June 4: Both Sakamoto and Oshiro showed only “traces” of the virus, the Giants announced (link via the Kyodo News). Mitsuo Kaku, an epidemiologist who has worked both with NPB and Japan’s pro soccer league, indicated that Sakamoto and Oshiro “had recovered from their infections,” adding that “there is not a high risk they would expose others around them.” Both players have been hospitalized to undergo further testing, and teammates who came into contact with them will undergo a polymearse chain reaction test.
According to the report, the league has yet to indicate that this situation will impact the scheduled June 19 opener.
June 3: Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball resumed exhibition play this week as it prepares for its new June 19 start date, but two players on the Yomiuri Giants have already tested positive for COVID-19, per Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times. Reigning Central League MVP Hayato Sakamoto and catcher Takumi Oshiro both tested positive on the first day that games were set to resume. Wednesday’s scheduled exhibition game between the Giants and the Seibu Lions has been canceled.
Beyond that cancellation, there’s been no announcement as to how the league will handle the pair of positive tests. Both players will surely be isolated, but the league’s overall health and safety guidelines aren’t yet clear. The Kyodo News wrote just yesterday that NPB was still in the process of finalizing those protocols, borrowing heavily from the guidelines utilized in the Korea Baseball Organization and Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League — both of which are now well into their respective regular seasons. The CPBL, in fact, has begun to allow fans to attend games — permitting up to 2,000 per contest as of mid-May, per FocusTaiwan. NPB has been aiming to play a 120-game season.
The pair of positive tests underlines the importance of Major League Baseball establishing health and safety protocols that are not only agreeable to players but as efficient as possible in terms of minimizing the spread of the virus. NPB is less than half the size of MLB (12 teams). The challenges of keeping 30 MLB teams, coaching staffs and taxi squads healthy (as well as umpiring crews, security workers, grounds crew, etc.) are plentiful. To this point, Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have yet to reach agreements on either health protocols or player compensation.
It will be interesting to see how this is handled and compare it to what MLB could put in place. My guess is you have to delay the season again? Not sure on how much exposure these players had to each other. Maybe once everyone is tested and cleared they could re-begin?
I would say all players have to be here in quarantine for 14 days and then test after
I think this shows just how unlikely it is that the season will begin.
Agreed. This happening was unfortunately inevitable.
Has MLB said what will happen if a player tests positive?
Both NBA and MLB have said they are not going to start playing if one positive test will shut down the league. They will have to quarantine the player and basically play on. You can’t quarantine the whole team for 2 weeks. Plus every team they played against, etc…
Yet, scientists tell us you could be infecting others for up to 2 weeks BEFORE you show symptoms. So every player, opposing player, official and team personnel of all home and away teams have been exposed PRIOR to testing positive. That means the entire tracing protocol kicks in and EVERY individual has to be tested from the previous 2 weeks.
Think about that. Play a game July 1 against one team, July 3 another, July 5 another, July 7 another – test positive July 8.
Now all the other teams since July 1 and all their personnel have to be tested, us all the personnel from the teams THEY have played since July 1, 3, 5 and so on. One positive test on July 8 might mean testing 32 entire teams’ personnel. And that’s just TEAMS, not flight crews, hotel staff, caterers, security, and on and on.
Is this really worth it?
Exactly.
They’re supposedly going to be tested every day, even if they are symptomless, with results coming in before the following days game.
The problem is, once ONE person tests positive, it’s going to be unlikely that it can be limited to just that one player. If one person gets it from, say, a family member that got it when they went to go get groceries, several other people on the team will likely test positive within 24-48 hours.
It just seems completely unsustainable.
Much better to cancel all sports and wait until the vaccine, which is supposedly going to be ready by the end of the year.
You hit the nail on the head. We haven’t been able to control community spread outside of baseball yet, what makes anyone think MLB would be any different? It’s not a matter of if, but when, the first player/coach/employee tests positive.
Asymptomatic carriers are a significant reason for continued spread of the virus and will be a problem for the foreseeable future. Baseball isn’t immune to that. So the chances of an *uninterrupted* MLB season are slim to none IMO.
And if they somehow push through some positive cases and finish a short season, at what cost? Permanent lung damage and the end of a player’s career? Death of an older member of the coaching staff? A player’s kid in ICU? Asking so many people to accept the risk just for the sake of a couple months of entertainment doesn’t seem wise.
Hell. Yes. Sports is crucial
If what we have been told about social distancing is true, we are about to see a spike in cases like never imagined with all the protests. IF it’s true that big crowds will cause huge spikes, sports will be the least of our worries
I hope you had these same concerns about the anti-stay-at-home protests.
Spoiler alert: he didn’t.
