FORT MYERS, Fla. – The email arrived at 6:53 on Thursday morning. It was a Red Sox source saying, as of that moment, the team was proceeding as planned. Spring training games would continue, and Opening Day was still on schedule, but the NBA had already postponed its games, college basketball was at a standstill, and baseball’s situation was fluid, to say the least.



“As you can appreciate,” the source wrote, “things could change rapidly.”



At 12:08 p.m., interim manager Ron Roenicke was standing outside the Red Sox clubhouse, having just watched an intrasquad game. He was in street clothes, heading home for the team’s only scheduled off day of the spring.



“We’re planning on (playing Friday) until we hear otherwise,” he said.



Three hours later, he’d heard otherwise.



At 3:08 p.m., Major League Baseball announced that all remaining spring training games were canceled due to the...