White Sox trying to navigate baseball’s health and safety protocols during their 1st road trip: ‘It’s an obstacle course for everyone’
A three-city road trip can test a team even during normal circumstances.
But there’s nothing normal about this pandemic-shortened baseball season, and in addition to the challenges on the field, teams are trying to navigate through the health and safety protocols.
The Chicago White Sox are in the middle of their first road trip of 2020.
They completed the first leg with three games in Cleveland and currently are in Kansas City, Mo., before wrapping up the trip with two in Milwaukee.
“It’s a lot of work,” Sox pitcher Gio Gonzalez said Friday. “A lot of these guys are sticking to the guidelines. As far as food, staying in a hotel, following the protocols, getting our temperature checked before getting on the bus, temperature check to get in here. We are sticking to the lines. We’re not shying away.
“It is work, but if you want to continue to play, you have to follow the rules. We have no excuses, we’ve been given the rules since the beginning. We can’t control what’s going on outside, but we can try to do our best to control what’s inside.”
The players are closely following the coronavirus-related developments around the league. The Miami Marlins had a serious outbreak with at least 21 members of their traveling party becoming infected, according to The Associated Press. They last played Sunday in Philadelphia.
The St. Louis Cardinals have had six positive tests in their traveling party since Thursday, according to multiple reports. The team’s games Friday and Saturday against the Brewers in Milwaukee were postponed.
The Sox are scheduled to play in Milwaukee on Monday.
“It’s always concerning, you feel for the guys testing positive, you really feel for them,” Gonzalez said. “Sometimes it’s out of your control, you could be going to the grocery story, the gas station, or something.
“We’re trying our best to follow as much as we can to the guidelines. I know we’re going to Milwaukee, and we’re going to face Milwaukee with the Cardinals being in that situation. It’s hard to say, we’ve never experienced it from our end, we don’t know what’s really going to happen.”
According to The Associated Press, there have been 17 coronavirus-related postponements in the first 10 days of the season. ESPN reported Friday that commissioner Rob Manfred warned the players’ union of a possible shutdown if management of the coronavirus around the league doesn’t improve.
Sox manager Rick Renteria said the protocols remain a constant topic of discussion.
“We’re aware of it, everybody is, to the extent that the players spoke a little bit about trying to maintain the protocols at a higher level,” Renteria said Friday. “We had our preseries meeting, and we spoke to the players, as well, about trying to keep this all on track the best that we possibly can, to limit our contact with each other.
“Albeit, there’s a lot of us when we’re out on the field and you’ve got certain things that you naturally do. But we’re going to try to be as conscientious as possible to avoid contact. We talked about not high-fiving and no knuckles. It’s just the way it’s got to be. Everybody’s aware of what’s going on around the league. It’s a very contagious virus and so we’ve got to do everything we can to minimize and mitigate the exposure to it.”
The whole process remains a work on progress, according to Gonzalez.
“It’s an obstacle course for everyone, it’s not just the White Sox,” he said. “We are thinking, what can we do to kind of steer away from what’s going on and try to follow the guidelines and be as safe as we can be. We are sticking to the game plan, but the outside world doesn’t stop, it continues to move forward.
“We’re trying our hardest to stick to the guidelines and we’re trying to focus on what we can focus on and play the game until they tell us ‘that’s it.’ It is a journey, it is a work in progress. We are trying our best, we’re wearing our masks, we’re trying to follow every step of the way, but again, it’s a lot to remember, a lot to focus on and then take that to the field.
“There’s so many things you have to focus on before you get to the field. And then worry about it when you get to the field. And then after the field.”
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