COVID-19 has struck the Boston Red Sox one month before Major League Baseball is set to return. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom announced Wednesday during a Zoom conference call that a member of the team’s 40-man roster has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier and MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. The…
Red Sox Player Tests Positive For Coronavirus, Remains Asymptomatic — NESN.com
Major League Baseball and its players union on Tuesday night agreed on a return-to-play plan that entails a 60-game season and an extensive list of health and safety protocols. The extra measures certainly are necessary, as multiple teams around the league have reported players and staffers alike to have tested positive for COVID-19. And with…
Red Sox’s Sam Kennedy Believes MLB Has Resources To Overcome COVID-19 Outbreak — NESN.com
Major League Baseball and its players union on Tuesday night agreed on a return-to-play plan that entails a 60-game season and an extensive list of health and safety protocols. The extra measures certainly are necessary, as multiple teams around the league have reported players and staffers alike to have tested positive for COVID-19. And with spiking numbers of new cases reported in Florida and Arizona, teams will remain in their home markets for training camp. But, just like every other sport currently plotting out their returns, the possibility of a large outbreak of the virus raises important questions about whether or not the league can continue on. Sam Kennedy, however, thinks MLB has the pieces in place to continue play in that scenario. The president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday held a conference call with reporters, where he said he expects to see plenty of positive coronavirus tests across the league, and feels MLB has the resources to combat it, via Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe. #RedSox President Sam Kennedy said they do expect positive Covid tests across he league but they believe they have the resources to be able to combat it. — Julian McWilliams (@byJulianMack) June 24, 2020
“Baseball is exactly the right thing now for our country,” Kennedy said, via NBC Sports Boston’s Raul Martinez. “We have the most robust health and safety protocol in all of North American Sports.” #RedSox president Sam Kennedy. “Baseball is exactly the right thing now for our country.” He added “we have the most robust health and safety protocol in all of North American sports.” — Raul Martinez (@RaulNBCBoston) June 24, 2020 At least, thinks look optimistic for the Red Sox in Massachusetts, where numbers of new cases of COVID don’t match surging trends in other southern states.
Read more at: https://nesn.com/2020/06/red-soxs-sam-kennedy-believes-mlb-has-resources-to-overcome-covid-19-outbreak/
In the bubble, Jason Spezza will trust. Read More
Positive coronavirus tests among NHL players don’t make Leafs’ Spezza less optimistic — Toronto Sun
In the bubble, Jason Spezza will trust.
That’s if the National Hockey League successfully advances to Phase 4 of its Return to Play plan in the midst of the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Spezza, the veteran Maple Leafs forward whose rosy outlook and experience carried considerable weight in the dressing room during the 2019-20 regular season, remains confident that the NHL is on the right track to resume games, even with the news late last week that 11 NHL players have tested positive for the coronavirus.
“There’s lots of people everywhere testing positive,” Spezza said on Tuesday during a Zoom call with media. “As players, we realize there is going to be some risk of a positive test.
“I put trust in the league and the PA (NHL Players’ Association) that we’re going to come up with a bubble scenario that will keep everybody safe. The biggest challenge would be getting to that point, because we’re not in a bubble scenario right now.”
The NHL announced five days ago that the 11 positive tests had resulted from the 200-plus NHL players who had been tested since June 8, when team facilities were permitted to open for voluntary training. Postmedia’s Steve Simmons reported that one of those players who had a positive test result was Leafs centre Auston Matthews, who has remained at his off-season home in Arizona to train.
“It probably becomes a bit of a reality check for making sure that everybody is doing everything possible hygiene-wise to make sure we are not spreading it,” Spezza said, speaking of the positive tests in general.
“We knew there was going to be positive tests. It’s probably good there has some positive tests because it gives us some practice on how to deal with it.”
Spezza has been enjoying the workouts at the Ford Performance Centre, skating in a group that includes forwards Kyle Clifford and Kasperi Kapanen, defenceman Calle Rosen and goaltender Eamon McAdam, a former Leafs farmhand who played for Adirondack of the ECHL last season.
