What Does Indians Manager Terry Francona Make of the Coronavirus and Its Impact on MLB

With the ongoing changes to professional sports with the spread of the Coronavirus, Indians manager Terry Francona spoke on Wednesday about what could be coming up with Major League Baseball, and what steps his team is taking to be prepared in case things change with the league and schedule.

Many sports franchises, coaches, managers and players are immune to a lot of things that tend to go on with the real world due to their focus of what they have to do to be successful.

There’s no way now that can be the case in sports after the NBA suspended games on Wednesday night after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19, known as coronavirus.

.Major League Baseball, like all the other professional sports leagues, have been keeping a close eye on what is happening in terms of moving forward with just a few short weeks to go before the start of the regular season.

Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona was asked Wednesday about the ongoing situation with the possible changes in the game, as well as what’s going on in the country with the coronavirus.

“The best route we can go about this is to listen to what we are being told, knowing that can change from day to day,” Francona said.

“We care so much about getting our team ready and winning games but I think we have to be extremely respectful of what is going on in the world and make adjustments if we are supposed to.”

Already the Seattle Mariners have moved their home opener against the Texas Rangers due to the amount of cases in the state of Washington.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a number of teams could change the venue of their opener to stadiums less effected by the virus.

To this point Francona says he and the team are simply taking it day by day.

“I have no idea, it’s never been broached we me,” Francona said of the opener being played in another stadium.

“What I am trying to do today is get us ready to either play a game or hit in the cages if it rains.

“We’re trying to have a good day today, that’s what we are going to do, trying to have a really good productive day.”

Francona has always done an excellent job of keeping his team focused on today, not looking ahead and not looking back, and he plans on keeping that mantra up as the season get closer and he and the coaching staff have to make tough decisions with the roster.

For now, the Indians and Detroit Tigers opener on March 26 is still on, and until the manager or team is told differently, that’s the plan with two weeks to go.

“If at some point somebody asks or tells us to do something different, we certainly don’t care less about being a good team, but I think you got to be respectful of what is going on in the world.

“The players have a pretty resilient way of showing up everyday ready to go, recognizing that there is a real world, players are pretty resilient,” Francona said.