PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Pirates, along with Major League Baseball and the players union, delayed the start of the game on Thursday after Austin Hedges comments to 93.7 The Fan along with Andrew McCutchen’s with the Post-Gazette’s Jason Mackey about concerns of playing with the poor air quality due to the Canadian wildfires.
Manager Derek Shelton confirmed that after the game. They wanted to have conversations to address the issues mainly from those two with Hedges almost a defacto player representative with Wil Crowe currently on the injured list and in Florida rehabbing.
Rookie Henry Davis said they were also concerned about fans, specifically older fans to make sure it would be ok for them to be in the ballpark. He said he knew visibly it didn’t look right, but he was no expert on air quality.
“They were able to voice them and we were able to talk back with them about what was going on,” Shelton said. “Give them as much information as possible. Our player safety is always a number one concern for us. We just wanted to make sure that after there were some opinions expressed we were able to give all the information possible.”
McCutchen said something similar in that he wanted a better understanding of where they were before the game started. The veteran Pirate wore a mask coming into the clubhouse before the game on Thursday morning. There were obvious concerns.
“They wanted some clarification on where we were and where the game stood, the whys, the reasons and all of that,” McCutchen said. “Just have a better understanding of the game. That’s why it started a little later. After we had our discussions and all of that, then the game started.”
Was he satisfied?
Related
“As much as I could be, understanding that, on both ends, this is newfound territory to everybody, not just the players but MLB,” McCutchen said. “It’s one of those things where you have to go through it. If something like that were to ever happen again, we have more of a feel for it. We can’t just go in and say, ‘Hey, we’re not playing. Or, hey, I don’t care what it’s like outside, we’re playing.’ It’s new. It’s new for all of us. Gotta have some grace on both ends. We just went out and played the game.”
Shelton said it’s what made it difficult was, like COVID, there was no template for how to handle this. It was relatively new, especially for Pittsburgh.
Related
