JAMES REIMER
Odd became normal: sports’ masked road trip to the unknown
FILE - Cardboard cutouts rest in seats at Oracle Park as the San Francisco Giants play the San Diego Padres during the first inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, in this Wednesday, July 29, 2020, file photo. What wasn’t odd in 2020, when the coronavirus was the commissioner of all sports? And, before long, the odd became the new normal. Masked coaches patrolled the sidelines looking as if they had been lifted from the set of a cheesy cops-and-robbers movie. But with no fans in the park -- in Oakland and San Francisco -- and plenty of balls landing in the seats, AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley had an idea.