COVID19
With the COVID19 outbreak, we have lost out on many sporting events. Right now, the worst of it is the loss of the NCAA Tournament. The NCAA Tournament is one of the biggest sporting events of the year with everyone filling out their brackets, entering pools, and trying to find ways to watch the games played on the Thursday and Friday afternoons.
For different fan bases, this means the loss of the opportunity of seeing your team and/or alma mater make a run. This year, things were presumably wide open enough for teams to make a run they had not previously made, had not made in a long time, and for some, may never make again.
For example, Dayton was projected to be a possible one seed, and they had last made the Final Four in 1967, which was well before the current field of 64 (or 68). This experience wasn’t just limited to mid-major schools. Baylor, a team from the Big 12, has not been to the Final Four since 1950. They too were projected to be a Final Four team.
Gonzaga could have returned to the Final Four and maybe this time won the championship. Maybe UCLA basketball could have been rejuvenated with a Cinderella run under Mick Cronin. The possibilities were endless for many teams.
That include Seton Hall.
Seton Hall was having its best season since P.J. Carlesimo left the school for the NBA in 1994. Since that time, Seton Hall had gone from perennial tournament team with a Hall of Fame caliber coach to a team with just seven tournament appearances over the subsequent 25 years. Over that time frame, they have only been the Final Four once, and they had never been above a six seed in the tournament.
That was all about to change. Seton Hall was projected to be a three seed with their getting a favorable draw, at least in terms of travel. They would have played the first two rounds in Albany, and with some luck, they would have played the regional final in MSG.
This was a team with Myles Powell, who was the team’s first First Team All-American since Walter Dukes in 1953, and the third Pirate to ever achieve that honor. He was also the Big East Player of the Year making him the first Pirate to accomplish that since Terry Dehere in 1993. He also could have been the first ever Pirate to be the Naismith Men’s College Basketball Player of the Year.
Between Powell, and other players like Quincy McKnight, Sandro Mamukelashvili, Romaro Gill, Myles Cale, and others plus Kevin Willard having his best season as a coach, Seton Hall fans are wondering what if?
On that note, the New York Post in conjunction with What If Sports simulated the NCAA Tournament, and the Seton Hall Pirates were National Champions.
To a certain extent, this just shows how special a team this was. After all, this was a team with one of the best players in the country and the second most quad one wins in the nation. Seton Hall winning a simulated tournament is something to celebrate.
But, in the end, this is bittersweet because we didn’t get to see it or celebrate it. To a certain extent, this is once again John Clougherty with a horrendous foul call on Rumeal Robinson helping give Michigan the National Title. Put another way, Seton Hall fans were once again cheated of experiencing and enjoying seeing the Pirates win a the NCAA National Championship.
Irrespective of that, this should be enough for Seton Hall to raise the banner in Walsh Gymnasium they couldn’t raise in 1989. After all, Seton Hall won the National Championship in this simulation. Let us all enjoy this to the extent we can.
Onward Setonia, finally, we are bound for victory.
Even with the KBO playing practice games, it’s too early to know when or even if MLB is going to return in 2020. In the event baseball does return, it appears we’re going to get a limited season, and if that happens, baseball needs to make some changes.
The biggest reason for the changes is the pitching. The pitchers were ramping it up for the start of the season. Now, they’re effectively shut down and will have to ramp it back up when baseball can return. This is just asking for injuries.
After what will be an abbreviated second Spring Training, pitchers are very likely not going to be able to go full tilt to start the season. Not even the Jacob deGroms and Max Scherzers of the world. This means, MLB teams will be hitting their bullpens early and often.
Roster Expansion
Even during the best of times, teams feel like they never have enough arms in the pen. In 2020, that’ll definitely feel like the case. That goes double when you consider the new three batter minimum and the absolute cap of 13 pitchers. If you are going to keep those rules in place, and push some relievers early at the outset, you run the risk of them getting injured as well.
Honestly, baseball cannot have a situation where every team effectively becomes the Tampa Bay Rays. You can’t have 30 teams with just two starters going at least five with the rest of the team mixing and matching to figure out how to get through the other three games. It’s very likely back-end starters and relievers will not be up to the task, and that is before you consider the presence of an extra inning game which could decimate an entire bullpen.
