Coronavirus In Minnesota: MLB Umpire Jeff Nelson Prepares For Possibility Of Fan-Free Games
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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It's not just players that miss being between the white lines.
Umpires like Jeff Nelson also got their own curve ball in this coronavirus
era.
Nelson grew up in Minnesota, and has worked the all-star game, and game seven behind the plate of the World Series. What he wants right now is just to get back out on the field.
"In the off-season I work with a personal trainer. Now, that's kind of gone by the wayside, so now you just try to … keep your legs sharp and, you know, aerobically on top of things," Nelson said.
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An umpire's life has its own internal clock: no home games, just six months of travel with a few days off. And that, in a strange way becomes a comfort zone.
"You're also conditioned in a strange way to move every three days. So you just expect every three days like getting up in the morning, OK, I'm going to move to the next city, and then you see the people you know in those cities," he said.
And that's what you miss; the action of game night; competing against perfection; and seeing the world in big league cities.
"You're used to getting out there at night and enjoy the cities that you go to. I love going to San Francisco, I love Washington D.C. New York is fun, you know, and so is Chicago and, of course, Minneapolis, so I do miss that," he said.
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Nelson also made it clear that no matter your credentials, baseball players are not impressed.
"They do not care. And I tell that to people all the time after they work a World Series for the first time, you go back to spring training and you think all of a sudden that you can wear some kind of badge and they care and they respect it. They have no idea you worked any of that," he said.
What might be different if they return this season is to do it in front of two teams -- and no fans in the stands. That means the only extra advice will come from dugouts.
"They kind of drown themselves out, it's kind of like a school lunch room. But for some reason it's those two dugouts that you just, you just hear it a lot more because they're directing it right to you. They want to get that message to you," Nelson said.
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