On a back field at Boston Red Sox camp on Wednesday morning, outfielder Jarren Duran offered catcher Connor Wong a high five. Wong responded with an elbow bump. He was just kidding around, he said later, but he had the right idea: The team has Red Sox Fever. Literally.
Along with pitchers’ fielding practice, tie games and ninth-inning at bats taken by players without numbers on their backs, we can add this rite of spring: Nearly every team endures a week when it loses half its roster to a bug. Dozens of players, coaches and staffers descend, from all over the world, upon locker rooms where they decidedly do not practice social distancing.
