The Washington Post - 11.03.2020

KLMNO

SPORTS

wednesday, march 11 , 2020. washingtonpost.com/sports M2 d

BY DAVE SHEININ

I

t was baseball as played in a sensory-de-

privation tank. no smell of hot dogs or

popcorn. A silence so pure you could hear

the bullpen phone ringing from the dugout.

nothing but empty, green seats as far as the

eye could see. It was still baseball, but a

grotesque, distorted version that no one

who was there, at oriole Park at Camden

Yards in Baltimore on April 29, 2015, ever

wanted to witness again.

“Fans play such a big part in generating

the intensity when you’re playing at home,”

said Jim Palmer, a Hall of Fame pitcher

across a 19-year career with the orioles and

now a television broadcaster who was in the

booth that day, when civil unrest in Balti-

more following the death of Freddie Gray

forced the team to play a home game against

the Chicago White sox with no fans present.

“A ll of that was gone.”

The question of whether a sporting event

is still a sporting event if played without fans

is suddenly and unsettlingly pertinent again

this week as the major north American

leagues, including the nBA, nHL and Major

League Baseball, prepare contingency plans

for the growing coronavirus outbreak.

It is a step that has already been taken in

europe, where top-level soccer matches in

spain, Portugal, France, Germany and slova-

kia have been or will be played in empty

stadiums. Italy, among the countries hardest

hit by the coronavirus, has canceled all

matches for the next month. In Asia, Japan’s

nippon Professional Baseball league and

see virus on D6

An empty

feeling

Amid the growing coronavirus outbreak,

teams must consider playing without fans

Jabin botsford/the Washington Post

The White sox and orioles played a memorable 2015 game without fans in oriole Park at camden yards a mid unrest in Baltimore following the death of Freddie gray.

Pro basketball

bradley beal finishes with 39 points, and the Wizards

outlast the Knicks for a back-and-forth 122-115 win. d3

men’s College basketball

the big te n has prided itself on its depth all season.

that talent will converge this week in indianapolis. d5

media

the coronavirus is shutting down the last place where

reporters and athletes still mingle: the locker room. d6

BY AVA WALLACE

When Greg Malinowski partic-

ipated in his first Georgetown

basketball practice in months at

the on-campus John R. Thomp-

son Jr. Intercollegiate Athletic

Center, he had just one thought.

“This is it?” he said.

Malinowski, who graduated

from the university last year and

is no longer eligible to play in

games, transferred to George-

town from William & Mary ahead

of Coach Patrick ewing’s first

season in 2017. His only memories

of Hoyas practices were those of

hard sprints, legs that felt like

lead and, well, nothing like what

he saw when the Virginia native

came back from playing overseas

in early February and stopped by

for a workout with his old team.

“Those practices would go for

hours — like, a long time. It

seemed never-ending,” Mal-

inowski said. “A nd then coming

back, my first practice back was

like, ‘A ll right, starters, you guys

shoot free throws and other guys

do some conditioning.’ I’m trying

to stay in shape, so I did the

conditioning, and then we played

three-on-three. I was like, ‘This is

it?’ They just couldn’t do that

much.... n obody in the entire

country, I couldn’t imagine, has a

situation like Georgetown.”

The Hoyas have been so

wracked by injuries and transfer

departures that their roster has

been winnowed to six healthy

scholarship players over the past

month, leaving ewing desperate

to find bodies to fill out a scout

team. As the Hoyas (15-16) fin-

ished the regular season and then

prepared for Wednesday’s match-

up with st. John’s (16-15) in the

see hoyas on D5

Georgetown’s practices

look like an alumni game

BY ADAM KILGORE

The nCAA faced mounting

pressure over how it will conduct

its marquee event Tuesday as the

Ivy League canceled its confer-

ence basketball tournaments and

two other Division I conferences

announced their tournaments

would be played without specta-

tors because of escalating con-

cerns about the coronavirus.

The nCAA men’s and women’s

basketball tournaments are

scheduled to begin next week at

more than two dozen sites

around the country, including

multiple venues in ohio, where

Gov. Mike DeWine (R) issued a

strong recommendation Tuesday

to play indoor sporting events in

nearly empty arenas. The nCAA

remained noncommittal in how it

will proceed.

“The nCAA continues to assess

how covid-19 impacts the con-

duct of our tournaments and

events,” t he organization said in a

statement. “We are consulting

with public health officials and

our covid-19 advisory panel, who

are leading experts in epidemiol-

ogy and public health, and will

make decisions in the coming

days.”

As coronavirus concerns have

shut down college campuses, can-

celed political rallies and led to

the national Guard entering new

Rochelle, n.Y., scrutiny is intensi-

fying on the nCAA as it prepares

to host large-scale gatherings

across the country. The pace of

the coronavirus’s spread and

statements by public officials fur-

ther raised the specter of one of

see ncaa on D5

NCAA’s

p lan for

virus is

unclear

As m arquee event looms,

Ivy League cancels; o ther

tourneys ban spectators

so Max scherzer has what he
described as an “ailment,” a nd
his latest Grapefruit League
start was pushed back. over
the past eight seasons, no one
has thrown more regular
season innings. He added 30
more in october. He turns 36
in July. Cue the chorus. The
end must be near.
“everyone’s always like, ‘This is going to be
the year when he starts to break down,’ ” f irst
baseman Ryan Zimmerman said last week in
West Palm Beach, Fla. “A nd every year, you
get to the second half, and you’re like, ‘Is he
going to win the Cy Young again?’ He’s the
To m Brady of baseball.”
As he enters the penultimate season of a
seven-year, $210 million contract that has
been, by almost any measure, a bargain,
scherzer is at perhaps his most interesting
juncture. His finishes in the national League
Cy Young voting over the first five years of the
deal: fifth, first, first, second and third. His
ranks among starting pitchers over that
period: first in innings, first in batting
see svrluga on D7

With his relentless approach, Scherzer is age-defying

Barry
Svrluga

John Mcdonnell/the Washington Post

nationals ace Max scherzer, 35, skipped his scheduled start Tuesday with what he

called an “ailment” on his right side, but he still expects to be ready for opening Day.

big east tournament first round

georgetown vs. st. John’s

today, 7 p.m., fox sports 1

ace has ‘ailment’: Max scherzer misses his
start but says he has no long-term concern. d6

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