12:30pm: Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that an announcement that MLB is “suspending operations” is expected in the near future. Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds that the conference call between MLB owners and commissioner Rob Manfred will take place in an hour.
12:15pm: Passan tweets that in the wake of a conference call between all 30 MLB ownership groups, the owners are expecting not only the suspension of Spring Training games but also a delay to the start of the regular season.
11:22am: As sports entities throughout the world take action to minimize the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Major League Baseball appears poised to cease play of Spring Training games. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets that officials with Grapefruit League clubs in Florida are expecting games to be suspended, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that executives throughout Major League Baseball expect that Spring Training play in both the Grapefruit League and Cactus League will be suspended as soon as today. A conference call between commissioner Rob Manfred and all 30 MLB owners will be conducted shortly, Passan adds.
Suspending play of spring contests is a logical first step for the league. The games don’t count for anything, and teams can continue to ramp up players for the season in simulated settings — although it’s not yet clear just when the season for which they’ll be prepping will begin. Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that the majority of team executives to whom he has spoken are expecting a delay in the start of the season, although there’s yet to be any word from Major League Baseball itself on that front.
Beyond the likely suspension of MLB exhibition play, it’s worth noting that the National Basketball Association, Major League Soccer, the Association of Tennis Professionals and the PGA Tour have all announced measures to curb the spread of the virus since last night. The NBA suspended its season indefinitely last night, and both MLS (30 days) and ATP (six weeks) followed with suspensions of play this morning. The NHL has canceled practice throughout the league and is readying a statement of its own.
Meanwhile, the PGA just minutes ago announced that the Players Championship will be played without fans in attendance. That’s the same approach the NCAA has taken with regard to its annual March Madness tournament. Meanwhile, individual college conferences throughout the league — the SEC, the Big 10, the Big 12 and the ACC among them — have taken to canceling their annual conference tournaments. Overseas, the Korea Baseball Organization and Nippon Professional Baseball have both delayed the starts of their respective seasons.
Actions beyond the immediate suspension of spring contests remain unclear, but quelling the spread of the COVID-19 virus has become paramount. The potential for asymptomatic carriers spreading the virus to higher-risk individuals is a real threat — both to the health of those at-risk individuals and to the functionality of hospitals and medical facilities. Italy’s hospitals have become overwhelmed as the spread of the virus has reached critical levels, complicating medical care for patients of the coronavirus and other illnesses alike. Certainly, it’s in everyone’s best interest to avoid similar levels of saturation in other countries.
While the postponement or even cancellation of sporting events, concerts and other mass gatherings is surely a frustrating development for fans — and one that will raise questions of fan reimbursement, player compensation and myriad other issues within individual sports — those realities will be characterized as a necessary byproduct in the effort to combat what the World Health Organization has characterized as a global pandemic.
No
Yes
Maybe
Well…
Hmmm
It maybe germ warfare instead of a twin tower disaster they are unleashing this virus.
Idiot
It just now happened.
Saw on ESPN2
NHL too.
Wonder why this site doesn’t report this?!
MLB suspended all operations.
They were scooped by ESPN.
Was hoping MLB would wait until after tomorrow’s beating of the (4th place at best) Cubbies by the White Sox.
1994 all over again.
At least we have the PGA – on TV anyway.
@ChiSox_Fan
Watching golf on TV is almost as painful as contracting the COVID-19 virus.
Sorry, bad joke, but I couldn’t resist.
Guess you have no willpower.
I agree this seems excessive. The games are outdoors and the crowds are on the smaller side. Just keep the stadiums clean, make hand sanitizer available, and let people go at their own risk.
I get it with the indoor venues and the 25,000+ crowds.
The question isn’t one of risk to the individual attendees but one of the risk those attendees immediately present to others upon contracting the virus. It’s about mitigating the spread of a virus that presently has no vaccine and has overwhelmed the hospital system in Italy — thus preventing even non-coronavirus-patients from receiving proper medical attention.
Thanks.
So why cant they just play with no fans if that’s the issue?
Perectly said, people need to see the whole big picture of this. Need to flatten the curve so the hospital can handle the load and once that happens baseball will be back.
Socialized medicine is as much responsible for that as anything. The coronavirus is just exposing the system’s weaknesses.
You got something brown on your nose
Socialized medicine is responsible? You sir are a moron.
What part of “anyone who has it might not feel any symptoms but can pass it to someone who will die of it” don’t you understand?
Can you not be asymptomatic with the flu, and pass it on to someone?
