Baseball fans attend socially-distant watch party

SOUTH BEND, Ind.-- The coronavirus pandemic has forced all MLB teams to make major changes, one of those changes, not allowing fans inside the baseball stadiums.

“You can’t go to Wrigley Field, so the next best thing is come to four winds field,” South Bend Cubs President Joe Hart said.

Fans now feeling the impact with not physically being able to attend games, but, Four Winds Field hosted a Chicago Cubs watch party for fans on their big screen to help make up for it.

Along with showing the cubs on the screen, Four Winds opened up other parts of their stadium to make things feel a little more normal.

“We’ll have some concessions open, people can come out, splash pads going to be on for the kids, kids can run the bases following the game. So, just another fun way for people to get out and kind of enjoy themselves, but yet still socially distance,” Hart said.

With all events hosted, Four Winds is following CDC guidelines, such as keeping fans 6-feet apart, setting up hand sanitizing stations throughout the stadium and enforced mask wearing.

“We worked with the health department; we submitted the health plan to make sure we had their approval and everything,” Hart said.

One season ticket holder said that she spends a lot of time at four winds field during the summer time.

“I usually don’t watch baseball on TV but I figure here at the stadium it will feel a little more like real baseball,” Gayle Windsor said.

Windsor said she’s excited that they're giving people a chance to come together again.

“It’s just nice to get out. You see familiar faces that you’ve seen over the years, and I’m looking forward to getting together and just talking to people that,” Windsor said.

“It’s really about just trying to give people the chance to come out and just enjoy themselves and it’s been a weird summer there’s no doubt about it, and for us to be able to entertain our guests and our fans is something we love to do,” Hart said.

There will be 3 other Chicago Cubs watch parties hosted at Four Winds Field this summer.