With that in mind, at a minimum, baseball needs to immediately go to expanded rosters. Under the 2020 rules, that is only 28 players in September. If all three were pitchers, that might be enough. It might not. Perhaps to start the year, it can be bumped up to at least 30 or maybe 35 and then tier it down as the season progresses. By doing that, you are ensuring less wear and tear on arms which may lead to fewer pitcher injuries.
Taxi Squad
If baseball wants to stick with 25 or 28 man rosters, they need to find ways to make it work in light of pitcher workloads. Maybe, instead of expanding rosters, MLB could limit teams to just 25 players for one game while creating a taxi squad of three to four players who can be activated or deactivated at any time. Maybe more than that.
Again, there is going to be a strain on pitching, starters and relievers alike. The goal here is to keep pitchers healthy as baseball does not want there to be ramifications for the 2020 season spilling into 2021 and 2022. Overall, baseball wants its best players on the field.
To prevent abuses, there could be a rule where there must be five pitchers designated as starters who must always be active, and there can be provisions put in place to designate a pitcher a starter (akin to the two-way player rule). If need be, there can also be provisions on how long a reliever must be “active” once removed from the taxi squad.
The institution of a taxi squad could have an added benefit. Right now, MLB and the MLBPA are trying to figure out issues related to compensation and service time. By instituting a taxi squad, there will be an avenue to give some extra players more service time and compensation. That could go a long ways towards positively resolving those issues before baseball is ready to return.
Doubleheaders
Now, baseball has said they want to play a full 162 game slate. At some point, that may not be possible. When the red line is for when teams cannot play 162 games is up for debate, both publicly and as part of the MLB/MLBPA discussions.
In any event, it is clear baseball will want to play as many games as possible, and that may require doubleheaders to be played. There are other reasons to play doubleheaders for teams as well.
First and foremost, it may behoove teams to stay in one place for longer as airline and rail travel gets sorted out after this coronavirus outbreak. Obviously, there are going to be many logistical issues there. Perhaps by having doubleheaders, you eliminate some of those logistical issues.
The bigger point, as baseball may be concerned, is the possibility of more revenue. Doubleheaders means more commercial time. If you can do a day/night multiple admission, that means two gates. Of course, that assumes fans can go to games at all, and being honest, that may be too many people in a ballpark in one day. Still, if it’s possible, you know baseball will find that revenue stream.
Really, baseball wants to play as many games as possible, and in the end, that may just require doubleheaders. What can be done in terms of admission and the like is still up for debate. To that end, the need for doubleheaders, or even shoehorning in as many games as possible over a few calendar months, only serves to highlight the need for expanded rosters and taxi squads to help prevent pitcher injuries.
Altered Postseason Format
It is going to be difficult to justify playing games into late November or early December. That may only be possible with Northeast teams playing at neutral sites in Miami or San Diego. Assuming fans can attend games, it is going to be difficult to tell Mets fans they need to go to San Diego to watch their team try to win their first World Series since 1986.
If you’re baseball, that isn’t going to work, and they are going to need to figure something else out.
One thing they could do is a greatly expanded postseason. If anything, this could be a beta test of the new postseason format Rob Manfred wanted to try anyway. They could have fewer regular season games while selling their TV partners of a greatly expanded postseason. That could help them overcome some of the financial issues they may face.
They could also condense the postseason somehow, but honestly, no one anywhere is going to go for that.
In the end, more postseason games and fewer regular season games may be the trade-off baseball, the players, and TV partners may wind up agreeing to in an effort to generate ratings and increased revenues. We may also see some series, like the NLDS, played in one park due to travel restrictions and the like. Who knows?
Overall
The who knows part of this is the driving force. No one knows when or if games can be played. No one knows what if anything players are able to do to stay in game shape. No one knows if fans can attend games or the restrictions on travel when games can return.
The key for baseball getting through this COVID19 crisis is to be flexible and responsive to the challenges which have arisen and may still arise. Honestly, that is not something which has ever been baseball’s strength, especially not under Rob Manfred.
In the end, we can only hope games will be played and that we get to see as many games as we can as soon as they can possibly be played.
South Korea is where we soon hope to be as a country. They have widespread testing, and as a result, they’ve been able to return to normalcy much quicker. They’re even at the point where baseball is soon to return.
Yesterday, the KBO, the Korean Baseball Organization, returned to play with practice games. With these intrasquad games, we can finally see some real baseball being played. Fortunately, some of these games are being streamed on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-V7T3aafyg
If that pitcher for the Doosan Bears looks familiar, it should. That’s former Mets pitcher Chris Flexen. He would have a scoreless appearance.