I have been concerned about both. It’s June 3rd, I’ve been watching this since February and there is so much I don’t know. We still don’t know. I don’t know where this is going to go.
A thousand people died yesterday. The rise in number of cases is stagnant, about 20,000 a day.
We should all be concerned. Concerned doesn’t mean panicked.
Taking precautions based on the science doesn’t mean panicked either.
Maybe he thought this about the stay at home protests and not what is happening now. Not everyone is against the cause.
I did
There has been ZERO talk on TV about Covid-19 since the riots started. Isn’t that interesting? Also, ZERO follow up about the Lake of the Ozarks Memorial weekend parties since ONLY ONE person supposedly got the Covid. ONE! So CNN skipped town and stopped talking about it.
So the severity of the virus is based on the coverage CNN gives it? I am confused here.
CNN inflates, incites, and instigates.
Let me guess, Fox news tells the honest truth and only share facts? IS this how it goes?
CNN was just caught in another lie today. But that’s cool, keep playing the guessing game. This is fun.
Anybody who relies on a networks opinion is a fool.
Fair and balanced, no? Lol
just because its less of an imminent threat doesnt mean its not a threat period.
Reports indicate spikes are already being seen.
Data doesn’t support they have spiked.
Many states out west and in the south have surging numbers.
Many BLUE states are surging. Red states are not.
No. Surging positives are due to testing increases, including manipulating the numbers by forcing nursing facilities to test…without a treatment available mind you…to inflate numbers to receive federal disaster relief money. Ask someone who deals with this and get the truth.
2040, no kidding? Really? Like I said, blue states are surging and red states aren’t.
Wake up. Crowds all over the place are not causing spikes.
If the standard for re-starting baseball is that no one is allowed to test positive for an infectious disease with a mortality rate between 0.5 and 1 percent, I have bad news: baseball will never be played again. Well, not until the robots take over. But even then, there’s Russian hackers.
What is the mortality rate for those infected who are 49 and over? 60 and over?
I agree, 60 year olds should definitely not play professional baseball.
Satchel Paige would like a word
Stop being a smart aleck and use your brain. What about coaches and managers? What about announcers? What about the sports media? What about photographers? What about TV personnel? A lot of those positions are held by people over the age of 50. It’s not just about the athletes here. Even without fans, there are lot of susceptible people involved in this equation.
The cdc has published a lower mortality rate overall that leads to .26. With more testing, and confirmed cases the number will continue to dip. As for age groups the over 50 population will have a much higher rate. This is why for people with underlying health conditions and a higher age should shelter in place instead of taking the risk. The same can be said during flu season for these individuals.
theroadto28….Wrong. Those in higher risk groups during flu season can get vaccinated.
You know the flu vaccine is a best guess each year, right?
Of course I know that… your point being what? The flu vaccine is an effective tool that allows people to go about their normal business regardless of their risk factors. Yes, I also know in extreme cases people with certain risk factors should take precautions in flu season.
Not sure off hand, but it’s pretty high over 65, and it goes up more the older you go. The problem isn’t just the rate though. If 25% of the league (including coaches and staff, film crews, etc) is infected, that’s still some 700 people infected.
If even ONE of them dies, say an older coach, crew, or camera man– it would surely be a massive black eye for the sport.
Let alone if one of them was a player. Even if it’s not a star like Mike Trout– let’s say a bullpen catcher or backup bench player with an unknown/undiagnosed underlying issue were to die (or even be afflicted with long term affects)– it would be disastrous.
My best friend’s neighbor, aged 32, died of covid. We didn’t know him well, just passed him in the apartment halls from time to time, but we saw his last instagram post– lying in the hospital on a ventilator, but certain he’d recover…
according to johns hopkins hospital, u.s. had 1,831,821 confirmed cases on june 3. and 106,180 deaths. that’s 5.7% mortality rate.
That’s not how Statistics works.
you tell me! i can tell you i excelled at math except on statistics.
Why? Did sabermetrics make some complicated formula for this too?
if you are not answering i can tell you jhh listed mortality rate at 5.8%.
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality
If you honestly don’t get why that 5.7% mortality rate (which, btw., you made up yourself, there’s absolutely no way in Hell a reputable organization would make the claim that Covid’s mortality rate has been scientifically determined to be at 5.7%) is wrong, I have a better chance of hitting .300 in the majors than explaining Statistics to you.
But I suspect you understand. You’re just being partisan.
It’s kind of scary when a pandemic issue gets dismissed as partisan. That’s actually terrifying.
using the 5.7% morality rate is like using batting average to determine the value of a hitter.
