Major league sports are a mainstay of the American lifestyle. We look forward to fall football, winter basketball, spring baseball, etc. Spring and summer sports were put on hold when the pandemic started raging worldwide, but baseball has tried to salvage part of a season, with the goal being a shortened 60 game season. Less than a week in, many are already calling for the season to be cancelled - including Keith Olbermann in the above clip.
14 players from the Marlins were diagnosed with COVID:
Hmmmm 14 #Marlins players and coaches have tested positive for #COVID in the last few days. #MLBOpeningDay for them is cancelled. That's BASEBALL, where most of the game is spent as far away from others as possible. Anybody out there still thinking #NFL is a good idea this year ?
— Jason Johnson (@DrJasonJohnson) July 27, 2020
How many days into the season did it take for games to be cancelled because of COVID? FOUR.
It took baseball all of four days before a game had to be canceled. Meanwhile, European soccer is finishing seasons not only without any canceled games, but with barely any positive COVID tests. Are we really ready as a country to have sports back?
— JJ Stankevitz (@JJStankevitz) July 27, 2020
Valid point
If Major League Baseball, a multibillion dollar industry awash in cash, can't keep a couple thousand players/coaches safe from COVID-19 for even one week, how are cash-strapped school districts supposed to do so?
— Pé (@4everNeverTrump) July 27, 2020
Football isn't doing much better, with Minnesota Vikings HEAD OF INFECTION CONTROL coming down with COVID.
the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings have announced that their Infection Control Officer has tested positive for coronavirus
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) July 27, 2020
Football is actually doing much worse - Sports Illustrated is reporting that 95 players have already tested positive. NINETY FIVE!
The NBA has taken extraordinatory steps of basically housing everyone under one roof - staff, players and reporters - with frequent testing. And it seems to be paying off.
BREAKING: The NBA has zero positive COVID-19 tests since July 13th, per @ShamsCharania.
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) July 20, 2020
Zero NBA players tested positive for COVID-19 out of 346 who were tested in Orlando since July 13 pic.twitter.com/lk18Iy8suH
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 20, 2020
So what are the options for NFL and MLB? Follow the NBA model and house everyone at a facility and play all games indoors with no contact with the outside world? That may be the only option because traveling around the country will absolutely not work.
Let's see how they address this, because it is clear that major changes will need to be made: cancel the season or completely revamp it immediately.
