Coronavirus (sports-related only)

[Lawman]

Why MLB's plan to return from coronavirus could work -- and what could go...

Passan gets one thing wrong. He quotes an executive in stating:

As one executive put it: "Baseball that makes people sick is not baseball."

Watching the Phillies play baseball through the late 80's, most of the 90's, and most of 2000's to date was baseball, yet it made me sick. So, I think he's wrong there.

[zambonir]

Pretty low

16 out of 302 NBA players test positive for virus

[flyers19rw]

Clemson football: 14 more positive tests; 37 total

Someone with some sanity needs to shut down this idea of college football this fall. Kansas State temporarily shut down its program this week. Some pretty ugly numbers at LSU. Many other schools are facing similar situations. The environment is not right for the game at this time.

[zambonir]

I certainly I agree but I don't think the schools see it that way. They expected a lot of positive tests and they also expect some teams to have to cancel multiple games. I just don't see how that's safe for the referees and coaches and staff, or anyone on campus as teams travel.

Money is a powerful force. If they do finally move in the direction of not playing they'll still want to play in March.

[julio]

I certainly I agree but I don't think the schools see it that way. They expected a lot of positive tests and they also expect some teams to have to cancel multiple games. I just don't see how that's safe for the referees and coaches and staff, or anyone on campus as teams travel.

Money is a powerful force. If they do finally move in the direction of not playing they'll still want to play in March.

Yep. Money is the driving force.

And it's not as if asking players, coaches, staff, referees, etc., to take these risks is radically different. Big college sports - NCAA football and basketball especially - have been primarily about exploiting "student" athletes for big-money payoffs for a long time. Graduation rates for Division 1 football and basketball athletes have never been good - and that's notwithstanding the special treatment that is often provided (steering athletes to majors with compliant faculty, tutoring, providing "assistance" with assignments, etc., etc.). Exposing this community to CV-19 is exploitative, to be sure - but that's been the business model for decades.

[zambonir]

Agreed, that is what makes it extra-gross at the college level. At least the pros have agency (and compensation).

I think there's still a legitimate question here that's not just about sports - how do we reasonably go back to "normal" activities if a vaccine is still a year (or even years) away? What combination of testing, contact tracing and mitigation works? What number of postive tests is actually a red flag? Overall Clemson has 47 positives out of 430 tests (for all athletes) so is football spreading it because of football itself (or player socialization). Did more players bring it back to campus? There's still no reason to have football (besides the $) but apparently Clemson plans to have 75% of its classes in-person too.

[julio]

A post was merged into an existing topic: Coronavirus (general - personal, gov't response, etc. - not sports-specific)

[schillingfan]

Obviously they need to talk to all the infected and and find out where they have been. I don’t know if there is a timeline for when you test positive. If you are infected today, will you be positive in a test tomorrow? What a mess. The infection can be brought from elsewhere by the student, or contracted by going out into the school community or from other athletes. Just wear masks everyone.

[zambonir]

"Just Look At The Numbers": Would The NBA Be Safer Playing In Australia Than...

[Jeff05]

“Would Australia even let [the NBA] in?” Binney asks.

Exactly! As far as I'm aware, only Australian residents and citizens are allowed into to the country. Moreover, returning Australians have to go into quarantine for a fortnight at one of the hotels that the various State governments have commandeered. I'm sure the NBA's multi-millionaire players would be thrilled at the prospect of being confined to a room for a couple of weeks. As it is, for the duration of their respective 2020 seasons, the two Western Australian teams in the AFL are based in Queensland, and the NZ Warriors, who participate in the NRL, are based in Gosford (NSW) because of quarantine restrictions. It ain't gonna happen!

[andyb]

Based on the number of new cases lately the NBA should just play in NY.

[zambonir]

I won't say it was satire to the point of suggesting we eat babies, but I don't think it was a serious argument either. More like, the fact that the NBA is trying to play in the middle of an outbreak is patently ridiculously, here's an equally ridiculous but more safe suggestion.