@i hate my fater: Funny. Yes, the dude is definitely ignoring all the walks, doubles, triples and homers. And by that, I mean the millions upon millions of people with Covid antibodies in them (proof positive that they had the disease) who never even got a cough from it, so they weren’t tested (because, for some reason, the richest nation on Earth has a shortage of tests).
Yes, and I love it when I read a 91 year old man died from Covid-19. Yes, I’m sure that’s what killed him. There are thousands upon thousands of 80+ year old people who “died” from COVID-19. It wasn’t pneumonia, flu, bad heart or lungs or anything else. It was the Covid. Sure it was.
Would that 80+ year old person be alive today if it was not for Covid-19? there is a strong chance they would.
A coworker of mine, his 74 year old father died of covid. Now, that might sound old to you, but he was healthy, energetic, active, and still working a day job, the same job he’d done since his early 20’s. This was not some feeble old man.
This idea that only elderly, feeble geriatrics are at risk is nonsense.
(PS: the reason I know so many people who’ve died of covid is that I live in New Jersey, and work in Manhattan, well from home since March, at least I have personal connections to at least a dozen people who’ve been hospitalized or died from this, anywhere from 24-95. That said, my coworker’s father lives in Texas)..
Yes and I love it when misanthropes like yourself treat that 91 year man, and millions of others like him, like he is disposable instead of an actual human being.
Hiflew, since you must be a producer at $NN, I never thought any death was disposable. Just don’t feed me the line of bs about the Covid being the actual reason of a 91 year old dying. It could have been any number of things that killed him. Much like the singer John Prine dying of the Covid, even though he battled cancer for 22 years. By the way, I’m speaking from experience, so don’t begin to lecture me about this inflated crap virus. Curious how it’s been out of the news since the unfortunate death of Mr. Floyd.
But that’s wrong because people’s parents are dying of cancer and people are getting in car accidents and the coroner is stamping all the death certificates as Covid
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/5269331002
CDC states .26%
I hate participating in these discussion boards because folks can be so nasty, but had to refute a direct lie.
You have no idea what the mortality rate is. The reported US rate is 6%. Of course it’s much lower than that because we don’t know how many people have/had the virus.
I don’t know… you don’t know. When you say 0.5 and 1 percent, you are making a guess.
By the way, the 1918 rate was 2.5%. The typical flu is .1 percent.
With Social Distancing firmly in place, it’s already killed more than twice as many as the typical flu.
And while the owners and the players have their screaming cat fight to decide who gets to be greedier, Japan unfortunately reminds us of the real challenge to a season, especially a season that lasts into November or December.
It’s not going to happen. It shouldn’t happen. It’s not worth it.
The really depressing thing is they could’ve just canceled everything a month or two ago for the right reasons and avoided the soap opera we’re having to witness. They’ve crippled the sport’s image for exactly nothing.
Ugh These posts
They crippled it? The sport’s image will never walk again?
Greed will kill major league baseball and politics will kill the national football league
Nothing will kill either sport because the public needs them to gamble.
With all the information available you’re still spouting this rhetoric? Give it a rest.
Butchie, what information?
2 positive tests means nothing; as the system to test is riddled with errors. To get sick from a carrier is still a Scientific theory and not fact. Are they actually sick ?
Keep over-reacting over theories and nothing will ever go back to normal….
do you happen to know more about viruses than doctors?
He doesn’t have to. It’s common knowledge that the tests have been inconclusive or flat out wrong, in many caaes.
I’m pretty sure you’re not a doctor, Vizionaire. So if you wanna argue from authority, I suggest you get some first.
If your correct, then the tests could be wrong both positive and negative.
And if you were correct, then you should’ve written you’re instead of your.
I’ll admit my spelling mistake. Still stand by my conclusion
that includes the negative results.
Before Covid half of America couldn’t change the smoke detector battery and now everybody’s a doctor
Please cite your “Scientific Theory” to support your claim.
My conclusion is as irrelevant as the rest of them old timer. The important thing is to understand they are all just theories. Doctors surely are not all in the same boat on what they believe is going on- the media might be but the medical community is not. And when someone believes a certain way- that’s the theory they choose to believe.
I have a 1 year old and my wife is pregnant with our 5th kid. I run a business where I meet in strangers homes. I’m back at work full force. I wear no masks or gloves and have made a conscious decision to continue life as normal as possible. Good luck in your search for the truth friend.
Tiny…. apparently that is reference to his brain size
No. I’m just not a slave to fear and it feels fantastic- you should try it
Fear has nothing to do with making an effort to stop the spread of the virus. It’s about having compassion for vulnerable people in our community, and doing our part to ensure front-line health care workers don’t have to deal with what NYC just went through. It’s about preventing sickness and death. You should try it sometime.
