adambr2

Spitballing a plan here.. So I'm thinking Chase Field, having a retractable roof, should be the obvious site of any scheduled doubleheaders. That takes climate more out of the equation which is necessary if you're going to have doubleheaders, and gives you over 25% of your games at the most ideal location. Plus if you're doing 7 inning double headers, you can probably manage 2 doubleheaders each day at Chase -- you won't need as big of a time block with 7 inning games and no mound visits. Schedule the first doubleheader to start at 8 a.m. local time (preferably East Coast teams). Second doubleheader to start 1/2 hour after the conclusion of the first. A 7 hour time block should be plenty for both, so plan on 5 p.m. for the evening doubleheader. Same plan, second game starts 1/2 hour after the first. Should be done well before midnight. Then at the 10 cactus league stadiums, you have 5 morning games to start at 9 a.m. and 5 evening games to start at 7 p.m. All 9 inning games. That's 20 teams involved in 10 games daily, and 4 teams involved in 4 games. 6 teams off daily gives each team a day off every 5 days. Teams should have a day off after a doubleheader when possible, and ALWAYS a day off after a night doubleheader. No going from a night game to a morning game without a day off in between.

That's really my big hang up here. And it's been my hang up all along with a plan like this is suggested. Keeping these guys in what amounts to quarantine for three or four or five months just seems unworkable. People are trying to convince us that it is, but there's several reasons that this can fall apart. I understand that they expect to have quick test kits in place soon. But these guys can tell us that they want to play and are okay with this plan but two months of having no contact with anybody but other baseball dudes and many of them may change their minds. Maybe for the ones with families, instead of putting them with 1 to 2 other baseball dudes you can offer them furnished condos that vary in size based on the family size and offer to transport them to Phoenix until this is all over and have them all shelter in place there with their families? At least have that available as an option if they want to do it? No one is in school right now anyway...

One thing people should keep in mind when writing off ideas as ridiculous is that it is completely of out of necessity. Players sitting in the stands might seem absurd but anything that happens the rest of the year in the sports world will be unconventional, except maybe the NFL and even that isn't certain. There is no getting around that. I don't think anything is being forced, it's just going to have to be radical to work. It's either that or nothing. I'd rather have something. Probably my biggest concern is what RoCo said, just shuttling all these guys to and from their hotel rooms for several months and forcing them to live in total isolation when they're already away from their families seems really unhealthy and unrealistic. I think you'd have to find a way to rent houses or condos in the Phoenix metro area for them and have them living in small groups of 2 or 3 with access to certain gym equipment and amenities.

I don't think it seems absurd or terrible. Please understand that this isn't just something cobbled together by a bunch of MLB execs in a conference room yesterday -- this already has the backing of MLB, the MLBPA, and more importantly, public health officials like the CDC. In fact, public health officials were the ones that presented this idea as the one most likely to work. I am certain that it they have given this the green light, it comes with very little additional risk to public health, and in that light, I can certainly be open-minded about it. Trust me, if they do this, they are not just doing this willy nilly. There will be a ton of planning, precautions, and contingencies that go into it. The #1 component of whether they can pull it off will be access to convenient and immediate testing as needed. I love that they are looking at creative ways to make this happen, and I hope they are able to pull it off. I love the implementation of the electronic strike zone for this and on-field mics. My main concern is for the players being forced to separate from their family for an extended period of time, which I can tell you from experience is a difficult thing. But if they are behind it and their union is behind it, I'm behind them too. Whether or not this works remains to be seen but I would not personally be dismissive about it. Please don't look at COVID-19 in a vaccum as a health risk, there are currently a lot of negative side effects particularly to mental health right now given the current state of emergency lockdown, and if MLB can help do something to alleviate that while taking every precaution to alleviate the spread of the virus, I am 100% on board.

I don't have a big problem with that. The track records are fairly similar, so I'd give the tiebreaker to the guy who has been in one more Super Bowl.

My wife (girlfriend at the time) claims to this day that when the 4th down pass from Big Ben fell incomplete, she went to hug me and I gently nudged her out of the way, to jump into the arms of my best (guy) friend, and sobbed. I don't totally remember it like that, but I respect her recollections.

You are correct sir! My process was a little different working through it but same answer.

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Is it harder in practicality to do fanless baseball than it would be to, say, finish out the NBA season without fans? I don't know what the practical differences are and if one is harder than another to drive on with, honestly curious.

