Mets icon and current SNY analyst Ron Darling talks with Post columnist Steve Serby about baseball’s potential return from the pandemic and what it might look like:

Q: Do you believe baseball can pull this off and give us a season?
A: Put all the sports in there. I think it’s very difficult. Baseball is unique, that it’s every single day. It’s different from some of the other sports, of course. Can they pull it off? Yes. Do I think they’re gonna pull it off? Absolutely. Do I think it’s the right idea? Not sure about that. But if you had to ask me: Are they gonna find a way to get the games and play these games? I would say I think they’re gonna do it.

Q: If you were a player today, what would be your biggest source of apprehension and concern?
A: I think you gotta look at it two different ways. I was single for the first four, five years of my career. So I would look at it a lot different. I think I would just think that, “OK, I don’t have a family, I’ll just make sure I stay away from family, and I will just quarantine myself” — the ballpark, apartments, house, whatever it is, and that’s it. Stay in, not go out … just what I’m doing right now [in Florida] to tell you the truth. Now, if I had a family, which I did later in my career, I think that I would be — and I know that this would be a sour note with some of the players — but I would be really inclined to quarantine myself away from my family. Things could change over the next couple of months that makes it more viable to spend time with your family, but that would be my first thought.

Q: When you imagine baseball with no fans, what do you think?
A: I don’t think it’s gonna make the players play differently. The way baseball competition works is that if you’re facing 100 miles an hour, you’d better pay attention. Foul balls that are rattling in the stands like “The Natural” are gonna be strange, but I don’t think it’s gonna take away the general nature of how the guys play. I think it’s definitely gonna give a different feel to the broadcasting of the games. I think it’s going to be awkward when someone hits a game-winning home run, and they kind of run out to the plate, and they have each other and no one else. But I don’t think it’s gonna change how they play, because they only know one way to play. They don’t know like, OK, how to play without fans and how to play with fans. Athletes aren’t made like that.

Q: What might it be like for you and SNY teammates Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez?
A: It’s gonna be a season that we’re gonna have to do a lot of thinking outside the box. We’re gonna have to do things that we’ve never done before. … Here’s an idea — maybe, because the stands are gonna be empty, we’re gonna be talking from the booth, people are gonna be able to hear us better on the field, umpires or whatever. … Gary screaming “Outta here” might seem a little different with no one in the stands. Maybe we might have to do the games in the booth with the windows closed. We certainly don’t want to interrupt the game with the players on the field. I wouldn’t want a guy to come to the plate and have him hear Gary say, “He’s 1-for-his-last-35 with runners in scoring position” (laugh). I mean, who wants to hear that?

Q: Totally hypothetical: Game 6 of the ’86 World Series, do you think your Mets would have been able to stage that 10th-inning miracle comeback without fans in the stands?
A: Well, I’ll put it this way: The late, great Gary Carter, when asked what he was thinking when he went up with two outs, and he said: “I did not want to make the last out in front of the New York fans.” And I’ll never forget that. So, I would say no, we probably wouldn’t have pulled it out, because it was Gary that needed to start it, and he did it because he did not want to make an out in front of the 55,000 fans in Shea Stadium that night. Fans are so important. I guess we’re not discounting the importance of the fan, we’re just trying to keep the safety of the fan.

Q: What concerns do you have about the testing?
A: Maybe it’s the world we live in, but there’s so much criticism from folks on either side. Nothing like having an idea. If you have an idea, it’s gonna be criticized. There’s so much that’s unknown here. Cut everyone a break. It’s not like someone has a manual on how to deal with this. Everyone is going from day-to-day, and the rules change from day-to-day. No one — not one person that’s involved with the Players Association or Major League Baseball — wants to get this wrong. They all want to protect their athletes, they want to protect their players, they want to protect the people that work at the ballpark. I know it’s very easy to criticize from people who have given this no thought and they just like to criticize — cut these guys a break on both sides. They’re trying their best. No one knows what the answers are, and they’re taking the test. It’s a very difficult thing to do.

