The New York Times - USA (2020-06-29)

MARK J. TERRILL/ASSOCIATED PRESS

SCORES ANALYSIS COMMENTARY MONDAY, JUNE 29, 2020 D1

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2 HIGH SCHOOLS

A send-off for athletes whose

senior year was cut short.

4 BASEBALL

Gerardo Parra has taken

‘Baby Shark’ to Japan.

6 THE WAITING GAME

When agony finally

turned to ecstasy

for Jana Novotna

at Wimbledon.

More than 140 years after it made its de-
but, in English soccer, the whistle is the
most recognizable sound in sports.
From soccer fields and football stadiums
to basketball arenas and wrestling mats,
from youth sports to the pros and from one
continent to the next, the whistle is the
thread that winds through global sports. It
often marks the beginning and the end of an
event, signals pauses and restarts in tense
moments, and acts as an exclamation point
after a big play. In the symphony of sport,
the whistle is the soprano: crisp, distinct
and capable of leaving one’s ears ringing.
But in the age of the coronavirus, the
whistle may face an existential challenge,
or, at the very least, a serious rethinking. To
use almost any whistle requires a deep
breath and then a forced burst of droplet-
filled air — things that, during a pandemic,
deeply concern medical experts.
Is there a better way? That is what people
keep asking Ron Foxcroft.

Foxcroft, a former N.C.A.A. and Olympic

basketball official, is the most trusted name

in North America when it comes to whistles.

His company, Fox 40, sells about 15,000 a

day — mostly the so-called pealess whistle,

which accounts for the bulk of his business.

About a decade ago, Fox 40 also began

making and marketing an electronic whis-

tle. It operates with the push of a button, and

its tones can be adjusted by a switch on the

side. The current versions on the market

produce sounds that range from 96 to 120

decibels (or from the sound of a lawn mower

to that of an ambulance siren).

It is this version that in recent months has

come to dominate Foxcroft’s conversations,

emails and text messages.

“There’s two questions,” Foxcroft said of

the inquiries he has received in the past few

months. “No. 1: ‘Ron, you’re a referee. Tell

us what you think of the electronic whistle.’

No. 2: ‘We’d like to experiment with the

electronic whistle. Can you send us some?’ ”

A Case for Letting Fingers Do the Whistling

By CHANTEL JENNINGS

Using a traditional referee’s whistle requires a deep breath and then a forced burst

of droplet-filled air, actions that deeply concern medical experts as virus threats.

RONNY HARTMANN/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page D5

Because of the pandemic,

a mouth-free device for

referees is receiving

serious consideration.

The tremors are over. When major league players stick

their cleats into the dirt for training camp next week,

the ground below them will be still. The invisible threat

to their season — the coronavirus — is still out there,

of course. But the game is coming back in an unprece-

dented form. It will be a 60-game dash to October, not

the usual cross-country, 162-game slog.

“If you said in spring training: ‘We’re going to have

every team tied for first on July 24,’ you’d be like, ‘Sign

me up for that pennant race,’ ” said Jim Duquette, a

former Mets general manager. “Basically, that’s what

we have. We’re starting a week before the normal trade

deadline and saying, ‘OK, here you go, guys, last 60

games, go get ’em!’ That has a chance to be really excit-

ing.”

For fans, that may be the best way to approach the

new season: Erase the recent past, embrace the next

few months and, by all means, don’t look too far ahead.

After all, Commissioner Rob Manfred fi-

nally imposed the schedule — which begins

on July 23 — on the players’ union this week

after the sides had failed to reach a negotiat-

ed agreement over three months of unreal-

istic proposals and harsh public statements.

Manfred’s decision meant the league

avoided the unseemliness of losing a season

to economic squabbling amid a pandemic,

but the unilateral resolution reflected much

deeper problems for the sport. Few of those

issues can be resolved without repairing a

deep chasm between the union and owner-

ship, a schism that could soon swallow up

the sport.

“I’ve never seen anything like what

we’ve experienced, in any baseball labor

negotiation,” said Fred Claire, the general

manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers from

1987 to 1998. “With the letters that went

back and forth, with the language that was

used, with the total display of lack of trust —

it was terrible.

“We’ve got to learn from that, because

there’s a big hurdle coming, and it can’t be

denied.”

That hurdle is negotiations over a new

collective bargaining agreement after the

current one expires in December 2021. The

current C.B.A. is a clear victory for the own-

ers, who have managed to keep the average

salary virtually stagnant — around $4.4 mil-

lion — since it was ratified in December

2016, despite rising industry revenue.

Uncertainty as Far

As the Eye Can See

By TYLER KEPNER

A view of Dodger Sta-

dium, above. It and the

other parks will have no

fans when Major League

Baseball starts play on

July 23. Average attend-

ance has dropped in each

of the past four years.

ELISE AMENDOLA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Baseball is set for a

60-game sprint. But

trying to find labor peace

and to remain relevant

could become slogs.

Continued on Page D3