As states throughout the nation begin to lift or ease their stay-at-home ordinances, several teams have begun to open their facilities to 40-man players. The Yankees, Phillies and Blue Jays have been allowing limited workouts at their spring facilities in Florida, and the Rays this week are opening Tropicana Field to players on their 40-man roster, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Rays players will be limited to small-group or individual workouts for the time being and won’t be in the weight room or clubhouse just yet. The Marlins this week also opened their spring facility in Jupiter, Fla., to players on the 40-man roster, as first reported by Andy Slater of Fox Sports 640 AM (Twitter link). As with the Rays, the Marlins are allowing a limited scope in terms of workouts. Miami players can use the facility’s batting cages and mounds but won’t be in the clubhouse, weight room or other areas. Teams throughout MLB seem likely to follow suit, as they continue to hope that the league and the Players Association can reach critical agreements on health protocol and salary structure in a shortened season.
On that note, a few more items pertaining to the potential restart of the season…
- Marc Carig and Andy McCullough of The Athletic spoke with six epidemiology experts about the league’s first draft of its health and safety protocols that were sent to teams (subscription required). All who reviewed the 67-page document praised its comprehensiveness, but questions arose about the lack of specifics surrounding positive tests among players and personnel — particularly when those positive tests occur on the road. The plan calls for saliva-based testing rather than nasal exams, which Dr. Michael Saag of the University of Alabama Birmingham explained is “in its infancy with this disorder” and not yet as accurate as the more intrusive nasal testing. He and several other interviewees acknowledged reservations regarding the plan could be lessened by June or July, but it’s impossible to know exactly where testing capabilities will lie at that point. Questions were also raised about the increased risk of clubhouse outbreaks several weeks into a rebooted season if and when players begin to let their guard down and lessen their adherence to the league’s guidelines.
- Tackling the plan from another angle, Ken Rosenthal and Evan Drellich of The Athletic spoke to five anonymous baseball operations leaders about the proposal (subscription also required). Most emphasized that the current plan is only a “first draft,” with one exec cautioning that the final protocols “will look way different” after feedback from teams and the MLBPA is incorporated. Teams are set to provide feedback on the document by week’s end, per Rosenthal, who adds that MLB also sent the guidelines to governors in every state where teams play. Multiple executives called for increased testing and pointed to that as a more critical area of need than the currently rigid guidelines players would be asked to follow at the field. Others have pushed back on restrictions of hydrotherapy pools, indoor batting cages and even showers at the park, suggesting players should be permitted to use them in shifts. Multiple players, including Cardinals shortstop Paul DeJong and Marlins reliever Brandon Kintzler, raised similar issues this week when speaking with Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com.
- Both Joel Sherman of the New York Post and Buster Olney of ESPN suggest that the MLBPA is in what has become a rare position in recent years — one in which it has leverage over the league and its owners. While the players needn’t simply accept the league’s 50-50 revenue split, both Sherman and Olney highlight the manners in which they could use the current stalemate as a means of negotiating longer-term wins (e.g. service time manipulation, anti-tanking measures) in exchange for a 2020 arrangement the owners deem more favorable.
The mega-rich vs the ultra-rich fighting over how many bajillions each gets while tens of millions of us are out of work. Stay classy, guys.
Agree
This is a baseball page, not indeed.com
We’re talking billionaires versus millionaires (And that’s only even the upper echelon of players, many fringe guys are making league minimum). More importantly, though, the billionaires are assuming absolutely none of the risk in forcing through a season. Realistically, they should be expected to meet any and all concerns the players have.
“Realistically, they should be expected to meet any and all concerns the players have.” That isn’t realistic, that is idealistic.
Re-read my statement. Should be expected to and will probably do are not remotely the same. Do I expect the ownership group to meet every need? No, They absolutely should be expected to, though.
Sorry zerobee, I guess I understand the word “realistically” different from you do.
And for what it is worth, I agree that owners should step up. and meet all valid concerns. However, what owners think are valid may be different than what players think are valid. Hence, a negotiation.
You know that “fringe guys making league minimum “ are still in the top 1% of wage earners in America….
Kutch…you do realize that on the entire planet there are only 750 men playing MLB. Meaning the best of the best. An actor can make 10 million for 1 movie and they’re pretending to be somebody they aren’t.
