Memorial Day is supposed to be an unofficial start to summer. Well, we're still waiting on the official word, but it sure feels like summer is canceled.
Think about the list of gatherings already crossed out by the coronavirus pandemic. Allentown. Taste of Buffalo. Juneteenth. Canal Fest and Italian Fest. Concerts at Darien Lake, Artpark, CanalSide and the M&T Bank Plaza. Old Home Days. The Buffalo Marathon. The Porter Cup and International Junior Masters.
The Erie County Fair and National Chicken Wing Festival would appear to be on shaky ground. What happens to Billy Joel at New Era Field? Out of town, the CNE in Toronto is toast. So is the Derek Jeter-led induction ceremony at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Good luck to the folks hoping to run the New York State Fair in Syracuse or racing in Saratoga.
Now let's circle back home for another major downer: As incredible as it is to ponder, it's hard to imagine a scenario where there's any baseball in Sahlen Field in 2020.
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Can it really be summer in these parts with no Bisons games? The feeling here is we're about to find out.
Health reasons make fans in the stands likely a no-go for a while. And no fans mean no point to open the gates for any team in minor league baseball. With no TV deals, the minors live off gate revenue, concessions and merchandise.
No fans, no revenue, no point in having the Blue Jays' prospects take the field. Those starts by fireballing Toronto prospect Nate Pearson that were going to be appointment viewing? Not happening.
No Star Wars or Superhero Nights. No Buffalo Philharmonic concert on July 3. No Buster Bison. No Wing races. No Conehead. No bobbleheads. No hot dogs, fried bologna, nachos or beef on weck. No 7th-inning stretch sing-along. No Friday night happy hours or postgame fireworks. Unimaginable really.
Just a whole lot of nothing. Save for an 8½-year period in the 1970s when the franchise was lost, the Bisons have been in business since 1877. Yes, 1877. This would be the first summer with no baseball here since 1978.
I've known Mike Buczkowski, the president of Rich Baseball Operations, for more than 30 years. We have never had a more somber conversation than the one we had on the phone last week.
"We were exactly at the point where we were ready to go," Buczkowski said quietly. "Everything had been ordered. Your supplies for the whole year, your giveaways, all your merchandise was ordered and in. You're ready to go and then you don't get to play a single game. Some of the other sports got to play a lot of their season. I worry about a lot of lower-level teams in minor-league baseball if they're even going to survive this."
The minors have to get in line behind Major League Baseball. Once the big leagues decide what they're doing, a decision can be made on the minors. And, of course, government edicts and local health officials have a big say as well. So we might still be a couple of weeks away from any definitive word.
But with rumors of MLB bulking up with a reserve roster full of minor leaguers to account for injuries – or positive tests for the virus – that's not going to leave any players for Triple-A. And revenue-stricken big-league clubs don't seem all that interested in funding the lower rungs of the minors this year either.
"The overriding principle is how do you do have games safely?" Buczkowski said. "How do you keep players game sharp? Nobody in Major League Baseball wants all of their minor leaguers to miss a full year of development. You just think about what that does for a player. It is like missing a whole year because of an injury and you see the long-term effect that has on a player. I know they've been thinking about this topic hard."
Another problem is all the divergent health codes in various states for a typical minor league. Just in the International League, there are teams in three New York counties – the Bisons in Erie, Rochester Red Wings in Monroe and Syracuse Mets in Onondaga – and teams in nine different states.
(A word of salute here to the good folks of Pawtucket, R.I., who were supposed to have a season-long salute to their franchise before the beloved Red Sox move from quaint McCoy Stadium to Worcester, Mass., in 2021. Imagine the heartache losing your good-bye summer for a team you've had since 1973).
Buczkowski said the Bisons have forged ahead trying to make plans to open the ballpark if they somehow get the word it will be possible. But under social distancing guidelines, he estimated the Bisons would only be able to seat about 2,500 fans plus some fans in the suites. A full house in Sahlen Field, remember, is more than 16,000.
"If someone sits in the first row, first seat behind home plate, where can the next person sit that's six feet distant? In that row, above them, on the other side of them," he said. "It's a process we've been examining now for quite some time. There's so many things you have to take into account."
Right now, the ballpark is quiet. There's just essential operations going on with an engineer, operations manager and groundskeeper. The employees are working remotely, many still hoping to sell a season with no Opening Day and, at this point, no real schedule at all.
Then will come the issue of refunds for season ticket-holders and group leaders, as well as folks who bought a suite or party deck. More ominously is the issue of staff layoffs or furloughs, something Buczkowski said the Rich family has not yet entertained.
"We are staying hopeful to play but the effects on all of minor-league baseball are huge without a season," he said. "We're fortunate we have great ownership here with tremendous resources. There are a lot of minor-league teams around the country that are small business in small towns that already might be leveraged, already might have debt. We're very much a seasonal business and most of our revenue comes in between April and August."
And because many of you will ask, the answer is no. The Blue Jays aren't going to play games here if the Canadian border remains closed. Their alternate site to Rogers Centre will be their spring training home in Dunedin, Fla., where they have complete control of the facility. No point in being in Buffalo so they're closer to Toronto if fans aren't admitted to the building anyway.
As for the Bisons, their last game at home was on Aug. 26, 2019. They could be looking at no baseball until sometime in April 2021, nearly 20 months out of sight. Simply devastating.
The Bisons are hopeful WingFest can go on. They made a Hail Mary move of the popular Taste of Country concert to September, and Buczkowski said the staff under new General Manager Anthony Sprague is brainstorming other ideas for non-baseball events at the ballpark to bring in revenue. But right now, with social distancing and capacity controls, it's going to be tough to come up with many viable options.
"You think of those crazy days in other seasons where we postpone six games in a row and you're playing through terrible weather," Buczkowski said. "It's snowing still in May, our crowds aren't what you hoped and you used to think how bad that was.
"What I wouldn't do to be able to have a decision to think about playing a game or postponing a game – or four games – knowing that we're going to be playing next week. It's incredible. If you handed this script in as a movie, people would have said it's not believable enough. But here we are."
How we all wish we could hear "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" here this summer. Heartbreaking to say, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.