I wouldn't be surprised if the entire draft is broadcast on ABC. It's going to get enormous ratings. We are still just under 3 weeks away, and people are already begging for anything resembling normalcy. The only live or new source of any legit information is local and national news, and as we all know, most of that is anything but positive. Watching a bunch of NFL talking heads on a glorified Zoom meeting isn't ideal, but 99.9% of sports fans will gladly drink that down like the smoothest IPA you can find. Yep. I signed up for a free month of WWE Network just to watch Wrestlemania. I haven't given a crap about wrestling since the 90s.

Are there any areas in the world where widespread infection has occurred that were NOT in densely populated urban areas? Not arguing at all with any side, just honestly curious as to whether there is precedent of wide spread to sparsely populated rural areas where areas that this hasn't really taken foot in like the Northwoods should take note of.

It's just too early to say, IMO. The MLB season is 6 months long and we are barely even into the regular season. I know it feels like this is a never ending thing but really we are just a couple weeks into it. Let's see where we are at around the middle of May and I think we'll have a much better idea by then where this is going. We have no idea what kind of developments we'll have in testing, treating, and peaking rates by then. I'll rephrase. My gut tells me we are not going to get a season. We may or we may not, but the indicators just point towards this not happening. It's going to be pretty hard to quarantine 700 + guys plus support staff all for the sake of playing games. All it's going to take is one infected person to make the whole thing come Crashing Down. One family member going to a grocery store or whatever and coming in contact and it's over Well, that's the thing. If any sports is to happen, they need a plan in place for a positive test to where the entire thing doesn't come crashing down again. Can this be accomplished? Can we immediately test an entire team and their recent opponents, put any affected on the IL, quarantine them, and move on? What if we revamped the schedule to where you play every opponent that you play in one block and then move onto the next opponent, starting with division opponents? Example if we play the Cubs 16 times this year and we figure we will get 100 games in with a revamped schedule, we now play them 10 times, do them all at once, half home then half away, then move onto the next opponent? It's a scheduling nightmare I'm sure, but it could be accomplished. This way, if something happens, you're not looking at 4 or 5 other teams that you've been in contact with over the last 2 weeks, you're looking at 1 or 2.

It's just too early to say, IMO. The MLB season is 6 months long and we are barely even into the regular season. I know it feels like this is a never ending thing but really we are just a couple weeks into it. Let's see where we are at around the middle of May and I think we'll have a much better idea by then where this is going. We have no idea what kind of developments we'll have in testing, treating, and peaking rates by then.

Every business is essential. If it provides a service and people go to it for goods or services it is essential. This is inherently untrue. There are more than a few comically unnecessary 'services' and 'goods' that you simply don't need to survive. If you don't need it to maintain your health, feed your family, or maintain the safety of your shelter, it's non-essential. You are right, but I think the gray area is bigger than most realize. We obviously need food and gas, but manufacturing is a big part of our supply chain. The paper industry is pretty huge in Wisconsin. We don't need paper for everything, but when you stop and consider the many functions that are essential now -- toilet paper, shipping labels, vial and medicinal labels in hospitals -- it becomes pretty essential. Most gas stations could close and still allow gas sales at the pump. But we can't assume that everyone has access to a credit or debit card. Also, many gas stations like Kwik Trip have basically rebranded themselves as grocery stores/gas stations. I don't think you need liquor stores, but sad as it is to say, if you cut off the alcohol supply in Wisconsin, you're going to have another public health crisis on your hands at the worst possible time. Places like Menards are even worse than normal right now for congestion because you've got too many people trying to get housing projects done while they're stuck at home. And if you have to completely change your sales approach to label yourself essential, (looking at you, Hobby Lobby), you should be closed. Most of the problems could have been remedied with better preparation. No one knew before this month who was essential and who isn't. Every business, large and small, should have their status already on file with their individual state before this even happened as to whether or not they provide essential goods or services in the event of a mass emergency shutdown. And they should have to meet strict criteria to be defined as essential, such as a certain percentage of their manufactured goods or sales being "essential" items, not just be able to throw a few masks on the shelves and call themselves essential.

I wonder what the ratings are going to be for the NFL draft. It's pretty much going to be must watch television at this point, is it not?

