EVANSVILLE — Blazing speed, impressive pitching control, the crack of the ol' bat — they are everywhere at the 220-team national girls' softball tournament underway at Deaconess Sports Park.
But you can look high and low at the five-day event, which brought more than 6,000 people from 10 states into Vanderburgh County, without finding anyone other than concession workers wearing a mask.
Players and family members at the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA) Fastpitch Great Lakes Nationals say they are social distancing from people involved with other teams. But without knowing which adults are with which teams — or where anyone was before they arrived here Tuesday — it's impossible to tell. People sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the bleachers and in chairs and stand and walk in groups.
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Event hosts the Evansville Convention & Visitors Bureau put the number of people wearing masks at about 20 at one game alone on Friday. But a two-hour Courier & Press tour of the park Friday morning, when hundreds of people were present, turned up only two. A 90-minute Courier & Press tour Thursday found no one wearing a mask.
Kasey Seibert, a rising senior at Mater Dei High School, worked a concessions stand Thursday while wearing a cloth mask. Kasey admitted she's nervous.
"I guess I’m nervous for them — but I worry about myself, so as long as I’m protected and I feel like I’m doing my best to protect myself and other people, then it’s their decision," said the teenager, whose sister is a hospital nurse.
In the parking lot outside, Fort Wayne, Indiana, resident Christina Smith admitted she doesn't like wearing a mask at her job, where it is required. Smith isn't concerned about the scene at Deaconess Sports Park.
"I guess, I don’t know, I just – I do know that coronavirus is real, but I…." she paused for several seconds. "I don’t know, I just feel like we’ve got to keep living and see what happens from there, I guess. But at the same time, I’m OK with wearing one if that’s what makes people more comfortable."
Smith is with True Impact Softball, an outfit out of Kendallville, Indiana. The group, like most of the others, brought 30-35 players and adults.
"As soon as we get back to the hotel, if we take them off there, we're taking our chances then too, so…." she said, letting her voice trail off.
Millions of dollars are involved
Hotels are a big reason why the CVB wanted the USSSA event back for a second consecutive year. As in, nearly 2,600 local and area hotel rooms a night. There's also retail shopping, food — the CVB has estimated the tournament's value to the regional economy this year at a thumping $4.6 million.
Deaconess Sports Park is the event's primary location, with games also being played at Newburgh Sports Complex and Boonville Youth Park. The CVB owns and operates the eight-field sports complex adjacent to Goebel Soccer Complex.
The organization is doing everything it can to make the USSSA tournament a COVID-19-free zone, said CVB president Jim Wood.
Teams play their games and then tournament officials make sure they leave, Wood said, "so we don’t have this huge park with thousands and thousands of people." It's just one of the safety measures the CVB put in place.
Wood made available a one-page "Deaconess Sports Park COVID-19 Guidelines" for the USSSA tournament which stated that facial coverings are "recommended" and masks "provided for each player and additional masks available for purchase at the concession stand." Among the document's other anti-coronavirus strategies are stickers and signage recommending social distancing.
But Wood knows no anti-COVID strategy is worth the paper it's written on if people are unwilling to comply.
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"Bleachers are open for your convenience, but please social distance while enjoying the games!" stated one such sign attached to bleachers. But just a few feet away, people sat shoulder-to-shoulder, unmasked, watching the action.
"People still have to take individual responsibility," Wood said. "Everyone who shows up in this tournament, they’re not walking into Indiana – ‘Oh, wait, COVID.' Wherever they’re coming from, they have had to adjust to social distancing or face masks when they go inside restaurants."
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Wednesday that most of the state would continue with its Stage 4.5 reopening plan during the COVID-19 pandemic through at least through the end of this month.
Organizers of gatherings of up to 250, the plan's maximum, are required to develop and submit to local health departments plans enumerating steps to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The plans have to address social distancing measures and face coverings, among other things, and the ways to assure compliance.
CVB did that last month, Wood said.
