MIAMI — Michael Hill isn’t used to this.
It’s early April. Baseball is supposed to be in full swing.
Instead, the Miami Marlins’ president of baseball operations has to resort to throwback games, old radio calls and watching his kids play simulated games on their PlayStation if he wants to watch America’s pastime.
“I’ve been trying to get my fix any way possible,” Hill said Thursday on a conference call.
Major League Baseball postponed its season four weeks ago because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. When it will return and in what format are still unknown. Numerous hypotheticals are being discussed by the MLB and the MLB Players’ Association, including a recent report unveiled by ESPN that would quarantine all 30 teams in Phoenix and play games without fans as early as May.
In the grand scheme of things, Hill said, that’s secondary at this point. Hill won’t speculate on the what ifs and doesn’t intend to think about a timeline for when baseball will resume.
“I’m just hoping and praying it’s sooner rather than later,” Hill said. “I’m doing my part and we constantly encourage everyone to do their part of the quarantining and the social distancing.”
Hill said no one in the organization has tested positive or shown symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. He’s in daily constant communication with people throughout the organization. Strength and conditioning coaches and trainers have individualized plans for players to stay in shape during the hiatus.
“It’s an adjustment,” Hill said. “We talk so much about baseball being a game of adjustments. This is something that we’ve never seen before. We just try to get through it as best we can. Staying in constant communication with our people just because this is something new for everyone, something that the entire world is dealing with. … You devoted your lives and careers to this game. This is something new for all of us.”
It’s a challenge for all in baseball. They’re preparing for the unknown, doing what they can to be ready for that unknown day — whether it’s next month, this summer or next year — that they get the all clear to return to the baseball diamond.
“I think we all know that until we get this disease under control, we’re not anticipating getting back to work,” Hill said. “That’s the priority now. Get that under control. Once that happens, a lot of smart people will get together and put forth a plan for us to return to play.”
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The Marlins donated nearly 1,000 pieces of clothing, including home and road jerseys, uniform pants and T-shirts to World Red Eye, a Miami-based media agency, to help produce masks for the South Florida community during the coronavirus pandemic.
The donation will help create more than 7,500 more masks that will be distributed to the City of Miami Police Department the University of Miami Health System and other medical facilities.
“During this time, it quickly became apparent that face masks were one of the most needed items on the front lines,” World Red Eye founder Seth Browarnik said in a press release on Thursday. “I coordinated a team of designers and seamstresses to literally produce masks overnight. To date, our team has produced almost 5,000 masks in just over a week. We have been able to donate these masks to save lives.”
This is the Marlins’ latest effort to provide aid to the community during this time. The Miami Marlins Foundation last week started the Home Plate Relief Fund that will include a weekly food drive among other ways to help South Florida residents. They have also committed $1 million to gameday employees impacted by the postponed baseball season. Marlins Park is also being used as a drive-up COVID-19 testing site.
“This is the community’s team,” Marlins CEO and part-owner Derek Jeter said Wednesday on the team’s Beyond the Bases podcast. “In times of need, we want to be there for our community. We’re trying to do that to the best of our abilities and we’ll continue to try to do that.”
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