union representing the park’s 1,200 con-
cession workers who are out of work.
Cobb is one of them. He has been at the
ballpark since it opened in 2008, lugging
food and drinks out of the warehouse,
often pushing through the overnight
shift.
“A ll we’re looking for is a little help,”
Cobb said on the call. every team in
baseball has committed $1 million to aid
stadium workers who are not receiving
paychecks. But because Cobb is consid-
ered a “nonevent” worker, he does not
qualify. Unite Here is urging the nationals
and the other 29 clubs to pay its subcon-
tracted food service workers for the first
40 home games they are likely to miss.
“There are a lot of people who are
currently out of work because of the virus
crisis,” Cobb continued. “We filed for
unemployment, which I haven’t received
as of yet. so basically I’m stuck in limbo.”the manager
Dave Martinez would have been in his
office, looking over the Mets’ lineup,
checking in with pitching coach Paul
Menhart, bench coach Tim Bogar, the
video staff, the scouting staff, the club-
house staff and his players.
Instead, just after 11 a.m., he sipped
coffee at his farm outside nashville. He
had just finished pledging a $7,800 dona-
tion to the nats 4 Good Community
Response Fund. The team’s r adio partner,
106.7 the Fan, ran a giving drive in place
of a typical opening Day broadcast. The
initiative, run by nationals Philanthro-
pies, will distribute charitable grants for
access to food and health services during
the pandemic.
“We talk about bumpy roads leading to
a beautiful place,” Martinez said, using
his mother’s favorite line, the one he
offered to millions after the nationals
advanced to the World series this past
october. “We’re on the bumpiest roads
we could possibly be on right now. But
we’ll get to that beautiful place again.”
Martinez’s plan was to call each of his
players to say he missed them. Then he
wanted to load dirt onto his tractor, drive
it down to a battered path and get to
work. There were potholes in a road on
his property, and he thought he would
take the free afternoon to fill them.
see nationals on C9BY JESSE DOUGHERTYJeremy Gifford would have waked up
at 5 a .m. Thursday to drive the 15 minutes
to his sports bar in the shadow of nation-
als Park. He would have wiped down the
tables, cleaned the beer line, set up the
$20,000 worth of supplies — extra silver-
ware, extra plates, extra everything — he
bought for a huge celebration at Walters.
He would have opened the doors at 8,
welcomed the earliest drinkers, then
braced for a full slate of midmorning
brunch reservations.
That was the plan, at least, before the
novel coronavirus outbreak shut down
baseball and turned Thursday into just
another stay-at-home day. It was sup-
posed to be the home opener at n ationals
Park, a 1:05 p.m. start for the Washington
nationals against the new York Mets,
preceded by a ceremony to raise a World
series banner. It would have been a
sellout and then some. It would have
packed the whole neighborhood with
fans.
Instead, in this alternate reality, Gif-
ford showed up after 9 a.m. He didn’t
prep the fire pits on the sidewalk or water
the flowers he never planted or turn on
any of the 11 televisions along the back
wall. He opened his laptop and looked at
the orders that kept trickling in. Walters
is offering grocery bundles through a
pickup window, and the kitchen looks
like a pop-up supermarket.
Gifford lined up dozens of receipts on
the bar. The phone kept ringing. There
was a tap list on a magnet board — Port
City, Devils Backbone, Right Proper —
but no customers to serve.
“We’ve been thinking about this day
for a long time,” Gifford said while shak-
ing his head. “It’ll happen eventually. It
has to, right?”the concession worker
It’s a little past 10 a.m., and Mike Cobb
would have been a few hours into a shift
already, driving his forklift through the
concourse, stuffing concession stands
with beer, peanuts and whatever else.
Instead, he was at his home in Upper
Marlboro, the one he owes a mortgage
on, speaking to dozens on a conference
call.
It was held by Unite Here Local 23, aKLMNO
SPORTS
friday, april 3 , 2020. washingtonpost.com/sports. page c8 Re k
Taken out of the ballgame
On the day of the Nationals’ scheduled home opener, the unavoidable lack of baseball was difficult to ignore
photos by Jonathan newton/the washington postnationals Park will sit empty for the foreseeable future because of the
novel coronavirus pandemic, leaving a void in the middle of the spring.“We’ve been thinking about this day for a long time.
It’ll happen eventually. It has to, right?”
Jeremy Gifford, owner of walters sports bar near nationals park