Or can earn almost a Billion for one boxing match and not know how to read or write….
And may times when they aren’t in a movie.
From minimum wage MLB players to actors and boxers….I think some of us are off point here…
I pointed out that minimum wage baseball players are in the top 1% of wage earners in this country…does anyone feel for people in the private sector who are in the top 1% and taking it in the shorts right now??…didn’t think so….
And Zerobee is spot on, the Owners need to meet and exceed the players concerns before starting back up…
I have to disagree some. Some owners perhaps are billionaires but not all the teams are owned by one person. I think it is a little more then that zerobee.
Some team’s are owned by more then one person, you have investors and other possibilities but one would imagine if all major league teams were owned by billionaires why would they need investors and/or partners? A-Rod and a Jlow for example tried buying the Mets as partnership along with investors.
I posted a comment about how the MLB league avg salary is 4.4 million and that players making that amount or less should not be susceptible to salary reduction.
Not all owners are billionaires and not all billionaires are truly that wealthy. A good number of them are only that wealthy on paper.
It’s fitting though…we’ve privatized profit and socialized risk in nearly all industries.
Well put redmatt. That’s spot on. Years ago you could understand corporations making more because at any moment a crisis like war or market fall out could bankrupt them. But now the US government won’t allow any major player to do that.
These “rich versus the rich” comments are starting to get old. You are all sounding as if you are jealous. Get over it. These people are rich for the same reason we’re not: they have unique talents and society is willing to pay to see it. Most rich people offer society something most of us can’t. They are, in other words, revenue producers and we are revenue consumers. .
If you are upset that the rich are fighting over money while you can only imagine of such wealth then it’s time you start figuring out how to provide some good or service that society either wants or needs.
Actually, they are rich because we keep giving them our money for the entertainment they provide.
This is what I said, They offer something we want.
you can stop then if it bothers you so much. the rest of us will deal with real issues.
It does no bother me in the least. But if it makes you feel better to suggest it does then that’s fine as well.
Yes, we all have real issues to deal with. However, by posting on this forum we take a break from those issues. You seem to have an issue distinguishing between the two otherwise why would you waste such important time writing about baseball.
I believe dark side was responding to kodion.
It’s not jealousy. Not even close. It’s annoyance. Two separate feelings.
People are annoyed adults want to act like entitled spoiled brats with a maturity level suitable for middle school.
Players expect to be paid more for “risk”. Please. I doubt players have been staying home in isolation like teachers little pet.
Guarantee owners take necessary precautions to keep the place overly sanitary. Why? Cause an outbreak means they lose all revenue for 2020. Owners have all the reason in the world to keep hotel rooms, locker rooms, etc as clean as possible.
Owners want to act like woe is me I’m not making any money.
People are annoyed. Not jealous.
Not for nothing, this entire comment smells of jealousy.
You say the players want to be paid more. Not true. They want to be paid what they agreed to be paid. Prorated of course. Whether that is feasible for the owners is a whole other matter. Which will be negotiated. Negotiations haven’t even started yet. Makes no sense at this point to take sides on issues that haven’t been discussed yet by the 2 parties.
And your mom’s basement reeks of BO from you watching crappy star wars movies on repeat without showering.
Nobody is jealous. People are annoyed.
Well you definitely have some issues. And no, I don’t live in my mom’s basement since she’s been dead for many years.
I do make my own modest living as a college professor. It doesn’t make me rich but I am comfortable.
I’m sorry the truth about economic worth is so bothersome to you.
Why do you feel the players should be paid what they were agreed to be paid? Even prorated. Do you realize how many Americans have been laid off or furloughed? What puts the players above the rest of the country? Why couldn’t the owners furlough the players?
My point is…. the players may want to be very careful how hard ball they play this. Both for public relations reasons and for steps the ones can and will take later.
What puts the players above other people in this regard is that YOU can’t do their job. Not at their level of competency. Not even close. But they probably can do your burger flipping job.
The players are on GUARANTEED contracts. Meaning no matter what happens in the country, they are guaranteed to be paid 100% of that money. For the good of the sport they already agreed to reduce their pay to JUST the number of games played. They took a huge pay cut even when they did not have to.