Q: Players who have been exposed to someone who tests positive will not be quarantined for 14 days.
A: Think about it this way: What happens if he tests positive on the road? Does he have to stay in a hospital facility, or a facility Major League Baseball has on the road for 14 days? Do they fly him home in a private plane? I feel as though there’s 1,000 things they’ve gotta get right here, and they’re on Step 13, you know what I mean? There’s just so much to cover. I don’t know if it’s coverable, so maybe keep it as simple as you can when a player tests positive: Get him out of Dodge. Maybe you have to have Major League Baseball facilities around the country where those players go. What happens if you trade a player? He goes to another team, do you have to quarantine him? There’s so many ifs. When I saw the 67-page report, it’s an amazing, thorough report. But I think to get through this, they’re somehow gonna have to make it simpler, not more complex, just because of the sheer numbers of people that you’re dealing with. I do think, though, that they’re going to have to test daily.

Q: What about players not being confined in their hotel rooms on the road or at home?
A: I think on the road, I think there’s gonna be a real cohesive kind of group sportsthink that, “Hey, we’re in this together, we’ve gotta keep each other healthy.” And each hotel is gonna provide — whether it’s a team-only bar, team-only restaurant — that they’ll be able to spend even more time together on the road than they ever have in the past because they’re gonna be protecting each other. And at home, I think what’s gonna happen, and I’ve seen it happen to a lot of sports people, is that players that are out and not minding themselves the proper way are gonna be social video-shamed. So I think that there’s gonna be a report card on you (chuckle), on how do you handle your business when you’re at home with your family. And I would say that 95 percent of the guys and their families understand what’s at cost here and how to keep each other as healthy as they can. And they’re gonna do exactly what I’m doing now, what everyone else is doing, and that is staying indoors, going to the grocery store when you have to, cooking your own meals, all of that stuff. I’ve been doing it since the end of February, I don’t see how that’s gonna change.

Q: How do you see the economics being resolved?
A: That, I think, can be settled. I think also, this is an opportunity for both sides to create a bargaining table for the next collective bargaining agreement, really sit down with each other and say, “Hey listen, we’ve gotta go back at this in two years, for the good of the game, for the good of the people who love this game, let’s iron this out, and let’s start a dialogue that not only leads to baseball this year, but leads to a CBA in two years.” To think that this is separate from what they have to do two years from now I think is probably not as intelligent as they could be.

Q: It’s greedy owners versus greedy players to the public.
A: The fans are undefeated (laugh). They have never lost this fight. The players and the owners — and more of the players — will never win it. They need to take everyone’s phone, they need to get whatever group that is gonna take care of this in a room, and they’re not allowed out until they figure it out. Because the leaks from each side, or whatever side’s trying to make the other one look bad in a PR way, it works, but to me it’s juvenile. Get in a room when it comes to the financials, if they’re far apart on it, just hammer it out in a room where no one’s gonna find out about it until they come out of there.

Q: No imposed salary cap will help.
A: Both sides are gonna have to bend, I think they’re gonna have to understand that you could be right, and you also could be wrong. I’m not overemphasizing the game of baseball. Baseball is not going to solve the 35 million people that are unemployed, it’s not gonna solve the small businesses that are going under, it’s not gonna solve any of those things. But we do have a lot of folks that are home, they do have a lot of folks that love the game, and if we can provide the smallest little comfort to these folks, then I think it’s really important that these guys get it done.

Q: We’ve all witnessed how baseball can help heal a country,
A: Baseball is an everyday thing. There’s a reason why Michael Jordan’s “Last Dance” got the numbers it did, because people are just starving to watch something, right? And it was compelling television. Well, listen, not every game’s gonna be 3-2, extra innings or whatever. But it’s such a regional game, and it’s such an important part of people’s spaghetti-and-meatball dinner that they can turn their radio or TV announcers on, and in the background, they can hear the groundball hit the bat and all of those beautiful, glorious things that have been written by Roger Angell and others. Those things are very important to folks when they’re going through tough times. And this is the toughest in my lifetime.

