One of the most striking images of this baseball season came on its very first night.
On Opening Day—meant to be a pitchers’ duel between Gerrit Cole and Max Scherzer, framed as a triumph of the collective spirit of baseball, and marred shortly before first pitch by the news that Nationals outfielder Juan Soto had just tested positive for COVID-19—Commissioner Rob Manfred appeared on ESPN for an early in-game interview. As he spoke about all that baseball had accomplished to make this season possible, with the players on the field below, lightning flashed ominously behind him. If it was supposed to be some sort of cosmic symbol—a warning about how this inherently fraught season was going to go—it felt a little too on-the-nose.