WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2020 The Boston Globe Sports C3
IvyLeaguecancels
basketballtourneys
CoveringtheSox,
fromadistance
ly tying his shoes when I approached and asked if he had a
moment.
“Sorry dude, gotta run,” the young outfielder said polite-
ly. “Maybe catch you tomorrow.”
Hmmmm. Maybe not. Not now.
I had a nice conversation with John Andreoli, a 29-year-
old outfielder who was born in Worcester and played at St.
John’s in Shrewsbury, where his dad is still football coach.
We talked about the many Holy Cross alums in his family
and his decision to go to the University of Connecticut,
where he played with Matt Barnes and George Springer. We
talked about Tony Sanchez and Kevin Moran, guys he re-
membered playing against when they were at Boston Col-
lege.
Andreoli played a summer at Wahconah Park for Pitts-
field in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.
“Only place where they have sun delays,” he recalled.
“The sun sets over the center-field fence at the start of night
games, and they would allow us to stop the game for about
20 minutes if the sun was getting in our eyes.”
With help from Red Sox interpreter Bryan Almonte, I
had a few moments with new second baseman Jose Peraza,
a 25-year-old Venezuelan who appeared in more than 500
games with the Reds the last four seasons. Peraza said he re-
searched to find the team with the greatest need for a sec-
ond baseman and concluded Boston was the best place for
him to sign.
He said he wants to prove that he can be an everyday
player. He said he looks forward to playing in Fenway Park,
adding, “Playing in front of all those fans every day is what
we play for.”
He is friendly with Red Sox starting pitchers Eduardo
Rodriguez and Martin Perez, both Venezuelans. Peraza said
he doesn’t care where he hits in the lineup. A veteran of Ven-
ezuela’s hotly contested Caracas-Magallanes Caribbean Se-
ries, Pereza said he would not be intimidated by the intensi-
ty of Red Sox-Yankees games. He is wearing number 3, and
he is your second baseman.
A few hours after my last loop in the locker room, the
Red Sox PR staff sent out a media advisory regarding Tues-
day access, stating, “The media relations staff will bring
players and coaches out to the media bench between 9:15-
10:15 a.m.” The memo advised reporters to request players
in advance, and stated, “A minimum distance of 6 feet needs
to be kept between the player/coach speaking to reporters.”
(I think the Shaughnessy Rule is 10 feet.)
Reporters who requested interviews dutifully gathered
by the outdoor interview bench at 9:15 Tuesday morning.
They waited for just under two hours. In that time, the only
players produced were Barnes and Brandon Workman, at
the request of the Associated Press.
Meanwhile, Sox fans who paid for the JetBlue Tour pa-
raded through the Red Sox dugout.
When the interview room opened around 11 a.m., the ar-
ea had been reconfigured. Chairs were backed away — a
safe and respectful 6 feet — from the interview table.
“I know that it’s harder on you [media] guys now,” said
Red Sox interim manager Ron Roenicke. “We understand
that, and I talked to the players and they need to be more
accessible. When you guys need them, they need to be there
for you. So I’m hoping that part is good.”
Never mind us. What are the players thinking about the
risk of coronavirus as they go to work, playing games in
front of thousands of people?
“We’re all trying to learn more about it,” said the manag-
er. “Not just MLB, but what they are trying to do to stop this
in the country and worldwide. Some players are more com-
fortable about this than others. They’re concerned about be-
ing out more in the public.
“I’m still high-fiving the players after good hits, and I
think about it, and think maybe I should go inside and get
some sanitizer. In baseball, it’s always hands. Whether it’s
coronavirus or flu, we’re always touching each other’s
hands. We’re trying to fist more, and elbow more.”
The Sox made some players available for group inter-
views during and after Tuesday’s exhibition game vs. the
Cardinals at JetBlue. We all kept our 6-foot distance.
Welcome to Nomar Nirvana. More fists. More elbows.
No handshakes. No high-fives. No spitting.
And no reporters in the clubhouse.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached
at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter
@dan_shaughnessy.
uSHAUGHNESSY
Continued from Page C1
professionals, according to Harris.