The lecturing from the elites of the country to stay home has been quite rich. Also, I like Tom Hanks, but first he contracts COVID-19 in Australia, then gives us a nice speech on what social distancing is and why we all need to be safe, the irony apparently lost on him. Then following recovery, him and Rita Wilson immediately return to the U.S because they're celebrities and they can. Arnold Schwarzenegger scolding from his jacuzzi smoking a cigar was priceless enough, and then we get David Geffen showing off his lovely social distancing yacht. As nice as it would be, many of us do not have access to an 8 acre mansion with gyms, pools, and jacuzzis to practice our social distancing, as well as plenty of access to stockpiled necessary supplies. I'm not begrudging them for having that access, just maybe keep in mind while you're doing it that many of us don't have the luxury to hunker down indefinitely without leaving, and many more of us need to continue to go to work to help keep the functions alive that support your affluent lifestyle, ok? Everyone understands the importance of social distancing by this point. If an individual is not already practicing it, their mind will not be changed by an elite celebrity talking down to them.

I requested an absentee ballot as soon as this COVID-19 stuff started to really get bad. How is having an election not a violation of the stay at home order? I can't go play 9 holes of golf by myself, but I can get in line and cram myself into an elementary school to vote? Really? Also, how do you expect anyone to take a stay at home order seriously when you're allowing this to proceed as scheduled?

People opposed to the quarantine love to quote statistics like this, and in my view, it's as apples-to-oranges and as irresponsible to cite as the deaths relative to 9/11 is. First off, I'm not opposed to the quarantine. I question the point at which the longevity of it reaches a point where the damage it causes outweighs the lives saved, but I fully understand we aren't at that point now. Secondly, how was it irresponsible in the context of the rest of my post? I clearly was not comparing automobile deaths to COVID-19 deaths. The 40,000 deaths was a red herring. I think in this instance, grabbing that one sentence off my post robs the context out of what I really said. My point was that there are a lot of ways in which we function as a society that cost lives, and we don't necessarily stop doing them even to save lives. If you don't like that comparison, use working in a dangerous manufacturing facility -- working in a dangerous field can cost lives, but we don't just shut down these facilities and jobs because their contribution to society is deemed to outweigh the cost of life. And to your point in another post, yes it's a good point that these things are probably already taken into consideration when enacting lockdowns. It's why we didn't shut down society for swine flu, because the experts in charge knew it was never going to kill a million Americans.

You are basically arguing additional job losses or future businesses closing is a worse outcome than less people dying. There are 40,000 Americans killed and over 4 million hospitalized every year because of automobile accidents. If we could reduced that number to 5,000 deaths by outlawing motor vehicles and requiring travel by horse and buggy, would it be worth it to you to save those 35,000 lives? There are many inherently risky activities we undertake in society to live a modern lifestyle. Just the way it is. I'm not going to tell anyone that any life is or is not worth X. Like anyone else, if it were the life of someone close to me, it's going to mean a lot more to me. But yeah, if it's May 15th and we're still locked down and things are looking better and the experts say, "Ok, we're going to lose 200,000 people if we go back to normal now. We'll only lose 150,000 if we extend this to July 15th.".... what's the right decision? It's a discussion they'll definitely have.

I don't think they are going to jump right to the Finals, no way. They'll have a full playoff field, and from the sounds of it all series will be at a neutral site, best 2 out of 3. Which really sucks, it nullifies a lot of the advantages for a dominant team and makes it more of a crapshoot. Much better than a single elimination tourney, but much worse than a best of 7 for us.

Agreed, comparing COVID-19 to 9-11 is an obnoxious and pointless apples to oranges comparison. Also agree that the world is going to be much better prepared for this in the fall. I think a vaccine is still probably out til 2021, but we should have pretty effective treatments, extra medical supplies and much greater access to testing.

Can someone explain to me any good reason why golf courses should be closed? Golf is about the most solitary sport possible. Mitigation for any contact is easy -- 1) Walkers only 2) No clubhouse access, payments only over the phone or online 3) No beverage access, carry ons allowed (no alcohol) You have to balance the situation with the need for something for people to have right now for morale, and golf would be an easy way to do that without increasing risk.

I'd like to see a country where this is on the decline to at least get a template for our expectations. Spain and Italy are in the same boat now and Italy seems to have peaked around 800-900 deaths per day, but I have no idea how much to trust that data if they're being completely overwhelmed and unable to keep up with the data. I don't really trust any numbers from Iran or China. I have a really hard time believing that a country of 1.4 billion who was at the front and center of this all really just has a dozen or so new cases a day now while everyone else is well in the thousands.

Fauci says we're a few weeks away from opening up things again as a society in this country. He says the big thing is the availability of the 5-13 minute COVID-19 test. Once that gets ramped up and pretty much allows for easy and immediate testing, that should really help things.

https://forward.com/news/national/442598/coronavirus-treatment-plaquenil/