Ron Robinsons Beard

If Doug Melvin were still the team's GM, K-Rod would already be penciled in for the 9th come July

Yep. Baseball could be a savior for a lot of people this summer. Can you imagine the pomp and circumstance having baseball on July 4 would bring, especially when most every other celebration across the country has already been or will probably be cancelled? It would truly be America's Game again. I agree ... if baseball doesn't come back, it will be blamed on finances (even if health concerns play the bigger role), and the optics of it will look terrible. And you're never going to get a lot of those fans back.

POJs still have to be maintained, too. Isn't it easier and more sanitary to maintain a public restroom than a POJ? I can't think of any advantage of a POJ over a public restroom besides being portable and cheaper. They certainly aren't more sanitary. Also given that millions are being paid to stay home, you'd think there would be a little extra money in the budget for local governments to provide maintenance and security for a few public parks. Those porta-potties are supplied by a rental company, most of which are also companies that pump and clean septic systems, are are equipped with the tools to service and clean them in a sanitary manner. Most long-term porta-potty rentals are put on a service schedule based on how many people are using them per day. Busy ones will be cleaned and sanitized every day. In this case, it is probably more efficient for the government entity to pay to rent and service the portable restrooms than it is to purchase the proper sanitary materials and pay their maintenance staff to service and completely clean and sanitize the regular restrooms every day.

I wonder how many newly reopened bars and restaurants are going to have difficulty getting their employees to come back? With the extra $600 weekly in unemployment, many of those individuals are making more now than they did working 40+ hours a week.

I have faith that if a vaccine comes to market, it will be effective. Some of the greatest medical and biological minds in the world are working on this right now. This is affecting the whole world. Once available, I'll definitely have my family get it. Vaccines are never 100% effective, but they have proven moreso than any other treatment with most viral illnesses.

The issue there is that all things are not created equal. MLB may have taken in $10 BILLION in revenue last season, but with the antiquated and nearly nonexistent way the league views revenue sharing, the majority of those profits went into the bank accounts of just a few of the huge market owners. If the smaller markets are making a profit, it's pocket change compared to the big markets. We need to remember that every MLB owner is more than likely also a cut-throat businessman. These are guys who aren't in the business of losing money. Yeah, owning a major league team may not be the best investment you can make, and is more of a hobby for a lot of these guys, but they are not going to voluntarily give up hundreds of millions without a promise of some sort of benefit. In the end, they need to weigh whether taking a substantial financial loss this season to put a product on the field is worth the potential benefit of serving as a savior to millions of people in this country who are starving for some sort of live sports action. You bring back MLB baseball at the beginning of July, and baseball would truly be America's Game again. The PR value of that sort of thing might be immeasurable.

Three counties - Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach. An area of 1,116 square miles. Milwaukee County is 248 square miles. To do it regionally, you'd need a buffer area around the hot zones. That means Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties would also likely need to stay in lockdown, along with Racine and Kenosha.

That's what I'm getting it. That would be regional. Split the state up into six regions or so, and open up those areas where the virus isn't as prevalent. Keep those areas where it's bad, and those directly surrounding where it's bad, shut down. Don't piecemail it by county, though.

Why? That's exactly what FL is doing, what NY will do, etc. If WI is going to be segregated, leaving Milw County on an island is the most logical way of doing it. That's regional enough, the surrounding counties are doing just fine. Uhh ... no. No state is locking down one county in the state while allowing the rest to reopen.

I would guess that those fine folks who live in Milwaukee County would disagree. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to put one county in the state (the most populous one at that) under house arrest. They're doing that in many places. NY Governor this morning said they will likely be opening up upstate well before NYC. Illinois has divided the state up into four regions for reopening (I would have divided it up even more). I live in northern Wisconsin on the border of two counties that have had 11 confirmed cases combined, all of which are now recovered. I am all for a regional approach to opening things up. However, a regional approach, and segregating one county amongst the whole state, are much different situations.

I would guess that those fine folks who live in Milwaukee County would disagree. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to put one county in the state (the most populous one at that) under house arrest.

Pretty sure I read somewhere that his oldest daughter is a lawyer now, so she's probably doing ok. He's also not really the type to be waited on hand and foot. That said, he has quite a bit of extended family in and around Hattiesburg that he me be helping.

If this situation could be the impetus that leads to some kind of revenue sharing agreement and salary cap structure, that could be a silver lining. MLB is always going to be about the "haves" and "have nots" until they fix that.