Seeing actual baseball and seeing a familiar face pitch is a needed reminder there’s still hope we can all get back to normal. We may not know when, but it can happen, and hopefully, that day will come soon.
Until then, we get to see Flexen. For parts of three seasons, that’s something which would’ve made many Mets fans cringe. Now, seeing Flexen on the mound is hope, and it is something to be enjoyed at least until we get to see Jacob deGrom back on the mound to begin the 2020 season.
The first week of homeschooling our children while working from home is complete. Believe it or not, the worst part of this is all over because the adjustment periods are always the toughest. So, take a deep breath, and find time tonight to have a drink and celebrate.
After that, we should all strategize for week two to make it all go smoother starting Monday.
Now, if you are anything like my home, or the homes of friends I have seen through FaceTime, or the countless pictures on social media, your kitchen or dining room table was the battle station. That is where the laptops and school stuff was during the week.
If that is the case, lean into it and accept it. Take time this weekend, and find ways to organize your work and your kids school stuff so it is easily accessible and can be straightened out at the end of the school or work day. At least in terms of the kids, the best way might just be putting everything back into their school bags and putting it where they normally put it when there is actually a school bus. Maybe, you have some extra kitchen storage or counter space you can use.
Space allocation aside, there is also the time management issue. The general construct of the schedule my family devised has worked well, but only as a general construct. There are work calls or emails which have already superseded the schedule, but you have to do what you have to do.
One way we adapted to all of this was realizing the earlier our child can start schoolwork, the better. To put in in perspective, our school district has been sending out the class assignments at roughly 7:00 A.M. To allow us to be better available for our work demands, we started our son on his school work almost as soon as it was released.
This gave us the chance to focus more on his school work at a time when no one from work was really looking to contact us. That’s the good part. The downside is he’s been done with his work before lunch leaving us to figure out what to do with him for the rest of the day while we struggle to work and manage a two year old.
Really, you can only go so far with read a book or play with your brother. However, that is a better problem to have than paying half-attention to work and half-attention to your child’s school work. At least, that is how we see it.
In week two, that is just another adaption we are going to have to make. Given how many kinks we have already worked out, that seems like an easier hill to climb. We’ll see.
In any event, we have all survived the first week, and we will survive the next. We will continue getting better at this until this is no longer necessary. When that time comes is anyone’s best guess. Until then, remember that even though we are all doing this apart, we are all in this together.
No, we can’t take our children on a field trip during COVID19 self isolation and quarantine. Even if you wanted, all of the Smithsonian museums are closed.
However, while they are closed, the Smithsonian museums are offering virtual tours.
The main tour is the Museum of Natural History, but they also have tours of past exhibits as well as limited tours of other Smithsonian Institutions.
To make sure your child is really doing the tour, you could even set up a virtual scavenger hunt. It’s not completely necessary either as the real goal is to get your kids to do something fun and educational to free you up to do work.
The first ever time Major League Baseball ever had to shorten a season was during World War I. As explained by the Baseball Hall of Fame, things were much different during that war than it was during any subsequent war. Part of the reason was after World War I, President Roosevelt encouraged baseball to keep playing even as players like Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, and Ted Williams were shipped overseas.
With players joining the war effort during World War I, including Christy Mathewson, who was exposed to chemical weapons during an exercise, Major League Baseball shortened the season by 14 games, which back in 1918 meant going from 154 to 140 games. They also canceled the minor league season.
It would become the earliest ever World Series played with Babe Ruth leading the Boston Red Sox to a World Series title by extending his World Series record consecutive scoreless innings streak to 29.2
Yes, that’s exactly how long ago a Major League season had to be shortened by world events. At that time, not only was Babe Ruth not a Yankee, but he was also not a slugging outfielder.
The ensuing season would forever be known for the Black Sox scandal with Eddie Cicotte plunking Morrie Rath to let the gamblers know the fix was on. As time has wore on, that scandal has completely overshadowed the fact the 1919 season was a shortened one as well.
The 1919 season was also shortened from 154 to 140 games to permit the players time to come home and get into baseball shape to play in the 1919 season. You have to wonder if those 14 games had been played if the late charging Cleveland Indians could have made up the 4.0 game deficit in the standings under new manager Tris Speaker. You also wonder if the owners didn’t “release” all the players at the end of the 1918 season to save money if there ever would have been a fix.
