It took 3 1/2 weeks until a COVID-19 outbreak triggered a NFL game’s postponement, and the Tennessee Titans’ plight is an alarm bell for all around the league. “When we’re trying to pull off a season, it’s just a reminder how quick that can spread when people get it,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Wednesdays.…
Coronavirus: 49ers coach says Titans’ outbreak is reminder about season’s fragility — Times-Standard
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — By many measures, the NBA bubble has been a success: Players and staff living on the Disney campus have not tested positive for COVID-19, and the season is nearly complete — an outcome Adam Silver once thought was a “pipe dream” in the middle of a pandemic. All the same,…
NBA commissioner Adam Silver says rapid testing will be critical to getting fans back in arenas — Press Telegram
A person with knowledge of the punishment tells The Associated Press that at least three NFL head coaches have been fined $100,000 for violating the league’s rules that they wear face coverings on the sideline. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the league wasn’t announcing specific fines, said Denver’s Vic Fangio, San…
NFL fines 3 coaches, clubs for unmasked coaches — Daily News
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to take an economic toll around baseball, the Red Sox announced more layoffs within the business side of the organization on Thursday. 167 more words
Red Sox announce more layoffs as COVID-19 continues to take its toll — Boston Herald
Sign In COVID-19 apparently has struck Major League Baseball once again. Only this time, an umpire reportedly has tested positive for the coronavirus. The reported positive test triggered a sudden change in two crew assignments in Florida to help fill the gaps, sources told The Associated Press. Tuesday’s Washington Nationals-Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana…
MLB Rumors: Umpire Tests Positive For COVID-19, Triggers Crew Change — NESN.com
COVID-19 apparently has struck Major League Baseball once again.
Only this time, an umpire reportedly has tested positive for the coronavirus.
The reported positive test triggered a sudden change in two crew assignments in Florida to help fill the gaps, sources told The Associated Press.
Tuesday’s Washington Nationals-Tampa Bay Rays game at Tropicana Field began with three umpires, with fill-in Clint Vondrak arriving in the fourth inning.
Roughly 280 miles away, veteran ump Andy Fletcher joined three younger umpires for the Boston Red Sox-Miami Marlins series at Marlins Park.
MLB medical experts don’t think there is a threat of infection to personnel, sources told The AP.
Thumbnail photo via Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports ImagesMore MLB: Rob Manfred ‘Hopeful’ For Limited Fan Attendance For MLB PlayoffsMLB
The game between San Francisco and the San Diego Padres was postponed minutes before the scheduled first pitch Friday night after someone in the Giants organization tested positive for COVID-19.
Two Giants-Padres games postponed after positive SF virus test — MLB | NBC Sports
Associated PressSep 12, 2020, 12:22 AM EDT
The game between San Francisco and the San Diego Padres was postponed minutes before the scheduled first pitch Friday night after someone in the Giants organization tested positive for COVID-19.
Saturday night’s game at Petco Park also was called off. The teams were scheduled to play through Sunday.
This was the first postponement due to COVID-19 for both teams. There have been 45 major league games postponed this season because of coronavirus concerns.
Both teams lined up for a moment of silence for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and then the national anthem. But the Padres didn’t take the field and the team announced the game had been postponed.
Players from both teams lingered in and around the dugouts well after Garrett Richards was scheduled to throw the first pitch.
About a half-hour after the game was to have started, the Padres announced the reason for the postponement. A few minutes after that, the Padres filed into the stands for a team meeting.
A’s pitcher Daniel Mengden tested positive for the coronavirus on Aug. 29, general manager David Forst told reporters Thursday morning. Mengden was the lone Athletic to test positive in the team’s traveling party, prompting the postponement of the A’s final game against the Houston Astros and three-game series against the Seattle Mariners. Per MLB, no…
A’s Daniel Mengden placed on coronavirus IL following positive test — Times-Standard
With yet another team ravaged by COVID-19, the very viability of the 2020 MLB season is in jeopardy
Report: More than five St. Louis Cardinals players test positive for COVID-19 — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
By Craig CalcaterraAug 1, 2020, 10:02 AM
Craig Mish reports that “more than five” St. Louis Cardinals players and/or staff have tested positive for COVID-19.
