At least one Independence Day tradition might take place this summer: The Washington Nationals playing baseball at their South Capitol Street home.

Major League Baseball owners approved a plan earlier this month that would have teams return to their home ballparks for “spring training 2.0” in June. Regular-season games would begin the July 4 weekend but without fans in attendance. This plan, however, is not a guaranteed home run because it’s still subject to approval by the players’ union.

MLB over the weekend released a 67-page manual for the 2020 season. As reported by Barry Svrluga for the Washington Post, it includes first recognizing the need for local laws and authorities to allow the go-ahead for group workouts and games.

This could be a sticking point in the Nats playing in their home park. “Major League Baseball is not going to violate any local or state ordinances,” Svrluga tells DCist. “MLB is extremely cognizant of circumstances in all of their cities, including D.C..”

With the stay-at-home order still in effect at least through June 8, there’s a chance that when players are being allowed back on the field in other cities, D.C. will still be largely shut down.

However, baseball has a back-up plan. There’s a provision that if local laws are still preventing gatherings of even small groups, teams would start their season in spring training facilities in either Arizona or Florida where restrictions have started to be lifted. “If they are not allowed in D.C., the Nats would go to West Palm Beach,” Svrluga says about the team’s spring training home.

But just because the team starts in Florida doesn’t mean it would stay in the Sunshine State. “MLB is envisioning a scenario where some teams open up at their spring training facility, like the Nats, and then when things loosened up at home, they come back and play at Nats Park,” Svrluga says.

It would be logistically easier for teams to start in their home parks rather than going back and forth between Florida and D.C. But Svrluga thinks MLB would not push the issue if the D.C. government doesn’t agree at the outset.

There are signs that there’s a decent possibility that we could be watching the 2019 World Series champions play in Nationals Park soon, at least on television. The city is halfway to meeting key reopening metrics and, according to D.C.’s data, is in the midst of a ninth straight day of decline in community spread.

When asked for comment, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Chief of Staff, John Falcicchio said via a statement, “We are in touch with the Major League Baseball and the Nationals. We have not received a waiver request for training at Nationals Park in June, but [the Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency] is reviewing the League’s protocol for games to return in July.”

ESPN is reporting that MLB will be reaching out to local authorities themselves by the end of the week.

MLB is already getting the thumbs up in other areas of the country. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that not only is his state encouraging major league sports teams to plan on playing in their home stadiums this summer but is willing to provide help. California Gov. Gavin Newsom also said he’s on board with allowing the state’s teams to play in their home stadiums without fans.

As for when fans could come back to watch games in the ballparks, that’s still an unknown. But Dr. Anthony Fauci did tell Ryan Zimmerman in late April that “filling only every fifth seat at ballparks” could be one way that this could happen down the road.

For the time being, games would solely be for television. But Major League Baseball believes that’s better than nothing. “MLB thinks this would be a morale boost for fans if [the Nats] were able to play on South Capitol Street,” Svrluga says.

Oh, if the Nationals do start to play the weekend of July 4, it would be a rematch of last year’s World Series against the Houston Astros —a team that was caught cheating in previous seasons. We assume they’re hoping that Nats fans don’t make it back in time to voice an opinion on that one.