A lot can – and undoubtedly will – happen between now and Tuesday, February 16, 2021, which is when Dodgers pitchers and catchers would normally report for Spring Training … although most arrive much earlier. But if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it has taught us that normal no longer exists.

I’ll cut to the chase here. It will take a miracle of biblical proportions for there to be a normal baseball season in 2021.

There, I said it. I said what no one wants to hear. You can hate me, you can scorn me, you can unfollow me on social media, but the simple truth is that we, as an educated, civilized society, are going in the wrong direction with the COVID-19 pandemic; very much in the wrong direction.

This from the Santa Clarita Valley Signal on Saturday afternoon:

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials reported Saturday the highest single-day number of new COVID-19 cases since the July surge, with more than 3,700 cases countywide, of which more than 90 came from the Santa Clarita Valley. 

A total of 3,780 new cases were reported countywide, and 93 came from the Santa Clarita Valley, with 78% coming from the city of Santa Clarita, according to Public Health.  

The rise in cases, of which 74% of those reported Saturday came from those under the age of 50, “complicates planning for increasing the numbers of students returning to schools, further re-opening additional sectors and permitting additional activities,” officials said in a news release. 

Do you see where this is going?

Although it is way too premature even to speculate what MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and the MLB Players Association have in mind for the 2021 season, it goes beyond all reason (and common sense) to expect that it will be much – if any – different than the just-concluded 60-game COVID-19-shortened 2020 regular season and the subsequent 2020 postseason ‘bubble.’

Oh sure, there would probably be considerably more than 60 regular-season games and an excellent chance that more fans would be allowed in the stands than we saw during the 2020 World Series. But baring that miracle of biblical proportions, 2021 will be anything but normal.

Getting back to that pitchers and catchers thing. If Dodgers pitchers and catchers do indeed report on or about February 16, fans will not be allowed access to the backfields or the bullpen workout areas at Camelback Ranch-Glendale; of this, you can be sure.

As most Dodger fans know, since CBR-G opened their doors as the Dodgers (and White Sox) Spring Training facility in 2009, they have allowed fans access to roped-off areas along the dirt pathways to get autographs from players as they walked to and from the workout areas. That being said and barring that biblical thing, it is unfathomable to believe that this will be allowed during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

I profoundly apologize for the negativity and hope (and pray) that I am dead wrong about all of this. But the painfully cold, hard truth is that we need to prepare ourselves for yet another serious reality check.

Fire away.

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