Yankees: Astros and Red Sox Could Have Unfair Advantage in 2020

The Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros could have a home-field advantage in 2020 yet again. Cool, Yankees fans.

Let the record state: I am by no means endorsing fan attendance at Major League Baseball in 2020. I think we’re extremely lucky if we end up getting any form of baseball, and we need to minimize the risk to the general public in any way possible.

If baseball were unscrupulous, I think the sport could probably sell 10,000 tickets per game to those who seem to already be flaunting social distancing rules, but they would never do that. They shouldn’t do that. They should be prepared not to do that.

BUT: These rules should apply to everyone. If the virus necessitated that fans were disallowed in even one stadium, then the others should all be forced to follow suit. Of course, we live in the world where the Red Sox and Astros have stolen a home-field advantage for each of the past several years, so what’s one more, eh?

Red Sox president Sam Kennedy claimed on Wednesday that he thinks it’s “possible” there will be fans at Fenway Park later this summer. Astros owner Jim Crane hinted at the same thing. No Yankees associate has even broached this subject.

“Our fans give us a competitive advantage,” Kennedy told the gathered Boston media on Wednesday. “I can tell you there are clubs around Major League Baseball that are anticipating having fans in their ballparks. It’s an incredibly important part of our business and an incredibly important part of our baseball operation, so we would like to get to that point.”

Oh, yeah. They definitely give Boston a competitive advantage. You know where that contrast really stands out? When NO OTHER STADIUMS ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE FANS.

Of course that’s how this all ends, doesn’t it? Famously greedy and spineless MLB teams like the Astros, in deeply affected areas with disastrous local governments, attempt to bend the rules and import likely-asymptomatic fans to their home games. The cheapest ownership groups in “safe” environments like Massachusetts follow suit, in an attempt to cover their eyes with cash and pretend the virus is sleeping.

This is the only logical capper to the Hell World we live in, isn’t it? I stay away from my ballpark for good reason, but every time the Yankees go to Fenway, there’s a horde of mouth-breathing Sullys doing the Sweet Caroline “Bah Bah Bahs” six innings too early. Since MLB allowed these two teams to peruse the video rooms at their leisure the past several years, it stands to reason they’d look the other way on this one, too.

I can think of one competitive disadvantage for the Red Sox, though: they don’t have any pitching, and they don’t have Mookie Betts. Maybe it evens out.