In an effort for fans to get to know K’Andre Miller better, the New York Rangers had a Zoom chat where the defense prospect could answer questions. That is what it was supposed to be. It became something so much worse.
Instead, racist(s) filled the chat with racial epithets which should never be uttered let alone repeated. If you want to see it, you can click the link, but be warned it’s beyond offensive.
This has been described by some as Zoombombing. That’s not it. Racism is racism. To call it anything else is inadvertently downplaying it.
Miller did nothing to deserve this. Frankly, it’s impossible to think of anything anyone could do to deserve it. It wasn’t just Miller. Anyone who was there didn’t deserve to see the viciousness of the words or the attack.
How this was allowed to happen and why this account wasn’t immediately shut down is anyone’s guess. The response to this was not as swift as you would’ve liked, but that could be attributable to COVID19. Whatever the case, people forcefully stepped up to denounce the actions and to support Miller.
A statement from #NYR: pic.twitter.com/Jo1RNmUdrr
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) April 3, 2020
Statement from the National Hockey League: pic.twitter.com/ykOTlDas6u
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) April 3, 2020
What happened today was inexcusable and cowardly. Racism has no place in the hockey community or the world. @kandre_miller we are excited to have you as a part of the @NYRangers and I look forward to having you as a teammate.
— Jacob Trouba (@JacobTrouba) April 4, 2020
Couldn’t of said it better. This team and this organization sticks together. You are one of us and we have your back! https://t.co/xvRjkYVxPY
— Ryan Strome (@strome18) April 4, 2020
https://twitter.com/tonydee07/status/1246245653300359179?s=21
This is nowhere near the level of support Miller has received. By and large, everyone has joined in denouncing the racist garbage and in supporting someone who is just a 20 year old defenseman sitting home just like the rest of us.
He just finished his Junior season at the University of Wisconsin, and he was supposed to be embarking on a great NHL career. Instead, he had to deal with something beyond all bounds of human decency.
Fortunately, Rangers fans and players were quick to support him just as they will when he first steps on the Garden Ice. Hopefully, soon he will know Rangers fans will not stand for racism, and that we all love those players who wear the blue shirts.
Miller deserves better than the treatment jr received. Once hockey returns, he will get that better treatment from Rangers fans who will give him the outpouring of love and support he should’ve received today.
It is a good thing the Mets left Al Leiter home to prepare for this Shea Stadium Opening Day start because it appeared the Mets bats were jet-lagged from their trip home from Japan. That may be a bit of a misnomer because aside from the Benny Agbayani Sayonara Slam, the Mets offense has not been the dynamic offense it was last year.
Leiter was great for the Mets against a good Padres lineup which includes future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn and Phil Nevin, who was actually drafted ahead of Derek Jeter and had a breakout season last year. Nevin aside, Leiter dominated this lineup allowing just five hits over eight one run innings where he walked none and struck out seven.
The problem for Leiter and the Mets was not only Sterling Hitchcock matching him pitch-for-pitch, but the Padres had a 1-0 lead entering the seventh due to Nevin’s second inning homer off of Leiter. Entering that seventh inning, the Mets had just two hits, and just one runner in scoring position.
Finally, Hitchcock made a mistake issuing a lead-off walk to Edgardo Alfonzo. Mike Piazza followed with a single putting runners on the corners with no outs. That’s when Todd Zeile had his first big moment as a Met delivering a game tying sacrifice fly.
The Mets then squandered their chance to take the lead. After Zeile’s sacrifice fly, Hitchcock hit Robin Ventura, and the Padres went to the bullpen to summon Donne Wall. He responded by striking out Darryl Hamilton and Rey Ordonez to get out of the jam.
Like Hitchcock, Wall looked unhittable. After striking out Hamilton and Ordonez, he would come out for the eighth, and he would get Jon Nunnally to pop out before striking out Rickey Henderson. As an aside, it is really bizarre Bobby Valentine would go with Nunnally to pinch hit for Leiter.