Children have tested positive but are typically asymptomatic.
Joe, it’s my understanding, and I could be incorrect, but that the flu only reaches its transmission-to-others phase once the original flu person is exhibiting symptoms. Thus, once you know you have the flu, most crawl into bed and others stay away. The Covid-19 is getting passed from person to person who are asymptotic, thus there are people out and about who are passing it on to others unknowingly
Lol so you may feel nothing or you may die? Hey if we drive a car today we may get to our destination or we may crash and die. We should stop driving until the risk is gone.
I can’t even explain to you how dumb you are. I know you wouldn’t understand.
Hand sanitizer is in short supply. Washing hands for 20 seconds with warm soap and water is more effective as it is the physical scrubbing more than bacteriocidal or bacteriostatic compounds that kill microbes on our skin.
However, there is a cross-section of fans that are more likely to not wash their hands as often as is suggested.
there is a cross-section of fans that are more likely to not wash their hands as often as is suggested.
—————————————————–
But that cross-section is likely to have Heineken or Becks on their hands.
What percentage of spring training games are attended by people over 60? I’m guessing pretty high.
No one is forcing people over 60 to attend any games. MLB should at least follow the hotel industry, which still has spring training attendees on the hook for hundreds and thousands of dollars each for their trips.
To type “let people go at their own risk,” seems quite ignorant.
We know young children do not was their hands well. And if you google
“Epidemiological investigation on hand hygiene knowledge and behaviour: a cross-sectional study on gender disparity”
You’ll have an answer from NIH on the awareness of hand hygiene among men.
It’s not that ignorant. Some people do not want to be controlled.
What some people don’t want is to be thoughtful, considerate, unselfish, or helpful.
@BlueSkies How about I send you an invoice for my upcoming spring training trip and we can see how thoughtful, considerate, unselfish, or helpful you are.
We live in a society of laws. To push back with an argument that only serves egoism while ignoring utilitarianism does seem ignorant.
And I will send you my invoice for my opening week tickets and others I have for games in April. Deal?
You really didn’t need to prove my point. I already knew it was true.
Those people need to think about others and not themselves. I is not a control power thing that is going on. People need to take off the foil hats and join the rest of us that are taking this seriously. If everybody does the faster we can go back to our normal lives.
This is the tough one. When people are asked to sacrifice for others, especially for people they don’t know, and never will know, the natural response is to ask “what’s in it for me?” To make that proposition even more difficult in this case, people who aren’t in the most vulnerable group seem to be even more prone to framing this as question of personal choice and not to accept that their personal choices have an impact on others who make different choices. Getting them to see the community benefit issue and to change their views and behaviors is very difficult. We’re sure seeing that here.
Why is saying “go at your own risk” ignorant?
So I assume you do not leave the house, except for work? I just had that discussion with my spouse. She said I shouldn’t go to the local gathering for St. Patrick’s Day in another week. But she had just gone out for one her events. I was, wait a second, isn’t it the same thing?
@Cubaguy13… You asked about my characterization of beisbolista’s comment showing ignorance 45 minutes after I explained my reasoning. Maybe I lost you with egoism and utilitarianism? You may want to google CnP the link below. But I suspect you may fit in that part of the bell curve that has a disdain for such pursuits.
https://www.iep.utm.edu/
So your “freedom” can cause my risk? Some guy knew he had the disease and flew from New York to Florida yesterday. Is his freedom more important than the risk to the others?
@BlueSkies Why should I pay your invoice? I’m not proposing to ban you from receiving for what you paid for and I am not pontificating to you and telling you to be thoughtful with your money
@elscorcho You have the freedom to choose to stay in your home. No one is forcing you to be exposed to the guy from New York who flew to Florida or whatever. We are simply telling you that you cannot limit our freedom
@paddyo Then stay in your house. You point out that we live in a society of laws yet you openly advocate for unilaterally breaking a contract. This is not a force majeure event. No government forced these spring training events to be canceled and performing these events was not an impossibility. The cancellation was the result of peer pressure and a misplaced sense of philanthropy using other people’s money.
Interestingly Moises Alou and Jorge Posada have peed on their hands so much they are practically immune to everything.
@Beisbolista, your knee-jerk outrage is tiresome. Laws, rules, guidelines, etc. Do you ever try to consider others’ views? The reactionary retorts make it seem like you incapable of anything other than outrage and playing the victim.
It is now considered a pandemic and you are whining about your expenses on cancelled entertainment???
Bat eaters did this.
shame for fringe guys but its for the best. one wonders if they have a week of exhibition games before the season re-starts to get players warmed back up.
