Jerry Narron is a baseball lifer but suggesting he has seen anything like this in his baseball life would be a stretch.
The Red Sox bench coach has been a player, coach and manager. He has come to grips with the ebbs and flows of a baseball calendar long ago. But now there is the 2020 Spring Training 2.0, an event Narron is largely being charged with organizing.
One ballpark. Shifts of players. Little interaction.
A few weeks ago his days were filled with bike rides with his wife near their North Carolina home and an occasional trip to the grocery store. ("I just stayed home and tried to not blink too loud because the last couple of weeks I was blinking too loud for my wife," he joked.) Now there is this -- three weeks of something we have never experienced to get ready for 60 games of more unchartered waters.
"Trying to plan a spring training schedule when you have a complex is difficult, but when you're trying to do it on just one field and now with all the protocols and guys coming in and out, it's a challenge," Narron said in a phone interview with WEEI.com. "But one thing we talked about early was embracing the challenge, embracing the chaos. I think everybody here is doing a great job with that. So far everything is running smoothly under the circumstances."
Narron's presence at Fenway Park is notable for numerous reasons.
Not only is he the architect of these days of workouts for the Red Sox, having to map out these days of crowded quarters and limited resources, but he is also the oldest coach on the Red Sox staff. The 64-year-old is about eight months the senior of manager Ron Roenicke. And what that means is the question regarding whether or not Narron thought about following suit with some of the other 60-something major league coaches who have decided to sit out 2020 due to the risk of COVID-19.
"No, not at all," Narron said when asked if not participating was a thought. "If I had a preexisting condition it might be different. I know people that have tested positive and recovered. There was really no concern with it at all. I try and live for today and not worry about tomorrow. Being back in baseball ... It never crossed my mind. If I did have some preexisting condition I probably would have felt different about it.
"I think most of the guys just want to be back out on the field and get baseball going. You want to play baseball but also for the fans. We're all trying to do our part to get it back on the field."
Narron is clearly all-in.
Throughout these workouts at Fenway, he can be seen regularly throwing batting practice (which was one of the activities he did try and incorporate in North Carolina). And this in the middle of attempting to make sure waves of players are landing in the right spot at the right time, with arrivals needing to be staggered throughout each day.
"I think with the protocols, that's a challenge," he explained. "But the most difficult thing for me has been the interaction. Not being able to interact with the players like we would like to as a group. The staff as a group. And the front office as a group. We Zoom and see each other, but just the time you usually get together as a club and talk in a team meeting setting that's very, very difficult."
He added, "The players, they are baseball players. They love to play the game or they wouldn't be here. They get out on the field and it's like being back home for them. They enjoy it. They love being out on the field.
"When you have group and you're throwing to them or your hitting ground balls, it seems normal. And then you realize you're bringing out another group 30 minutes later to do the same thing over again because you can't do it at the same time. I'm just looking forward to tomorrow when we're playing an intrasquad game and watching guys compete. That's going to be fun."
It will seem like a more palatable version of baseball when the scrimmages kick off, with the first one slated for Thursday.
Still, Narron knows that all of this is about adjustments, and he said, "embracing the chaos." Because for a guy like the Red Sox' bench coach it still is leading to what he likes the best, being in the middle of baseball ... even this version of it.
"I think it will feel like baseball once we play the game," he said. "I know it's going to be difficult without fans and hopefully we can have fans before the season is over. But that's going to be an adjustment for guys. The baseball part, once that game starts ... As a player on the field you block out the fans for the most part. But it will be difficult because guys will have to get themselves revved up and jacked up because they aren't going to have fans getting it going for them. I think it's going to work out OK. We just have to be smart away from the ballpark and I think it will work out OK."
