COLUMN: Clinging to the MLB proposals

     In the old Road Runner cartoons, Wile E. Coyote would often find himself at the edge of a cliff after a failed attempt to destroy the famed bird. Just as frequently, something would cause him to fall to the bottom.

     In one episode, the edge of a cliff broke off with the coyote on top of it, and he fell, clinging to the broken slab of rock as if it could somehow save him.

     Old Wile E. hung onto that rock with the same desperate ferocity with which I am clinging to a pair of proposals that might allow Major League Baseball to somehow begin its 2020 season in the next couple of months.

     It began with a column by Jeff Passan on espn.com, in which he detailed how, using some 15 spring training and other stadiums within a 50-mile radius of Phoenix, MLB could somehow bring all 30 teams to Arizona to play a four-month season.

     They could play seven-inning doubleheaders to get more games in. There would be no fans, and in fact the players themselves would utilize the seats in the stands in order to maintain safe distances from one another. Very weird. But at least they would be playing.

     The second idea is a better one. MLB would send all its teams to either Arizona or Florida, and they would play the season using their spring training stadiums. Instead of the traditional American and National Leagues, baseball would use the spring training format of Cactus League (Arizona) and Grapefruit League (Florida), and teams would stay in those respective states all season. A champion from each of those leagues would play in the World Series, somewhere.

     There since have been articles detailing how difficult, if not impossible, these would be. Keeping players sequestered between the hotels and the stadiums – away from their families – for up to four months; food and lodging, television crews, testing for COVID-19; those are only some of the obstacles MLB would have to figure out.

     Both ideas are longshots. Big ones. But they also represent the first tiny glimmer of hope I have seen in the world of sports since all collegiate and professional sports shut down in mid-March.

     Maybe, like Wile E. Coyote hugging the giant rock, my hopes about these proposals will crash to the ground after a long fall. Until then, I am holding on tight.