Team video rooms as they are typically designed would not comply with current COVID-19 safety protocolsGETTY IMAGES
Team video rooms "will be shut down" during MLB games this season, "depriving many players of the common habit of reviewing at-bats and pitches in the course of competition," according to Tom Verducci of SI.com. MLB Exec VP/Strategy, Technology & Innovation Chris Marinak, an SBJ "Forty Under 40" HOFer, indicated that MLB "shut the rooms over 'health and safety concerns.'" Verducci noted video rooms "typically are designed for group use with multiple computer terminals and monitors in an open setting." But Marinak said that such work stations "do not comply with the COVID-19 safety protocols." As such, Verducci reported every player and staff member will be "assigned a personal tablet to use during games." The in-game use of video rooms has "become increasingly popular -- and controversial -- as technology has grown." The Astros sign-stealing scandal "grew out of the video room." Marinak indicated that MLB and its clubs "did not have enough lead time to build individual review stations or to reconfigure software and security protocols for tablets that might allow in-game review of at-bats" (SI.com, 7/21).
