Arizona is set to reopen for sports

On Tuesday, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey announced that the state would be reopening for certain businesses. As of Saturday, May 16, professional sports will be allowed in the state, albeit without fans, and with a “limited reopening,” though it’s not clear what that means.

Ducey — whose Twitter bio features “#COVID19” for reasons I neither understand nor care to understand — had a long thread on Twitter in which he announced that the state is getting rid of their stay at home order, and replacing it with what he referred to as “new guidance.” However, he really didn’t provide any guidance beyond some specious statistics and plans to expand testing, both for the coronavirus and for antibodies.

Barbershops and restaurants have already reopened in Arizona, and now gyms, pools, spas, and places of worship are also reopening.

If I’ve been trying to hide my feelings here I’ve failed, so I might as well be transparent: I think this is dumb, and it runs the risk of leading to an even more serious outbreak of the virus.

But it’s also baseball news that impacts the San Francisco Giants, because if teams can’t get the go-ahead from their states to have games, they’ll look to Arizona. If, for instance, all MLB teams except the California ones can host games, you can bet your butt that the Giants and the four other teams in the state will pack up and head to Arizona.

Or, if other states don’t follow Arizona’s lead, the league could return to their bubble idea, and have all of the games in Arizona.

We’ll see. For now, we just hope that the repercussions aren’t as bad as I fear they will be.