As Miami Marlins outbreak worsens, sports should rethink playing at all again in 2020 | Opinion
Maybe the Miami Marlins have done sports a huge favor. Maybe this is the slap in the face, the slap of reality, that every league commissioner in America has needed. Because maybe this is when the perils of playing in a pandemic begin to seem more and more like, well, like insanity.
Then again, maybe I’m dreaming. That sure seemed the case when the MLB commissioner’s first words on the Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak that postponed their Monday and Tuesday home games was that this could be “managed.”
“I don’t see it as a nightmare,” said Rob Manfred, a man paid to put his team owners’ financial bottom line ahead of the health and safety of his players and coaches and their families. “We think we can keep people safe and continue to play.”
How did that work out for you with Miami, Rob? Or are at least 17 Marlins players and coaches testing positive three games into the start of the season not enough to make you rethink the risk? One of the infected players is team captain Miguel Rojas, it was reported Tuesday, after Rojas had begun the season 7-for-10.
This is a nightmare, Rob.
This should be enough to make all sports rethink the risk.
Now the Marlins season is on indefinite “pause” as the team remains quarantined in Philadelphia. The Wednesday and Thursday games will be postponed like the last two. The Friday-through-Sunday home series vs. Washington also is postponed. Even before it was, Nationals players reportedly voted to refuse to travel to virus-dangerous Miami.
Can you imagine the ragtag emergency lineup the Marlins would have fielded Wednesday in Baltimore had there been a game? Do you really think the Marlins will be the only team hit hard by an outbreak?
I’d be paying very close attention to this and be very concerned if I were NFL commissioner Roger Goodell right now, or the NCAA in charge of college football season.
Imagine if it were the Yankees, Red Sox or Dodgers hit like this instead of the under-radar Marlins. Manfred would be rethinking the whole season. He should be now. Because another team will be next.
We don’t even deserve to have sports back in 2020. We don’t need the diversion that much.
The United States of America’s collective response to the coronavirus challenge has been a global embarrassment. Our response was way late starting and has seen no cohesive national plan. Too many of us, still, are congregating and partying like everything is fine, when the pandemic is not close to contained, or to going away.
Sports is a microcosm of America in all of this. It’s why at least 17 Marlins have been infected. It’s why the L.A. Clippers’ Lou Williams left the NBA bubble in Orlando saying he had a funeral to attend and wound up photographed in a strip club.
Testing positive for the coronavirus might mean you acted irresponsibly in terms of not social distancing or wearing a mask. It can also mean you did everything right and got unlucky. The point is everyone is susceptible and it’s axiomatic that the risk is greater when you are are flying all over the country like MLB teams are.
When you are in close quarters like teams naturally are.
MLS soccer is playing right now despite the risk that no amount of safety “protocols” or frequent testing can erase completely. The NBA and Miami Heat and the NHL and Florida Panthers start back up in a just a few days.
The Miami Dolphins opened training camp Tuesday as the business-as-usual NFL (emphasis on the business) moved steadfastly toward an on-time season in the fall. Soon the Miami Hurricanes and NCAA football will do the same even as many leagues pare to conference-only schedules to educe the obvious risk.
Football, a sport that plans on traveling just like baseball.
Football, a sport whose very intent is the ultimate close contact called blocking and tackling.
What a bizarre juxtaposition as Dolphins camp opened: The excitement of rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa under the terrifying shadow of football season in a pandemic that some science suggests will worsen in the fall.
It is mighty big of sports to play in empty stadiums and arenas for the safety of their fans, despite the financial hit. It is literally the least they could do.
But putting players and coaches at risk doesn’t seem to be an issue.
You want a more believable reaction to the Miami Marlins mess than Manfred’s spin?
Listen to Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez, whose team is supposed to play in Miami this weekend in what is now supposed to be the Marlins’ delayed home opener.
Martinez is 55. With a heart condition. His voice choked with emotion when asked about the Marlins’ situation.
“I’m going to be honest with you. I’m scared,” he said. “My level of concern [on a scale of 10] went from about an eight to a 12. I mean this thing really hits home now. I got guys in our clubhouse that are really concerned as well.”
I don’t blame any of the athletes who have opted out of these sports restarts — including a fast-growing list of NFL players, among them six New England Patriots so far including star linebacker Dont’a Hightower. I wonder if looking at the Marlins mess is prompting a domino effect. Whether any Dolphins will opt out is all that really matters about this training camp.
I also do not blame any parent who is too uncomfortable to send a child back to school this fall. I applaud anyone acting responsibly, for themselves, their families and complete strangers.
Sports had a chance to lead in all of this and provide the example we don’t always get from our elected leaders, and haven’t in our state from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Sports collectively could have said, “We’re not tasking the risk. We’re shutting down our seasons in 2020 and treating this huge national challenge with the absolute caution required. Because some things are more important than games.”
Instead, for now, at least, the games go on.
In the middle of a pandemic.
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 11:19 AM.