The owners can do nothing right now except leak internal memos in an attempt to make the MLBPA look bad even though they included nothing about further altering guaranteed contracts in the agreement they made with the players.
But nothing will take away from the fact that the players already made a multi-billion concession and while we can have the sport at this level without the owners, we can’t have it without the players. .
The owners are over a barrel. They need to tread lightly. Especially with negotiations for a new CBA coming up soon.
Being an owner isn’t a difficult task
Uh, it’s a game. You don’t have to watch it, and players certainly don’t have to play if they don’t feel safe AND duly compensated .
that shouldn’t keep both sides from perusing a good deal for both of them. one should have no impact on another.
Optics aren’t great but it’s the reality of the world we live in.
Add more value in life and you can be in one of those categories instead of complaining about them being in that position.
Add more value in life and you can get a guaranteed contract for the work that you do, too.
Lol at websoulsurfer on his 15th account telling other people to add more value in life.
The test suggested by MLB was rated by Doctors as being in it’s infancy. That in it’s self is a deal breaker.
Or you could not worry about it because the chances of catching it are small (think 2x the number of active cases in a geography dividdd by the population). The if caught the odds it’s asymptomatic are better than 50%, and of symptoms appear the chance they are mild are 90%, and the IFR for people under 70 is 0.08%. But hey, why listen to facts and scientific data?!? Let’s all waste our lives hiding.
So it’s ok for a player to get it, become a carrier and take it home to his diabetic family member. Or a family member who is a heart patient, or immune deficient.
Realistically, any re-opening scenario means the players can’t go home to their families. John Oliver did a whole thing on the problems with reopening sporting leagues just this past Sunday, worth a watch.
“John Oliver” and “worth a watch” are ,mutually exclusive.
I don’t think ekrog said it was okay. The comment was that the likelihood of catching it is too small to worry about. You can disagree with that statement if you wish, but to insinuate that ekrog is wising disease or death on others is wrong.
Unfortunately it has become a prism of two thoughts, as framed by once reputable news sources, either you want everyone to die or you want to remain closed indefinitely.
Which is hogwash. We can return to work as a country, and take measures to protect ourselves. It’s proven this is not NEARLY as deadly or contagious as once thought. Protect the elderly and high risk, that can be done while the other 96% of the population takes care of business.
The only “science” being demonstrated by the news media is political science.
Agent, pass the bread because that’s baloney.
The ones deemed high risk are much greater than 4%
I agree with agent except for one point. The at-risk group is far more than 4%. It is probably more like 30%. Otherwise, pretty much right on!
agentP;Outstanding comment of the week….if not more.
20.18% Case Fatality Rate in the US. If you catch it, that means you have a 1 in 5 shot at dying. That is worse odds than I want to take.
Its 3 times more contagious than the flu and 35 million people caught the flu this year in the US.
41% of American adults fall in at least one high risk category. More than 4 in 10.
So that means its NOT 96% that can take care of business. It means 59% can and those 59% then have to be kept entirely away from the 41% that are at high risk.
The % of Americans that are in 1 or more high risk category is 41%.
Your math is off. Find someone close by who can run the numbers probably and give you an accurate percentage. Mathematics is not your strong suit.
Thank you and you are exactly right. People act like if you come out of hiding you get the bubonic plague and die. Play the odds. 99.98% chance of no big deal or nothing. Keep hiding and 100% chance very negative effects on our society. Easy call for me. For those who want to keep holes up, go right ahead.
The chances of catching it are not remotely small. The virus lingers on surfaces for 24 hours and in air for at least an hour, I shudder to think of the communicability rate literally at the first base bag alone.
And, for like the five hundredth time, the players aren’t the only ones involved here. Bringing back the MLB means the players, the coaches (More than a few of whom are over 70), the media teams, travel staff, hotel staff, etc. That’s to say nothing of the fact that you can’t reopen the MLB without reopening the minors (Unless you’re prepared to lock in a 26 man roster for whatever season we have), which raises a whole other logistical issue I have yet to see anyone address.
Estimates have placed the amount of people needed to run a sports league in the kind of setup they’re talking at 10,000ish. At a cherry picked 0.08 fatality rate, that’s 800 deaths (To say nothing of the fact that mortality is not the only risk, there are unknown long term side effects including stroke).
Would you contend that a spectator sport is worth, in a best case scenario, 800 deaths?