Nunnally has not been good for two years running. While there is a case to be made for the L/R split, last year Nunnally hit .286/.286/.357 off right-handed pitchers last year whereas Agbayani hit .279/.347/.512 off of them last year. Throw in his grand slam in Japan, and you have to wonder why he didn’t come to the plate.
Fortunately, it didn’t matter. Just like when Zeile had his first big Mets moment, Derek Bell would have his own with a go-ahead game winning homer off of Wall. Armando Benitez, in his first year as the Mets full-time closer picked up where he left off last year by mowing down the Padres in the ninth.
We can harp on things like the Mets offense not appearing through three games this year. However, behind that has been some really good pitching and two wins. If the Mets keep playing like that, this is a team who can fulfill the World Series aspirations we have for them.
Game Notes: After experimenting with Hamilton batting second in Japan, Valentine put Bell in his comfortable second hole in the lineup from his Astros days. That could be a function of the left-handed pitcher going.
Editor’s Note: With there being no games to begin the season, this site will follow the 2000 season and post recaps as if those games happened in real time. If nothing else, it is better to remember this pennant winning season and revisit some of the overlooked games than it is to dwell on the complete lack of baseball.
We have already seen a number of WFAN hosts be temporarily put off the air with the regular weekday hosts carrying the full load. To that end, we maybe should have anticipated more cutbacks at WFAN and other stations. However, when you thought of those people who could or would go, you really never thought that would include John Minko.
Minko, or the Mink Man, has been there since the beginning. Actually, he was there before the beginning doing work for the station prior to its official debut. Through that time, we have come to hear him on almost every WFAN show, and he became somewhat of a personality.
Through and through, he was a professional with his 20/20 updates, and he put up with the ribbing, mostly good-natured, from everyone across the spectrum and timeline from Mike & The Mad Dog to Craig Carton. Through all of it, he outlasted them all. Still, you knew the end was coming from him at some point.
It was less than a year ago, he told Evan Roberts he planned to retire over the course of the next year. Minko, himself, noted July 1 as a potential date as that would mark the 33rd year of the radio station. He did not see himself starting a 34th year. Still, his retirement now comes as a bit of a surprise.
On that note, he told Neil Best of Newsday he took the buyout now to help save other WFAN staffers, saying, “I thought that if I took it now, which was the right thing to do, if that prevented somebody else from getting fired, then I thanked Rick.”
As noted in Best’s Newsday article, Rick is an old WFAN executive name Rick Cummings who saved Minko’s job in the early days of the station. Upon saving his job, Cummings said the best way for Minko to repay his kindness is to one day pay it forward, which Minko just did.
Minko’s final shift begins at 11:00 A.M. (the time this article is being published), and it will run through 5:00 P.M. To that end, he has already finished his final shift with Mike Francesa as well as a whole other host of WFAN personalities. That leaves him and Joe Beningo as the old guard with Beningo being the one who gets to say good-bye on his own show.
We will all get to say good-bye in our own way from afar listening on the radio. That’s all we can do, and honestly, even in these strange times, it was all we could ever do, so in that, there is a bit of normalcy in this. Still, nothing will ever feel normal about listening to WFAN without Minko doing the updates.
The good news is he was already planning for this day, and he is getting the recognition he has long deserved. Congratulations on a great career Minko and for being the standard bearer for how it is done.
With Rob Manfred’s taking advantage of a global pandemic to implement his plan to contract 42 minor league teams and eliminate opportunities for minor league players, the 2020 draft will be limited to five rounds. With that, many teams are going to miss out on drafting the next great player.
For that, we need not look any further than Mike Piazza who was a 62nd round draft pick. However, it is more than that. A significant portion of this year’s Mets team was drafted after the fifth round. Can you name those players? Good luck!