Believe it or not, that 1919 season was the last time a baseball season was interrupted by world events.
Major League Baseball played full seasons during World War II, and there was even the AAGPBL to help fill the gaps. To a certain extent, you can’t help but think of that with Tom Hanks being the first known celebrity being infected with COVID19. After all, it Hanks who played Jimmy Dugan, a player based off of Jimmie Foxx, in A League of Their Own.
World War II would be the last time baseball players were subject to the draft. That meant playing through the Vietnam War, and after the Vietnam War, there were no longer any drafts in the United States.
Baseball did not have to take time off when President Kennedy was assassinated as Kennedy was assassinated in the offseason. The same holds true for the President Reagan assassination attempt as that happened during Spring Training.
Really, it would not be until 9/11 that world events would directly impact a baseball season. That one was more than world events as it was an attack against the United States with the Twin Towers falling. Baseball, like everything else, shut down for a week or more as we went through the process of healing. For most New Yorkers, we really didn’t feel normal until Mike Piazza homered off Steve Karsay:
As we know, even with that interruption, baseball still played their full 162 game slate, which led to them playing into November. That led to Derek Jeter being called Mr. November in a series where the winning run was blooped over his head by Luis Gonzalez and Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson were named co-MVPs of the World Series.
So, while baseball had been impacted directly and indirectly by world events, we are in relatively uncharted territory. In fact, not even the deadly Spanish flu which followed World War I would impact baseball, at least not in terms of interrupting as season.
As a result, baseball has really only been impacted by self-wounds like the 1981 and the 1994 strikes.
Not once over the past century has baseball been prevented from playing a full schedule due to world or national events. Over the past century, baseball has always found a way to play while the world was hurting to give us the escapism we all needed.
If nothing else, that should tell you just how different the COVID19 pandemic is. Baseball could not be stopped by wars or assassinations. They could not be stopped by attacks on United States soil, whether that be Pearl Harbor or 9/11. No, the only thing that could stop it is a pandemic.
COVID19 is the only thing which has stopped baseball in a century. If you are one of the people who are at the beach on Spring Break or have not socially isolated, please let that tell you just how dangerous this situation is.
As noted, we all have a full load of school work to do with out kids, and there are other activities we can do with them. With Mo Willems, we can art and creativity, and with writing a journal, we have writing and again creativity. Fortunately, there is also a STEM option available through Mystery Science.
It’s full of fun and informative videos for your children on a variety of topics, and they run from 5 – 20 minutes.
If you need to make a phone call or send an email for work, this is an educational thing you can do to keep your child preoccupied, and you can feel better than if you just put on Disney+ or something.
As baseball fans, we are starved for baseball. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no possible way to watch the sport we love because every league has been shut down due to COVID19. That means it is nothing but classic games and begging for different regional networks to come up with some creative programming which includes broadcasting old seasons.
As bad as things are for fans, it is more difficult for players. They were in Spring Training ramping up for the 2020 season, and now they are shut down with no idea when or if they are ever going to play games again. Keep in mind, this isn’t just their job. The vast majority of Major League players love the sport, and they are itching to play. Some are seemingly willing to throw caution to the wind to do it:
https://twitter.com/Pete_Alonso20/status/1239939244208070669?s=20
Making baseball fun again. ? pic.twitter.com/QFqCJyKJmv
— Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) (@BauerOutage) March 15, 2020
While you can understand why Pete Alonso and Trevor Bauer may want to play games, they just can’t. That is even the case with Bauer setting up a Go Fund Me in conjunction with his “sandlot” games in order to help out stadium workers. While noble, it increases the risk of the spread of this disease, and to a certain extent, may endanger the very people he looks to help.
On another note, with MLB teams pledging over $30 million, the hope is Bauer’s efforts may not be as necessary. Of course, what happens when that fund runs out is anyone’s guess.
Again, the CDC is telling us to socially isolate for at least 15 days in order to help stop the spread of the disease and help flatten the curve. By doing that, we help protect those who may be the most endanger of dying from the disease, and we also help lessen the burden on what is an increasing over-burdened hospital system.
As we see, professional athletes are not immune to this disease. The first reported case was Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz, and the second was his teammate Donovan Mitchell. The Brooklyn Nets just had four reported cases.
It is not just an NBA problem. The Yankees have two reported cases, and there are bound to be more. We are also seen NHL players begin to contract the disease.
