Mar 27, 2020 3 min read

Mark Mason should be a traveling man these days.

A Canonsburg native and former coach and manager of the Washington Wild Things, Mason is in his eighth season as manager of the York Revolution, which plays in the Atlantic League, the top independent baseball league. It’s a league with many former major league players whose careers have stalled. Opening day for its 23rd season was supposed to be April 30.

That was before the coronavirus pandemic threw a knee-buckling curveball at all baseball teams.

Mason should have been spending this weekend preparing for trips to Florida and Arizona for the Atlantic League’s mini-camp tryouts that were to begin next week. Then it was to be a two-week sprint through spring training to the regular season. That has all been put on hold.

Instead, Mason’s days are filled with “mind-numbing” updates about the coronavirus, and learning about social media and video conferencing. Baseball will have to wait. That’s very difficult for a baseball lifer. It’s anything but business as usual.

“The only baseball activities I’ve seen since last season were a few clinics and some private instruction, but nowhere as much as I used to do,” said Mason, who has guided York to one league championship.

“We’re all in a big holding pattern. They just issued a stay-at-home order for York County today that runs through April 6.”

Like all minor leagues, the Atlantic is waiting to see what Major League Baseball does with its 2020 season. If, when the pandemic is over, MLB decides to hold another spring training before playing, Mason and the Atlantic League managers might be working with a smaller pool of players to choose from or a much later starting date to their season.

“There are a lot of tentative plans out there,” Mason said. “We’re waiting for Major League Baseball, the health officials and politicians. Once we get an OK from the health officials, we’ll have a better idea of when we’ll start playing baseball.”

Until then, Mason is learning various aspects of the Revolution’s front-office operations.

“I’m learning a lot about the social media things and apps, things like Zoom,” Mason chuckled.

• The latest casualty of the coronavirus pandemic is the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame Washington-Greene County Chapter’s inductions. The organization has canceled its banquet, which was scheduled for June 14. The Class of 2020 will be formally inducted June 13, 2021, at the Hilton Garden Inn in Southpointe.
• Based on what I’ve seen, and what I’ve been told about, over the last two days, many of the local playgrounds and practice fields have been as filled as ever with kids, and even adults, playing pickup baseball or football.

Aren’t we supposed to be practicing social distancing?