Atlanta Braves season at risk as both sides dig in
With each passing day, the rhetoric is getting ramped up higher. Will there be any Atlanta Braves baseball this Summer?
If it were only as simple as “do you want to play or not?”… except that it’s not that easy. Right now an Atlanta Braves season — shortened or not — seems awfully far away as people from all sides are making it sound like they can’t even understand what the other side is thinking.
Each side appears to be digging holes that are increasing in depth. What’s more, there are multiple holes involved and each side has principled beliefs that they are clinging to.
In short: there appear to be three major issues that are impacting any baseball restart conversation. These are:
- Safety
- Locations/Venues
- Money
Let’s illustrate these problems with some actual quotes:
On Player Safety
Sean Doolittle of the Nationals has been quite pointed in his remarks on twitter. Here are just two of them:
Bear with me, but it feels like we've zoomed past the most important aspect of any MLB restart plan: health protections for players, families, staff, stadium workers and the workforce it would require to resume a season. Here are some things I'll be looking for in the proposal...
— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) May 11, 2020
Hopefully these concerns will be addressed in MLB's proposal, first and foremost: 1) what's the plan to ethically acquire enough tests? 2) what's the protocol if a player, staff member, or worker contracts the virus? We want to play. And we want everyone to stay safe.
— Sean Doolittle (@whatwouldDOOdo) May 11, 2020
There has been some pushback on the subject of player testing as this next tweet illustrates, though frankly, this one is a bit ill-informed:
Using thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of tests on baseball players and the support staff for baseball players in the middle of a pandemic when tests are not easily and inexpensively available to the public is, in itself, the best reason to not play.
— Joe Sheehan (@joe_sheehan) May 12, 2020
In all seriousness, the issue of test availability is resolved at this point. The matter now will be more along the lines of “how often should players be tested?” more than “would we be diverting necessary resources to provide tests to MLB?”.
Nonetheless, there are those still concerned about such things (obviously), and those concerns would have to be addressed as part of the bigger picture.
That bigger picture involves how players would be kept free of the virus.
On the field of play, the chances of contracting COVID-19 from any other game participant would be vanishingly small. This is partly due to the natural separation of players/umpires/coaches on the field, but also because of climate considerations as we head into the Summer months.
But it’s not just about the field: it’s about locker rooms, contact with the media, hotel staff, restaurant staff, trainers… and anyone not within the ‘connected bubble’ whose movements can be controlled to any degree.
It’s this problem that Doolittle and others are concerned about. And if not for themselves, it’s also about the potential to carry things back home to their families.
Oddly enough, the idea of playing baseball only at “hub centers” was looking like a non-starter because of the isolation problem for players being apart from their families.
Now it’s the opposite concern being raised: the possible exposure of players and their families as they stay together. It’s thus a lose/lose scenario either way, and perhaps that’s what’s in the mind of some: here’s a Thursday update:
Tampa Bay Rays ace Blake Snell said he will not play this season for a reduced salary, especially because the risk of contracting COVID-19 is "just not worth it." https://t.co/nXwDGV5kjN
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 14, 2020
Snell is the first to make such a declaration. If others follow, the assessment of the rest of these problems areas could be moot.