Softball is back in Anchorage with COVID-19 guidelines in place and elbow-bumps in early season form

Softball is back at Anchorage’s Cartee Fields, and the biggest difference you might see between this season and a nonpandemic season is a nameless maneuver that is half high-five, half elbow bump.

Call it a high-elbow. It’s what happens when a high-five morphs into an elbow bump midway through, a twisting of elbow and shoulder to avoid the potential spread of germs that can come with slapping hands.

After an Anchorage Sports Association women’s game between the All Naturals and Sweet Beavers on Tuesday night, several players from the Sweet Beavers lingered outside their dugout. They were in a good mood despite a 13-4 season-opening loss.

“Are you a high-fiver?” one player asked another, raising her hand tentatively.

“I don’t know. I feel like people will judge,” said another.

They grinned and bumped elbows.

Jill King is the pitcher for the Sweet Beavers and a captain in the Alaska Army National Guard. Like many, she believes summertime means softball, so she knew she would play this summer as long as pandemic-related mandates by the state and city would accommodate a season.

“People start talking about softball in February during snowshoe softball,” King said. “I was 100% going to play.

"My mother-in-law lives with us, and we try to take as much precaution as we can. I also know there is a risk. Seeing some of the people here spread out to begin with makes me feel better.”

King was among those who did the high-elbow contortion, sometimes with a laugh over the confusion.

“It is very hard not to high-five,” she said. “The hardest part is with your comrades — you want to go up and high-five and say, ‘Great hit!’ Not being able to do that? It’s what we do.”

Each dugout at the Cartee Fields complex has a laminated sheet of Anchorage Sports Association guidelines about playing in a pandemic. No spitting, no blowing snot out of your nose, no high-fives, no sitting in the bleachers — which are cordoned off with yellow tape, but still had a few people sitting in them Tuesday night.

Teams are asked to wipe down dugouts between games, and bathrooms are sanitized hourly, said Ben Kramer, executive director of the Anchorage Sports Association.

“Our biggest concern is player safety,” he said.

Players are asked to sanitize shared equipment between uses, although most players in Tuesday’s games shared bats without doing that. They are told to stay 6 feet apart in general and 10 feet apart “for anyone engaged in athletic ability,” which in softball can actually happen just about everywhere but home plate, where the batter, catcher and umpire share a small space.

Though masks are suggested, they were an anomaly Tuesday. During three 6:30 p.m. games, two umpires wore masks and one did not. Among about 100 people at the complex, maybe a dozen wore masks.

“We’re not mandating it; we made it a suggestion," said umpire Jack Eppley, who wore a mask. "It’s a personal choice. We’re all adults and it’s up to them to decide.”

If a player is coughing or sneezing a lot, “they can be asked to leave,” he said, and if they don’t, “we report to the Sports Association and they will take care of it.”

Adult softball is believed to be the first recreational sport to return to competition in Anchorage, although practices are happening in some other sports, with games scheduled to begin later this month. Softball started prior to this week in Juneau and the Valley, Kramer said, and auto racing began at Alaska Raceway Park more than a week ago on Memorial Day weekend.

“There’s a lot of unknowns about this whole summer,” said Kevin Dean, an Anchorage Sports Association board member.

He said the board had multiple meetings over the last three months to discuss what could and couldn’t happen during the state’s and city’s various reopening phases. Once Alaska reached Phase III of the reopening on Memorial Day weekend, recreational sports were back in business.

“This is new territory for everyone — the state, the associations,” Dean said. “They only reason we got these permits (to use city parks) is we submitted those protocols and the city approved them."

Kramer said the city approved a mitigation plan the association made in conjunction with USA Softball and several other Anchorage softball and baseball organizations like the American Legion and the Alaska Baseball League.

The league is also following the city’s requirements for group gatherings and has policies in place for situations that can’t be handled on site by umpires or team managers.

At a men’s D League game between Section 8 and Dem Boys on Tuesday, Neil Murray of Eagle River reveled in the chance to play ball.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “For the longest time we thought it wouldn’t happen, so it’s really nice to see it come together.”

Before the game, Dem Boys teammates Robert Wholecheese and Charlie Britt talked about how glad they were to be active and outside again.

“It’s the first night so I’m pretty excited to get out of the house and get competitive again,” Wholecheese said.

The game marked the first time Dem Boys had gotten together since last season — the team didn’t bother with any preseason practices, Wholecheese said.

“So that competitive thing I just said, take that with a grain of salt,” he said.

Britt, who played pickup basketball Monday for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, said playing sports again keeps him sane.

“You’re not stuck at home,” he said. “Everyone can be doing something they love and get outside.”

As he spoke, Britt’s 2-year-old son, Heiden, drank chocolate milk from a bottle and coughed a couple of times. The cough had been worrisome enough for a doctor’s visit, and earlier on Tuesday Heiden’s COVID-19 test came back negative. Allergies were to blame, his dad said.

“So he’s good,” Britt said. “He likes to be outside, so this is great. With the parks being closed, it’s hard being at home, especially with a 2-year-old who wants to run, run, run.”

"... The main thing is if you’re healthy and doing healthy sports, it’s good for you.”

Not everyone agrees. King, the pitcher for Sweet Beavers who also plays on a coed team, said three people on her coed team decided not to risk playing this summer, “and a couple teams disbanded that had been playing for decades.”

“The numbers are certainly down a little,” said Kramer, the head of the association. There are about 150 teams with 10 to 18 players per roster this summer, he said; the ASA website says there is typically about 200 teams each season.

Players must sign waivers that include new language about municipality restrictions during the pandemic. Among other things, players agree not to come to games if they have shown symptoms of COVID-19 in the previous 72 hours or if they have been exposed to someone known or suspected to have the virus. They also agree to inform the association if they develop symptoms within seven days after a game.

“Please be advised that an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. COVID-19 is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death,” the waiver says.

Violations reported to the association and found valid will result in a one-game suspension. A second offense carries a two-game suspension and a third results in suspension for the rest of the season. Also included, as usual, is a waiver of liability.

Those who are playing seem to share the enthusiasm displayed by outfielder Christy Pizarro, whose orange-framed sunglasses were a perfect match for her All Naturals T-shirt.

“Here’s my comment: ‘Hashtag softball is life.’ Literally, that’s all you have to say behind my name,” she said.

That’s a sentiment shared by many who spend a big chunk of every summer at the Cartee Fields. King played back-to-back season-opening games this week, a coed game Monday and a women’s game Tuesday. Her muscle memory tells her she’s still a high-fiver, though she is striving to become an elbow-bumper.

“ ‘Oh wait, are you an elbow or a high-five?’ " is part of the chatter now, she said. “You still have to ask.”