The virus does not live on surfaces that long.
FAKE NEWS
When your second sentence contains wild inaccuracies, no one’s gonna read any farther.
We’re safe to return to work, as are MLB players. Turn off any “news” source asserting otherwise. The hysteria has run its course.
PLAY BALL!
Hey agent your the one with bogus info. Go to Web MD. Will last 5 days on metal (door knobs). 4 days on wood, like bats. Your the one with the fake info Vladimir.
This isn’t a “news” source, it’s literally both the CDC and WHO:
“Moreover, we recently reported detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA on environmental surfaces of a symptomatic patient’s household (5). Because SARS-CoV-2 remains viable and infectious from hours to days on surfaces (6,7), contact with a contaminated surface potentially could be a medium for virus transmission. In addition, high viral load in throat swab specimens at symptom onset (8,9) and peak infectiousness at 0–2 days for presymptomatic patients (8) suggest that presymptomatic patients may easily contaminate the environment.”
But you go off, can’t cure stupid.
Guess you missed the CDC recently said catching the virus from a surface is rare. Also the idea of catching the virus due to “lingering” has been mostly debunked as well. Both scenarios are possible, but highly unlikely.
And why would you think all 10,000 would catch the virus? For 800 people out of 10000 to die, the fatality rate is 8%. While the actual fatality rate is difficult to gauge (due to the unknown denominator and the highly questionable numerator) 8% is a much higher figure than any legitimate source has estimated.
I guess you also missed the expanded roster, taxi squad, and complex team conversations.
But nice try.
I’m hardly a viral expert, but thought I read the RNA by itself is not infectious.
It is becoming more clear every day catching this is harder than first thought. We are now seeing positive tests in the 5% range, while testing in many places is still limited to people with symptoms or have been in suspected contact with a confirmed case. 95 out of 100 of those people aren’t infected!
I’m not real sure this is actually good news. It means “herd immunity” will be more difficult to attain.
One more thought … if MLB bangs this season, next season doesn’t look good either. Does anyone really think the virus threat will be eliminated or significantly reduced next year?
The sooner we learn to live with this thing, understand how it is transmitted, and know the health risks, the better. Right now, one really has to search for answers because legacy media is mainly using the “if it bleeds it leads” strategy, instead of providing real information.
If baseball opens back up there will be 0 or minimal travel. Most the travel will be taxi squad guys who are probably less than 1 or 2 miles away, or at most an hour away.
If and when baseball started ST will be held where teams will be playing regular season games, in all likelihood.
They will not be traveling all over the USA via bus or plane.
Minors is pretty much cancelled.
You seem to be operating under things going on as usual, which is not the case at all or what’s been discussed.
Also, comparatively speaking, France reopened it’s schools. 70 new cases for over 1 million. Not even close to 0.08. so that number, even made up, is well beyond what is realistic.
WTF are you talking about? There will have to be travel. A team outside Los Angeles can’t play a game in Los Angeles unless they TRAVEL to Los Angeles. .
Only some schools reopened in France with 30% of students allowed to return and they had 70 new cases in one week. They are only testing students and staff who are symptomatic. Since you are contagious for 2-14 days before you are symptomatic those cases will go way up in the next few weeks.
Keep up.
The early reports were that the minors do not operate, that the ML teams have a 30 man roster, and teams operate a taxi squad for callups (like a football practice squad, or in baseball during the playoffs).
Wow! You got 100% of the things you said wrong @ekrog. That is impressive.
Testing is so low that we have no clue how many people are asymptomatic.
Of those that tested positive the CDC says 7.1% were asymptomatic.
61.3% had what were considered mild symptoms. Mild symptoms include a fever up to but not exceeding 102 degrees for up to 2 weeks. Mild Covid-19 symptoms are worse than the flu.
The Closed Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is 20.18% in the US as of today, meaning more than 1 in 5 have died where the virus has run its course.
Infection mortality rate or IFR is useless in determining the death rate. The researchers also said they could not estimate age-adjusted IFR-S because the data isn’t available “to assess the distribution of IFR-S across age and comorbidity profiles of patients.” The overall IFR-S of COVID-19 is 1.3% compared to the flu at 0.1%.
