With an entire season of health and safety protocols ingrained in their memories, the Orioles are so used to playing baseball during a pandemic that manager Brandon Hyde said the process of boarding a plane from Sarasota, Florida, on Wednesday to fly to Boston for Thursday’s Opening Day game against the Red Sox felt “business as usual.”
He acknowledged that it won’t be fully back to normal until stadiums can be full — all parks the Orioles will play at in the first month of the season have limited capacity — and masks are still required in the clubhouse as the team follows the league’s protocols.