Everything you said is a theory as you just stated your opinion; yet you present it all as settled science. Fear has a lot to do with that.
Nothing I said was opinion.
– covid-19 causes sickness and death: fact
– Some people are higher risk factors for covid-19: fact
– Front-line health workers in NYC were overwhelmed by covid-19 cases and many were infected and died: fact
– Quarantine and physical distancing measures are proven to help stop the spread of viruses: fact
Cito, stupidity like drinking and driving causes death. Fact. So let’s stop selling alcohol and close up all the bars.
Some people smoke 60 cigarettes a day and get sick and die. Fact. Yet cigarettes are still sold in stores.
Police on the front line of riots in NYC are apparently in danger too, yet nobody cares. Fact.
Hiding in seclusion and living like a hermit is not healthy. Fact.
One more time….just bc there’s media consensus doesn’t mean the scientific community is in consensus on how viruses are contracted and spread. Some Dr’s who are also scientists believe that covid doesn’t spread person to person and it’s contracted differently. For them to believe that- the evidence of what u believe is not conclusive therefore not a fact.
Many out of state doctors who work in NYC say malpractice is the biggest killer. Malpractice is the 3rd biggest killer of Americans any given year and this one is no different.
You have no clue what you’re talking about yet you’re a self proclaimed expert on the topic. That comes from pride. Pride masks fear. Good luck in your search for the truth friend.
LOL
What’s so laugh out loud funny? Did you just see yourself naked for the first time, Cito?
Rioting and vandalism shouldn’t happen either, yet it is while we’re supposed to keep social distancing. Since people are ignoring this, and city officials are allowing this to happen, I think we can sit at home and watch a live stream of an MLB baseball game played in an empty stadium.
While I’m in the camp that the spread of the virus and mortality rates are not as bad as some claim, I do think the two cases in Japan will give ammunition to teams who want to scrap 2020 that proceeding is too dangerous. It seems because society overreacts to everything there will be too many negatives to start the season.
For those who don’t believe me, the CDC has published statistics stating deaths from COVID-19 by age group is no different than deaths from internal causes in individuals below 50, There is a slight spike above this age but it seems minimal. If I had the actual data we could run a simple t-test to determine if there is a statistical difference.
Also, those of you talking about the 5.7% mortality rate need to flesh this out by age group. For those under 45 the mortality rate is near zero. For those above 65 it starts at 20% and reaches 30% above 80. You simply can’t look at a population mean where the distribution is skewed.
Mortality rates are lower for younger people. Younger people can spread this virus asymptomatically. These are facts. So while the fact remains that a younger person may not die they are capable of spreading it to people that are at a high risk of dying. That is the problem. The cherry picking of known statistics is exhausting.
You must of missed the part about COVID-19 mortality rates are no different than deaths by internal causes in 2019 for nearly every age group.
I get that you don’t have an advanced degree in statistics, but don’t overlook facts.
to be fair, i think the league has to look at this as a legitimate threat, but for healthy guys like this the concern is much less. i get there is still a threat, and i wouldnt want to get the virus even if i would be asymptomatic, but anyone who is a world class athlete, even with pre-existing conditions, has a very low chance of death from this. the flukey things that kill pro sports players every year are just as likely to kill. i still think its worthwhile to make sure that no one gets it regardless, but really the concern is more for those close to players – coaches, umps, families – than the athletes themselves.
Not that this is entirely related or definitive, but one study suggests the main cause of death by COVID-19 is one’s pulse oximetry level (the amount oxygen in your blood). People with low levels tend to have weaker hearts and/or lungs.
Athletes, of course, tend to have normal levels and really low pulses because they are in great shape. Some runners, for example, can have a resting pulse as low as 50.
The trick with all of this is balancing athletic with home life (exposure between players and then families)..
Indirectly, I know two people in their 40s who have died.
But still, I don’t know how bad this is, you don’t know how bad this is. There is more we don’t know than know. But right now it’s killed twice as many people as the typical flu. When you think of all we’ve done to prevent deaths, and the short time span, that’s an extremely large amount.
This app continues to run worse and worse.
Is “traces of the virus” the 2020 equivalent of “a little bit pregnant?”
It probably means low infection.
What’s a low infection?
Meaning, you’re infected with the virus but but it’s either not widely spread or the impact on the individual is low.
For example, one can have a blood infection that is treatable or septicemia which can be fatal.
Just like you can be a functioning alcoholic or an incurable booze hound.
So in New York today thousands are holding hands unprotected & marching down streets with no problem & yet people can’t work or go to Church!
Can’t stop because 2 people got the virus or let’s stop living till a vaccine is out that 1/2 the Country will refuse to take!
Play Ball!
I believe it’s correctly spelled polymerase.