Jacob Rhame Dellin Betances Tomas Nido Jacob deGrom Luis Guillorme Paul Sewald Tyler Bashlor Jeff McNeil Robert Gsellman Seth Lugo Daniel Zamora Brad Brach
This was a fine pitcher’s duel between Marcus Stroman and Stephen Strasburg with neither team able to break through against them until Pete Alonso homered in the sixth.
The next three homers would come from the Nationals. The first was a two run shot by Juan Soto against Stroman in the bottom of the sixth.
The Mets would load the bases in the eighth, but J.D. Davis struck out, and Robinson Cano flew out. Throw in a Nationals homer off Jeurys Familia in the bottom of the eighth, and the Nationals would win 4-1.
On the bright side, neither we nor the virtual Mets had to watch the Nationals raise their virtual banner.
Seemingly, every school district in the United States has closed schools leaving parents to home-school their children. Looking beyond that, they are under the same self isolation and quarantine orders as their parents are. That leaves parents and children home and away from the outside world.
This is hard on everyone, especially our children. They are unable to see their friends. Their activities, like Little League, are being postponed or canceled. This leaves us as parents looking for ways to engage them and to make them feel normal.
Certainly, FaceTime helps, but that only works if the other parents have an iPhone as well. It is also somewhat restrictive in that it limits it to one-on-one interaction. It would also be beneficial if you could get a group of friends together in a fashion similar to what they normally do.
On that note, many have been utilizing Zoom to have office meetings and the like. Seeing how effective it has been for work, we should also be looking to use it for our children to allow them to see and speak with their friends.
Get together with the other parents and schedule a time where you can all have your children speak to one another using Zoom. You can do it as one-on-one or much larger groups. It also helps carve out the time to make sure everyone does it.
Think of this like Little League practice. For example, let’s say you were going to have Little League practices on Wednesday at 6:00 P.M. Now, instead, you can make that Zoom time. How long you want to do it for is up to you and the other parents.
It doesn’t matter if you have hours to spend or if you just have 5-10 minutes. Every little bit helps your children see their friends and help them feel normal at least for that small time frame. You know you have that time somewhere in your schedule over the course of a week. Find it and coordinate with other parents to do it and help you and your children through this process.
There are 191 minor leaguers in the Texas Rangers farm system. With comes 191 players who have no idea when or if they are going to be paid by the Texas Rangers. At this moment, Major League Baseball has dictated teams pay minor leaguers $400/week through the end of May, and they will be receiving medical benefits as part of the plan.
It’s something, but it is really not enough. These are players who really don’t get a living wage as it is, and they are going to be more financially strapped than they typically are. With the state of the world, it is not like they can just seek outside employment easily to help cover their bills.
No, minor league players are heading into a scary time, and their employers worth billions of dollars are not leaving them with any assurances.
Knowing this and having experienced struggling financially as a minor league player, Shin-Soo Choo has sent $1,000 to each of the 190 players in the Texas Rangers farm system. If nothing else, that’s an extra two-and-a-half weeks salary for these players.
In doing this, Choo said, “I know right now the minor league system is better than 15-20 years ago, but still tough. Everything’s very difficult, especially money-wise.” (ESPN).
As noted in the ESPN article, when he was thanked by Texas Rangers utility minor league infielder Eli White, Choo responded by saying, “Eli don’t worry about money. Just keep playing baseball. Let me know if you need something more.”
As if this gesture wasn’t enough, Choo is also donating $200,000 to help fight COVID19 in Daegu, South Korea, a city which has been hit hard by the pandemic and is an hour away from his hometown. In total, that’s $390,000 from Choo at a time when he is in the last year of his contract. With his turning 38 this year, it may be his last year before retirement.
To a certain extent, you can’t help but contrast this with what the Wilpons have done. It appears they have informed ballpark employees they may not be employed by the club this year. Andrew Marchand of the New York Post also reported SNY stopped paying freelance and production workers despite the fact SNY is still receiving their network cable fees.
