Baseball is back for a shorter, stranger, quieter season

Baseball is back. Starting Friday, July 24, the Mariners will begin a strange, abbreviated season because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rather than playing the regular 162 games, they'll play only 60, with no fans in the stands.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Corey Brock covers the Mariners for The Athletic. He spoke to KUOW from T-Mobile Park, describing what it's like to watch the Mariners play practice games this summer, with no fans in attendance.

Corey Brock: It's really weird, Kim. It's so quiet, as you might expect, and I'm really curious to see, there's just usually at any game, regardless of whether it's sold out or the stadiums half full, there's a buzz. There's a certain amount of energy. There's not much of that, if any of it, right now. Even watching these inner squad games.

It's strange, seeing no fans in the seats. I think it'll really hit me when the team opens at home on the 31st that, hey we're playing a real, counting game, but there's no one here to watch it, other than a handful of media people, and team staff, and certainly the two teams. I'm really curious to see what this kind of looks like and even what it sounds like.

There's never been a season this short before. Do you think this hurts or helps a team like the Mariners, who say that they're still in this rebuilding phase?

Their stated purpose remains the same. This is year two of a rebuild. They planned on this season, whether it was 162 games, or now they're only going to get 60, to use this as kind of an evaluation period for a lot of young players, potential foundation pieces that they could build around, and have on the roster in 2021 and beyond, to hopefully build a sustainable winner.

But, the only way to find that out is to actually play some games, and certainly a bigger sample size would probably reveal more answers, but lo and behold, we're stuck with 60 games, as is everybody in baseball. So, this is all about evaluation. It's about seeing what the young guys can do against the best competition in the world.

It is going to be a short stretch, as you say, and any team can get on a hot streak in that time. Can you envision a scenario where the Mariners may actually contend for a playoff spot this season?

I would say no, but look at what happened last year. I don't want to put anybody off here by propping up some grand illusions of chasing their first postseason appearance since 2001. But, a team can get hot certainly, and it depends on when you get hot. Remember last year they started the season 13 and 2? That was kind of smoke and mirrors based on the teams they were playing weren’t very good. But it does kind of allude to the fact that if you get hot at the right time and make a run, anything can happen.

I think that's one of the best things about baseball. There seems to be a lot of parity. This isn't the New York Yankees winning the World Series anymore. You see some different teams rise to the top each year. I think that makes it a lot of fun, and certainly the Mariners would love to get into the postseason. It's been way too long, but I just don't think it's going to be this year.

For whoever ends up winning the World Series, is this is going to be one of those years where the fans just put an asterisk beside it, and maybe it's not taken as seriously as another season?

Well, not for the team that wins it all, Kim. I've seen this question pop up, is there's going to be a note in the record books for all time noting that this was a 60 game season? That's fair, I think, but I think any criticism leveled at teams that win at all, I would frame it this way: If the Mariners happened to catch fire, and got in the playoffs, and won the whole thing, would they be apologizing because it was a 60 game season? No way.

A World Series title is a World Series title. It's not the fault of the team that the season was only 60 games. So, I say hey, you win this whole thing you fly that flag proud on opening day 2021 and you celebrate it.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.