# MLB (Baseball) Return July 23. 60 game season in 66 days **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** baseball-mlb\ **Created:** [June 24, 2020, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771 "2020-06-24T16:23:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/121 "2020-07-25T18:49:19Z")
To be clear, there is also a lot of empty. Are the crowd scenes from pevious seasons? I am not really a baseball fan but it is notable to be watching live sports Brian ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/122 "2020-07-25T18:57:22Z")
Fox is putting computer-generated fans in the stands. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/123 "2020-07-25T18:59:41Z")
Ok that explains why there are fans sometimes and not others. Thanks Brian ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2020, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/124 "2020-07-25T22:57:54Z")
Jeez. I am so happy to have baseball back! You guys are all so negative. Let’s be HAPPY. And if you think I am all Pollyanna here, just wait until next week…HOCKEY. I do enjoy the time when both sports are on and this year is no exception. Baseball is slower paced and gives me time to look up stats on pitchers I never heard of and hear some useless factoids from the broadcasters. Then hockey slams in and starts racing up and down the ice and getting my blood pumping. So aren’t any of you all just happy to be able to watch something besides reruns of Law and Order? ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/125 "2020-07-26T01:42:51Z")
A Cespedes for the rest of us! I can’t believe he hit a HR in his first game in 2 years, but then again, I can. And DeGrom looked great as did the pen. Before my fellow traditionalist NL fans say that if it were not for the DH, Cespedes might not have been in the lineup, just forget it. The DH is here to stay and why not? When every baseball league in the world, with a couple of exceptions in Japan I think, has the DH, maybe we are just old farts complaining about the way it used to be. It’s like complaining about the 3-point shot in basketball, or that the goalposts in football arent’t on the goal line anymore. Or soccer fans complaining about the shoot out. We should just accept it and enjoy the new game. I am not saying this because in this case the DH helped the Mets. Yes the DH helps the Mets to score more runs, it also helps the opposing team to do so. I am resigned to the reality of the DH ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/126 "2020-07-26T06:03:28Z")
Has anybody discovered yet where [mlb.com](http://mlb.com) is hiding the league standings this year? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/127 "2020-07-26T09:27:33Z")
Cub fan loving it. And the first Cub home run of the season belongs to Ian Happ. For the second consecutive year. Last year, he homered on the very first pitch of the season. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/128 "2020-07-26T13:17:27Z")
Right here: [Baseball Standings | MLB.com](https://www.mlb.com/standings) _Venting_: When will Fox stop letting Joe Buck to sports, he’s bad enough at football and so much worse at baseball. Yankees lost badly yesterday and Fox coverage is the worst. But it was still good to have baseball to watch. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/129 "2020-07-26T13:30:50Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > _Venting_ : When will Fox stop letting Joe Buck to sports, he’s bad enough at football and so much worse at baseball. He’s a perfectly competent announcer at baseball. (I don’t really watch football enough to comment on that.) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/130 "2020-07-26T13:45:11Z")
He drones horribly, he’s not Joe Morgan bad, but he is pretty awful. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/131 "2020-07-26T14:22:59Z")
When I lived in St. Louis Joe Buck was the Cardinals home announcer. That’s where he developed his name & his following. Everything else came later. He knows baseball cold and can talk about it intelligently for hours. Having said that, I do not like the current incarnation of Buck nearly as much as the 20 years ago Buck. A lot like Al Michaels about the NFL, he has decided that “I am the Oracle; All Bow before my Perfect Certainty.” And that makes both of those guys flat obnoxious to listen to. Fire them both today and let some new more humble blood move in. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/132 "2020-07-26T18:19:56Z")
So, the Blue Jays play two ‘home’ games in D.C. against the Nats. Do the Nats use their pumped in crowd noise for those games? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/133 "2020-07-26T21:53:32Z")
ISTM that if the Blue Jays are the official home team then that’s their call to make. The Nats don’t get a vote. Or at least the Nats get no different greater vote than all visitors get on such weird COVIDish matters in all stadiums. ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2020, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/134 "2020-07-26T23:47:39Z")
Oh these motherless money grubbing fucks. I signed up for [MLB.TV](http://MLB.TV) because I will not get cable until Tuesday, I cut the cord some months ago. Now I find out I can’t see the game tonight because it is on ESPN. It is all about the money and nothing else. But I am not going to be one of those old farts talking about “when it was a game”. It has always been about the money. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/135 "2020-07-27T00:01:31Z")
> [@Mike\_Mabes](#): > > Now I find out I can’t see the game tonight because it is on ESPN. Yep. Any nationally-televised game, plus any game in your local market. It sucks, it has always sucked, and it’s probably never going to change. I used to get around the blackout rules by using a DNS service called Unlocator (5 bucks a month), which made it appear to the MLB servers that I was watching from outside the country. Not only did this allow me to avoid the blackout rules during the regular season, but I could also watch all of the playoffs. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/136 "2020-07-27T00:28:51Z")
Did it stop working or did you decide not to do it any more? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/137 "2020-07-27T02:27:30Z")
Last time I used it, a couple of seasons ago, it still worked. I didn’t get MLBtv last year because I had a really busy summer, including a cross-country move and getting settled in a new state. I just didn’t think I’d have time for enough baseball to justify the cost. When I first started using Unlocator, they had a free trial, and it seems like they still do. The trial worked fine, so I signed up for the paid service. If you’re interested in it, you can check out the free trial and see if it still works with MLB. It would be trivially easy for MLB to block a DNS service like this, so the fact that they haven’t done it (or hadn’t, last I checked) suggests that they don’t care too much about policing it. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/138 "2020-07-27T04:53:42Z")
> [@Mike\_Mabes](#): > > [MLB.TV](http://MLB.TV) because I will not get cable until Tuesday, I cut the cord some months ago. Now I find out I can’t see the game tonight because it is on ESPN. It is all about the money and nothing else. But I am not going to be one of those old farts talking about “when it was a game”. It has always been about the money. Did you check the ESPN website? They’ve been pretty good about allowing anyone to watch lately. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/139 "2020-07-27T10:45:33Z")
So no opening weekend sweeps. 3 days (and 5%!) into the season, and we have no undefeated teams left. Could be a very interesting season. And early days yet, but HR/Game is back down to 1 as of now. Interested to see if that holds up as we move into the season. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2020, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771/140 "2020-07-27T13:54:36Z")
Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for a team to be hit hard by the coronavirus. The Marlins are now up to 14 total people (between players and staff members) testing positive for COVID-19, and it appears that eight more players have tested positive. They’ve cancelled today’s home opener (against the Orioles) as a result. [https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/07/27/marlins-coronavirus-positive-test-players-coaches-game-canceled?fbclid=IwAR3cEKW\_afTuAZ3wfF8sMsDI0DmQKopTOm1BKVecZEYViO4NDdJaKESBjwo](https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/07/27/marlins-coronavirus-positive-test-players-coaches-game-canceled?fbclid=IwAR3cEKW_afTuAZ3wfF8sMsDI0DmQKopTOm1BKVecZEYViO4NDdJaKESBjwo) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mlb-baseball-return-july-23-60-game-season-in-66-days/912771.md?page=8)