That said, I bet your PM would go for it. NYC has a 14-day quarantine right now for visitors from 8 states but it doesn't apply to professional athletes. There'd be big $ and big publicity (though probably less so in the country itself!)

New York reopens more fully on July 6, by the time the NBA season starts the numbers probably won't look as good.

Seems to me if they were serious about the bubble, they would hire an NBA-specific crew of hotel and service people, at double or triple pay, and have them be confined to the resort as well.

Or the players should change their own sheets and clean their own rooms.

[HopeSpringsEternal]

the players should change their own sheets and clean their own rooms

Now that is satire!

[Jeff05]

That said, I bet your PM would go for it.

Highly unlikely, zambonir! While the PM is politically-insensitive to matters concerning rugby league and his church, he seems to realise that the vast majority of Australians take the pandemic seriously and would revolt if he let in all those players, support staff and officials.

[zambonir]

Missed this until now. Pretty priceless analogy, especially for Philly sports fans (and not just the Sixers).

Covid-19: How Can Sports Come Back?

Do you want sports back? Great, me too. Believe me, there is not an epidemiologist out there who wants sports (especially football) back more than I do. So work with me and listen when I tell you to listen to my infectious disease colleagues and your local public health authorities, because the things they’re telling you to do are the things that will put us on the road back to normality the quickest without allowing mass death.

It’s like aggressively tanking to get a whole bunch of draft picks to improve the team versus being just sort of mediocre for years on end. To put things in the most insufferable sports terms possible: Trust the Process.

We should still be in the Teardown in many areas right now – it’s deeply painful and unpleasant but necessary to get where we want to be, but the more aggressively we do it the less time we spend in it. The Teardown involves socially distancing to slow the disease’s spread (done-ish) and get the number of new cases down to a point where we can handle them through other less draconian means (not at all done).

Then we can move into the Rebuild, where things start improving little by little and we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Leadership in many areas of the U.S. (though notably not a majority of people in polls) and the federal government seem content to try and force us into the Rebuild now. Many experts (myself included) fear most areas should still be in the Teardown, and if we’re right a decision to try and start the Rebuild now could be disastrous. The Rebuild requires the capacity to test a lot of people repeatedly, quickly identify and isolate new cases, and trace and quarantine their contacts before small outbreaks can get beyond our limits to control without shuttering businesses and sheltering in place.

Then, finally, our goal is a Championship – a vaccine, but that’s late 2021 at best. And we can’t get there without the Teardown and Rebuild. Teardown, Rebuild, Championship. We could get there together.

[Jeff05]

At least Australia has acted responsibly in one policy area. Unfortunately, as I write, the number of new cases in Victoria have risen from 49 on Sunday to 75 today. Due to this outbreak, the AFL has been forced to reschedule some games.

[flyers19rw]

Well, here we go. The St. Louis Blues have had to shut down their practices for the re-start of the NHL season due to multiple positive tests for COVID.

[zambonir]

I mean, I wouldn't say "here we go," as we were already there with the Phillies, NWSL and MLS, and none of those leagues have changed a thing yet? Though, whether MLS will get its tournament started is definitely in question, and that will have a huge effect on the NBA's chances (since it's in the same city). And that starts just a few days before NHL practices are supposed to.

The question remains - is this something leagues will "play through" or will that become impossible?

[Lawman]

I can't see MLB playing a season.

COVID-19 cases and player opt-outs mounting across MLB

[zambonir]

I don't think this spate of pre-season tests is anything MLB wasn't ready for. They are already talking about what would happen if a whole team would have to drop out, so the fact that the a team might also be without 20% of their roster isn't going to give them pause (and no different really, from a normal season - we played without two starting position players, a starting pitcher and top reliever pretty regularly last season.

The question is can they really limit their exposure while on the road, and how many players will get it if there's actually a game/series where 1 or 2 asymptomatic positive players participate?What if multiple teams start forfeiting games? And also, what if you're in 4th place and 6 games out on September 1? Think Zach Wheeler will still want to expose his wife and newborn to risk at that point (if he even decides to do so when the games matter)?