The Mets are not alone in this as other teams have begun taking measures to inform their employees they are going to be terminated. There are also teams who are releasing minor leaguers meaning that they don’t have to pay those players at all.
These are not normal times, and there are people whose livelihoods and lives are going to be dramatically impacted by this pandemic. There are people like Shin-Soo Choo who are stepping up and doing what they can to help people. Then, there are people like the Wilpons who are not.
Well, it finally happened. Behind the pitching of Jacob deGrom, the Mets finally have a simulated win for the 2020 season.
For a while, it looked like a typical deGrom start with him shutting down the other side and the Mets not scoring runs. Jeff McNeil was thrown out at the plate, and Brandon Nimmo struck out with the bases loaded.
Finally, Robinson Cano hit an RBI single in the third, and Dominic Smith would hit a three run homer to give the Mets a 4-0 lead. Pete Alonso, who has struggled in 2020 (for what very little that’s worth) also homered in the game.
It was a very rude homecoming for Zack Wheeler who only lasted four innings and would take the loss.
The Phillies didn’t get to deGrom until Nick Williams hit a two run homer in the seventh, but that only pulled the Phillies to within 5-2.
Seth Lugo got touched up for two in the eighth, but Edwin Diaz would shut the door in the ninth to preserve the Mets 5-4 win, their first of the season.
As noted earlier, those sporting events originally scheduled for April and May which are being postponed are mostly being rescheduled for September. Inherent in that is the assumption by organizers of these events is September is a relatively safe time we can pinpoint to once again host events.
Assuming for a moment September 2020 is the time sporting events can once again be held, Major League Baseball has a real problem on their hands. At the end of the day, they are going to be left with a myriad of just bad options at their feet.
The first and least attractive option is to cancel the entire 2020 season. While we would all understand, no one wants to see that happen. Even if you are not a baseball fan, you want to see this pandemic end and for everyone to get back to their normal lives.
The other option is playing into December utilizing neutral sites. There are a number of issues with that including figuring out which cities can safely host games into the winter both in terms of the weather and COVID19. Aside from that, how can so few ballparks host so many games for 30 teams? It doesn’t seem plausible.
To that end, maybe the realistic target is to finish the regular season, whatever can be salvaged of it, by Halloween. Maybe that’s two months. Maybe three. Perhaps, it is just one. No matter what, we are still talking about neutral site postseason games for November and December.
At some point, Major League Baseball has to ask itself whether this is both plausible and whether this is worth it. Remember, part and parcel with this is these same players, pitchers especially, are going to have to be ready just a month or two later to begin the 2021 season.
Really, can baseball have a full free agency, Rule 5 Draft, GM and Winter Meetings, and a full offseason in the Month of January alone. Really, the deeper we go into 2020, the more we are going to affect the 2021 season. That’s just compounding the problem.
With that in mind, in lieu of a 2020 regular season, Major League Baseball should host the Major League Baseball Classic modeled after the World Baseball Classic.
Looking at the World Baseball Classic, there are four pools who play a round robin tournament. The top two two teams from each pool advance to the next round. Those eight teams comprise two new pools. From there, the top four teams advance to a single elimination semifinals and championship. The key for Major League Baseball is to find a way to make that tournament played over three weeks into a format which makes sense for baseball.
That is partially going to depend on the amount of time baseball has to play. For the moment, let’s assume baseball cannot resume games until Labor Day.
With there being six divisions, you have six built-in pools of five teams a piece. What is interesting about each pool is all but one division has at least one all-weather venue which can be utilized by each division. As a result, those locations should be tabbed to host each pool/division:
| AL East | Rogers Centre/Tropicana Field |
| AL Central | None |
| AL West | T-Mobile Park/Minute Maid Park/Angel Stadium |
| NL East | Marlins Park |
| NL Central | Miller Park |
| NL West | Petco Field/Chase Field/Dodgers Stadium |
Based upon a myriad of factors, MLB can select a venue for each pool. Whether they feel it prudent to have six different stadiums where they can play or fewer venues is up to baseball and governmental authorities. They can also go to another location if deemed necessary.
