Thursday was supposed to be Opening Day for Major League Baseball. The Pittsburgh Pirates had a game – the first of 2020 — scheduled in Tampa, Fla., against the Rays.

It was to be Derek Shelton’s first Opening Day as a manager, the first Pirates’ game without Clint Hurdle in the dugout since 2010.

"We will get through this, and when we do...imagine how special it will be to come together again at PNC Park to usher in a new Pirates season." pic.twitter.com/JUqqBsCxNJ

— Pirates (@Pirates) March 26, 2020

Instead, the nationwide coronavirus shutdown continued while fans got a dose of past glory when the Pirates’ flagship radio station, KDKA-FM, replayed Game 7 of the 1960 World Series victory against the New York Yankees at Forbes Field.

Also, fans received a message on Twitter from first-year team president Travis Williams, addressed to the “Pirates Fam-a-lee.”

Williams’ message indicated that there will be baseball this season, but with an inevitable and, of course, unspecified, change in the schedule.

The Pirates’ home opener at PNC Park would have been next Thursday against the Cincinnati Reds, but no one knows if baseball will emerge this spring or sometime in the summer.

Williams wrote, in part:

“We wish we were writing this letter to you under different circumstances. Today, we should be celebrating the start of a new season. Instead, like you, we are staying safe at home with our families and waiting for the day we can return to the ballpark and watch baseball again.

“We remain positive, however. Positive that baseball will return soon and, when it does, will play an important role in bringing our communities back together and offering an opportunity for families and friends to reconnect, much like it has done for decades.

“We will get through this, and when we do … imagine how special it will be to come together again at PNC Park to usher in a new Pirates season.”

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