Coronavirus (Sports-Related and General)

[Dirk41]

Which is why they are closing them Tuesday. Stock up!!!

[zambonir]

yup that's what I meant!

[Squire]

Where did you see that 96 percent of people tested have a cold or flu?

[Dirk41]

Doesn't include schools or business. It's like the virus has tickets to the Roots Picnic or the Kentucky Derby....

[rpmcmurphy]

Washington Post:

News Alert: CDC recommends halting gatherings of 50 people or more throughout the U.S. for next eight weeks

[bkox]

Sources: NBA bracing for mid-June return at best

[Philsmania]

My guess is that if we have a baseball season, it will begin June 1. 108 games, no all-star break.

Realistically, the NBA and NHL are done.

[LoneStarPhan]

I hope that if we are able to have a shortened season, they redo the schedule completely to give a symmetric and fair schedule for the shortened season. Just starting the old schedule on some future date just is not fair.

At this point, we just don't know what is going to happen.

[xogfog]

Oh, I miss sports...

At least when the baseball season comes back, the Phillies should be pretty healthy. When the NBA returns hopefully Simmons will be back and hopefully Embiid won't be terribly out of shape. The Flyers should be healthy for whatever they salvage of the NHL season. The NFL is keeping the start of Free Agency, so at least there should be some Eagles talk coming soon...

[Lawman]

I can certainly make a strong case for keeping the schools open, and telling all staff over the age of 60 to not come to work.

If you close schools, you lose control over the location of the kids. They'll be shopping in stores with the mothers, they'll be gathering with friends, parents that work will have to rely on grandparents (older and more at risk) to watch little kids. On top of which, unless you arrange for child care for medical workers and food for poorer families who rely on schools for food, you put a tremendous strain on families.

[schillingfan]

It’s not going to matter as everything is going on lockdown fairly soon. Cuomo is basically shutting down New York State.

[Lawman]

Yes. And, while I may disagree with some of his measures, he is taking leadership. (And positioning himself as the next leader of the Democratic party 4 years down the road?).
He's also focused, rightly, on the need to get more hospital space ready. You may not need it, but better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it.

[xogfog]

What if baseball would play it's regular season into October and have the playoffs played in November in neutral domed stadiums, of which there are 5 available which are baseball only (Seattle, Miami, Arizona, Houston, Milwaukee), Toronto is also a dome but also has CFL football you might have to schedule around, plus, Canada...

[xogfog]

NFL draft event cancelled in Vegas, but the draft will take place on time, no public event, but still on TV.

[xogfog]

Penn Relays cancelled, will try to do a 1 day meet in May or June.

[andyb]

Crowds would take a hit in October for regular season games when it is cold outside. Plus football of course.

I think it is more likely they just play something like a 120-game season. Maybe add a few games to the existing schedule, but at most extend the season a week.

There is also something about having a winter recovery period that is long enough for players to rehab (which of course is an NBA/NHL problem too since extending their season into the summer for a month has no weather related issues like baseball would).

There is just no good solution to this. I think most leagues just shorten their season and add a few extra games on the edges. It will be interesting to see if basketball and hockey go with shorter playoff series. All those 7-game series just take forever on the calendar. Baseball has many fewer off days, so it is hard to compress that calendar as much.

[zambonir]

Even the president just threw out July or August as the time when things might be normal. Reassembling the NBA or NHL for just some kind of short playoffs would surely prove difficult given the players will be scattered around the country (since so many don't live where they play) and not in game shape

[allentown]

The president's/coronavirus task force's WH press briefing and questions today was a lot more somber. They are talking about avoiding meetings of 10 or more people, the need for restrictions very possibly continuing into July/August, the current round of testing being aimed at healthcare professionals and older Americans with symptoms, rather than 'anyone' as stated last week. Reading about the huge, crowded, lines with long waits for those returning from Europe and the Miami cruise ship passengers being allowed on their way without quarantine, it seems that the government has given up hope of containment. The delay in having enough test kits killed that possibility.

[andyb]

The various travel bans really were too little and too late. The virus has probably been in the U.S. for months and all the bans did was slow the rate of transmission a tiny bit. Probably should have just let all those crowds at the airport in and told them to go home and self-quarantine for 2 weeks. It is not like most of us are not already doing 90% of that and those huge lines were probably more dangerous than letting people go home.

[Lawman]

At this point, I'm going about my life somewhat regularly - although gym is closed and I'm now working at home until further notice. I'm assuming that I'll either get the virus or I wont't and, for the most part, there's not a whole lot I can do about it. I'm not going out of the house except as needed, but that's still 2 times/day.

And, this school thing is really ridiculous. My wife was in ShoRite today. She said there were kids out aplenty all over the store. At least in school they're contained.