She said they made the “very difficult’’ decision after
weighing numerous options, including playing the tourna-
ment games before a limited number of spectators or no
spectators at all.
Harris said the Ivy presidents ultimately decided the re-
strictions they had placed on large gatherings on their
campuses should extend to athletic events.
The tournaments were scheduled to be played at Har-
vard’s Lavietes Pavilion. The women’s title game was to air
Saturday on ESPN News, with the men’s final to be broad-
cast Sunday on ESPN2. The league said all tickets will be
fully refunded.
The cancellation killed any chance of the Harvard men’s
basketball team, ranked second in the league, overtaking
top-seeded Yale in the tournament for an automatic invita-
tion to the NCAA national tournament. The Crimson now
have no realistic chance of gaining a berth in the March
Madness tournament.
The Ivy League said it also had immediately implement-
ed “highly restrictive, in-venue spectator limitations for all
other upcoming campus athletic events’’ and canceled all
out-of-season practices and competitions.
At Harvard, the coronavirus also caused the school to
cancel road trips over the next 12 days for the men's and
women's crew teams, men’s and women’s golf teams, the
softball team, the men’s and women’s tennis teams, the
men’s volleyball team, and the women’s water polo team.
Several Harvard home games this week remain sched-
uled, including women’s lacrosse Wednesday and Saturday,
women’s tennis Friday, and men’s lacrosse Saturday.
Meanwhile, the Harvard men’s hockey team is sched-
uled to play Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in a best-of-
three quarterfinal round of the ECAC tournament this
weekend in Troy, N.Y., in an arena without spectators.
As of Tuesday, Massachusetts public health officials said
there were 92 positive or presumptive cases of the highly
contagious virus in the state, up from 41 the previous day.
Notable among the sports events in Greater Boston
whose status remained in question Tuesday was the final
four of the Hockey East men’s championship tournament
at TD Garden March 20 and 21. While the Garden awaited
further guidance, Hockey East was preparing for the possi-
bility of playing the games in empty arenas or neutral sites
if necessary, according to associate director Brian Smith.
He spoke before Baker’s declaration.
The tournament's quarterfinal round is scheduled to be-
gin Friday, with Providence playing at Boston College,
Northeastern at UMass Amherst, Connecticut at Maine,
and Boston University at UMass Lowell.
BC athletics spokesman Jason Baum said before Baker
declared a state of emergency, “There has been no change
to any events at Boston College at the current time.’’
UMass Amherst's sports schedule also remained un-
changed, according to athletics spokesman Matt Houde.
At UMass Lowell, spokesman Pete Souris, speaking af-
ter Baker’s declaration, said the Hockey East quarterfinal
there remained on the schedule, while the school awaited
further information.
At BU, the men’s basketball team was on track to play
Colgate on the road Wednesday in the Patriot League title
game. On Thursday, the BU women’s team was scheduled
to host Lehigh in the Patriot League semifinals at Case
Gymnasium. BU athletics spokesman Brian Kelley said be-
fore Baker’s announcement that much remains in question
about the impact of the coronavirus on future events. He
indicated the athletic department would be guided by the
decisions of university leaders.
BU’s spring break ends Monday. Across the river, where
Harvard students are scheduled to return from their break
March 23, the school already has announced plans to move
all academic courses online. Leaders at BU, BC, and North-
eastern have urged their faculties to prepare to launch on-
line education as well, though no official decisions had
been made, the Globe reported Monday.
Massachusetts state high school tournaments also are
nearing their conclusion, with boys and girls basketball
semifinals and championships scheduled this week, as well
as the boys’ hockey final. All games remained scheduled
Tuesday, but Tara Bennett, communications director of the
Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, said
the situation is “very fluid.’’Bob Hohler can be reached at [email protected].uCORONAVIRUS
Continued from Page C1Sportseventswithout
fanspartofgamenow
sports riches, friends. March and April
provide something worth anticipating
for sports fans of just about any partic-
ular preference and passion.