In the end, it is great to see Alonso and Bauer love playing baseball. It is even better they are using their platform to raise money. However, it is just not responsible. They need to do what the vast majority of us are doing and socially isolate to help stop spreading COVID19.
Maybe seeing how players want to play so much, perhaps teams will rethink closing down their Spring Training facilities. After all, those players were in a socially isolated environment and were only subjecting themselves to the same people everyday. Releasing them now to all parts of the world just seems all the more irresponsible now, and it is seemingly counter-productive.
No matter what the case, we see both Alonso and Bauer need to stop their efforts to have these games, and they need to follow everyone’s direction by socially isolating.
Our teachers are sending home multiple assignments which do take up the equivalent of a full school day. We already have Mo Willems stepping up with his Lunch Doodles to teach and entertain our children for 20+ minutes.
The problem for parents is that isn’t taking you to dinner time, and you still have a lot of work to do. In fact, you have an even bigger back log than you normally would at this point as you’ve spent most of your time walking your children through assignments.
If you’re lucky, you’re still on schedule or close to it. No matter what the case, you need to keep them preoccupied doing an activity on their own.
Considering the times we are in, and how this is a noteworthy time in our nation’s history, we should have our children write down what happened that day.
Even if seemingly nothing noteworthy happened, everything that happens now is noteworthy.
For our family, Monday was a day off to help the district work out all the kinks. For the first time in his life, he then had school at home. Probably, the best part of his homeschool day was making a leprechaun trap for STEM.
After that, things were a little more interesting as we went for a family walk. During the walk, we came across an old couple walking their dog. As they continued to approach, we kept moving backwards.
Bewildered, the man said we didn’t need to be concerned as the dig was friendly. This prompted a response from me we were backing away due to social distancing.
On a normal day, school and going for a family walk are just things which typically happen. For that matter, people not being able to take social cues and respecting personal boundaries isn’t either.
However, now, due to #COVID19, it’s actually incredible. It’s the type of things we’re going to look back on as a society and be shocked just how difficult everything was.
This is why we should all document it somehow, including our kids. It’ll be something they can share with their own children one day, especially when this is covered in school.
Mostly, it’s a productive way to keep them out of our hair for a bit.
For those who have forgotten, St. Patrick was a missionary and bishop who brought Catholicism to Ireland. He was not a pub owner and investor in Guinness who is the Irish version of St. Paulie Girl. No, St. Patrick did not create a day in his own honor for drunkenness and frivolity.
Seriously, there is no obligation to go out there and get drunk. There is no obligation to have your corned beef and cabbage. In fact, corned beef and cabbage isn’t really Irish. That’s just something Americans do. That should tell you just how much of our St. Patrick’s Day celebrations have gone off the rails.
Right now, many restaurants and bars have been ordered closed because of COVID19. That means for many they can’t even go out and be stupid even if they want. Actually, they still can, but their opportunities to do so are far more limited. That goes double when you consider every city has canceled their St. Patrick’s Day parades and celebrations.
If you want to have your corned beef and cabbage, chances are your grocery stores don’t have so much as a potato left, so good luck trying to fashion a traditional St. Patrick’s Day feast. Seeing everything closed and seeing how there has been a run on everything, everything we know to be true has been turned upside down and seems completely backwards.
Let’s embrace everything being backwards. Instead of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on 3/17, let’s just reschedule it for 7/13.
On that day, we can resume our St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. Assuming we are still not dealing with COVID19 (perhaps not an all together safe assumption), we can do our pub crawls and parades that weekend and celebrate St. Patrick’s day on July 13. In fact, if you think about it, July 11th would be a great day to do St. Patrick’s Day parades as that is the day of the end of the Irish War for Independence.
It may seem like a tenuous grab for a search for a date, and maybe it is. However, it is something, and it is something to look forward to celebrating. Honestly, what is better? Lamenting all the things we have lost due to COVID19, or finding new ways to celebrate things and creating things we can all enjoy in the future?
The Irish spirit is to persevere and to enjoy life. It is to love family and friends. Even in the face of COVID19 and it’s disruptions on our daily lives, we can still do that. In the meantime, let’s all be safe and healthy, and reschedule all the things in our lives so we may enjoy it all later.
Before we go, today more than any other day, let’s pick up a glass and toast each other saying Slainte, which translated from Gaelic means health.