Preparing for a return of sports in Los Angeles

Major League Baseball isn’t necessarily all that close to returning, given the bickering between players and owners. But if the two sides come together on some sort of a deal to get things going again, most reports have the regular season beginning in July.

That would likely mean some version of spring training in late June, ideally at the home parks of each team. For that to happen, not only will the league have to agree on a plan, but said plan would need to be approved by public healthy officials in each locale.

Trying to get a head start on this, Casey Wasserman, part of the Los Angeles County Economic Resiliency Task Force, submitted a plan to county officials for area sports teams to reopen. Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times spoke to Wasserman Friday:

“We’re going to have the opportunity for the Dodgers to play home games at Dodger Stadium,” Wasserman said in a telephone interview. “But, if we don’t get this going, they’re going to have to play their home games in another state.

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“These things are doable. We have the ability. We have the safety measures. We have the plan. And we have best-in-class operators. It’s important that we create these opportunities for the community, for jobs, and for the environment in the county.”

The proposal, on behalf of the nine LA County professional sports teams plus USC and UCLA, included safety guidelines and standards generally agreed to, though each team and league will ultimately likely submit more detailed plans once their league finalizes things.

It fits generally within the timeline mentioned by Governor Gavin Newsom, who on May 18 said if California continues to improve its coronavirus numbers we could see sports back in the state by early June.

Links

• More on David Price paying $1,000 to every Dodgers minor leaguer in June, from Jorge Castillo at the LA Times.
• Jake Rill at MLB.com picked the best throwing arms for each team in the National League West, and Cody Bellinger narrowly beat out Mookie Betts as the Dodgers’ choice.
• Eric Nusbaum at Baseball Prospectus wrote “MLB owners are hacking away at the sport’s own institutions, then blaming everybody else for the wreckage.” His book, ‘Stealing Home: Los Angeles, the Dodgers, and the Lives Caught in Between,’ is out now.
• Jon Fogerty on Thursday, his 75th birthday, played his song ‘Centerfield’ in center field at Dodger Stadium, along with his kids.