George Thorogood is a lifelong baseball fan who even played semi-pro ball in the 1970s before his music career took off, but he says he just can’t get into the sport this year with the adjustments and rule changes that have been made because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The major modifications to the sport in 2020 include shortening the season from 162 to 60 games, and having the games played in empty stadiums.

“Come on, it’s not baseball,” the veteran rocker laments to ABC Audio. “I mean, there’s no fans in the seats. You know, there’s people wearing masks. I mean, they play seven-inning games now [when it’s] a doubleheader…That’s softball stuff. That’s amateur stuff. If it’s a tie [in extra innings], they put a designated runner on second base.”

Thorogood continues, “I want the full thing or nothing at all. I don’t want an abbreviated interpretation of the great game of baseball. So, I’m gonna wait till they get it all sorted out, and…maybe, maybe not, I’ll jump back into it as a fan.”

To illustrate just what he feels is missing, George mentions a TV segment he remembers seeing from a year or two ago where a sports station listed the top defensive baseball plays of year.

“The last one they showed, it was at a Giants game,” Thorogood recalls. “And…some guy hit a foul ball [into the upper deck], and there was a woman there, she must have been 85 if she was a day, and she caught it with her bare hands. And they made that the catch of the year…See, that’s baseball to me…When you take that [fan participation] element out of it, it doesn’t mean as much to me.”

By Matt Friedlander
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