When Carter Stewart calls his parents from his apartment in Japan, it often feels as if he's reaching out from a totally different universe.
The right-hander already was charting new territory after making an unprecedented major league gamble last year. Now, with the world in turmoil, that gamble has taken an unexpected twist.
As the coronavirus pandemic surges across the United States, and with the minor league baseball season canceled, Stewart, 20, has settled into his pitching routine. He's preparing to soon make the jump from the minor leagues to the big club -- the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Nippon Professional Baseball league, where fans slowly are being allowed back into stadiums, a far cry from Major League Baseball's ongoing outbreaks and cardboard cutouts in the stands.