Amid global pandemic, 86th NBC World Series begins at 2 venues with fans in the stands
At 3:01 p.m., after months of waiting, Kevin Jenks texted a coworker.
Jenks, the tournament director and general manager of the NBC World Series, has been working with director of operations Jason Ybarra for almost a decade. They had never been through any challenge like 2020 presented, so when the 86th annual NBC World Series started Monday in Wichita and Hutchinson, the message was simple.
“Congratulations,” Jenks wrote. “Here we go.”
About 2,000 fans were in attendance at Wichita State’s Eck Stadium as the Hays Larks, longtime NBC World Series participants, beat the newcomer Kansas City All-Stars 10-0. That the game, and tournament, would be played at all had been in question since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So this year’s NBC World Series means a little bit more. Jenks laughed when asked what had to happen for the tournament to begin amid such trying circumstances. It was months of conversations, he said, of listening, reading and reacting.
He didn’t know what Monday night would look like, exactly, but as he started to see familiar faces around the stadium, it seemed to feel pretty normal.
“Everything looks a little bit different, but when it comes down to it, we’ve got great baseball being played,” Jenks said. “Guys are competing for a national championship, so that doesn’t change. I get to see a lot of these guys only once a year, so I want to give them a hug or a good handshake, but now we’re doing a dance on how to greet one another.
“But it is so refreshing to sit back and say, ‘OK, this is it. We’re playing.’ ”
Jenks moseyed around Eck Stadium talking with spectators who have been supporting the NBC World Series for years. When he saw Betty Abbott, a 40-year supporter, he nearly started crying. He didn’t know whether she would come this year.
The efforts of Jenks and the NBC World Series staff cannot go unnoticed, said Ken Windholz, president of the Hays Larks team. They did everything possible, Windholz said, to “thread the needle” and take a carefully calculated risk.
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Windholz watched his team’s opening game from his home in Hays. He will stay there through the tournament unless the Larks reach the semifinals or championship game, he said, explaining that he and his wife are being conservative in now they’re handling the pandemic.
“We tried to normalize the season as best we can, but that’s impossible,” Windholz said. “It’s a pandemic. It’s a worldwide issue. ... So far so good. You just kind of hold your breath and hope nothing happens.”
The Larks’ journey to the 2020 NBC World Series was perhaps even more turbulent than one might expect. After a shortened season, they qualified for the tournament — and that dictates a successful season, Windholz said. But for a time, there was a chance the Larks wouldn’t even have a season.
They moved into the Rocky Mountain League, a league for college summer baseball. Out-of-state travel during the pandemic was already a question mark, and then the team had a positive COVID-19 case before the games began.
The Larks’ board of directors decided, through a narrow vote, to play on. Coach Frank Leo said he loves the NBC World Series, and loves baseball, but that love took on new meaning this year.
“Our motto every day was, ‘Let’s enjoy this because we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow,’” Leo said. “It’s something we have to respect, COVID. We just wanted to give the people of Hays some type of baseball.”
Playing in different ballparks across the region had its challenges, said Wyatt Divis, a Larks pitcher from Lincoln, Nebraska who plays for the University of Texas-Arlington. Venues had varying mandatory precautions and regulations.
Through it all, he was pleased to get the opportunity to play in his third NBC World Series.
“You take a risk every day, even when you go to the baseball field,” Divis said. “Might as well keep trying. If it works out and everybody stays healthy, it’s going to be a good season. If it doesn’t, we’ll just have to shut it down and call it quits. It’s only a matter of time until something happens, so I think we’re just going to keep doing our best until they tell us we can’t play.”
Fans here seemed grateful, too. Almost everywhere Jenks walked in the stadium Monday evening, fans thanked him for carrying through with holding the World Series this summer.
The NBC World Series was this year poised to return to downtown Wichita, its original home, on the grounds of what used to be Lawrence-Dumont Stadium. With the Wichita Wind Surge’s new Riverfront Stadium succeeding Lawrence-Dumont as the city’s downtown ballpark, Jenks said, the NBC World Series had been working with the Wind Surge to bring the tournament “home.”
Those negotiations fell through, however, so NBC World Series organizers turned instead to WSU, which hosted the 2019 tournament during construction of the new downtown ballpark. Jenks also reached out to Hobart-Detter Stadium in Hutchinson, and games are being played there, too.
On Monday, Jenks thanked officials from those venues for being so accommodating during such a difficult time.
The number of teams in this year’s field and overall schedule have been trimmed back this summer. With teams across the country shutting down their respective seasons, fewer than usual were available to come to Wichita. Thirteen teams make up the 2020 bracket, and the tournament will conclude on Aug. 10 at Eck Stadium — a shorter run than usual.
After months of uncertainty, Jenks said he took a few deep breaths Monday night because at least that much was guaranteed. Social distancing and mandatory masking policies are in place at both tournament venues, but in some sense, baseball has made the world feel a bit more normal, he said.
“A lot of this was kind of like walking through a maze,” he said. “You headed down a corridor, and all of a sudden, you’d hit a dead end. We’ve had to turn every corridor to make this happen.”
This story was originally published August 3, 2020 at 10:44 PM.