"You can have up to 250 (people) per field," he said. "We got clarity from the governor's office on that."
Can you get COVID-19 outdoors?
Wood insists that people at Deaconess Sports Park are social distancing — in a way. They're staying within their traveling groups. But even if no one mingles with anyone from any other group, that still means unmasked people who may live in the same city — but not in the same residence — are within six feet of each other for extended periods.
CDC guidance on the matter is unambiguous.
"Social distancing, also called 'physical distancing,' means keeping a safe space between yourself and other people who are not from your household," the CDC states.
"To practice social or physical distancing, stay at least 6 feet (about 2 arms’ length) from other people who are not from your household in both indoor and outdoor spaces."
Players and adults at this week's USSSA event said they are not concerned about acquiring or spreading COVID-19 while not wearing masks — because the event is being held outdoors.
"I work in health care. We’re outside. I’m staying away from people, and so… social distancing. Washing your hands. Using hand sanitizer," said Mary Pittman, a Middlebury, Indiana-based long term care facility nurse.
"I know how to tell the symptoms. I mean, I know there’s people that are asymptomatic, but I know what to look for, so… stay your distance and wash your hands."
Pittman added that she had not encountered anyone who looked or acted sick.
Health and medical professionals do agree that the risk of acquiring COVID-19 is much lower outdoors than indoors. A Japanese study of 100 cases pegged the odds of acquiring the coronavirus at almost 20 times higher indoors than outdoors.
The risk is reduced outdoors, experts say, because wind disperses viral droplets and sunlight kills some of the virus. Open spaces mean the virus cannot gather strength and potency in concentrated amounts to then be inhaled.
But it can happen in larger outdoor groups. In June, what the Washington Post called "a fabulous backyard soiree during a pandemic" resulted in positive COVID tests for the host and some of the event's two-dozen guests.
Just last weekend, more than 30 softball teams from across Indiana played in the All-American Showcase Tournament at Deaconess Sports Park. Vanderburgh County Health Department officials say it's too early to have identified any local cases that may have resulted from visitors spreading the virus here.
"Normally, something like that, an event — it takes maybe a week to 10 days before maybe somebody gets tested and then gets their results back, and then we're in contact with them," said Joe Gries, the local agency's administrator.
"I don't think we would have results just a week out from that event."
Gries said the health department hasn't seen a rash of cases attributable to last month's local protests inspired by the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died in the custody of Minneapolis police.
As has been the case around the country, protesters spent much of their time moving, lowering the risks associated with spending extended periods with infected individuals. Many marchers also were wearing masks.
"Being outside is obviously better than being inside in enclosed areas and around people," Gries said. "It's usually if you're walking, there's a protest and they're walking down the street, that's going to lower the risk as well."
Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke's order requiring masks, announced last week and in its first week, would not pertain to any gathering at Deaconess Sports Park. It's not in the city.
But Winnecke made his feeling on the possibility of outdoor infection clear when he introduced the idea last week.
"If you're walking by yourself outside, you're not going to have to have a mask. If you're walking with someone and you can't be six feet apart, you need to have a mask," the mayor said.
Winnecke did include in his order an exemption for people exercising or engaging in sports indoors or outdoors. But then, some experts say masks are more, not less, important during exercise.
"If you’re going to be around others, either in a crowd or in a situation where it will be difficult to maintain that six foot distance from others, you should wear a mask," infectious disease expert Dr. Aaron Hamilton wrote for the Cleveland Clinic this month. "That’s especially true if you’ll be doing any exercise or activity in which you might be breathing heavier than normal, thus possibly propelling those droplets from your mouth further than the usual distance."
Winnecke said Thursday the willingness of individuals to comply with orders and recommendations remains the key factor in containing COVID-19.
"It’s incumbent upon the CVB to make sure that all the guidelines are being followed (at the USSSA event)," he said. "For our economy to continue to re-open and rebound the way we all want it to, we need people to continue to do the right thing."