COVID-19 is 3 times more contagious than the flu, so if you want to carry the numbers out if as many are infected with COVID-19 as the 35 million that caught the flu, IFR-S predicts that there would be nearly 500,000 COVID-19 deaths this year.
“To the extent that COVID-19 is more infectious than flu and does not have any protection from a vaccine or treatment, the number of infections, and hence the number of deaths, would be higher,”
With the mitigation strategies in place we have already had 96,075 deaths with infection rates still rising in many areas. The IFR-S and CFR indicate we will pass 150,000 deaths and may reach 200,000 deaths before the current 1.14 million active cases run their course. That is with NO additional cases.
Players have families including those that are elderly and that have other conditions that make them more likely to die. (41% of all Americans have a preexisting condition such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, liver disease, pregnancy, cancer, and other conditions that makes them at higher risk.)
You should hide. Lying about the facts and the scientific data makes you an accomplice.
Email me at ekroger911@yahoo.com and I’ll send you scientific studies to support all my facts.
medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.24.20075291v1
medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.04.20053058v1
thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/494034-the-data-are…
news.yahoo.com/lockdown-damage-outweighs-coronavir…
google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/covid-ant…
This whole business about salvaging the 2020 ML season is really absurd! I say shut down the whole season! There is talk that teams will be allowed to play in front of empty seats is just so laughable. What is baseball without sitting down fans? Besides, who would want to wear those stupid masks to ball parks where concession stands won’t make any money! If food & drink were to be served how do you consume it unless you take off the mask which defeats the whole purpose of mask wearing in the first place! Am I the only sane American that thinks like this?
I don’t honestly expect them to play this year, but I’d rather have baseball without fans than no baseball at all.
There’s always the KBO.
alright, guess im going to settle. what on earth does that mean? you think we’re just going to be fine with it because it’s baseball. in that case ill go watch a pickup game at the park. its a nice alternative, but no one in the MLB is saying “well at least there is the KBO for people to watch”
No sir, you are absolutely correct in my opinion. I’m a Rangers Season Ticket Holder and this whole back and forth has really soured my attitude for this year. I’m not in favor of a “watered down” version of my favorite sport. I’m retired, and really miss going to the Rangers games. Usually go to 50-60 games per year.
You there to eat or watch baseball?
Why not play? The risks have been vastly overestimated for most and vastly underestimated for some. Yes, they exist, but do you realize the median age of a CoVid fatality is more than the average life expectancy?
Playing the season can be done safely if there is the will to do it,. I’m not sure enough have the will to take the mitigation steps necessary, but to say it is absurd is absurd.
Players and union don’t have all that much bargaining power lmao.
Owners arent simply relying on revenue from their mlb franchise. They have many other business investments of varying types.
With things beginning to open back up they’ll start seeing revenue coming in from those over the next couple months again.
Owners have no reason to agree to mlbpa proposals on service time, tanking, spending, etc.
You bring any of those to the table owners will simply say, see you in 2021.
50% going to 0% would be devastating to the players financially.
Owners stand to lose revenue, not lose money. Baseball players stand to lose money from contracts with teams, companies they have advertisement deals with, and whatever else they cite as income.
Morally I agree with the players about earning their full, prorated pay.
Everything else however, I agree with the owners. They cater enough to players.
Pay the players what you agreed to when you gave them their contract and tell them to get their butts to work or start practicing the phrase “Would you like to super size your meal?”
Perfect solution:
The players should pay for the privilege of making more money for billionaires
It seems like everyone has an opinion or someone to blame for this whole mess but nobody has any solutions. I’m sorry but everyone with the quit relying on the government nipple to tell you what to do. It’s time to get moving from this nonsense
The biggest problem here is aligning incentives. If you drive down salaries too much, some players won’t want to take the risk. If the owners can’t get additional concessions from the players, then they might consider just shutting it down (doubtful, to my eyes, but possible).. On the health side, owners and players should be theoretically in sync: Both should want as few outbreaks as possible Players don’t want to be exposed, owners don’t want to have to pay for players who test positive and can’t play, and neither wants anyone to be seriously ill (a PR nightmare). Smart people who want a resolution should be able to find one….but whatever the solution, we can’t expect it’s going to be perfect, and the negotiators need to keep that into account.
