Why 'safety' won't determine when I return to the ballpark

If the 2020 baseball season is played, we know it likely will be played without fans. Even if the White Sox are allowed into Guaranteed Rate Field this year, you and I and other common folks probably will not be.

But what about 2021? As a season-ticket holder, I routinely receive surveys from the Sox. The most recent one covered a wide variety of topics, but the most interesting question addressed what fan attitudes will be like in the post-pandemic world. Or, maybe it seeks to find out what fan attitudes will be like in a post-COVID-19, pre-vaccine world.

I was asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 how safe I would feel about returning to Guaranteed Rate Field to watch a ballgame -- with 1 being "not safe at all" and 5 being "very safe."

I chose 5.

If baseball opened its gates tomorrow, with normal day-of-game rules in place, I would be fine going to a game. We all know that's not going to happen, but clearly, we're dealing with a hypothetical situation here anyway.

The Sox allow you to offer comments when you fill out these surveys, and I took the opportunity to explain to them that "safety" will be irrelevant when it comes to my decision on when to return to the ballpark.

I explained that I simply am not willing to come to a game if I'm going to be forced to practice social distancing. What fun is it to sit three or four chairs away from your friends? And, if you think I'm sitting there wearing a mask for three and a half or four straight hours, you can forget it. Restrictions on concessions and restroom use? No thank you. Nope. Sorry, no sale, not coming.

You see, I'm not going to pay my hard-earned money to come to the game if I'm going to have some off-duty cop barking orders at me about where to sit, where to stand and what to wear. That's not my idea of a good time.

I understand that the Sox may have no choice but to impose rules such as that, either at the direction of the government or league officials, but if that's the case, I will simply exercise my right to stay home.

The moral of this story is I'm not interested in anyone's Third World, totalitarian experience, with government-imposed crackdowns and some idiot governor who thinks he's king deciding what is best for me and my family.

I'll come back to the ballpark when it gets back to being the fun experience I've always known and enjoyed since I was a child. That has little to do with safety. It's about entertainment and value for my money, plain and simple.