Red Sox Adding Temporary Dugouts In Stands To Social Distance During Games
Baseball is a pretty social distance friendly compared to many other sports.
Especially on defense, when outfielders and infielders both are spread out over the diamond, just having to tag the occasional baserunner. But with expanded rosters for the first month of the season, the Boston Red Sox don’t want too many guys crowding into the dugouts and bullpens.
So the team is adding temporary wood structures or tents to serve as extra seating for home and visiting players at Fenway Park.
Manager Ron Roenicke on Tuesday shared with reporters on a Zoom call that only nine players and three coaches will be allowed in the real dugouts at the same time. He said two extra dugouts will be added in the stands between home plate and each home and away dugout. The team also has discussed adding a structure behind the bullpens.
“That means we’ll probably have to alternate the pitching coach and hitting coach during when we hit and when we’re on defense,” Roenicke said.
“Whether it will be tents or whether it will be a structure, I know they need to get going on that. And then in the bullpen, same thing. There’s another structure we’ve talked about behind the bullpen that both the visiting and home team can go back there. And some taller chairs so we can have more guys in the bullpen. As it is right now, you can’t see (over the right-field wall) in the lower chairs. So you’ve got to get a higher chair and we can spread them out enough. I don’t know if we can have all the guys. If we go with eight to 10 guys (relief pitchers), I don’t know if we could have them all in there.”
Fenway also saw alterations elsewhere to adapt to player safety protocols for Major League Baseball’s return. Batting cages and weight rooms were added to the concourses and players utilized suits as locker rooms.