Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred says the American pastime will help the nation recover from the coronavirus pandemic, but only after it becomes safe for sports to resume.
Yells of "Play Ball" were supposed to signal the start of the 2020 MLB campaign on Thursday before sellout crowds with all 30 teams in action.
Instead, the stadiums sat empty and silent as Americans stayed home and deaths and infections continued a steady rise nationwide.
"The one thing I know for sure is baseball will be back," Manfred told ESPN.
"Whenever it's safe to play, we'll be back. Our fans will be back.
"Our players will be back and we will be part of the recovery, the healing in this country, from this particular pandemic."
"It's an honor for our sport to be regarded in a way that we have been, part of our country coming back from some horrific events. We hope that we can play a similar role with respect to this one."
"I think the goal would be to get to as many regular-season games as possible and think creatively about how we can accomplish that goal."
- Playoff experiments -
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"It does give us an opportunity to do some different things, to experiment, and to make sure that we provide as many games as possible and as entertaining a product as possible."
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