Baseball sees its window for starting spring training

Bill Shanks talks about baseball starting spring training in June and the season in early-July.

We are working against a calendar here. You know that Major League Baseball wants to be careful about starting the season. But if this drags on a few more weeks, could the calendar be its worst enemy?

Rumors persist the some teams have been told the hopeful plan is to start spring training somewhere between June 10-15, which would give teams three weeks to start a season, somewhere between July 1-4. 

So, that makes the next few weeks - in May - crucial for any plan using those two time periods to work. We must have better, improved numbers from most states that have MLB teams for any plan to be put into action.

But if the numbers do not improve, and the window to start spring training lingers past June, then what? What if spring training cannot start in mid-June and it is delayed even longer? What if there is no resolution by July 4? Would they still start a spring training in July and have the season start in August?

Would they not care about the calendar and just try to have the seventh game of the World Series by December 31? 

These seem like crazy questions, but you know the powers-that-be in MLB are discussing these topics every single day. In a way, they are handcuffed until we know if the loosening of the guidelines makes a positive or negative impact.

But if the numbers improve over the next 4-5 weeks, they may tell players to head to spring training as soon as possible so a season can get started in July.

Listen to The Bill Shanks Show weekdays at 3:00 p.m. ET on Middle Georgia’s ESPN. You can listen online at TheSuperStations.com. Follow Bill on Twitter at @billshanks and you can email him at thebillshanksshow@yahoo.com.