I was literally going to get to go to some games just next week, darn.
I have tickets for opening day in DC. I was really excited to see all the WS celebrations. Hopefully I will be able to get my money back.
nats3256, first off, sincerest of congratulations on your team winning the world series. Second, hold onto those tickets for dear life. No one is sure exactly when, but opening day will come and trust me, you will want to be there to see them raise that championship banner for the first time ever. You may experience other world series wins, but there will never be another “first” championship.
Ticketmaster, stub hub and a lit of them are giving 100% refunds or 120% credit back.
I certainly have every intention of being there! The question becomes, if the season starts May 15th, would they push everything back or pick up from may 15th and tack the missed game on at the end. Hopefully the entire schedule gets pushed back so my ticket is valid whenever home opener is. Either way, it will be super confusing for everyone.
My guess is those games until the 15th get canceled in that scenario. It’s the least shifting around of everything and nobody’s going to want to go to Chicago to play a game in mid-November.
Lets just quarantine all the National League into the Marlins, Dbacks, and Brewers (domes) and the American League teams into the Rays, Toronto and Houston (also domes) and play 4 games a day in each stadium until it’s safe to go outside.
While I suspect you’re being facetious, I found those indoor stadiums have air filtration in place for quarantine purposes. That can always change, but if does it would be for public use and would have more grace implications.
That stinks.
Everything is ruined
Is Manfred gonna let the season go on?
I get it, but such a bummer. Had tickets for Cactus league games next week.
Keep Aaron out of this. Not his fault.
I’ve got tickets to two Tigers game this weekend. I don’t want to get sick, but I want to watch baseball.
Do I get a refund for games not telecast through my mlb.TV Premium subscription?
Ha! That’s never going to happen.
This was the year of the Mets. What a shame!
I heard the same last year, but I do get your point. This stinks, but it’s the right move.
Lol nope.
mets fans say this every year lol
Mets year? Haha
We can get through this.
As you sit in a pool of Purell clutching your double-gauge rocking yourself to sleep. Sleep tight.
“double-gauge”?
Bullpup maybe, lol….
Taejonguy – I’ll give OP benefit of the doubt, stupid as the post seemed to me.
Double gauge could be an attempt to reference an “over-under” shotgun, where there are two different barrels shooting two different gauges of shell.
More likely it’s an attempt to discuss a double barrel, which would be side-by-side shooting the same ammo from both.
For the uninitiated, “gauge” refers to the size of a barrel of the shell/slug a shotgun fires, kinda like caliber does for a rifle.
Point in all that? Nothing really. But at least there’s some real info about something in the thread.
See good thing I’m poor I never go anywhere so I dont have to worry about this virus
People sick is not a hoax. Only people saying its a hoax are the political talking head to their uneducated audience. Its better for MLB to be safe than let it get out of hand. Its worse than what people know since US is so far behind on testing people.
No one is calling it a hoax. The truth is it’s been over exaggerated. This is an over reaction.
What if it is not a over reaction? So you rather do nothing and find out later it was worse than first thought. A week ago trump said that only 15 cases that will be going down to 0. That was not the case at all. Only 5 of every million Americans has been tested a few days ago. So nobody knows if it is bad as they say or not. If its not that bad just go out and do you normal stuff and take the chance. Nothing is stopping you but for those who rather not take a chance that is their free will too.
It is a reaction to prevent anything serious from happening. If we do it right and nothing happens you can then criticize it for being an over-reaction, because nothing happened. You’ll still be wrong but you can do it…and no doubt will.
The future’s uncertain The end is always near.
Life’s uncertain. Eat dessert first.
@CubsGM – That’s why it’s necessary to have that beer first thing in the morning!
As long as I’ve got a firm grasp of when this is over….which is just as opaque and asinine as the shutdowns themselves.
If you look at previous viral outbreaks where they became pandemics, it is safe to expect coronavirus cases to extend into the Summer.
A responsible decision.
Well let them keep training then… and broadcast is bc I’m bored
I fibf it hard to believe that hasn’t been one coronavirus positive test in mlb yet. These guys are around eachother constantly, doing high 5’s, slapping butts, putting their saliva on the damn baseballs. It’s bound to happen. I expect the season will be delayed eventually. This playing in empty stadium things will kill revenue for teams and its risky for fans to end events anyways, so I can’t see it happening.
It’s likely because none have been tested yet.
