Dodgers News: Dave Roberts hopeful, but less confident of 2020 season

Will Major League Baseball return in 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic? How confident is Dodger manager Dave Roberts?

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is still hopeful that a season will be played in 2020, but less so than he was just a few weeks ago.

Major League Baseball finds itself in the same position as every business across the country, waiting for public health officials to provide guidance on when America can return to work. But as many leading doctors, and Dodger president Stan Kasten has said, himself, “the virus will tell us.”

When Roberts was asked in a recent interview with Scott Kaplan whether baseball will return this season, he answered, “I do. I’m very hopeful, probably not as hopeful as I was a month ago, or two weeks ago.”

Under the current circumstances, pragmatic optimism is probably the best mentality.

“Still hopeful. I definitely think it’s going to look different as far as pertaining to fans,” Roberts said. “I don’t see that possible. So I don’t really know a timeline, but I’ll leave it at that I’m still hopeful.”

Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom cast doubt on large sporting events returning to California in 2021, while releasing an outline for how the state can slowly ease stay-at-home restrictions.

Roberts appeared as a guest on The Scott and BR show earlier this week, where he talked about his family’s efforts to help hospital workers battling on the frontlines against the coronavirus in his hometown of San Diego.

Robert’s wife learned about the staff of Scripps Green Hospital in La Jolla being forced to eat out of vending machines while trying to take care of sick patients, so the couple decided to use their platform to try to help. They reached out to the owner of Sushi On the Rock to set up local food deliveries for the hospital workers.

As the rise in newly infected patients appears to have somewhat flattened in many areas around the country, states and local governments continue to struggle to keep the curve from spiking again, searching for appropriate testing equipment and protocols that would allow them to ease social distancing restrictions.

Dodgers Briefing: Bellinger on Kobe, Chin-lung Hu, Red Sox cheating, more

Where baseball fans learn about the Dodgers. The latest news from Saturday, April 18, 2020.

Meanwhile, the grim realities of those already infected continue to show in the daily headlines. Los Angeles County reported 81 new fatalities on Saturday, setting another single-day record, according to the Los Angeles Times.