Q: What was going on inside you when Mike Piazza hit that home run after 9/11?
A: I remember I was watching the game in California. Part of me as a former ballplayer thought that this might happen, because Mike was such a prolific hitter, such a clutch hitter, you thought, “Jeez, what if he hits this ball out of here?” And I remember Steve Karsay, who was my teammate with the Oakland A’s, and he was such a great kid and a great fireballer, I’m thinking about him, “What if he gives up a home run in this place? Or what if he strikes out Piazza, disappointing the New Yorkers that have gone through such a tough time?” There were so many different emotions. TV, unlike the ballpark, you don’t always know if it’s gone, that’s why the announcers are great. But I was watching it with no announcing, the volume wasn’t up. And just because of the enormity of the moment, as soon as he hit it, I think, “Godammit, he just pulled it off!” And when it went out of the ballpark, I couldn’t have been happier for the city of New York, and of course Mike. That night, anyone who was at that ballpark, or in New York that night, knew how powerful baseball can be.

Q: What are your thoughts on the universal DH?
A: I think 2019 will go down in history as the last year that the National League pitchers will hit. I think after the experiment with the DH this summer, if the games are played, that the universal DH will be here forever.

Q: How do you feel about that?
A: I’m a National League guy. I love pitchers hitting, I love pitchers being a part of the athletes that are on the field. But I think that some rules are hard to swallow, and hard to take. But I think it’s one whose time has come. People don’t want too see pitchers hitting — irrespective of Bartolo Colon — they want to see nine hitters. And I think that’s where we’re going,

Q: What do you think of no postgame showers?
A: I’ve played with players that didn’t shower after the game. A lot of these guys in travel ball have lived with this where they play, and they kind of get in and go back to their house or hotel and go shower, so I think that it’s not gonna be as strange for some people as to my generation of players where you had 25 guys with thick shower heads all in the same room — it probably sounds pretty gross to most people (laugh). That is something that I think will be left on the table. I’m sure that you can figure out with 30 guys that OK, starting pitchers that didn’t play, they’re in the shower first. The guys that played nine innings, they go in last. They’ll figure it out.

Q: No arguments with umpires?
A: No need for that, those days are gone, there’s no need to argue — and pretty soon, we’re gonna have a robot anyway.

Q: No brawls in a pandemic?
A: I think because of the strict rules that they have in the 67-page report that you’re gonna pay mightily if you initiate a brawl will stop teams from brawling, yes.

Q: No high fives or fist bumps?
A: What will happen is that players will figure something out. I know that some guys that play golf with my dad, after they finish a round, they touch putters. They’ll figure a different way to show solidarity.

Q: Social distancing in the dugout?
A: If you’re a starting pitcher and maybe if you’re not on the bench, maybe you can watch it in the comforts of the locker room. Maybe some of the guys sit in the first, second, third, fifth, whatever row right behind the dugout, and you’ll know when it’s kind of your time to play. You’ll be able to use the whole ballpark because of not any fans.

Q: No sunflower seeds or spitting?
A: Those are nasty habits, and nasty habits are like anything else. When the pressure’s on, spitting is part of kind of trying to get some air. I think that it’s gonna be discouraged. I think guys are gonna try not to do it, but it certainly will happen.

Q: No mascots — meaning no Mr. Met?
A: How can you play a game without Mr. Met? I think they’ll find a way to either use Mr. Met at some events — whether it’s at hospitals, where it’s needed most. If children or younger people have the COVID, maybe he can have a Zoom kind of chat with them to make things better.

Q: The managers, the older coaches, trainers and umpires will be more at risk here.
A: Yeah, and there’s people that are diabetic, there’s people like me who had [thyroid] cancer. There’s certainly gonna be enough people that are more at risk. Those people that are more risk are going to have to maybe be a little more sequestered in the clubhouse. I don’t know how we keep everyone safe, people are going to get sick. But like anything else, try to keep those people as sequestered as you can, and they’re gonna have to live a real monastic kind of life on the road and at home.