Why does the world keep freaking out over a silly little virus. It’s just as bad and equal to the flu. I mean if multiple people get the flu, are we gonna shut down the entire world. I hope the same thing doesn’t happen for that too. THE WORLD IS JUST OVER EXAGGERATING.
Equal to the flu, except that a vaccine for the flu exists….
Barista – the annual flu vaccine is good for maybe 50% or less of the strains in any given year. The reports I’ve seen suggest the death rate for corona is approximately 1% to 3% and the average age of those who have died is about 80 years old.
It’s too late for a vaccine for this round of the virus anyway. It will be useful for future cases.
Flu vaccines have a low efficacy rate. Multiple strains exist and the vaccines don’t protect against all of them, so it’s a crap shoot whether or not a person would be protected during any given season. I suppose it’s better than nothing for people in high-risk categories.
andrew wilson…….
“The WHO’s estimated mortality rate for COVID-19 started off at 2%, Fauci said. If you count all the estimated cases of people who may have it but haven’t been diagnosed yet, the mortality rate is probably closer to 1%, he said, “which means it’s 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/11/top-federal-health-official-says-coronavirus-outbreak-is-going-to-get-worse-in-the-us.html
Cat I’m making some Bat stew, would you like me to send you a bowl?
That’s about right, it was about the same as the swine flu until they developed a vaccine. The same will go for this. It’s always more deadlier until it’s under control. The problem is the flu still takes thousands of lives even with the shot. This virus is only more of a concern because we’re in a waiting period for the vaccine
Mortality rates are little more than a guess at this point. What we do know is the number of cases can grow exponentially if the spread goes unchecked and this would certainly overwhelm the ability of the healthcare system to treat the cases that require treatment, especially in some parts of the country. People will die who don’t need to die. This is what has happened in Italy. With a vaccine a long way off the only methods we have to prevent that from happening here is personal hygiene and avoiding the massive spread vectors that can be created by large public gatherings.
andrew wilson
Please forgive me if I listen to the medical experts instead of you. As far as we currently know, COVID-19 has a similar mortality rate (2-3%) to the 1918 Spanish Flu. What we have to our advantage is that we can contain this flu better if we’re smart. That’s what we’re trying to do. Be smart.
The University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada is one of the leaders in research on the Coronaviris, is said to be very close to a vaccine for the virus. The latest word this morning that it could be announced within 2 weeks!
There is a positve outlook in these dark times!
Two weeks or two years? https://saskatoon.ctvnews.ca/u-of-s-research-team-awarded-almost-1m-to-develop-new-coronavirus-vaccine-1.4842095
Just announced 5 minutes ago they will know in two weeks if they have a working vaccine
jaysfansince1977….
Source? I narrowed my search to 1 hour ago and see nothing released.
Share this news with a link. Uncle Google isn’t helping at all..
Because it isn’t true. Any vaccine that might ultimately be proven effective will require many months of clinical testing. Best case scenario for vaccine availability is a year from now.
Cat
There is a vague reference, with no timeline, to research being done in a GlobalNews report. It’s about 5 paragraphs in
https://globalnews.ca/news/6666876/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine/
“Congratulations Canada” on the first vaccine!
Right thing to do. Spring training is meaningless anyway. A break from all sports is probably the best thing in the long run.
Count baseball a wash for this year thanks to politicizing this dumb virus! The flu has and continues to be worse then this and here we are freaking out! Smh
It’s just a game. Not that serious bro. If this is all you have, you have more problems than baseball can solve
Bro, get real, no one is saying baseball is more important then anything in life. Read my comment. People need to stop tripping. We still lose more lives WITH a vaccine with the flu and people don’t freak out about that! This is overblown, but it is what it is. Get on with it.
@strikefour On behalf of every sane person on this site you’re a fool for that comment. Grab a brain while you’re in mommies basement troll
@balk You say the season is washed? Haha. Seems you’re mad you might have to do actually spend time with loved ones or look yourself in the mirror? It’s only overblown if it doesn’t affect you. Like knowledge with you. You don’t have any, so you don’t care. Maybe you have no one and you are lonely and need baseball? If you need someone to open up to, I’m here pal.
Gotta disagree with you here Triber.
1-A lot of time spent with loved ones is spent in sports. For ten+ years, every moment spent with my daughter was related to sports.
2-To suggest someone doesn’t have much to do in life ignores the fact that life is devoid of meaning, except for those activities that give meaning to life. You can stay home and stare at the TV, or go out and enjoy life, hoping for the best.
