On March 10, 2020, Governor Jay Inslee issued his emergency proclamation limiting large events as a measure to limit the spread of the virus, effectively ending the Seattle Mariners’ season before it began.

On June 22, 2020, baseball owners unanimously agreed to proceed with a shortened 2020 season,104 days after Governor Inslee shut down all major events.

In those 104 days, the state of Washington grew from 216 confirmed cases to 28,870. Social distancing has become a way of life for many, and it seems impossible to envision the world returning to normal, or at least a way of life somewhat resembling what most of us are comfortable with.

This pandemic, of course, is just one side of the coin. On the other side of the coin, you have a deadly rash of unarmed Black persons murdered at the hands of police officers, yet again. Only this time, the populations of the world reacted on a global scale.

The world is in a state of civil unrest it hasn’t seen in decades and a pandemic it hasn’t seen in a century. In other words, in the grand scheme of things, the return of baseball could not matter any less if it tried.

And boy gee howdy did baseball try to make itself matter in the worst way possible. The owners of MLB and commissioner Rob Manfred tried their hardest to publicly appear as the worst group of villains in the most mediocre James Bond movie. Public health be damned! Proper payment for services can go right out of the window! Rich people aren’t making as much money as they would normally and that just isn’t right.

Considering as of yesterday, over 132,000 in the United States have died from COVID-19 and the virus shows no signs of relenting, we have to acknowledge just how absurd it is for baseball to continue. Many of us are desperately searching for some coherency to the current state of the world and often times that comes in the form of comforts we know and cherish–the smell of the ballpark, the crack of the bat, the long pauses between pitches, drunken frat boys spending too much money on beer, and all of the other aspects of baseball we find familiar.

Again, that is only acknowledging the one side of the coin. It is imperative we take note that in the year 2020, there are just two black managers in all of MLB, Dusty Baker and Dave Roberts. Only 7.7 percent of the Opening Day rosters last season were Black players. Baseball loves to highlight Jackie Robinson once a year, but, like a lot of America, still hasn’t done the actual work to diversify front offices, coaching staffs, and clubhouses.

So what exactly are we celebrating here? Baseball is coming back this year with rule changes ranging from slightly controversial (the soul of baseball is watching pitchers try and hit the ball) to what the heck (hello wet rag). It is doing so knowing full well that the season could collapse on any given day if COVID-19 strikes just one clubhouse. It is doing so after MLB took nine days to release a statement mentioning the names of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, which would look even worse if not for the New York Knicks.

It is important to keep all of the real world in the forefront of our minds as baseball gets underway, because what baseball will provide us is an escape from the grim reality we currently face. That is how things continue to be bad. We settle into routines, we remember how much we love summer nights at the ballpark, and we no longer hold those in power accountable until the next injustice means it is time to signal our displeasure on social media. The world is ending right now and baseball is happening. Don’t let the familiarity of our national pastime blind you from the current events and climate of the world. For the first time in decades, it appears like there are some wheels of momentum ready to carry everyone into a brighter future.

None of this means to say we should not root for the Seattle Mariners, or whatever baseball team we choose to adore. The world needs a damn escape. But what perpetuates all of our systems of oppression is when we escape and never return. Let’s enjoy baseball and let’s keep fighting the good fight–they can coexist if we make them.