The MLB Restart Has Been a Disaster

I have to give credit where credit is due. RD was right in his MLB preview. He gave some picks, even a World Series winner, but he ended it by saying that they wouldn’t be able to finish the season. So far, he looks like he nailed it. This first couple weeks have been, putting it lightly, disastrous. Multiple teams, including my Saint Louis Cardinals, have seen Coronavirus outbreaks. The Marlins had to postpone their opener to this week because they had, at last count, 18 players and staff test positive. The Phillies had an outbreak, although now they’re saying there were some false positives. And now we have the Cardinals. It started with four at the start of the weekend, and last night the news said that the team “expects many more positives”. Their whole series with the Brewers was postponed. Who knows if they’ll even attempt to play the Tigers this week. It has been just horrible.

The MLB squabbled all summer long about minuscule, to them, amounts of money. They couldn’t come to any agreement. One day the players would say they’d play only to have the owners ask for more. Then the owners would want to play, and wouldn’t you know it, the players would say they wanted more. They spent months arguing about money and not coming up with a solid, and safe, plan. They could’ve used that time griping about pennies on the dollar, again in relative terms, trying to figure out a safe solution. The fact they didn’t try a “bubble” scenario still baffles me. They could’ve done it in Arizona, Texas or Florida. I know numbers have been high there, but hey, the NBA is in a bubble in Orlando and they’re doing just fine. But the MLB insisted, once they finally agreed to something, on playing in home stadiums and letting players travel. I get the whole idea of traveling within close quarters, but traveling, especially on a plane right now, is just too risky. These players were going to get sick, and most likely easily. That was my first thought when I read the MLB’s agreed upon plan for playing the season. All the while we’ve had these three outbreaks, so far, other teams are still playing. There were a bunch of games this weekend. I even tuned into the Red Sox-Yankees game last night in between NBA games. That means that some teams may finish their 60 games well before other teams do. Most teams, so far, have played anywhere from 8 to 10 games. Then we have teams like the Phillies and Marlins, who’ve played 3 games. The Cardinals have played 5, the Brewers have played 6. And the defending champs, the Nationals, have played 7. Teams are going to be playing catch-up all year if this continues. Like I said before, I’m still unsure if the Cardinals are going to even play this week. I’m sure the Marlins will have another outbreak. It wouldn’t stun me if the LA or New York teams have to stop. Hell, the Midwest is getting punished with positive cases right now, so I imagine both Chicago teams and Pittsburgh will have to postpone in the very near future.

The MLB’s ill conceived and poorly thought out plan is simply not working. It’s been rough. It also is giving me a look into what pro and college football will look like if they proceed with their seasons, and don’t make some serious changes to testing and protocols and isolating. This has had the exact opposite effect that basketball had had. This “plan” has ruined baseball this year. I’ve said it before, baseball could’ve owned the summer, but they screwed they up, and now look where they are after fighting over some money. After watching games unfold for two weeks now, not only do I agree with RD that they won’t be able to finish this “season”, but it has also made me realize how little of a chance football had of being played in full, or at all, this fall.

This stinks and the MLB has shown us all the wrong way to try and play sports in this pandemic. They get a big fat stinky F for their efforts thus far.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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