The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the world of sports, either leading to canceled seasons or games played without crowds. The upcoming MLB season kicks off on July 23, and games will be played in stadiums without anyone in the stands. To make players feel like the competitive atmosphere hasn’t changed too much, ESPN reports that stadium sound engineers will tap into roughly 75 different sound effects from the MLB The Show video game series to bring additional outside noise to the crack of the bat.
Teams are experimenting with the sounds now during their summer training. If you are watching the games from home, the pumped-in stadium noise will be audible, and will be joined by walk-up music and announcers. Some stadiums may even purchase photo cutouts of people that they’ll place in the seats. I hope most stadiums add the cutouts and we get to see what happens to them when a foul ball or home run hits them.