Yesterday the Cardinals-Brewers game was postponed due to two positive tests. With more than seven now, there is no way the Cardinals can field a team or responsibly play, so assume the entire Cardinals-Brewers series will be postponed. UPDATE: tonight’s game is postponed. See below for additional schedule alterations and updates regarding the Cardinals, Brewers, Phillies, Marlins, and other teams.
This news comes less than an hour after reports that the Miami Marlins had no new positive tests, keeping their number at 18. it also comes after the Phillies announced that they had no new positives either. While it’s hard to draw any hard and fast conclusions from all of that, there is a strong suggestion that cross-team infection — say, between the Marlins and the Phillies — might be a smaller concern than expected (at least one of the infected Phillies was the visiting clubhouse attendant for the Marlins and was in close proximity with them). The Marlins’ and now the Cardinals’ examples, however, suggest that once a team starts getting infections its own roster can be quickly ravaged.
Which shines the light not on the activity of playing baseball, which may not entail a super high risk but, rather, on the protocols surrounding travel, housing, clubhouse deportment, etc., to which individual teams are subject.
Yesterday Rob Manfred pointed the finger at player behavior, saying that they have to shape up or else risk the season being cancelled, but it’s not at all clear yet whether those protocols are sufficient in and of themselves, whether players simply did not properly adhere to them, or whether it was some combination of the two. There is a suggestion that the Marlins acted irresponsibly, but that may not apply to all of their infections. We have no idea yet what may have caused the St. Louis Cardinals outbreak.
All we know for now is that yet another team, and its immediate opponents, stand to be idled for an extended period of time. And that the very viability of the 2020 baseball season is in serious doubt.
UPDATE, 3:29 PM:
Major League Baseball has issued a press release further elaborating on the Cardinals positive tests and laying out the schedule, to the extent it’s able to do so, for the coming days. What follows is the latest information the league is providing.
St. Louis Cardinals: After two Cardinals tested positive on Friday, the entire team was tested in Milwaukee using a rapid COVID-19 test in addition to the normal saliva samples which were sent to the MLB laboratory. The rapid tests indicated that one additional Cardinals player and multiple staff members may be positive. The MLB saliva test results are not yet back.
Philadelphia Phillies: Three Phillies staff members have tested positive since the Marlins series last weekend but no players have. MLB’s press release says, “it appears that two of those individuals’ tests were false positives, and it is unclear if the third individual contracted COVID-19 from Marlins players and staff based on the timing of the positive test.” MLB does not say how it knows they are false positives. The Phillies are scheduled to resume play against the Yankees in New York on Monday. It will be a four-game home-and-home series beginning with two games at Yankee Stadium on Monday, August 3rd and Tuesday, August 4th, followed by two games at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday, August 5th and Thursday, August 6th.
Miami Marlins: The Marlins’ remaining players and staff have been quarantining in Philadelphia since Sunday and have not engaged in any baseball or other activities. The Marlins reported no new positive test results in Friday’s sample collections. The current plan is for the Marlins to resume play against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday in Baltimore where they will play a four-game series from Tuesday, August 4th through Thursday, August 6th with one day including a doubleheader. The Marlins will be the home team for two games.
Additionally:
MLB concluded by saying it will “continue to follow a conservative approach in addressing positive test results because the health and safety of our players, employees and the public at large is paramount. We are in daily contact with the Players Association, public health officials, and our own medical experts in order to make decisions that will best protect individuals from being exposed to COVID-19. We will continue to provide further scheduling updates as necessary.”
So that’s where we are.
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NEW YORK (WJW) — Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred warns the sport will shut down for the season if the coronavirus isn’t managed better, sources told ESPN. Manfred reportedly told this information to the MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark on Friday. The alleged conversation follows multiple coronavirus outbreaks within the league. Eighteen Miami […]
Report: Baseball could face shutdown if coronavirus isn’t better managed, MLB commissioner warns — fox8.com
NEW YORK (WJW) — Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred warns the sport will shut down for the season if the coronavirus isn’t managed better, sources told ESPN.
