In the days leading up to Friday's podcast interview of Dr. Anthony Fauci, I canvassed team officials about what questions they might ask the infectious disease expert, and one staffer seemed to be looking for some help with the context leading up to the July 31 trade deadline.
When does Dr. Fauci foresee a time, the staffer asked, when fans are again packed into ballparks in crowds of 30,000 or 40,000 squeezing past one another shoulder to shoulder on their way to concession stands on the concourses?
The answer to that question, the team employee added as an aside, might go a long way to determining how aggressive contenders are in adding payroll this summer.