Greg Morrison may have temporarily shut the doors on his physical therapy business due to coronavirus, but he’s got no plans to do the same with the Medicine Hat Mavericks.
The summer baseball team’s owner remains optimistic for a Western Canadian Baseball League season, promoting it to prospective players as he and head coach Nolan Rattai work to fill out the roster.
“I’m just trying to stay in the conversation a little bit, remind some of these guys that aren’t going to have an opportunity to play (spring NCAA) baseball, that hopefully… we’d be OK to do that,” said Morrison.
“I’m just working from the home office, staying in communication with Nolan. It’s one of those things where we’re just pressing on, a lot of our communication with players is online as it is. It’s stay the course with that.”
Time is on their side for now. The season opener is set for May 28, a little more than 10 weeks away. Health professionals have talked about societal isolation measures needing to last many weeks to prevent a devastating spread of infection – the initial quarantine in Wuhan, China began Jan. 23.
The WCBL announced Friday it “fully intends on conducting the 2020 season” but everyone knows things can change quickly.
“It’s day-by-day, there’s been some communication with all the governors and executive,” said Morrison. “Most summer leagues are still as planned.”
The NCAA season was cancelled Friday, but part of the announcement held good news for baseball players. Spring sport athletes – including baseball – at Division 1 and 2 schools will not lose a year of eligibility because their seasons were wiped out. That means would-be seniors coming to the WCBL might not be done with their college teams yet.
“There’s lots of unknowns right now,” said Morrison. “The way I see it is there’s lots of kids who are pretty disappointed in how their college spring season has played out, we want to be an opportunity for some of those guys that want to continue on and get in shape for the fall.”
Morrison said the Mavericks already have enough position players committed and just need recruit a handful more pitchers. Those pitchers won’t have nearly as many innings of work underneath them due to the cancellations, which again could bode well for interest in playing summer ball.
The hope is there’s a season for them to come to. Everyone’s fingers are crossed in that regard.