@balk: You’re literally the only one here politicizing the virus. What’s more likely:
A) the governments of China and Italy (two countries among many that are treating the virus very seriously) got together with the NBA and MLB to create a fake hysteria with the goal of what, exactly?
B) you get all of your information from cable TV news and are therefore being fed propaganda that you’re spreading like a rube.
I’m going to go with B.
Well. I’m glad up got to spend time with her but if it was all sports related, I feel very sorry for you and her. Life is not about a trivial game. Maybe one day you find the meaning of life. I did early on on life and it has nothing to do with tv, sports, or anything money can buy. I wish you luck in your search, though.
Here you are speculating what I’m about, you must have nothing better to do then sit on this site looking for negative things to say. I work for the state fire department, my wife works in healthcare in charge of regional hospitals throughout Southern California, for the last 20 years we’ve had viruses from SARS (2004) swine (2010)MERS(2012)Ebola (2014) to this, it’s not as serious but agree it needs to be dealt with! So don’t try and explain to me anything that comes out of your so knowing mind! Corona virus has a contagious factor of 2, SARS was 4, measles was 18. People need to relax. You need to find a different hobby
Oh “I’m literally the only on politicizing this” get out of here! There’s a full moon out tonight I guess! After your long comment you can go back into your basement for hibernation youngster. Completely clueless
MLB didn’t cancel games because they are freaking out over reading a social media post. Am I naive to think that a billion dollar industry would have access to information and advising from medical experts? A vaccine for the flu exists… a vaccine for this virus does not… spreading the virus at this time is dangerous for a good percentage of the population including infants and the elderly… are we too selfish to take precaution?
I agree with shutting everything down, we need to, I’m just stating the facts that this is way overblown and people need to relax.
Yes, people should relax if they are doing the things they should be doing, but if it leads them to claiming the concerns are overblown, then maybe they should not relax quite so much. In fact we are weeks behind where we should be in terms of preparedness. The insufficient number of test kits is a sorry situation all by itself.
The bigger problem with this virus is how easily and quickly it can unknowingly spread. With flu, a person is generally more contagious while symptomatic. Unfortunately, COVID-19 will just as easily spread by an asymptomatic carrier. The “80” average age of mortality was probably a US number derived early on from a small sample size and skewed high by the care center deaths in Washington state. This is not a correct average age for worldwide deaths. Attempts to slow the spread of this new, deadly, highly contagious virus makes responsible sense while we try to limit health care system overloads and try to understand and work on a treatment and vaccine. Slowing the spread will save lives. That fact is indisputable. Baseball will resume eventually. I want mom to stick around a bit longer to tell me the stories of how grandpa laid down the stadium foul lines in Chicago.
I can’t believe I just saved 15% on my car insurance by switching to Geico.
Congrats mate. Things looking up already.
Good day to buy a new car!
Dealers likely giving them away.
I agree soxfan. Grab while the iron is hot.
Still not giving away super cars.
Now….it is the end of the world !
Looks like MLB TV will have more Harold Reynolds face time !
More Sean Casey on MLB TV !…….Gimme a break !
I’m a fan of the proposal for keeping teams in their ST locations and playing televised games in front of no fans. Test players and personnel regularly and make sure everyone’s washing their hands.
Does anyone know if this affects service time? I’d assume that players who ended last year on the MLB team would continue to accrue it and those that were in the minors wouldn’t and they’d still have the minimum number of MLB days to get a year, but I haven’t heard anything definite to back that up.
I’d assume that if the suspension runs into the regular season, players would not accrue service time until the season is continued. Just like players don’t accrue service time once the season has ended.
Instead of Spring Training game son MLB……they will switch over to a new series…….Top Ten Household Cleaning tips by MLB players on the Corona Virus !
Absolutely moronic
Unfortunate, but it’s the smart decision.
ABSOLUTELY STUPID! More people die every year from the FLU than this (30+ thousand)
The flu has a vaccine. We also don’t know what the mortality rate or death toll on COVID-19 will be over the course of a full year because it’s still in its early stages and many countries — the United States included — have lacked proper testing capabilities.
Beyond any fatalities that are immediately attributable to COVID-19 is the manner in which the wave of patients and testing cases will impact healthcare in general. Overcrowded hospitals and medical facilities are dangerous in their own right.
People shouldn’t be looking at this through the lens of how it impacts the specific individual who tests positive; the spread and the threat of mass infection and mass levels of treatment are of far greater concern.
The federal government is instituting travel bans to Europe; I don’t see why some still feel this need only be characterized as something that’s on par with the flu (which, even in the nascent stages of COVID-19, we know to be one tenth to one thirtieth as deadly as COVID-19).