As much as Spezza is glad to be back on the ice with an eye toward starting Phase 3 and training camp on July 10, the 37-year-old has taken full advantage of the NHL pause to spend as much time as possible with his wife Jennifer and their four daughters at their Toronto home. To that end, the family has been preparing for the idea that Spezza potentially will be away for at least several weeks, living in the Phase 4 bubble in one of the NHL’s two hub cities once the post-season starts.
“We have had family conversations about it and it’s not going to be easy, especially after having three months of probably the best family quality time I’ve ever had with my kids and wife,” Spezza said. “It’s going to be a big adjustment and there will be some tears involved.
“They understand that Daddy has a dream of trying to win a Stanley Cup and there are not too many more years left. It’s a big family sacrifice and they are on board with it.”
Spezza has been sticking close to home during the pandemic, noting that the Leafs have been helpful in ensuring players and their families have the resources to be safe.
At the same time, players will have to fight the temptation to get some normalcy back in their lives, especially with the NHL determined to hold the playoffs and eventually award the Stanley Cup.
“My bubble is pretty tight as it is and there is not a whole lot of going out and doing things,” Spezza said. “Most of my time has been spent going on walks with the kids, playing outside.
“I have avoided stores. The team did a phenomenal job in helping us with groceries and really doing everything possible to make sure we don’t have to be exposed if we absolutely don’t have to be.
“One of the biggest challenges for players is that as everything around us starts opening up, we almost have to tighten up because we’re going back to play and that is going to be an adjustment for us.
“We have to probably be a little more careful as we get close to training camp.”
Rockies players Charlie Blackmon, Phillip Diehl, and Ryan Castellani have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) according to the Denver Post.
Report: Charlie Blackmon among three Rockies to test positive for COVID-19 — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
Baseball is back, but it’ll take a little while for players to get back into game shape. Major League Baseball and the Players’ Association on Tuesday agreed to a deal the will feature a 60-game schedule and revised health and safety protocols, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The MLBPA later confirmed the deal via Twitter. Earlier…
MLB Rumors: Here’s What League’s Three-Phase Training Plan Looks Like — NESN.com
Baseball is back, but it’ll take a little while for players to get back into game shape. Major League Baseball and the Players’ Association on Tuesday agreed to a deal the will feature a 60-game schedule and revised health and safety protocols, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The MLBPA later confirmed the deal via Twitter. Earlier in the day, players agreed to report to training camp by July 1. And with Opening Day expected to take place July 24, per Passan, players will have roughly one month to prepare for the abbreviated 2020 season. MLB is expected to implement a three-phase training plan when it officially announces the deal, according to MassLive’s Chris Cotillo. The plan will begin July 1 and end with Opening Day. In Phase 1, players reportedly will divide into small groups and assigned times and areas of the complex for their respective workouts. Phase 2 will allow players to work out in larger group workouts, and possibly even team workouts. Intrasquad games likely will be allowed, too. In Phase 3, teams will begin participating in a “limited number” of exhibition games against other clubs, per Cotillo. MLB will ask teams to allow umpires to attend workouts so they can practice tracking pitches. All employees reportedly will be subject to “in-depth screening” when they first arrive at camp. Phase 1: Players divided into small groups (5ish), and assigned times and areas of the complex Phase 2: Larger group workouts, intrasquad games permitted Phase 3: Limited # of exhibition games MLB asking teams to allow umpires to come to workouts to get reps tracking pitches https://t.co/I49hiySyQP — Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) June 24, 2020 Teams will hold training camps in their home cities instead of their training facilities in Florida and Arizona after MLB temporarily closed them following a string of positive COVID-19 tests among players and staff on site.