Manfred reportedly told this information to the MLB Players Association Executive Director Tony Clark on Friday.2 Cardinals test positive for COVID-19
The alleged conversation follows multiple coronavirus outbreaks within the league.
Eighteen Miami Marlins players and two coaches tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week. Two St. Louis Cardinals players tested positive on Friday.2 MLB games postponed as Marlins deal with virus outbreak
League officials have expressed concerns over the presence of the virus and are questioning whether MLB’s protocols are being properly followed by players, the news outlet reports.
Several players who were briefed on the call reportedly fear that if another outbreak materializes or if players do not strictly abide by MLB protocols, Manfred may shut down the season as early as Monday.‘Baseball is in huge trouble’: MLB faces first coronavirus crisis
During certain games, players have been seen high-fiving each other, spitting and not wearing masks. Some state and local government officials have expressed concern over these behaviors and “pressured baseball about players skirting the mandates outlined in the league’s 113-page operations manual.”
One official even told ESPN “there are some bad decisions being made” when asked about off-the-field choices.
File under: Things That Maybe Someone Should Have Thought of Before Now
Marlins outbreak fallout: MLB to require teams to have a COVID protocol compliance officer — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
By Craig CalcaterraJul 30, 2020, 9:23 AM EDT12 Comments
Here’s some more fallout from the Miami Marlins outbreak: Major League Baseball is going to start thinking about how to enforce safety recommendations.
Major League Baseball made a lot of noise a couple of months ago about how great its anti-COVID-19 protocols were. About how detailed and thoughtful and proactive their plan would be, such that no man could say that they were being irresponsible about returning to play in the middle of a pandemic.
Except the plan had a slight problem: nothing in the plan explained how the league would handle a coronavirus outbreak. It made no provision about what to do if a certain number of players on a given team tested positive, let alone the number of positive tests that would be required to shut a team down. It also said nothing about what, exactly, teams can or should do to ensure compliance with the 113-some-odd pages of rules it laid down about player deportment.
Now, after the Marlins outbreak — after two teams’ schedules have been suspended and over half of one of those teams’ rosters is out of commission — Major League Baseball is getting around to dealing with that. From Jeff Passan at ESPN:
Following the coronavirus outbreak that infected nearly half of the Miami Marlins’ roster and prompted the temporary suspension of the team’s season, Major League Baseball is encouraging players not to leave hotels in road cities except for games, mandating the use of surgical masks instead of cloth masks during travel and requiring every team to travel with a compliance officer who ensures players and staff properly follow the league’s protocol, sources told ESPN.
Passan doesn’t say who the compliance officer will be or should be. Whether it’s a player, a trainer, a front office employee, or a new staffer altogether. But I think that matters and I’d be curious to know what teeth, if any, the job would have to actually enforce things.
I say this because, in the wake of the Marlins outbreak, some have cited the lack of veteran leadership on the team as a reason things got so bad. If that kind of thing is going to be cited as significant — if you’re relying on the typical sort of unwritten rules enforcement that teams use for all other matters of clubhouse deportment — no “compliance officer” is going to make any headway. If teams don’t take this sort of thing seriously and if there is no actual punishment in place for unsafe behavior, players are going to police themselves, or not police themselves, in the same ways they always have.
Speaking of the Marlins outbreak, Bob Nightengale of USA Today dropped this little bit this morning:
MLB has yet to determine whether the Marlins players will be paid for the postponed games if they are unable to play every game in the 60-game season, but will pay the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees and Washington Nationals for games missed because of the Marlins’ outbreak . . . The March 26 agreement states that players will receive prorated pay only for the number of games their teams play, but MLB made an exception for the Nats, Phillies and Yankees since they weren’t responsible for the postponed games.
Which is to say that the Marlins might be punished for getting sick. Which, based on the sentiment I’ve seen online, is OK with a lot of people because of rumors about irresponsible behavior the team engaged in that led to their outbreak.