And yet right now, as we juggle cau-
tion and paranoia about the chaos the
virus Covid-19 is threatening to cause,
I think not of the enjoyment we typi-
cally get from these events, but of the
eerie logistics amid potential crisis.
Do you think there will be fans at
any of them, if they go on at all?
I can’t stop thinking about what
this would be like, especially now that
smaller events than those listed are
starting to take significant precau-
tions. On Tuesday, the Ivy League can-
celed its men’s and women’s basketball
tournaments, scheduled to be played
at Harvard’s Lavietes Pavilion, out of
concern about the coronavirus’s
spread.
Governing bodies and leaders
across all sports are dealing with how
they should handle well-attended
events and whether they should be
played in empty stadiums, if they’re
not outright postponed or canceled.
Officials in Santa Clara County, Calif.,
have banned gatherings of 1,000 or
more people for the rest of the month.
That decision affects three San Jose
Sharks hockey games, including one
against the Bruins March 21.
Major League Baseball officials
have said they plan to open the regular
season with fans in attendance, but ac-
knowledged that the plan could
change at any time.
ESPN reported that the NBA has a
meeting scheduled Wednesday to dis-
cuss how to proceed. Celtics broadcast-
er Mike Gorman, during his weekly ap-
pearance on the “Toucher and Rich”
radio program Tuesday, said what so
many of us suspect.
“I think we’re going to be playing
games in empty arenas pretty soon,”
Gorman said. “Sooner than peopleuFINN
Continued from Page C1think.”
Gorman said he spoke with some-
one in the league office who told him
the possibility is high that the regular
season will conclude without fans in
attendance.
“My concern level is high,” he said.
“At the Celtic game the other night, a
lot of people come walking by the table
and they want to say nice things,
which I’m very flattered by how long
they’ve listened, and they stick out
their hands to shake hands. I just don’t
want to shake hands with anybody
anymore. It’s nothing personal, but I’m
just trying to cut down the odds of be-
ing the one who gets this thing.”
Gorman’s feelings are logical and
probably pretty common right now.
But even the thought of games without
fans makes for an eerie scene. Would
there be pregame introductions of the
players during a Celtics game if there is
no crowd to cheer or boo? Would they
play “Sweet Caroline” in the eighth in-
ning at Fenway? If David Pastrnak
scored a hat trick, would there be any
ballcaps landing on the Garden ice?
Such a scene is not totally unprece-
dented. The Orioles and White Sox
played a crowdless game on April 29,
2015, because of civil unrest in Balti-
more after the death of Freddie Gray,
an African-American man who had
been critically injured while in police
custody, fell into a coma, and died. But
that somber scenario was for just a sin-
gle ballgame.
It’s hard to envision these events
we’ve been anticipating — Opening
Day, the Masters, the Final Four —
played without crowds. But we might
not have to envision it. We might see it
unfold from afar, on our televisions
and devices, from what we hope is the
safety of our own homes. The boredom
of February never looked so good.Chad Finn can be reached at
[email protected]. Follow him on
Twitter @GlobeChadFinn.Virustensionsbuildaroundcountry,world
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The novel coronavirus out-
break, which has already re-
shaped the professional sports
landscape in Europe, prompted
new restrictions to restrict fan
access in the United States on
Tuesday, with major decisions
looming about baseball’s open-
ing day and college basketball’s
NCAA tournament.
College games will be played
without fans in Ohio and Cali-
fornia, and given the restric-
tions on large gatherings there
and elsewhere, more disrup-
tions to the sports calendar ap-
pear inevitable. The NCAA said
it would “make decisions in the
coming days” about its men's
and women's basketball tourna-
ments after two conferences
banned fans from their champi-
onships and another canceled
its tournament altogether.
The baseball season begins
in just over two weeks and in-
cludes games in Seattle. Of the
29 known deaths in the US, 24
have been in the Seattle area,
with 19 tied to a single nursing
home.
The Mariners are set to host
theTexasRangersonMarch^2 6.
If Major League Baseball can't
play in front of fans at a team's
home ballpark, the sport's first
preference likely would be to
switch games to the visiting
team's stadium if possible, a
person familiar with the delib-
erations told The Associated
Press.