The information we have now makes the virus look a lot less scary. So yes, adjustments should be expected, just not the ones we have seen. Flatten the curve was a hashtag, it was everywhere. It's flat, that part is over. The hospitals are not getting overwhelmed. But now that's not good enough and we have to extend locking down to prevent a "2nd wave curve" that may not happen. That's not what they were saying 6 weeks ago. This is a weird situation I find myself in as a mostly left-leaning, advanced degree-educated individual that is normally the person at odds with people I'm suddenly aligned with. I'm not quite in the crowd alleging Bill Gates made COVID19 in a lab, and I think most of these people would be protesting regardless of the situation, but I think we are going about this all wrong at this point and making huge mistakes. Sustaining this into the fall with mortality rates possibly <.5% because we're afraid a second wave might hit? Essentially banning int'l travel into the spring? We need to be practicing targeted lockdown in a way that actually makes sense, i.e. nursing homes and hospitals, not K-12 schools and cherry picking small businesses on a criteria that makes no sense whatsoever. You don't need to look beyond this thread to see that I was all for this in the beginning, but it's time to reassess the risk and begin to accept some of the inherent risk of getting out of bed each day. The people I work with and speak to daily are not thinking straight because of the fear campaign and now have a completely unrealistic threshold for "safety." This is a really good post Snapper. The "Safer at Home" order and "Badger Bounceback" was enacted with the idea that it was fluid and could be changed as more info came in. Fact is, though, other than very minor changes (golf courses can now open, some non-essential businesses can offer curbside service), it hasn't. I live on the border of two northern Wisconsin counties. One has had 7 positive cases, 6 of which have completely recovered. The 7th came late last week after nearly 5 weeks of no positive tests. The other county has had 4 positive cases, all of which were confirmed more than 6 weeks ago, and all have recovered. People are following quarantine and social distancing guidelines for the most part, and it has worked. I'm all for fairness, but how is it fair that we are dependent on the hundreds of thousands that live in Milwaukee, Dane and Brown counties getting their crap together before we can start to open things up in northern Wisconsin?

And the fact that we are seeing more and more people refer to actual scientific research as "fake news" when they disagree with it or it counteracts an agenda that they believe in.

Nah, there's always a day that has broken the trend. We're at 3 days in a row now, so it's going to be a while. That will depend, of course, on the WI Supreme Court ruling. That’s not what is required, a trend is required for 14 days. We don’t need 14 days of continuous decline. I’m not sure exactly how they calculate their trend, but you can definitely have outlier spike days and still trend down. Yep ... it's all about upping the testing capacity. Increase the capacity, and you are going to see higher numbers of positive tests as a result. The key is getting a larger ratio of positive tests : total tests.

It is likely a nothingburger, but it will get the conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hat crowds talking. But those are the same people who believe that national, state and local governments are in cahoots to keep things shut down for some unknown benefit, so their opinions are moot. National, state, and local governments ARE in "cahoots." That isn't exactly a secret. What are you arguing here? Of course they are working together to respond to a pandemic, as they should be. What they ARE NOT doing is working together with the goal to crush the country's economy, as is being implied by some of the more "out there" conspiracy theorists.

Unfortunately those loophole companies are the ones that also fund political campaigns.

It is likely a nothingburger, but it will get the conspiracy theorists and tinfoil hat crowds talking. But those are the same people who believe that national, state and local governments are in cahoots to keep things shut down for some unknown benefit, so their opinions are moot.

Without getting too political, I think we are seeing some of the fallout from years of the dumbing down of America in this current situation. Indeed we are. Far too many people just ingest bits and pieces of what they see on Facebook, Yahoo news, whatever and don't question it. People don't ask questions anymore, and just go with the common knowledge of the day. It could be the times we live in, too. Naive, sheltered and non-researched opinions were always out there. Social media has given people a conduit to spread those opinions on a much larger scale.

Without getting too political, I think we are seeing some of the fallout from years of the dumbing down of America in this current situation.

I agree. But when the expert says something that someone doesn't agree with or doesn't like, they are accused of spreading "fake news" or "pushing their agenda".

I saw a Twitter argument this morning that was critical of the Wisconsin plan to test all nursing home occupants and employees because it would "artificially increase the number of positive tests." Seriously! How deep does your head need to be in the sand to think this way?

They've had 6 weeks to come up with a plan. Their plan is, "We're not going to do anything, but we'll offer you 10% extra for a product you may never be able to utilize." That simply is not acceptable. How in the world would you suggest they formulate a plan in a situation that is constantly fluid?

Three 10-team divisions. Shortened seasons. Expanded rosters. Developmental minor leagues. I don't care. At this point, bring me any kind of baseball. I'm here for it. Look at how many people watched the NFL Draft last week. If the MLB finds a way to come back, in any form, in June, people are going to embrace it with open arms. I get that this is the internet age, and there are other entertainment options out there, but Netflix binging gets olds for most everyone at some point.