Depending on the amount of games baseball feels it can have, baseball can focus on their biggest rivalries by treating each division like a World Baseball Classic pool. They can use this to determine the three division winners like they normally would during the regular season.
From there, MLB can go with two different options. They can limit the next round to just the three division winners with a double elimination to determine the teams who go to the best-of-seven LCS. They could also make a larger pool with six teams (top two from each division) with the top two teams moving to an LCS.
With the six teams, you could also have a double elimination between the three Wild Card teams and start the LDS series from there as you usually would.
Overall, the ideal you are looking for is to set up your typical best-of-seven LCS and World Series. By setting it up under a World Baseball Classic format, you limit travel, and you are able to go from game to game without issue. If there needs to be doubleheaders, it is easier to do since everyone is in one place.
The key is to get players in one place to let you play as many games as possible as quickly as possible. If you are able to get fans there, all the better, but at this point that may be a pipe dream.
Whether it is this plan or another plan, it is becoming increasingly difficult to have any form of a season. With that being the case, MLB should be seriously considering moving to a tournament format. Fortunately, with their already operating the World Baseball Classic, they know which venues can best accommodate a tournament, and they know the logistics which need to be in place to run that format.
No, this is not an April Fool’s Joke. Rather, looking at everything happening, you do have to wonder how it can be possible for Major League Baseball to play games in 2020. Right now, we know the NCAA Tournament was canceled, and the MLB, NHL, and NBA seasons are currently suspended. However, it is more than that. Look at the events which have been currently postponed:
| Original Date | Rescheduled | |
| Masters | April 9, 2020 | TBD |
| Boston Marathon | April 19, 2020 | September 14, 2020 |
| Kentucky Derby | May 2, 2020 | September 5, 2020 |
| PGA Championship | May 11, 2020 | TBD |
| Preakness | May 16, 2020 | September 2020 |
| French Open | May 18, 2020 | September 20, 2020 |
| Indy 500 | May 24, 2020 | August 23, 2020 |
| 2020 Summer Olympics | July 24, 2020 | July 21, 2021 |
In addition to these events, there is growing speculation Wimbeldon will have to be canceled. There are two reasons for the expected cancelation, both COVID19 related. First and foremost, no one has any idea when we can resume our normal lives and attend sporting events. The other reason is with the COVID19 outbreak the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club is unable to be maintained. With it not being able to be maintained, it is difficult to ascertain when the courts can be brought into safe playing condition.
That last point hits home with baseball. There are 30 Major League ballparks which are presumably not being maintained. As a result, in addition to the time players need to prepare to start playing baseball again, there is also the time ground crews need to make fields playable again. That may not make much time, but it is a factor.
More important than that is the public health. With the Olympics being postponed a full year, we see organizers are not confident they will be able to host events from late July into August. Considering the scale of the event, you can understand an earlier cancellation, but in the end, this is the first sign we’re probably not going to see sporting events this summer.
On that note, take a look at the events which have been rescheduled. The April and May events which are being postponed are mostly being scheduled for September. Right there is an indication as to when organizers of these events believe we can reasonably return to seeing sporting events being played.
If events cannot be held until late August or even early September, you have to wonder when or if baseball can return. Remember, baseball needs to get maintenance crews to attend fields left not maintained for months, and they need players to get back into playing shape withe some form of a Spring Training.
That is all before you realize MLB initially said it will not return to play until it was deemed safe for spectators to attend events. That is becoming increasingly unlikely, and perhaps that is why Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported MLB is now investigating playing initially without crowds to play as many games as possible.
At this point, baseball isn’t even contemplating playing before mid-May and with each passing day that becomes unrealistic. At this point, everyone needs to begin asking themselves, fans or no fans, can they even play baseball in 2020?
That answer might be no.