Zimmerman interviews Fauci, plus more Nats notes

Ryan Zimmerman insists he's got a lot of baseball left in him, but he sure seems to be laying the groundwork for a post-retirement career in broadcasting.

It began two weeks ago with the Nationals team Zoom chat, during which Zimmerman turned into something of a co-moderator with MASN's Dan Kolko and showed an impressive ability to ask teammates pertinent questions while maintaining some control over a disorganized group of talkers.

And it continued Wednesday when Zimmerman recorded a one-on-one video interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (and noted Nats fan).

The 20-minute interview, organized by the Nationals as part of their "Home and Away" initiative, saw Zimmerman deftly maneuver between serious questions about the coronavirus pandemic and silly queries about Fauci's baseball fandom.

Most newsworthy to everyone affiliated with baseball, Fauci spoke optimistically about what he termed a "pathway" to a 2020 major league season. He mentioned the possibility of testing all players from all teams for the virus and then keeping them all quarantined in one or a handful of locations so they could play games in empty stadiums. But he also outlined a scenario he envisions in which teams can play in their hometowns with a reduced number of fans in attendance who would need to keep four or five seats away from each other.

"I hope that there's some form of baseball this summer, even if it's just for TV," Fauci told Zimmerman. "I feel that strongly. One, because I'm an avid baseball fan. But also because it's for the country's mental health to have the great American pastime be seen."

Fauci is legitimately a Nationals fan. Though he grew up a Yankees fan in Brooklyn and calls Joe DiMaggio the best player he ever saw, he's been a D.C. resident for 50 years and has been a Nats fan first and foremost since they arrived in town.

Fauci said work prevented him from attending any postseason games last fall, but he watched them all on TV and lived and died with the team through its dramatic run to its first championship.

"You can't savor it any more than having a team that came back," he said. "And at the end, I've never been in a situation before where when we were behind, I absolutely knew we were going to win."

Among the other important answers Fauci gave to Zimmerman's questions ...

* His favorite Racing President is Teddy.

* Given the choice of anybody on the pitching staff for Game 7 of the World Series, he would start Max Scherzer over Stephen Strasburg: "Stras is great, and he's as good as anybody," the doctor said. "But there's just something about Max. You've got to love the guy."

On a more serious note, Fauci praised local government leaders and citizens for being so vigilant and willing to stay at home and avoid close contact with others over the last seven weeks, which he said has helped area hospitals from becoming overrun with patients. He also cautioned that any forthcoming return to normalcy will have to come in stages, likening it to a ballplayer who moves up from each level of the minors before reaching the majors.

Whenever the day comes that the Nationals are playing in front of fans on South Capitol Street again, don't be surprised if Fauci gets a special invitation to attend.

"If you need any tickets," Zimmerman told him, "you've got a hook-up now."

Some more news and notes on this Thursday, exactly seven weeks since Major League Baseball suspended spring training and exactly five weeks since the originally scheduled opening day ...

* MLB is allowing teams to begin informing ticket holders about refund policies for 2020 regular season games that haven't or won't be played. To this point, the league was asking all clubs to hold off making any announcements because games technically had only been postponed and not canceled, with no way of knowing at the time if they could be made up this year.

But with fans growing restless and it becoming clear even a best-case scenario would involve a 2020 season with fewer than 162 games, MLB is letting teams establish refund policies.

The Nationals haven't announced their plan yet, but several teams began contacting fans Wednesday, and a similar pattern seems to be emerging. Season ticket holders are being given the option of applying the money they've spent on 2020 tickets toward the 2021 season (with discounts of anywhere from 10 percent to 25 percent offered) or getting full refunds now. Fans holding tickets to single games are being offered full refunds.

Look for the Nats to announce their policy in the coming days.

* Despite a report making the rounds Wednesday that the entire 2020 minor league season was being canceled, a bunch of subsequent reports by other outlets shot it down and insisted no such decision has been made yet. Minor League Baseball even put out a statement that read:

"The report circulating tonight that the 2020 Minor League Baseball season has been canceled is false. Minor League Baseball has confirmed with Major League Baseball that no such statement was made. No decision has been made as to when it will be safe to begin the 2020 season."

Though no formal decision has been made, it does look increasingly unlikely that a minor league season would happen in 2020, especially if fans aren't allowed to attend. If MLB plays a reduced season under one of its various proposals, rosters are expected to be expanded beyond the current maximum of 26 and a taxi squad of minor leaguers who could be called up in case of injuries could be utilized.

* Tonight's "Nationals Classic" game on MASN is Game 4 of the 2017 National League Division Series. That's the elimination game at Wrigley Field when Strasburg tossed seven scoreless innings with 12 strikeouts and Michael A. Taylor hit a late grand slam to seal a 5-0 victory over the Cubs. I haven't ever watched a full broadcast of this game, and I'm looking forward to checking it out at 7 p.m. tonight.