There isn’t a baseball fan worth their weight in Dodger Dogs who isn’t absolutely ecstatic that there will soon be fans in the stands again – both at Spring Training games and Major League ballparks across our great country. But with people still dying from COVID-19 every day by the hundreds in the US (994 on Monday, including 29 in LA County), is baseball being prudent and responsible by opening up for fans?

Although the answer to this question is most certainly a personal one, science suggests that they are – this based on significantly fewer hospitalizations for COVID-19 and significantly more vaccinations being administered.

But there is another reason, an even bigger one – this one with the blessings of medical professionals.

On Monday, and despite those 29 deaths in the county, the LA County Health Department gave the green light for elementary schools to reopen as early as this week.

If medical experts believe that it’s safe enough for our children to return to school, why wouldn’t it be safe for baseball fans to return to Spring Training ballparks in Florida and Arizona and MLB ballparks from sea to shining sea?

Again, the answer to this is a personal one, but keep in mind that there were 25,000 fans in the stands at the just-concluded Super Bowl (with another 30,000 cardboard cutouts). Heck, there were even 11,500 fans in the stands during to 2020 World Series.

Ironically, the spike in reported COVID-19 cases from the Super Bowl is not the result of fans being permitted in the stands but instead from private Super Bowl parties in homes (etc.) across the country. But even though the cases from these so-called ‘Super Spreader events’ are beginning to show up, the numbers are significantly less than what was expected.

“The spike is not as big as I was anticipating,” said Dr. Edwin Michael, an epidemiologist and professor at the University of South Florida. “Luckily for us, the Super Bowl took place when the pandemic was actually shrinking – when the transmission rate in the Tampa community was pretty low. We are saying that the Super Bowl impact will be like 200 cases.”

Even though Dr. Michael is talking about the areas around Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, FL, he added this little tidbit of good (great) news:

“You can see the pandemic is declining so that by August, you should see the back end of this pandemic,” he said.

Dr. Michael bases his “by August” prediction on how well the vaccination roll-out is going and how well we maintain mask and social distancing practices over the next few months (a clue).

As for Dodger fans, the team announced on Friday that tickets for Spring Training games at Camelback Ranch – Glendale go on sale on Saturday, February 20, with the first Spring Training game scheduled for February 28.

Obviously, how all of this ultimately plays out remains to be seen. But judging by the lack of reported COVID-19 cases among MLB (and MiLB) players – presumably due to very strict ‘bubble’ practices – there is every reason to believe that we will hear these blessed and immortal words on Opening Day 2021 on April 1:

“Play Ball!”

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