By Jordan Schwartzberg
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Spring training is looking quite different this season.
Schools that are a part of the National Junior College Athletic Association, or NJCAA for short, will have to abide by CDC guidelines. This means wiping down equipment, wearing masks at all times, and staying six feet apart.
But one thing is for certain, most players are just happy to be practicing again.
“Abiding by all the guidelines is difficult but it’s something we have to do if we want to have a full season,” said Colin Balthaser, a sophomore pitcher for Cecil College baseball. “I’m really excited to come back and become a leader for this team. Everyone I know is super excited to be back and everyone is ready to hopefully play the full year.”
Cecil College baseball practices are now broken into two groups. Pitchers and infielders go to the training facility first from 2 to 4 p.m. while the rest of the pitchers and all of the outfielders attend from 4 to 6 p.m. The catchers and split up and assigned a practice time as needed.
The coaches for Cecil College arrive around 1:30 p.m. to set the gym up. Part of this process includes turning on the lights, sanitizing every piece of equipment, judging field conditions and more.
A typical day of practice for players begins as soon as they wake up with a mandatory daily symptom screening. This is done via a symptom tracking app. If the player is choosing to come to campus, they must log what time they will be attending.
Once the players get to the facility, they get their temperatures taken and are asked more screening questions. They then begin with warm-ups and continue with basic drills, calisthenics, practice with weighted balls, and long toss. The days of soft toss and close contact blocking and fielding drills are numbered. There is also no more locker room talk that helps to breed brotherly love, which is so synonymous with the game of baseball.
Not only have practices changed due to COVID, but so has team travel.
“In a normal season, we head to states like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the Carolinas,” said Charlie O’Brien, the Cecil College head baseball coach. “This year we are only playing Maryland, West Virginia, and Delaware, and we aren’t staying overnight.”
Player report dates are also different. There was no set return to practice date imposed by the NJCAA so it was up to the coaches on when they wanted their players to return.
Josh Houser, the Harford Community College baseball coach, asked his pitchers and catchers report in mid-January. Players for O’Brien reported toward the end of January.
Most coaches had their full teams back by the first week of February in advance of a Feb. 28 season start date, even though not all players could practice at once.
Some might say the old spring training experience of re-joining a group of brothers and setting lofty goals is gone. Yet, others consider this pre-season more impactful than any other one before.
“The return this spring will be a huge step to finally get back into competition after a long time away,” Houser, said. “The excitement I have for our guys to finally get back out after missing last year can’t be put into words.”
O’Brien is trying to look on the positive side of things.
“This spring training is definitely different but different doesn’t always mean worse,” O’Brien said. “The kids are getting more individualized coaching and although baseball is about brotherhood and being with the whole team, the individualized coaching is helping a lot of guys out.”