As someone who was very serious about Covid-19 since March 2020, I believe it is time to start sending play-by-play announcers back on the road. While the many professionals who call games are doing a more-than-admirable job, the lack of interaction with players is really starting to get noticeable.

Thanks to vaccinations, it is now time for baseball broadcasters to get back on the road.

In baseball, the media has been back on the field for a little over a month. ROOT Sports Seattle Mariners play-by-play man Dave Sims said the last Seattle homestand he has been going up to players and introduce himself. Players who he has been calling games for, in some cases, more than one season.

"When we first got down on the field, we were basically doing the home games remotely because we couldn't interact with the players.," Sims told me Monday when I guest-hosted on 950am KJR radio in Seattle. "It felt like a new chapter of life started last week. 'Hey man, how are ya?' I had to introduce myself to the bulk of the guys I met. I think I knew like eight guys on the club because there has been so much turnover."

According to sources, 10 to 12 teams have either radio or TV traveling at the start of July. In some cases, play-by-play teams are not traveling because the team is under the 85% vaccination threshold set forth by MLB. In other cases, it's a cost issue. Since profits have been down from airing fewer games last season, there is a financial justification for not spending to travel broadcasters when the games can air from remote locations as they have been during the pandemic.

A Major League Baseball spokesperson told The Athletic, "MLB is supportive of visiting clubs considering and home clubs accommodating visiting RSN announcers broadcasting from the site if requested. With guidelines fluidly changing, we are letting clubs and local rights holders work together to do what works best for them, as all conditions are not the same across the league. MLB is encouraging home clubs to accommodate requests from visiting clubs for booths for announcers. We are continuously evaluating guidelines and are looking to increase access as soon as we get guidance that it's safe to do so. MLB is letting clubs and local rights holders work together to make arrangements that everyone is comfortable with."

The NFL is doing things very differently. Talking to some people involved with the NFL broadcasts who wished to not be named, all play-by-play announcers will be in stadiums, just like last year. However, there should be increases in the amount of access broadcasters get.

Baseball is having a hard problem with it. The pace of play is at an all-time slow pace, and the play-by-play announcer is morphing into a talk-show host. The biggest issue is the lack of interaction with players. Sure, a few players and the manager go on Zoom every day, but that is not the heart of journalism.

"Where I can interact with guys and they get reactions off of stuff that is biographic," Sims added. "' Hey, tell me your story. What happened last night? Why'd you do this?' Then, he gets up that night and I can talk about it can fill in all the gaps. Especially when you get those long and slower games."

In multiple cases, team employees declined to comment on this topic for fear of professional backlash from their respective ballclubs.

Dodgers play-by-play man Joe Davis raised another topic to The Athletic that has lead me to believe it will not go back to the days prior to 2020.

I have written in the past that players do not want to engage with the media as much and have welcomed the distance.

"You know, I've heard, 'Well, the players don't want the rights holders back on the plane,'" Davis said. "Of course, they don't, I wouldn't either. But is that their decision? Or is it team by team? Or is it Major League Baseball? I don't know the answers to those things. So honestly, it's been so up and down and all over the place on what has to happen for us to travel, I've just kind of stopped thinking about it because it feels like wasted energy at this point."

When I traveled with teams, the players never tipped me to the idea that they did not want broadcasters on the plane. There has always been an unwritten rule of keeping such adventures out of the public eye.

Still, with social media and clickbait part of the media, players have been putting up walls towards all members of the media, whether they are rightsholders or not.

The problem with that is most rightsholders are veterans in this business, and social media is not their #1 priority. Relationships are. They are lacking with this new distance, and it's time to bring back road trips.

While I do not want to put pure speculation into this column, all this makes me fearful that some stations and teams are hurting their on-air product for cost-saving reasons. If the announcers are vaccinated, that cannot be the reason given.

What problems do remote broadcasts raise? First of all, if a batter tries to check his swing, the catcher will look at the first or third base umpire to see if he went around. The camera on the road broadcast doesn't show the umps call, and the broadcaster has no idea if it's a strike or a ball.

Usually, the cost of travel on team planes is built into the rights contract signed between the parent company of a radio cluster and the team. Last year, stations lost advertising money when only 60 games were played as opposed to 162. This season, they are trying to recoup those losses. Stations are having all sorts of different problems as struggling companies that used to spend advertising money for play-by-play broadcasts are not as free willing. The domino effect is showing that the product is suffering.

To be clear, the broadcasters, both radio, and television are doing a heckuva job in difficult circumstances. Enough of the great play-by-players and analysts are vaccinated.

It is high time to get them back on the road.