Fans wore masks as they watched the Los Angeles Dodgers warm up against the Chicago Cubs for a spring training game in Phoenix.Credit...Mark J. Rebilas/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

Masks Aren’t Just for Catchers: Spring Training in Photographs

Traditions are everything in baseball, and the sport is making many of them work despite the pandemic.

In a sport known for its adherence to tradition, spring training is a throwback even by baseball’s standards: fans sitting among scouts and executives; players working their way into shape while chatting with people hanging over outfield walls; and small stadiums geared more toward enjoying the game than making money.

No one was quite sure how spring training would work as the coronavirus pandemic persisted this year — not even the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony S. Fauci. Spring training games were halted last March, and in the lead-up to the shortened season, teams worked out with no fans present. This January, the mayors or city managers of the eight Arizona spring training communities unsuccessfully lobbied for spring training to be delayed. But camps opened and exhibition games began ahead of the regular season, which is expected to start on time.

The stadiums the fans returned to have limited capacities, masks are ubiquitous and player interviews with the news media, always a hallmark of the more relaxed environment, have mostly moved online. Some players have even admitted to being a little nervous to play in front of a crowd for the first time in a year.

It may not exactly match the traditions of the past, but in the end, the sun is shining in Florida and Arizona, the fans are filling as many seats as teams allow and the baseball players, as they do every spring, are preparing for a long season.

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Mask use varied among players last year, but Major League Baseball is working to enforce use in spring training, as seen with Jonathan Arauz of the Boston Red Sox.Credit...Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox, via Getty Images
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To protect concessions workers at the parks, plexiglass shields were erected, making the process of getting an ice cream cone at a game between the Pirates and the Phillies in Clearwater, Fla., slightly more complicated.Credit...Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
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Interacting with fans may be considerably harder, but the Phillie Phanatic — in a mask, of course — was up to the task in Clearwater.Credit...Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
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Stadium workers, like this one in West Palm Beach, Fla., have been sanitizing surfaces in stadiums, particularly in high-touch areas.Credit...Lynne Sladky/Associated Press
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Some things haven’t changed much, including grounds crews putting up with the heat of Phoenix while getting an infield ready.Credit...Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
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The tradition of having fans on lawns has survived, and at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla., fans are asked to maintain social distancing by staying inside painted rectangles.Credit...Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images
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At George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Fla., ushers carried signs reminding fans to wear masks.Credit...Douglas P. Defelice/Getty Images
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The creativity of the masks this year, among fans and players, far outstrips the basic masks players wore while getting ready for last year’s pandemic-shortened season.Credit...Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press
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There weren’t as many fans, and everyone had to wear a mask, but a game at sunset between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Washington Nationals in West Palm Beach, Fla., managed to look a lot like the spring trainings of old. Credit...Mary Holt/USA Today Sports, via Reuters
A version of this article appears in print on  , Section B, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: For It’s 1, 2, 6 Feet Apart. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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