LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Let me say this right at the outset: I’m with Louisville baseball coach Dan McDonnell in his basic argument. Let the fans back in, especially for outdoor sporting events. Relax the attendance restrictions.
I agree with his premise. I just winced at his tone when he went on a mini-rant about opening college baseball stadiums back up after a Tuesday win over No. 2 Vanderbilt in front of a crowd of 880 that should have been several thousand.
When it comes to some of these COVID-19 restrictions on businesses and schools, at some point, you just have to acknowledge that a great many people are moving on. Like McDonnell, they’ve grown tired of it.
Last spring, The New York Times asked Harvard historian Allan Brandt about how pandemics have ended, from a historical standpoint, around the world. He said, “many questions about the so-called end are determined not by medical and public health data but by sociopolitical processes.”
I saw such a sociopolitical process at Churchill Downs on Saturday, with my feet in the mud on the track as I followed the Kentucky Derby horses and all of the trainers and owners and everyone else on the walk to the paddock from the barns. As I looked into the grandstand, I saw thousands of people in fairly close proximity, most of them unmasked.
That’s when you realize, “We’re not doing the mask or distancing thing outside anymore, are we?”
On Tuesday, McDonnell’s team had just bounced back from being swept pretty convincingly the preceding weekend at Clemson (in a series where average attendance was 1,856) by beating No. 2 Vanderbilt at Jim Patterson Stadium, but the coach was anything but euphoric.
“I’m not going to lie,” McDonnell said after the game. “I’m beyond frustrated. I’m tired of it. We’re an outdoor sport. I mean, let’s go people. Turn on The Masters. Watch the Derby. Watch the games in the SEC and in other ballparks. It’s an outdoor sport. You want to risk it, you risk it. I’m tired of playing games without people in the stands. Let’s open it up. And let’s let them enjoy some Louisville baseball. And then I’ll be a little more excited to host a regional, because unfortunately, I haven’t had a regional atmosphere yet. Right? Do we not agree?”
Well, yeah, but ...
For McDonnell, who is an outstanding coach and who has done a great job in Louisville, that rant got a lot of attention but it also belied the rather limited view of a million-dollar-a-year coach that this is about him or his program. That the restrictions and mitigation measures are somehow about baseball or sports at all.
Yes, all right, it’s stupid to have 50,000 people hugging the rails across the street and not allowing a few thousand to gather a stone’s throw away for a baseball game. Of course, it’s ridiculous.
But it’s not hopping-mad ridiculous. And it ignores this reality: Louisville baseball may be across the street from the Kentucky Derby, but it is a world away. The Derby brings millions in revenue to the city. There is a hierarchy to these things. Louisville baseball is not at the top of it.
But it will get there, and McDonnell is right: It’s getting to be about time to get there.
We need two things right now: for leaders to keep their heads and to use their heads. McDonnell has spent his career doing just that. Every day, he emphasizes to his players to see the bigger picture, to be good to teammates and to each other, to be responsible citizens of the university and city, and to keep their cool — to not get too high, or too low.
None of that precludes questioning why we’re still seeing the attendance restrictions. But it should make a coach use better judgment in tone and context, even if he’s frustrated. McDonnell made a valid point. But he struck an unfortunate tone. He’s dealt with enough umps to know that matters.
Everybody is frustrated with and tired of something right now. But how we handle ourselves in these situations says a great deal about us as individuals and as a society. We can toughen up and deal with things, even those that we disagree with — pushing back, sure, when we think it is warranted — or we can act like petulant children when every minor point of life isn’t crafted to suit us.
It seems to me that we used to be a lot better at handling things than we are now. I could understand — even expect — the kind of angry response McDonnell issued if it had been coming from a restaurant owner or some other kind of venue operator who is fighting to survive.
Louisville baseball isn’t fighting to survive. The Louisville athletic department just took out a $20 million bank loan to cover its operating expenses in the near-term, including the travel costs and operations for McDonnell’s team.
So I stand with what McDonnell wants. Given how we’re handling everything else, there’s no reason to keep restricting outdoor activity.
But let’s understand that there are a few things ahead of college baseball and sports in general in order of importance at this point. And the protests of a coach that he’s tired of playing in front of empty stadiums isn’t going to be the determining factor in opening them up.
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