But I believe has to be given before you get the flu. Once you get the flu, all you can do is to basically suffer thru it.
But that doesn’t change the fact that millions will get the flu, and tens of thousands will die from it.
Yes the flu vaccine takes several weeks to create an immunity and it isn’t usually more that about 50% effective. Yet it creates barriers to the free spread of the flu and reduces the rate of transmission. If it wasn’t for the vaccine we’d be facing peak flu seasons with the same potential to overwhelm the healthcare system that we’re likely to see with COVID-19. The methods for mitigating that outcome are entirely based on human behavior, which as we can see here, is a very hard thing to manage.
Steve, please stick to commenting on topics on which you are knowledgeable (i.e. baseball). We certainly don’t “know” that COVID-19 is 10 to 30 times more deadly than the flu. Many experts believe that the overall mortality rate will be less than 1% when it’s all said and done, due to the number of currently undiagnosed cases. .5-1% is still more deadly than the flu, but not by a magnitude of 30.
Also, while serious steps are necessary to slow the transmission of the diseases, virtually every health expert agrees that the European travel restrictions are stupid and pointless now that there is already widespread transmission in the US.
BINGO. First common sense post i’ve seen. The number is not 10-30 time deadlier. That’s media BS.
European travel restrictions are stupid and pointless
————————————————————–
You’ll have to explain why not allowing anyone from Italy in is pointless.
The only way it would be pointless is if we assume that virus run in set in stone. In which case, why shut down anything?
Put another way, would you rather be standing on line at an airport, behind someone that just flew in from Italy, or be behind a random American in line for a beer?
I and many will likely make it, but some percentage of regular posters on MLBTR will no longer be alive in the next 6-12 months, sadly, because of the Corona virus.
Respectfully, I’m offering my appreciation and saying my goodbyes to those unfortunates here and now.
This year isn’t over. Plenty of time to eclipse that mark. If extreme preventative measures are put in place now, that ultimate number can be drastically reduced.
This isn’t the seasonal flu or common cold. This is a new disease that humankind has never experienced before.
Again BULL#HIT! This is not the first time a corona virus has circulated
Once this hits hard at major cities with populations of homeless people and in general people unable to get healthcare, itll spread like wildfire . Not even counting, health issues people have that arent related to coronavirua wholl be hard up for treatment due to overcrowded hospitals. Lots of parents, seniors, grandparents etc are mainly at risk which will be totally sad for families. I’m expecting the worst. And even then if one recovers one will have permanent lung damage.
bull$hit. More bad facts from a non health professoinal.
any discounts on mlb tv?
Tremendous boost for the yanks if it’s pushed to June1.
It’s definitely a conspiracy to help the Yanks.
MLB-TV better give refunds for my subscription. I gave up sex to pay for my sub!
How silly & totally hysterical. Stop the world because to date in the US we’ve had a total of 38 deaths from coronavirus. Of the 38 deaths, 26 deaths occurred in a single assisted living facility in the State of Washington. Don’t mentioned that we’ve had over 20,000 since January from the current flu. Play Ball!!!
Derp
bingo!
Alright this has gotten outta hand ffs.
Why even have comments allowed for this? Too many water heads on here.
I’m mostly annoyed this is delaying the results of the investigation into sign stealing in 2018.
MooseBreathMints
Please tell me that was sarcasm.
I have no problem with canceling ST, since it fairly meaningless, and probably not a huge money maker.
However, canceling regular season games raises the question of how long do you want to do so for? You can cancel two weeks worth of games, but I am betting the virus will still be here in two weeks.
And I am not sure that an outdoor sports arena is any less vulnerable than the local mall, or the local pub, or local transportation.
Just in NYC, for example, DeBlasio has decided that it is safe enough that people can still take the subway, and still go to school. It feels pretty counter-intuitive to think that the subways and buses are safer than Yankee Stadium.
It’s not that the subway is safer than the ballpark; it’s that the subway is more essential.
But it still may be a foolish choice to leave it running.
Public Transit may be the most vulnerable and yet they continue to operate, everywhere.
Subways and buses are an every day necessity for millions of people to be able to provide for their families. A baseball game is an unnecessary luxury. There are far fewer workers impacted by a baseball stadium being empty than shutting down every means of transportation.
But keeping the subways running is likely to spread the virus much more quickly than going to a ball game.