Read more at: https://nesn.com/2020/06/mlb-rumors-heres-what-leagues-three-phase-training-plan-looks-like/
It looks like we will have a 2020 baseball season after all, at least on the major league level. Yay. (I think.) After several weeks of the most unseemly back and forth possible between the Commissioner’s office and the Players Association, Rob Manfred was expected to lay down the When and Where. The details weren’t…
Alexander: For what it’s worth, we’ll have a 2020 baseball season — Press Telegram
Fifteen minor league baseball teams have filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract by insurance providers after being denied claims for business-interruption insurance due to the coronavirus pandemic.
MiLB teams sue insurance providers over denied virus claims — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
Associated PressJun 23, 2020, 4:05 PM EDT
Fifteen minor league baseball teams have filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract by insurance providers after being denied claims for business-interruption insurance due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Major League Baseball announced Monday that it will attempt to play a 60-game regular season, but its minor league clubs – many under threat of losing affiliations amid negotiations with MLB – are unlikely to play until at least 2021.
Minor league franchises said in the suit filed Tuesday that even though they continue to pay yearly premiums to insurance providers for business-interruption insurance, they have been denied coverage after Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred indefinitely suspended their seasons in March.
Minor league teams are mostly small, independently owned businesses, and their model depends on affiliates receiving players, coaches and other team personnel provided by major league clubs.
Government restrictions on mass gatherings are also precluding minor league teams from hosting fans at their ballparks, by far the greatest source of revenues for those franchises. Over 40 million fans attended minor league games involving 176 affiliates last season.
The suit claims teams are stuck with over $2 million in expenses on average, including as much as $1 million in ballpark lease payments, marketing costs, food and beverage supplies, and salaries and benefits for permanent employees.
Teams say providers are citing two reasons for denying claims – because losses are not resulting from direct physical loss or damage to property, or because policies include language excluding coverage for loss or damage caused by viruses.
Teams say the loss of use of their ballparks due to government restrictions on fan gatherings and their inability to obtain players qualifies as physical loss. They allege the latter clause is void because it’s unenforceable and inapplicable.
The likely loss of the 2020 season comes at an already challenging time for the minors. The Professional Baseball Agreement between MLB and minor league team owners is set to expire after this season, and MLB proposed reducing the guarantee minimum of affiliates from 160 to 120.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, names Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co., Acadia Insurance Co., National Casualty Co., Scottsdale Indemnity Co., and Scottsdale Insurance Co. as defendants. Defendants did not immediately responded to requests for comment.
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By DUSAN STOJANOVIC BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Top-ranked tennis player Novak Djokovic announced Tuesday he and his wife have COVID-19 after he played in a series of exhibition matches he organized in Serbia and Croatia with zero social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic. Raising questions about the full-fledged return of tennis, including the U.S. Open,…
Novak Djokovic tests positive for coronavirus — Daily News
The games are still 51/2 weeks away but the Raptors made their first big move towards the resumption of the 2019-20 NBA season. Read More
Raps the first to take the plunge towards re-start of the NBA season — Toronto Sun
Mike GanterMore from Mike Ganter
Published:June 22, 2020
Updated:June 22, 2020 8:36 PM EDT
Filed Under:
The games are still 51/2 weeks away but the Raptors made their first big move towards the resumption of the 2019-20 NBA season.
Those players and team staff who either reside in Toronto or remained here once the pandemic began boarded a flight for Fort Myers, Fla., where they will remain until the NBA’s Campus at World Disney World in Orlando opens in early July.
The Raptors are the first team to make a move but players from all over the world are returning to their teams this week where they will undergo testing for the Coronavirus in an effort to ensure that all NBA employees entering the bubble in Orlando are virus free.
As the lone team residing outside the continental United States, the Raptors had the option of doing their pre-training camp in Toronto at their own facility. That would have meant bringing over half the team back from the U.S. for a little over a week and then having them cross the border again as a group to head to Orlando. It just made sense to avoid as many border crossings and as much travel as possible.
By Wednesday any player on any of the 22 teams eventually headed for Orlando must inform their respective teams if they do not intend to take part in the re-start of the league.
