Best of SI: Minor League Baseball Is in Crisis

Jeff Savage first learned about COVID-19 in February, reading an email from a distributor of novelty rings in China. The note was confusing at first for the president of the Sacramento River Cats, the Triple A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants. It said the business had to temporarily close its warehouse to stop the spread of something called the novel coronavirus, which was sweeping across China, killing thousands of people and infecting tens of thousands more. Because of the shutdown, the email continued, the Triple A champions would not receive their 5,000 faux-platinum rings in time to give them to fans attending the April 14 home opener.

The news was distressing, but not in the ways that would become obvious just a few weeks later. At the time the message reached Savage’s inbox, the U.S. was still weeks from the lockdowns, sicknesses, large-scale fatalities and epic economic destruction that would ravage the nation.

Sitting in his office, Savage, 42, says his old concerns feel quaint—as though from a different reality. Like many other family businesses, his is under siege. Following professional baseball’s shutdown in March, minor league clubs now exist in a sort of sports purgatory, 160 affiliates unsure whether they will have games to host and worried about how they will pay employees, settle debts, and potentially return millions of dollars in ticket and advertising revenue to fans and sponsors. 

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