The longer this goes on, the more obvious it is that this is is about financial health and not medical health. The players are correct, the owners need to pay them every penny they agreed to or simply do not play. That said, I do not want to hear about the need to test everyday, or no playing, and hearing the charge of collusion if future free agents are not paid like they were on the past.
Collusion is going to happen, and it’s still forbidden by the CBA. I don’t know that players need to give up that point. If the market shifts on its own, and players are paid less, than that’s life. If it’s more organized….
I have already read about Boras and Bryant; Boras does not seem to understand the economic conditions in the Country. Besides that : Guess what? He is a good player but certainly not Mike Schmidt; Brooks Robinson or Chipper Jones, and not worth what Boras thinks he is.
Arenado and Machado contracts help Boras make his case for Bryant.
Both players are better then Bryant. Same for economic conditions
“The owners need to pay them every penny they agreed to or simply do not play.”
The owners seem to think the agreement gives them the option to renegotiate if fans are not allowed to attend. I read an excerpt; it is an interpretation that may have merit.
Right now, I think the players have more to lose than the owners. And if they did agree to renegotiate …. they probably should.
So anyways tater tots or hash browns?
Game changer: brocolli tots.
Those are good
cheesy fries
09oMany players need the money more than any of the owners do. There is some point where owners would be better off not playing the season. Tony Clark probably has sports economists working to figure out that point. If players want to play for a salary where the owners are better off playing the season, then we will have baseball.
You know what major league baseball needs more than anything? Another starting pitcher named Orel.
Sure it easy to make this all about the money, and it is mainly, but their are other items in play that will be difficult to solve. Health and Control.
Health — what happens if a player/coach/staff/etc get the virus — what protocols and actions will take place, and how will the team(s) or players be affected?
Control — IMO this is the real wild card. Players have stated they want to be with their families. Mr and Mrs Trout are having a baby, and he will be there for the birth. Grand parents allowed?
Quarantine all players, families, staff, etc, during the season? what, if any, discipline or liability takes place when a player breeches protocol and gets the virus?
And who oversees all this? I can see MLB hiring several hundred health care workers/baby sitters/observers to monitor the thousands of people affiliated with a
full scale MLB in play season (players, families, staff, etc).
Lot of moving parts ro figure out and agree to in 2-3 weeks gang.
Much of this was in the owners proposal.
There are always risks; athletes take more risks with their health and their bodies than most others.
The risks associated with this virus are not going to go away next season. So figure out a plan now, adapt when needed, and try to stage a season.
Athletes do not take more risks. Health Care Professionals, police, firemen, sanitation workers, meat packing people and even cashiers at Walmart take more of a risk then athletes:
NY_ If you had read my words closely, you have would read that athletes take more risks than “most” others.
If you want to argue that Wal Mart cashiers and others are more at risk of catching this virus, that is fine also. I don’t know if they are at more risk, but the may be. Not really my point, though. But cashiers don’t get concussions as often as hockey or football players, or have to get out of the way of fastballs.
We can reopen the economy as soon as we have protocols in place for preventing the spread. Basic things like wearing masks and staying away from each other. Unfortunately we are the most entitled country on the planet and so we will screw that all up. And so it goes. We will not end this thing until we all learn how to act. It’s as basic as putting clothes on at the beginning of the day but it’s something new and different and Americans have this problem with being told what to do. So we lead the world in deaths by far. And it’s all on us. I have seen unlimited examples of people doing stupid careless things throughout every day of this pandemic. You can’t call them out or they will just scream obscenities at you. We have rules because people are too stupid to follow common sense. Wear a mask, wash your hands, stay apart from each other How hard is that? My god, we are so screwed. 95,000 and counting dead. And thousands have had complications form it. It’s not die or not die. There are plenty of other outcomes, not good.
It’s called freedom, hayzee, including the freedom to make bad choices. I’ve stayed in except to get food and visit aging relatives, I’ve worn a mask when I’m out and washed my hands incessantly. By choice. But I also respect the right of people to make poor choices.
One thing that doesn’t get much discussion is the effect a cancelled season may have on the quality of play when things do start back up. Particularly for younger and minor league players. Losing a year of development might be like all of baseball having Tommy John surgery, it could take quite a while just to get back to your previous level of play, nevermind improving. I know health has to be the foremost thought, but will be interesting.