That’s definitely true, Joe. But I do not believe canceling something as irrelevant as a Baseball Game is a bad thing. Cancelling anything with the potential of spreading isn’t a bad thing. The subway likely should be shut down as well—but you obviously have other implications with that.
The subway should be shut down, but probably not right now. The issue is that you cannot shut down for two weeks on a rollng ad hoc basis. or then it becomes 4 weeks, then 6 weeks. If we do this, it has to be at exactly the right time.
And so the world of online gaming will be trust into the national spotlight.
Right now I’m more concerned over mortgage options and RRSPs.
Swine Flu wasn’t that long ago and although it was a big deal, the publicity and panic was not close to this. Yes, this current virus does not (yet) have a vaccine. Hopefully it will soon. I feel bad for the part-time workers needing the paycheck through the season, in all sports.
This virus is far more virulent than the swine flu was, but appears to be less fatal for most people.
Tell that to Italy who’s mortality rate tipped to 7% today.
I don’t want to get into the hysteria of it, but Europe and the U.S. are actually going to be worst off. We are a country of self entitlement fighting first-world problems with our (ism’s) and not focusing on community.
I watched an interview with one of the worlds most foremost virologists and expert on the subject and what people don’t realize is that places like Hong Kong, Singapore, and even the UK have centralized health care and better community standards. Look at Japan, they are the outlier where cases have increased only marginally over two months, but exploded in “Western” countries.
We are absolutely totally screwed here in the US and this is why the market is being sold off so hard (it’s going to drop to 16k or 17k before it’s over). We are culture of entitlement and selfishness, something pushed over the last 20 years by my people (liberals), for who I forever now resent. Look at that a hole basketball player would intentionally spit and wiped his hands on other players equipment. You think that happens in Hong Kong? Never in 1000 years. Look at the couple who flew from JFK to Palm Beach yesterday knowing they had the virus and infected an entire plane.
This is far more serious than people are letting on about. The virus may not kill us, but this could be the catalyst for us to do it to each other. I’ve been planning for this for about 5 years.
Corona viruses never had vaccines. This is nothing new. The media never talked about corona viruses before but they are around every year and cause these exact symptoms every year.
Like all viruses, it will impact the immuno-compromised population the most. Like all viruses, it will impact the lower socio-economic levels of society the most. None of this is new. Nor, frankly, is it stop-able.
Hey all you folks out there, especially among the “elderly” (I’m 67) and compromised (stroke survivor)…BE CAREFUL OUT THERE. USE YOUR G-DARN HEAD.
(I like fighting with you folks too much).
Ridiculous
I wonder if the games will be played in empty stadiums like how it was done in Baltimore in 2015?
Wash your hands
Get your vitamins
Wipe down surfaces before you touch them in public
You’ll be fine.
People are overreacting. Mass hysteria is setting in. People gonna start acting more irrational than they already are.
You survived SARS EBOLA ANTHRAX.
This is all Ozzy Osbourne’s fault.
and the Swine flu which infected over 90 million Americans in one year and killed 3 times as many as Influenza A in 2009 but that was under a different president so it wasn’t a big deal to the media and didn’t qualify for mass hysteria.
“We’re in the end game now”
Leaving the board to re-read Stephen King’s “The Stand”.
And the Druid Princess down the hall has vowed to have sex every hour on the hour until the crises is over.
Ya, ya I’ll wash my hands…….
That’s what I call “prepping”!
Mass liberal media hysteria, don’t buy in to it
Blame it on whoever you want, but the threat is real.
Stupid virus…
The problem isn’t very much to do with players playing games. That is VERY low risk for anyone except Puig who licks his bat.
The problem is attendance of fans. Just play in empty stadiums. Have a LITTLE normalcy in trying times. There were empty stadium games after 9/11, it’s not unprecedented.
You want to grow baseball fandom there’s a captive market right now of sports fans without quality product to watch. Give it to them.
Worst case scenario, spread out the guys on the bullpen/dugout bench to not sit so close if that’s your worry. Stadium is empty. Let them hang in the premium home plate seats or something. You don’t need to cancel games to keep fan from congregating at the ballpark.
Corona viruses have been around for hundreds of years. Whenever anyone goes to the doctor with these symptoms before this year, they were assumed to have the flu or a parainfluenza that goes around every year. You were never tested for what you had. Ppl probably already get this every year but because the media is choosing to talk about it and identify it, it’s a big deal now. Never heard of corona virus? SARS was a strain of it back in 2003. A lot of “common colds” can be linked to corona virus. This is so ridiculous. Uneducated and emotional fools running around in panic like always
This is a new strain that is more virulent and more deadly than the strains that have infected humans in the past.
