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
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.
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.
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.