-Brooklyn, New York
With the novel Coronavirus causing chaos across the globe, sports are now too infected. With The Utah Jazz’ Center, Rudy Gobert contracting COVID-19, this virus has maybe reached new proportions. Gobert could be “Patient Zero” in this scenario, due to the impact his diagnosis had. The reverberations include fellow teammate Donovan Mitchell also testing positive. Gobert was said to be almost mocking the virus and touching everyone’s belongings. His antics aside…this incident caused shockwaves across the sports world.
The NBA had to scramble to figure out what course of preventive measures they would take. Immediate suspension of the season was the move Commissioner, Adam Silver went with. But now the pandoras box is truly opened: who did the Jazz play recently? One of those teams was the New York Knicks, Donovan Mitchell Sr. was in attendance to watch his son. The patriarch works for the Mets, in a high profile role that entails meeting with players. This was a long time coming yes, but now the alarms started to truly start ringing.
MLB then moved to suspend baseball operations until April 6th. This is where the pandemic becomes truly “murky waters”. The MLB obviously does not want to play without fans, but they may have to.If the virus doesn’t go away or taper off until summertime, baseball and sports as a whole are in for an ordeal. Fans may see play resume on April 6th, but then imagine if players contract the virus when play resumes. Do they suspend it again for two weeks? Will they suspend operations further? Shorten the season? Will the World Series be played in December at this rate? These are all truly pressing questions that are certainly on Manfred’s mind.
MLB simply cannot afford to have this affecting their play. They are already at a steep disadvantadge in terms of popularity. The sport has pace of play issues, scandals, and at a pivotal moment for the sport…its halted. Some people were eager to see the Astros’ “payback” from other teams. Others were excited to see the 2020 version of a potential “murderer’s row”, in the Los Angeles Dodgers. But for the true fans, the commencement of a season brings back normalcy. The part of your day, when you kick back and turn on your favorite club. The “base” of baseball’s audience are probably those more susceptible to this virus. Meaning older people, which adds in another dimension of complexity to this mess. At a time when baseball did not need another headache…it got one.
Christian Quaranta
@BackSportsPageQ
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