Another Bingo. This isn’t a brand new ailment like the media is playing it out to be.
So was the Spanish flu, but look how that turned out. People from Italy are saying it is much worse and that people even in their 20’s and 30’s are dying from it.
Actually, the corona virus has been known for decades. Humans learned about it in the 1960s. But don’t let facts get in the way.
When I use singular, I’m referring to the corona virus family.
Damn, the Tigers were gonna win it all…….
Play all the games in Tropicana Dome or Marlins Park….won’t even notice the attendance.
Donovan Mitchell Jr tested positive.
On the 4th, Donovan Mitchell Jr was in NY visiting his dad, Donovan Mitchell Sr
Donovan Mitchell Sr works for the Mets, and has been in Fla with the club both before and after that visit
There is a fairly strong chance the virus is in, at minimum, the Mets organization.
Yes, they have to suspend the season for a time. Even if you ignore all other issues, you can not have players contracting it, traveling around the country, then spreading the virus to who knows who all.
Sad this is the level it has gotten to, but the virus has just spread too long nearly completely unchecked in this country for any other outcome. Even now we dont have enough tests to find out all the areas it is, and many tests as still failing it appears. We are months behind the rest of the world in preparing for this situation and have it spreading in areas we dont even know yet. Because of that, we have the understandable situation of today.
We are light years ahead of the rest of the world, looks at the numbers. For the large majority of people this will be the common cold.
You are just flat out delusional, and dangerously so.
We have only done 10k tests period, with most of the people tested so far getting 2 to 3 tests each. That means only about 3-5 thousand people have been tested at all …out if a population of 330 million.
Compare that to countries who are testing upwards of 10 thousand each and every day.
We dont have insane numbers solely because we haven’t tested anyone. However, each day we are seeing insane growth in our numbers now, with us on a pace which matches Italy perfect even with our complete inability to test.
But we know Seattle was infected on Jan 15th. That was at a time the tests we were using were not working. Almost 2 months later we are finally sending out a mere 75k tests. Seattle itself needs more tests then that.
Our reaction has been nothing short of incompetent (as the stock market and closures of much of the county indicate)
Let’s not forget that the CDC’s budget was CUT at a time when the threat of viruses is growing (and will continue to grow indefinitely).
Mo, thats NOT true.
Cdc didn’t have a budget cut. A cut was PROPOSED but NOT passed/enacted.
If anything, these disease quarantine issues should make more concern over illegal immigrants with infections sneaking across the porous border to spread disease unchecked.
AtlAox, maybe lay-off is the ignorant look aid.
I’m a little surprised MLB hasn’t pulled teams off the field in the Grapefruit League, because as of this moment (2:15 pm Central Time), they’re still playing their games.
I’m curious to see if once MLB resumes (whenever that is), if they’ll play a few “Spring Training” games before actually starting the season, or if they’ll just dive right into the Regular Season. I’d guess they’ll dive right in, since MLB will already be losing a ton of games by the time the coast is clear to play.
Once the NBA suspended the season, you knew the dominoes would start falling. I think the only major sporting event left is March Madness, and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before that gets stopped.
March Madness accounts for about 85% of the NCAA baseketball revenue, I’ve heard. That is difficult to surrender
That said, apparently both Duke and Kansas have pulled their teams from the tournament. That is what will cancel it. Can’t hold MM if no teams are willing to play
What happens when MLB suspends the spring training and the beginning of the MLB season? When all MLB players go home if they are outside the united states will they be allowed back in without being quarantined?
Even though I’m in oriole fan I’m still bummed out
In all fairness, you were probably bummed out even before the Wuhan virus hit.
Manfred will find a way to screw this up
The regular season was already starting earlier than usual beginning before April. I could see MLB suspending the season a month past the original Opening Day. It’s not like baseball hasn’t been played in November before.
*postseason ball
Playing without fans is a great idea! Baseball of the future. No Stadium seating necessary. All income derived from TV. Baltimore, Tampa Bay, and Oakland can be the first to buy just enough land for a baseball field. Maybe a team could use the Field of Dreams field, another could play at the Hall of fame!
Playing without fans will be no change for the Chicago White Sox!
Good less I gotta see of Bret Garbage and give the whole Yankee team to go out and get surgery anyway baseball has left a bad taste in my mouth by not going after the Astro players. So the less I watch
Good call MLB. Can’t fault them here. It’s a common sense move.
Thanks, China!