A Couple Cleveland Indians Take Part in Trevor Bauer's Pickup "Sandlot" Charity Wiffle Ball Game in Arizona

There will be no Major League Baseball for some time after Friday’s announcement that spring training games have been cancelled and the start of the season will be on hold for at least two weeks, possibly longer.

The disappointment over the decision regarding Major League Baseball due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic was pushed aside Saturday night, even if just for a short time of fun.

Former Cleveland Indian and current Cincinnati Reds pitcher Trevor Bauer was the host for a “Sandlot” charity pickup wiffle ball game played in Arizona Saturday evening, featuring a number of fellow Major League players.

All proceeds raised in the charity event were being donated to support MLB game day staff who would be out of work with no games as of now to start the regular season.

The Indians were represented by Bauer’s best friend, pitcher Mike Clevinger, and outfielder Oscar Mercado, who hit a homer in the contest.

Bauer had announced his desire to have a game Friday after Major League pitcher David Carpenter tweeted at the Reds starter asking if they could organize such an event for a little ‘pickup’ baseball game.

Never the one to back down, Bauer quickly got a ton of support on social media, and put out a call for players that might want to take part in the event.

He got 1.2k replies, and there were quite a few Major League players on both sides that came out to have some fun and spread some joy knowing there won’t be any real baseball for a while.

This was literally the coolest thing to witness. @BauerOutage is changing the game and @Watch_Momentum is the future of sports. pic.twitter.com/3B3fPXqIu9
— Makayla Perkins (@MakaylaEPerkins) March 15, 2020

Watch Momentum announced that the event would be closed to the media as well as to the general public to "protect the health and safety of the players."

Mercado’s homer was a great sign for a player that still technically is recovering from a sprained left wrist suffered in a Cactus League game two weeks ago.

The hope was that Mercado would start working with weighted balls this week and be able to be ready to go for what was the scheduled March 26 opener against the Detroit Tigers.

Clevinger showed no ill effects from his offseason knee surgery, and seemed just fine at the plate taking some swings and even connecting on a few pitches.

#Indians pitcher @Mike_Anthony13 taking some swings in the @Watch_Momentum game in Arizona - a good sign he’s out there playing & having fun despite knee surgery earlier this spring pic.twitter.com/sfvzDI6aFu
— Matt Loede (@MattLoede) March 15, 2020

You can see the entire event from Saturday night on Watch Momentum’s (Bauer’s part owned venture) official twitter account.

https://t.co/DZJyPRkbxc
— Momentum (@Watch_Momentum) March 15, 2020

Clevinger himself tweeted out about the success of the event, and how it would be a different story in the second game.

Game 1 was hard fought, beat by a good group of guys, we will come back stronger game 2.... https://t.co/vKVf2EuxYI
— ❂ Mike 𝕊𝕌ℕ𝕊ℍ𝕀ℕ𝔼 Clevinger ❂ (@MikeClevinger) March 15, 2020

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