Baseball’s Strange and Poignant Return to TV
The first live sports games to air in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic provide a hopeful, yet harrowing, look at the future.
For the first time since March, Americans can watch major team sports on live TV. A week ago, ESPN started broadcasting games from the Korea Baseball Organization, which began its delayed season after a marked downturn in new daily COVID-19 cases in South Korea. The games have since been airing daily on the company’s networks, buttressing a slate that for weeks had leaned on debate shows and re-airings of vintage events. Fans on social media welcomed the games as a kind of sports methadone, offering relief to audiences in desperate need of diversion. It wasn’t the ideal—well-known players, packed stadiums, minds unburdened enough to get angry over missed calls—but it was something.
Starting with the opening-day between the Samsung