The problem, though: (a) that behavior has not been confirmed in any way, it’s just rumored; and (b) even if some people on the club did do unsafe things that led to their infection, it’s doubtful everyone did, so punishing those who were not involved and who merely got infected because they shared a clubhouse or a bus or a plane with those who were is kind of a problem. And, that aside, MLB, we must reiterate, had no mandatory or enforceable guidelines which actually governed the players’ behavior and there was no one in place to ensure compliance with the league’s suggestions.
Which is to say, MLB instituted a system based on recommendations and trust and now it is considering docking the pay of not only those who may have not followed those recommendations, but everyone who was infected by their irresponsible behavior. Talk about passing the buck.
Anyway, kudos to Major League Baseball for now, a week into the season and months into their plan to resume baseball, finally thinking about ways in which to deal with the global pandemic into which it has thrust itself beyond the merely theoretical. I hope they do come up with something. Better late than never, right?
Rojas was reported to be the one who made the final call to have the team play against the Phillies on Sunday
Miguel Rojas tests positive for COVID-19 — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
By Craig CalcaterraJul 28, 2020, 2:11 PM EDT
Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports that Marlins shortstop Miguel Rojas has tested positive for COVID-19.
Rojas, you’ll recall, was the one credited/blamed — depending on your point of view — for making the call, as the team’s defacto leader, for the Marlins to play on Sunday despite the team suffering multiple COVID-19 infections. Which was, actually, a pretty lousy position for Rojas to even be in if we’re being honest. If Major League Baseball was leading on all of this instead of merely reacting and improvising, the individual players would never be in the position to be making such decisions. In light of that, the fact that Rojas, and to a lesser extent manager Don Mattingly, have been scapegoated for Sunday’s game being played is unfair to them.
Whatever the case, losing Rojas would normally hurt the Marlins given that (a) he is, in fact, the team’s leader; and (b) he has started the season 7-for-10 with a homer and five driven in in only three games. The Marlins, however, may not be playing games for some time, however, and it’s quite possible that he’ll go through multiple rounds of COVID testing and come out clean on the other side before his club even takes the field.
The Washington Nationals just created a MASSIVE headache for Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball
“Vast majority” of Nationals players vote against making road trip to Miami — HardballTalk | NBC Sports
By Craig CalcaterraJul 28, 2020, 12:23 PM EDTLeave a commen
The Washington Nationals are scheduled to play a three-game series against the Marlins in Miami this weekend. The same Marlins who, as you know, are having a thing at the moment. The Nationals, however, don’t wanna go: Ken Rosenthal just reported that “In team vote, vast majority of Nationals players voted against going to Miami for three-game series this weekend.
This is a massive problem for Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball.
To be clear: pursuant to the March Agreement and the later MLB-MLBPA agreed-upon health and safety protocols, teams do not have the power to simply not play games if they think it’s unsafe. That power rests with Rob Manfred and the clubs. If the Nationals decide to simply not get on the bus to the airport after their game against the Blue Jays on Thursday evening, they will technically be engaging in a wildcat strike.
To which I say: good for them.
As we’ve noted in the past twenty four hours, Major League Baseball seems to have abdicated its role in making these sorts of decisions. The Marlins, as has been reported, decided to play on Sunday over a group text. Since then baseball has reacted, postponing some games, but it’s not at all clear what philosophy is guiding them. If the Nationals players do not feel safe playing that series, they should not play that series. If it takes them making that decision for themselves rather than waiting for Major League Baseball to do so, so be it.
In the meantime, this creates a massive problem for Rob Manfred. If he orders the Nationals to play in Miami regardless of their feelings on the matter, he’ll look like a dictator who cares little for player health and will lose whatever confidence the players have in him. If he allows the Nationals to sit out the trip, on the other hand, he has formally ceded his power over the schedule to the rosters of the thirty teams.
Where I think this goes in the next couple of days is a great many conference calls after which some sort of compromise is announced that allows this all to look like the league is handling this pursuant to a plan. But make no mistake, the fact that a team is voting on whether to play games or not — and the fact that they’re leaking that fact to the press — is strong evidence that there is no plan here at all. Or, at the very least, that the players do not have confidence in whatever plan exists.
The view from left field 