Q: The Mets’ prospects?
A: I think they’re a complete team in a complete division. I think the DH rule’s gonna really help them tremendously, ’cause [Yoenis] Cespedes, who can’t play the outfield, I think we’ll see a lot. Dominic Smith, J.D. Davis, all those guys might get at-bats they wouldn’t get normally during the season. The loss of [Noah] Syndergaard hurts, but they did sign [Rick] Porcello and [Michael] Wacha to cover that, that was a good move by Brodie [Van Wagenen, general manager].

Q: What do you think of rookie manager Luis Rojas?
A: I know Luis, I know he comes from baseball royalty in his family. He’s an amazing young man. He might not ever have gotten a shot if it wasn’t for all these events. But I do know that he’s going to be a real good manager. It might take some time, but I expect him to be on the next wave of young managers that make their mark, I think he’s gonna be one of ’em.

Q: Given the rush and reduced spring training, how much concern will injuries be, especially to pitchers?
A: I’m not concerned with guys getting ready, I think they’re gonna get ready very quickly. They’ll all be ready to go. The problem is gonna be the residual once the season starts. I think yes, there’ll be injuries, there’ll be injuries to key players, just like there are every year. I would think yes, there would be more than most, just because of the kind of season it’s gonna be. Now will they be covered? Yes they will, because you’re gonna have a floating kind of roster of 40-50 players that they’re gonna be able to use at any one time. You’ll have the players on call to take over.

Q: What are your expectations for Pete Alonso?
A: He doesn’t have to hit 53 home runs to have a better year. I think taking his walks ’cause there’s gonna be a lot of pitchers fearful of him, driving in a ton of runs, continuing his fine play on the defensive side, he can have a better year. A couple of years, I won more games and didn’t have as good a year as I pitched when I won less. I think that he’s got a perfect mindset to pull off his sophomore year.

Q: The expanded playoffs?
A: It only makes sense when you start a season so late to try to not have any outliers that don’t belong there, to make sure that you have as many teams involved as you can. So if you do 14 instead of 10, I think that’s good. Maybe they will end up with a team that thought they were a year away ends up in the postseason and makes their mark. Anytime, but especially this year, that we can keep every region of the United States involved and excited about their baseball team is a fantastic way to go.

Q: Anything else you would do if you were commissioner?
A: Fan-friendly things like true doubleheaders, with a day off the next day is something that I would like to see. I think seven innings for doubleheader games I think is perfect. I think historical extra-inning games are some of the greatest in the history of the game, but again, I think the people who watch are not interested in seven hours of baseball, so maybe making it more dynamic after the score’s tied after 10 and doing something dramatic like they did in the World Baseball Classic to get the games over.

Q: What’s it been like for you not being able to broadcast games?
A: It’s weird because last year having the operation for thyroid cancer, so it’s been two strange years. But this year, just because at least last year I knew that at some point I’d be back, we’re still hoping that baseball can work its way around figuring out how to pull this off. So the unknown just makes it more difficult.

Q: How much do you miss it?
A: Oh, tremendously. What happens, when you’re in the middle of what you’re doing, whether you’re a broadcaster in any sport, you’re going from season to season to get ready and this or that. And when that’s taken away, you didn’t realize how much your calendar or your inside clock works. Memorial Day, it’s supposed to be a big weekend for baseball, and starting next week, the Mets go to Wrigley Field to play the Cubs, that’s always been a big series. You’d like to say that you’re more well-rounded, but you’re not (laugh). This is what you do, and this is what you love to do, so it hurts you, it hurts your heart not to be able to do it.

Q: What is your message to baseball fans?
A: Be safe. Take care of your loved ones, that’s the most important thing. And hopefully, if baseball can come back, it adds to you and your family’s life as you try to stay safe and keep others safe.

Q: What to you would be the nightmare scenario when and if baseball is able to start up?
A: The worst-case scenario is that baseball becomes not part of the solution, it becomes part of the problem. And that in playing games, somehow baseball’s part of a second wave or third wave or something like that. I think that would be everyone’s nightmare. Smarter people than me are giving a lot of thought to this, and I just hope that at the end of the day, or at the end of November or whenever all of this is done, people will look back and say, “You know? I’m glad they were able to play baseball. We’re really in a bad place, it’s gonna take another year or two to recover, but baseball kept me sane for the summer.”