Dodgers: Dave Roberts says Los Angeles should get 2021 All-Star Game

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts offered his thoughts about the 2020 MLB All-Star Game.

The 2020 MLB All-Star game that is set to be hosted by the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium this July has somehow avoided cancellation or postponement in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. However, it is only a matter of time before it is wiped from the upcoming baseball calendar.

Major League Baseball and the player’s union are working out the details of a plan to return to the field as early as the middle of June, with regular season games starting in July, around the time when the All-Star Game is originally scheduled to be held.

If baseball returns in 2020, it will do so without fans in attendance, so it doesn’t make sense to keep an event on the docket that is designed for fans when everyone would be restricted from attending it. Besides, there are real, regular season games to schedule as soon as possible.

The question is what then happens to the game promised to the city of Los Angeles? Will LA get another chance to host the mid-Summer classic, after waiting 40 years to show off Chavez Ravine to baseball’s brightest stars?

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts says push it back.

Dave Roberts has not heard any update beyond what the public knows about the typical halfway marker to the season, but he believes it makes the most sense for Los Angeles to become hosts next year.

"“I like the idea of pushing it back another year,” Roberts said on Friday while appearing on Mornings with Keyshawn, LZ, and Travis. “And I don’t know if it’s Atlanta who has it in ’21, and push them back. I think that makes the most sense, instead of just skipping LA.”"

The 2021 All-Star Game has already been rewarded to Atlanta, who recently opened a brand new ballpark in Cobb County, Georgia. While Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia is set to host in 2026, it is undetermined who will attract the game’s All-Stars between 2022-2025.

Roberts thinks it is still worthwhile to name All-Star teams at the end of the 2020 season. Players should be rewarded for their superlative performances, even if there is no designated game to celebrate it. But he tells ESPN Radio that it is most logical to make Dodger Stadium the host for the 2021 All-Star Game.

Some things are complicated to figure out in planning for a season in the lingering shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, but this is an easy one.