The person spoke on condi-
tion of anonymity Tuesday be-
cause no decisions have been
made.
Rangers catcher Robinson
Chirinos said Tuesday he is con-
cerned about traveling to Seat-
tle.
“I know the season starts in
Seattle, and we know how Seat-
tle is right now," Chirinos said.
"That’s 2½ weeks from now, so
I think we’re going to hear some
news when we’re getting close
to opening day.”
Governor Jay Inslee said
Washington is preparing for po-
tentially tens of thousands of
cases, based on estimates of the
spread of the disease.
MLB anticipates govern-
ment officials will decide
whether it is safe to play in
front of fans in each city.
None of North America's
major sports leagues has post-
poned games or barred fans in
a bid to keep them safe, but
there was a flurry of activity as
college conferences and schools
began making those moves.
The Ivy League became the first
Division I conference to cancelits basketball tournaments.
Governor Gavin Newsom of
California questioned why
leagues weren't moving more
aggressively.
“I find it quite curious that
the four major organizations —
NHL, MLS, MLB, and NBA —
put out guidelines to protect
their athletes but not their
fans,” said Newsom, referring to
the leagues’ new restrictions on
locker room access.
Discussions about next steps
have been ongoing for weeks as
postponements and fan restric-
tions have become commonelsewhere. Early Wednesday,
London-based football club Ar-
senal announced that its play-
ers would be self-isolating be-
cause of possible exposure to
the virus, forcing the postpone-
ment of its Premier League
game at Manchester City. It was
the first Premier League game
called off because of the virus
and the first possible exposure
involving players in a major
sports league.
Scores of top-tier soccer
games in Spain, France, and
Portugal, as well as some in
Germany and a EuropeanChampionship qualifying
match in Slovakia, will be
played in empty stadiums in
coming days.
The French league said soc-
cer matches in its top two divi-
sions will be played without
fans until April 15, and Portu-
gal announced similar mea-
sures. Italy earlier this week
said all sports events, including
Serie A soccer games and pre-
paratoryeventsfortheTokyo
Olympics, were suspended un-
til April 3.
Sports and government offi-
cials in nearly every corner of
the globe have scrambled to ad-
dress concerns that fans could
be at risk, and to potentially
stop the spread of the virus. The
fear has spread from Asia —
particularly about the Summer
Olympics in Tokyo — to Europe
and now to North America:
RGovernor Mike DeWine of
Ohio recommended that fans
be kept away from all indoor
sporting events. The state is
home to the NBA’s Cleveland
Cavaliers and the NHL’s Colum-
bus Blue Jackets, among oth-
ers; the Blue Jackets said they
did not plan to keep fans away
from games this week. The
state is also hosting the first
four games of the NCAA men’s
tournament next week in Day-ton. First-round games are also
set to be played in Cleveland on
March 20 and 22.
The NCAA released a state-
ment three hours after the
DeWine's announcement say-
ing it “continues to assess how
COVID-19 impacts the conduct
or our tournaments and
events.”
The Mid-American Confer-
ence announced its men’s and
women’s tournaments to be
played in Cleveland would be
closed to the general public.
The Big West announced a sim-
ilar move with its men’s and
women’s tournaments.
Also in Southern California,
USC and UCLA said all of its
home athletic events will be
held without fans at least until
April 10, or until further notice.
RThe NHL was also assess-
ing the impact of a decision by
Santa Clara County health offi-
cials to ban gatherings of more
than 1,000 people in response
to the spread of the virus.
RThe NBA told teams last
week to prepare for the possi-
bility of playing games in empty
arenas, which Los Angeles Lak-
ers star LeBron James initially
said he wanted no part of and
would not play, but said Tues-
day he would do whatever the
NBA tells teams to do.AP FILE
In 2015, the Orioles played without fans because of rioting in the city;
baseball is considering similar park options because of the coronavirus.ALBERTO SAIZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Waiters wearing masks serve refreshments outside empty
Mestalla Stadium during the Champions League soccer
match between host Valencia and Atalanta in Spain.