Obviously there are risks involved and it will be every player’s right to make that decision. Those who choose not to partake will not be penalized although the percentage of their salary they would accrue had they agreed to go will be docked.
Already one ESPN report has confirmed that Washington’s Davis Bertans will be opting out of the games, although he is reportedly joining the team to take part in the training camp portion prior to the re-start of the league.
Bertans is a 27-year old Latvian forward and one of the best three-point shooters in the league. He’s slated to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the current season and should cash in nicely.
But with two previous ACL injuries on his resume, he and his agent have made the decision not to risk a somewhat rushed prep period in order to play eight games in the remaining regular season. The Wizards playoff hopes are slim as they are starting with a 51/2 game deficit to the present No. 8 seeds in the East, the Orlando Magic.
All told, Bertans would be forfeiting $520,000 by sitting out the final eight games of the season according to ESPN and then playoff money too assuming the Wizards could knock off Orlando in a play-in series again assuming they could get within four games of the Magic at the conclusion of those eight games.
The Raptors will not hold team workouts in Fort Myers, those the NBA has mandated must wait until they get on to the Orlando campus, but will continue their individual workouts at a Alico Arena, home to the Florida Gulf Coast University Eagles.
Testing for the coronavirus for all Orlando-bound NBA personnel begins Tuesday and will be repeated every other day. Tuesday will also see the players and travelling party — all teams are limited to a total of 35 people to enter the Orlando bubble — subjected to antibody testing. That will only be repeated if a person tests positive for the virus.
The entire process all but accepts that there are going to be positive tests. It’s inevitable. But with testing beginning today (Tuesday), that gives a player who does initially test positive a minimum of two full weeks to recover in time to enter the bubble.
The hope and the expectation is that all the precautions the league has taken and will take once that campus opens will mitigate the risks as much as possible but the reality is no one will really know until they’re all in the bubble.
There are plenty of concerns going forward, including what had been a continually rising number of COVID-19 cases in Orange County where Orlando resides. That rise finally was halted Sunday but the numbers remain high in an area the league will be drawing workers from on a daily basis and bringing into the bubble.
For now the majority of players seem to be on board with the plan to resume, but that too could change at any moment.
What we do know is the Raptors have already taken the first step towards seeing how effective that plan can be.
Statement from the Major League Baseball Players Association
NEW YORK, June 22 – TheMajor League Baseball Players Association today released the following statement:
The MLBPA Executive Board met multiple times in recent days to assess the status of our efforts to resume the 2020 season.
Earlier this evening, the full Board reaffirmed the players’ eagerness to return to work as soon and as safely as possible. To that end we anticipate finalizing a comprehensive set of health and safety protocols with Major League Baseball in the coming days, and we await word from the league on the resumption of spring training camps and a proposed 2020 schedule.
While we had hoped to reach a revised back to work agreement with the league, the Players remain fully committed to proceeding under our current agreement and getting back on the field for the fans, for the game, and for each other.
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Columbus is out as a potential hub city in the event the National Hockey League is successful in moving into Phase 4 of its Return to Play plan, and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn., reportedly is no longer in the running either. Read More
Columbus, Minnesota out as NHL hub list for Phase 4 believed to be whittled to six — Toronto Sun
RAPTORS TO PREPARE FOR RESUMPTION OF NBA SEASON
The Toronto Raptors announced Monday that they will prepare for a resumption to the 2019-20 NBA season in Fort Myers, Florida.
Select players and staff will depart from Toronto today. The Raptors will remain in the Fort Myers area until entering the NBA Campus at Disney, near Orlando, in early July for the remainder of the season.
In keeping with NBA and team safety protocols, there will be no group workouts during this phase of return to play, and strict protocols have been designed to ensure this initial level of access will take place in a safe, controlled, and healthy way.
Group workouts will only begin once teams have reported to the NBA Campus at Disney.
There will be no in-person media availabilities during this time, and access to both the team hotel and voluntary individual workout facilities are strictly limited to essential team personnel.
The view from left field 