NEW YORK (News Nation) — Major League Baseball training camps reopened Wednesday, marking a critical step toward bringing back America’s pastime amid the COVID-19 outbreak. 

MLB and its players’ union agreed to a shortened 60-game season last week, with each team’s first game on July 23 or July 24, after weeks of negotiations cast doubt on whether the 2020 campaign would happen at all. 

Wednesday was the league’s “mandatory reporting date,” though players and staff must go through testing prior to entering team facilities. The first workouts and “full baseball activities” begin Friday. 

Dubbed “Summer Camp,” the workouts will pick up where spring training left off in March, when the coronavirus pandemic put the season on indefinite hold and players vacated training sites in Arizona and Florida. 

Some of those facilities were closed earlier this month after players and staff tested positive. 

In contrast, Minor League Baseball announced Tuesday it was cancelling its season for the first time in more than a century.