken out of play, sanitized and held for five days before being reused. Foul balls that wind up in the stands, will sit there, sad and lonely, until someone decides to retrieve them.
7. Instead of actual fans, cardboard cutouts will fill many seats — and Fox will even fill stadiums with virtual fans for national broadcasts. Players must stay socially distanced in the dugout, scattering into the stands if necessary.
