×

State amateur baseball tournament still up in air

File photo by Steve Muscatello Johnson Park, one of three sites for the 2020 Minnesota Baseball Association Amateur State Tournament, sits empty becausee no baseball is being played because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The MBA has to make a decision as to what to do about the upcoming season and that could mean canceling the state tournament at some point.

NEW ULM — On Saturday, the Minnesota Baseball Association (MBA) held a closed meeting regarding the delay of amateur baseball in Minnesota due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are still on shutdown — still on lockdown – waiting for the governor to open baseball up in the state of Minnesota,” Fred Roufs, Vice-President of the MBA, said Saturday. “We have not set a time for start. [Governor Tim Walz] is meeting every Friday. He opened up the golf courses Friday (with restrictions). We think that when the decision does come that we can play baseball for teams to get their parks ready and it will not take teams long to get their players ready.

“We are writing a letter to Governor Walz asking him to open up baseball to our group,” Roufs said.

Roufs did say that the further the delay goes into the summer “the more adjusting teams will have to do with their schedules. Teams may have to play only league games because of a condensed schedule. We are optimistic that we are still gong to have a season this year and will still be coming to New Ulm and Springfield for the state tournament this year.”

Roufs did say that there is no ‘drop dead’ date right now as far as whether there is a 2020 amateur season.

“We have talked about several options,” Roufs said. “Those options all about having the state tournament. We talked about what kind of requirements the governor may put on us. Golf was a six-foot social distancing requirement. But we do not know what restrictions he will put on baseball. Will they require anyone within that six-foot radius to wear masks? Maybe. What happens if the dugouts are not large enough — do we open that up. Right now we have no idea on what restrictions the governor will have on baseball. We are going to have to react to what he says. But we are wiling to do anything to get baseball going this year”

Does the MBA have a date set when a decision will be made on the state tournament here in New Ulm?

“We do not have a drop-dead date yet,” Roufs said. “We want to have some semblance of league play.”

But there is one more concern for both New Ulm and Springfield. Both associations stopped selling advertising in mid-March and have been idle since because of the question of whether or not there will be a state tournament.

“They have our empathy,” Roufs said. “That is a tough situation to be in. I think that it would be very difficult to go to businesses who have closed down who maybe six months ago agreed to give money to the program booklet and right now we are basically in a wait-and-see situation. Their program printer needs to know and I think by August 1st we will know if we are having a state tournament or not.”

And it also affects the hundreds of volunteers for the tournament, many of which are over 65 and in the high risk for COVID-19.

“Our number one priority is keeping our players and our fans safe,” Roufs said. “For the people who are in that high risk, they will probably choose not to attend whether we have it or not. Those are good decisions for those folks to make”

Roufs also thought that concession menus would be smaller than in the past.

“There would probably not be open food,” he said. “Those are easy decisions for later. The tough thing for now is to wait and hold, if they still have a strict six-foot distance, we are probably not going to be playing baseball. Unless the governor comes up with a game plan and we follow that game plan. He may say you have to make spaces in dugouts, you need to have provisions for base runners wearing masks. We are willing to do anything. But if it is strict, I do not know how you can have a batter, a catcher and an umpire six feet apart.”

Roufs said that if the state tournament is canceled this year in New Ulm and Springfield that there has been no discussion on what would happen to both associations in regard to future state tournaments.

“We have other cities planning for their tournaments so we would have to make that decision at a later date,” Roufs said.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper?
   

Starting at $4.38/week.

Subscribe Today