The New York Yankees news over the past month is what has happened to our pastime sport because of the coronavirus, and what a baseball season may look like this year. With the shortened season and concern of over the spread of the virus, and the CDC’s gathering restrictions, there have been more questions than answers. Questions over how many games will be played, if they will be played without fans, at neutral stadiums or if there will even be a baseball season this year.
Like many articles, you read on the various questions, all you come away with are possibilities, maybes, and projections. When you come away from this article, you still won’t have any answers. What you will come away with is a general idea of what New York Yankee fans feel the answers are, or what they are willing to accept to have a baseball season.
Wondering what the majority of fans thought about these questions, yesterday I set up polls on what fans thought about four burning questions: 1. Do you think there will be a baseball season this year? 2. Are you okay with games played without fans in the stands? 3. Are you okay with games played at neutral stadiums? And lastly: 4. At what number of games played do you feel the season will be called illegitimate?
I was actually quite surprised at some of the answers. For instance, the general consensus is that fans don’t want games played in empty stadiums. The vote found that to be entirely untrue. After analyzing the four polls, I came to the conclusion that minds had changed as the COVID-19 virus had become more severe and more deadly than when the spring training was shut down and the season delayed for two weeks.
Also, many statements made by MLB has also affected how fans view the season. Statements like games will not take place until gathering restrictions have been lifted by the CDC. With the way the virus is spreading around the country, that start date for baseball seems to be further off each day, and maybe won’t start at all, resulting in a canceled season.
The polls I took, of course, are not scientific and were only conducted in five Yankee fans groups on Facebook representing just over 50,000 New York Yankee fans, but is probably representative of all Yankee fans. Here’s what the polls revealed:
- Would you be okay with your Yankees games played with no one in the stands? Surprisingly 81% of respondents said yes, they would be okay with that. I would have thought the answer would have been no.
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Would you be okay with your Yankees game being played at a neutral stadium? That was a less popular choice, but 66% said they would be okay with that.
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At what number of games this season would you consider the season illegitimate? Here are the options presented, knowing that a full season has no possibility of being played: At 120 games, 8% of Yankees fans feel the season would not be called legitimate. At 100 games, 11%, at 80 games that increases to 24%. A season of fewer than 80 games, 57% of Yankee fans feel any World Championship would be meaningless.
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Considering the spread of the coronavirus and the possibility of continued gathering restrictions, do you think there will be a New York Yankee baseball season this year? Yes: 47%, No 53%. It seems fans are coming to the conclusion that there will be no season this year. As far as this question is concerned, I asked the same question ten days ago and 79% thought there would be baseball this year.
The one thought I came away with from the polls, is that New York Yankee fans will be willing to put up with any inconvenience just to be able to have some kind of a baseball season for the “boys of summer”. Let’s hope that somehow that can happen.