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Major League Baseball's decision Thursday to cancel remaining spring-training games and to delay the start of its season by two weeks due to coronavirus concerns has postponed opening day for the Chattanooga Lookouts.
Chattanooga, the Class AA affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds, was supposed to begin its 2020 Southern League season on April 9 against the Jackson Generals at AT&T Field. The Lookouts also were scheduled to face Chattanooga State in the annual seven-inning exhibition game at AT&T on April 7.
The MLB season had been set to start March 26.
"It's disappointing, because everybody looks forward to opening day and marks it on their calendars," Lookouts president Rich Mozingo said Thursday evening. "It will happen at some point, so we're just moving opening day, and we're still going to look forward to a great 2020 season. Once it's safe for our players and fans and staff to be a part of it, we're going to kick things off.
"We're just going to have to wait and see what Major League Baseball does moving forward."
Cincinnati played 15 spring-training games before play was halted, but its minor league working groups had just started competing in contests.
The Lookouts on Thursday also announced the cancellation of their annual FanFest event, which had been scheduled for Saturday. Some of the aspects of FanFest could be held at a later date.
"We have national anthem auditions that day, so we'll have to figure out when to do those, but FanFest is gone for this year," Mozingo said. "I've never been through 48 hours like this. It's incredible how fast this is moving."
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524. Follow him on Twitter @DavidSPaschall.
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