The following article was written on what would have been Opening Day of the 2020 MLB season.
I was supposed to be at the ballpark today. I do not make this remark with the intent to complain however. The decision to postpone the start of the season was correct and consistent with the situation in which we find ourselves. The purpose of having made this remark is rather to underscore the unprecedented nature of the crisis in which we find ourselves and begin a short meditation of the role the baseball, and sports in general, assumes at this time.
The COVID-19 crisis is something of historic proportions. It has already killed thousands around the world and many others still remain in hospital fighting for their lives as this article is written. It has sent the world economy into a tailspin the likes of which has not been seen since the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Millions find themselves out of work and will for the next few months to come. Wider repercussions will result from the pandemic's impact on mental health, the way in which companies operate and so on. It has and will continue to fundamentally change the way the world is. More importantly though, it underscores the fundamentally fragile nature of the highly globalized and well connected society which we enjoy. The world that our parents and grandparents, those most vulnerable to the virus, have inherited to us can and has vanished in the blink of an eye. Life today stands in stark contrast to life three months ago.
Now what role does sport play in a world from which it has become conspicuously absent? On the surface, none. In reality however, sports have through their absence come to represent the light at the end of this dark tunnel in which we currently find ourselves. The Olympic torch was lit recently and in so doing it was announced that it would remain lit in spite of the postponement of the games until 2021. This literal light which currently shines somewhere in Japan is representative of the figurative light at the end of the tunnel of which I speak. Sports have assumed through their absence perhaps their greatest importance in recent decades. They represent hope. They are the affirmation that one day life will return to normal and humans will again travel the world, congregate, and share in each other's unique stories and ideas. The return to action of sports leagues will be the consummation of our victory over the COVID-19 pandemic. Once fans begin to fill the stadiums again, it will be in celebration of more than just sporting accomplishments. It will also be in celebration of the human spirit and its triumph over adversity yet again.
Returning to baseball and the game I was supposed to be at today. To hundreds of millions across Canada, the United States and elsewhere around the world, the arrival of baseball heralds the end of another cold dark winter and the bloom of spring. This year, that heralding will take on a powerful figurative sense as well. One day I will be in the stands at the Rogers Centre again. It may be in a month, or in three. I don't know. Nobody does. But when that does happen I shall cheer for more than just my beloved Blue Jays. I shall cheer for the unbreakable human spirit that defeated COVID-19. For now however, baseball's absence serves as a promise; that powerful reminder that we shall overcome.
March 26, 2020
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