infrastructure for this arrangement. audio from sony interactive entertainment's mlb: the show video game franchise was used as artificial crowd noise for all games, and was played over the stadiums' audio systems on-site. fox announced plans to use augmented reality "virtual fans" in its games, while espn leveraged experience from its remote broadcasts of kbo league games over the suspended pre-season. the pandemic also led to changes in broadcast arrangements for several teams: due to health risks, the baltimore orioles announced that gary thorne and jim palmer could not call its games for masn this season. local sports radio personality scott garceau replaced thorne on play-by-play; in 2021, the team would not renew the contracts of thorne, palmer, or analysts mike bordick and rick dempsey, with garceau remaining part of the revamped team. sportsnet's toronto blue jays color commentator pat tabler (who is a u.s. citizen) took on a reduced analyst role this season, leaving the team's alternate commentary team of dan shulman (play-by-play) and buck martinez (color; he normally performs play-by-play on games where shulman is not present) for all regular-season games. due to his commitments to espn radio coverage, shulman was replaced by joe siddall for toronto's wild card series games. prior to the pandemic, the san francisco giants and nbc sports bay area had already planned to have color commentator mike krukow broadcast 22 nl west road games remotely from the network's studios (with his play-by-play partner duane kuiper commentating on-site as normal) to accommodate his inclusion body myositis, which had made him unfit to travel. the need for this arrangement was ultimately rendered moot, with krukow and kuiper calling all giants' games together from booths at oracle park. on july 31, texas rangers radio voice matt hicks tested positive for covid-19. his partner eric nadel subsequently opted out from broadcasting that weekend's games. after television voice c. j. nitkowski tested positive in mid-september, fox sports southwest switched to using a simulcast of the radio broadcast. retirements the following players retired during the 2020 season and before the start of 2021 campaign: alex wilson – july 28 josé reyes – july 29 chris iannetta – august 8 ubaldo jiménez – september 17 alex gordon – september 24 retired at the end of the season hunter pence – september 26 francisco cervelli – october 3 hisashi iwakuma – october 20 retired at the end of the current nippon professional baseball season kyuji fujikawa – november 10 yonder alonso – november 20 howie kendrick – december 21 phil hughes – january 3, 2021 danny hultzen – january 14, 2021 daniel murphy – january 29, 2021 dustin pedroia – february 1, 2021 josh phegley – february 3, 2021 jared hughes – february 14, 2021 nate orf – february 16, 2021 cody allen – february 17, 2021 tim tebow – february 17, 2021 brian dozier – february 18, 2021 kelvin herrera – february 26, 2021 tim dillard – march 10, 2021 nick markakis – march 12, 2021 dan otero – march 22 gio gonzalez – march 25, 2021 retired numbers dick allen had his #15 retired on september 3 by the philadelphia phillies. he is the seventh player to have his number retired by the franchise. due to the delayed start of the season caused by the covid-19 pandemic, the following retirement ceremonies have been postponed. they will be rescheduled. player no. team original date ref larry walker 33 colorado rockies april 19 dave stewart 34 oakland athletics may 23 roy halladay 34 philadelphia phillies may 29 jerry koosman 36 new york mets june 13 will clark 22 san francisco giants july 11 lou whitaker 1 detroit tigers august 29 major league baseball teams revenue losses for 2020 for 2020 team marketing report has calculated $5 billion in game day losses for major league baseball as a result of not having fans.