MLB suspended, Opening Day delayed indefinitely UPDATED

[weams]

17 hours ago, LA2 said:

I'm curious as to what the Japanese teams ended up thinking/feeling after playing their spring training games in empty stadiums. Must have been a largely negative experience considering how it didn't stop them from canceling the regular season.

They were still trying to have the Olympics. So appearing normal was important. 

[ChuckS]

It’s hard for me to imagine that there won’t be travel restrictions in NYC at a minimum deep into the Spring and maybe Summer months. 
 

As far as insuring at any point that there will be absolutely “no risk to the players”, this seems an impossible standard to meet any time soon. 

I’m trying to remain optimistic but it’s looking more and more like we won’t be getting a season. 

[Tx Oriole]

9 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

It’s hard for me to imagine that there won’t be travel restrictions in NYC at a minimum deep into the Spring and maybe Summer months. 
 

As far as insuring at any point that there will be absolutely “no risk to the players”, this seems an impossible standard to meet any time soon. 

I’m trying to remain optimistic but it’s looking more and more like we won’t be getting a season. 

I sure hope there is a baseball season. 

[UMDTerrapins]

Abbott labs is rolling out widespread testing (50k per day) of FDA approved tests that yield results in less than 15 minutes. As I said previously, frequent player testing is necessary before any discussion of playing games again can occur. With this rollout, the question will shift to playing games in empty stadiums, or waiting until frequent public testing advances as far as it has in South Korea (though I question our ability to have same level of public compliance). But this development is important, and could force some tough questions on MLB and the players union. 

[UMDTerrapins]

Four stages of CV response:

 

1) social distancing/hand washing/cleaning

2) widespread/quick testing/contact tracing 

3) treatments for symptoms (reducing lethality to the laboratory equivalent of influenza)

4) vaccination 

As it relates to baseball, once you have #2, the games can be held, but without fans in attendance. Once you get to #3, combined with expected seasonality (not elimination, but diminishment), you can return to having fans at the games. This also assumes existing measures have first reduced the spread dramatically (June at the earliest if effective treatments have emerged).

 

My personal take is that #3 is a HUGE variable, that can’t be predicted.  If I’m MLB, I start planning on a resumption of games in mid-May with the expectation that they will be in empty stadiums until #3 has been achieved in all parts of the country.  

 

[atomic]

52 minutes ago, UMDTerrapins said:

Four stages of CV response:

 

1) social distancing/hand washing/cleaning

2) widespread/quick testing/contact tracing 

3) treatments for symptoms (reducing lethality to the laboratory equivalent of influenza)

4) vaccination 

As it relates to baseball, once you have #2, the games can be held, but without fans in attendance. Once you get to #3, combined with expected seasonality (not elimination, but diminishment), you can return to having fans at the games. This also assumes existing measures have first reduced the spread dramatically (June at the earliest if effective treatments have emerged).

 

My personal take is that #3 is a HUGE variable, that can’t be predicted.  If I’m MLB, I start planning on a resumption of games in mid-May with the expectation that they will be in empty stadiums until #3 has been achieved in all parts of the country.  

 

I think you under estimate how unessential baseball is. And if you don’t have fans you have no reason for stadiums to be open as they aren’t generating jobs for the community and aren’t providing tax dollars. And then you have huge groups of people moving from place to place. I think baseball is probably one of the last things to open up. Makes no sense to have teams traveling around the country with no fans.  They could find a third world country that would be willing to let them play I suppose. They could play in the Dominican Republic.  Stadium size is unimportant if you have no fans. 

[UMDTerrapins]

1 hour ago, atomic said:

I think you under estimate how unessential baseball is. And if you don’t have fans you have no reason for stadiums to be open as they aren’t generating jobs for the community and aren’t providing tax dollars. And then you have huge groups of people moving from place to place. I think baseball is probably one of the last things to open up. Makes no sense to have teams traveling around the country with no fans.  They could find a third world country that would be willing to let them play I suppose. They could play in the Dominican Republic.  Stadium size is unimportant if you have no fans. 

I think it’s just the opposite. Baseball was incredibly important to the country after 9/11. I think it’s important in this time of suspended normalcy to give people something familiar to follow. Something other than death and fear. We shouldn’t underestimate how brutal the next month will be....so much worse than March. We’ll need something to help lead us out of this. That’s part of what has been great about baseball in our history. It’s restorative. Starting the season will have important symbolism when we’ll really need it. And when the fans return later on it will be a huge part of healing. I sound sappy saying it, but I really believe it’s important. 

[weams]

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28964249/what-mlb-deal-players-means-2020-season-beyond

[atomic]

52 minutes ago, UMDTerrapins said:

I think it’s just the opposite. Baseball was incredibly important to the country after 9/11. I think it’s important in this time of suspended normalcy to give people something familiar to follow. Something other than death and fear. We shouldn’t underestimate how brutal the next month will be....so much worse than March. We’ll need something to help lead us out of this. That’s part of what has been great about baseball in our history. It’s restorative. Starting the season will have important symbolism when we’ll really need it. And when the fans return later on it will be a huge part of healing. I sound sappy saying it, but I really believe it’s important. 

Games in empty stadiums will lead to normalcy?  

[UMDTerrapins]

2 minutes ago, atomic said:

Games in empty stadiums will lead to normalcy?  

Is that really what you’re gathering from my posts or are you just digging for ways to be argumentative?

[MongoBoy]

On 3/27/2020 at 2:34 PM, Tony-OH said:

Sucks when you avoid paying taxes and then you actually need support!

 Like not having insurance until you really need it and the insurance company being ordered to provide it?

[atomic]

1 hour ago, MongoBoy said:

 Like not having insurance until you really need it and the insurance company being ordered to provide it?

I have $700k in life insurance. I wonder if life insurance companies have enough money to pay out all the claims. I am guessing most people with big life insurance policies are under 65 but still they will be paying out a lot of claims. 

[atomic]

3 hours ago, UMDTerrapins said:

Is that really what you’re gathering from my posts or are you just digging for ways to be argumentative?

You seem to overvalue baseball. Schools and restaurants and stores are more important than baseball and playing in empty stadiums is just ridiculous.  It will go over like a lead balloon. It just shows how out of touch people are in regard to sports and their significance. The government will not waste resources on grown men playing a child’s game when this is going on.
 

[orioles119]

1 hour ago, atomic said:

You seem to overvalue baseball. Schools and restaurants and stores are more important than baseball and playing in empty stadiums is just ridiculous.  It will go over like a lead balloon. It just shows how out of touch people are in regard to sports and their significance. The government will not waste resources on grown men playing a child’s game when this is going on.
 

I know it won't bother you as you are enlightened beyond comprehension, but perhaps some of us want baseball to return in some form so we can have a distraction from real life.  Now all that has happened perhaps will re-evaluate their worth in terms of million dollar contracts, but don't look down on those who want some kind of normalcy to return.

[joelala]

1 hour ago, atomic said:

You seem to overvalue baseball. Schools and restaurants and stores are more important than baseball and playing in empty stadiums is just ridiculous.  It will go over like a lead balloon. It just shows how out of touch people are in regard to sports and their significance. The government will not waste resources on grown men playing a child’s game when this is going on.
 

The non-monetary value of increased national morale is not to be undervalued, my friend.