You're Going To Love Watching Baseball This Year

[MMMordabito]

 

While I enjoy the positive spin, I have to wonder on the moral question of should society provide daily testing so these guys can play a game? If one sick person cannot get tested because we are trying to get MLB playing then it's wrong. I hope they play as much as anybody. I just can't justify redirecting needed resources.

 

Agreed.  Sick people -> Medical Workers, Law Enforcement, Food Producers.  I'm sure I left something out.  Let's get daily testing and home support to those people first. 

 

Also, baseball is always an escape for me.  I'm hopeful when it does come back that announcers are instructed to keep coronavirus commentary to an absolute minimum.   That's a personal opinion though.  

[VivaBomboRivera!]

Sitting here in the middle of week seven of work-from-home, I really, really want to see what the 2020 Twins can do. But think on Poe's "Masque of the Red Death."  Every effort to seal away a healthy population from an epidemic inevitably fails.  Contagion is hard to contain.

 

Bottom line:

If one player, one umpire, one coach or trainer, one member of the grounds crew, one camera operator, one driver, caterer, janitor or anybody else associated with such an effort were to get sick and die - IT WOULD NOT BE WORTH IT. 

 

Corollary:  If an effort like this were to take resources away from treating the sick, or keeping ordinary people healthy wherever they are it would be hard to justify morally.

[In My La Z boy]

 

I'm not going to respond to this screed because, frankly, it doesn't merit one. What I presented was a factual timeline between two countries on how testing has been handled, not levying judgments.  

 

But to bring this conversation back to baseball, it is almost definite that you need effective testing in order to make this season work. From Jeff Passan's article about why the KBO will be able to re-start soon:

 

 

It goes on to describe Dan Straily's experience with his team and some of the policies to manage the team during the outbreak. For instance, players go through thermal body scans when they hit the park and if someone feels ill, the team goes home while they wait the results of the teammate's test. 

 

Along the same lines, Daniel Kim, a DKTV baseball analyst in Souel, was recently interviewed by Newsday and said this:

 

 

To make it work, you have to have effective testing. The United States was behind in this regard. It's possible that it can catch up -- American ingenuity and all -- but at this point the country feels well behind South Korea.  

While I agree with your point on the necessity of testing before we can play ball - You did begin with the premise that Germany is better than us - and then you scolded him for suggesting you were levying judgments. This led to the mis-belief that you had an agenda.
No doubt the constitution, and politics make the American government a very different animal than the German or SKorean governments. This was a real, and good point he was making. As Germany was doing a Covid test in mid-Jan as you say - our President was being impeached. When our President banned flights from China on 1/31 - politicals and media were calling him a racist. I thought both of you had good points, that got lost in mis-believing each others agenda's. Both points are a reality. You are right about testing as a large part of the solution. He is right about the blame/comparison game IMO. 

[Craig Arko]

Some quotes from Dr. Fauci about the return of sporting events this summer.

 

https://www.espn.com/espn/story/_/id/29038491/dr-anthony-fauci-promotes-single-site-fan-free-return-sports

[Parker Hageman]

You did begin with the premise that Germany is better than us

 

 

Absolutely not. You are injected your own interpretation into what I was saying, and it may be easy to reach that conclusion on your own based on how both countries approached testing, but that's not what I said. How I started that was this, and I'm going to highlight two very important words:

 

"Germany has been seemingly able to handle this pandemic better it probably begins with their testing."

 

I don't claim that Germany is "winning" or doing anything better at this junction, not definitively. There are many factors (medical systems, culture, travel restrictions, etc) that play a role. Things change minute to minute with this. South Korea is now observing that people who tested positive and recovered (potentially the false positive tests) are now getting the virus again. Who knows, Germany might have another wave of the virus. Years from now historians can assign winners and losers to this but that's not for us to decide now.

 

For now, when asked why SK (one of the countries preparing to have baseball again soon) or Germany has done "better" up to this point, one factor is the roll out of testing. 

 

[In My La Z boy]

Doesn't everyone inject their own interpretation when hearing and trying to understand what someone is saying? I just thought you stepped on your own message. After the seemingly and probably sentence you went on to describe January events in Germany - and then went to comparatively - describing what took place in the USA. I would have understood your point better without the seemingly, probably and comparatively stuff. I'll take your Absolutely not - meaning your intent, and give you the benefit of the doubt, but bolstering your Germany testing point, by running down the USA's actions, or lack thereof wasn't helpful. You could have kept the USA out of it, and made your good point on testing.

[Parker Hageman]

...bolstering your Germany testing point, by running down the USA's actions, or lack thereof wasn't helpful. You could have kept the USA out of it, and made your good point on testing.

 

 

I included the United States' testing timeline to that post because it was in direct response to someone who had asked "How is it South Korea, Germany, China are all able to get enough tests to monitor their people and get on top of this thing, and we are so far behind?"

 

 

 

 

[DocBauer]

I hesitated posting anything here as I don't want anything I say to be misconstrued or wrongly interpreted. But here goes.

 

To be clear, this is NOT just about baseball. It's about all sports, and movie theaters, and bars, restaurants, take your pick. It's about life being normal again. OK? But I do love baseball and the Twins. I so want baseball and my beloved Twins. And I appreciate John's hope and optimism, even as I still feel trepidation that there will be no season, or a season we just never fully embrace due to some unusual context of how it plays out.

 

At 54yo and in decent shape and largely good health, having suffered in my mid 20's through a very bad case of walking pneumonia, and since then very susceptible to just about all flu bugs, I remain very concerned. More so for my still healthy 76yo father. But at some point, the curve and isolation, testing, possibly/hopefully a cure, warm and humid weather, thjs virus will begin to pass, as all due.

 

At some point, and I have no clue when that will be, there will have to be a move made towards normalcy, baseball included. No matter what, we will all have to come out of hiding, businesses will open, and we will all begin to return to normal. When this happens, someone, somewhere, will get sick again. Worse, they may become deathly ill. I am NOT insensitive to this virus, or any virus, or any disease to anyone! But the reality is life. And before this current virus, there has always been disease and virus and sickness. Again, its part of life. Eventuaĺy, slowly, things will diminish and get better. Life will return to "normal" such as normal is. And while this is a strange and even frightening time, we simply can't crawl away and hide away forever.

 

This too shall pass, as all things do. And when it does, life will go on, and sickness, with all its ramifications, will also continue. There is no escaping that fact. And if having to miss a full season of baseball somehow meant making a difference, then I'm all in.

 

All I'm saying and rambling about is that at SOME POINT, someone somewhere will begin to make decisions for life and the world to move forward. And it will, as it's always done. Nothing will be perfect. Nothing will be absolute. But the human condition is resolute and stalwart and slowly and surely we will get back to normal. It would be great if baseball could be a harbinger of normalcy. But in the meantime, it is a waiting game, pun partially intended.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Doesn't everyone inject their own interpretation when hearing and trying to understand what someone is saying? I just thought you stepped on your own message. After the seemingly and probably sentence you went on to describe January events in Germany - and then went to comparatively - describing what took place in the USA. I would have understood your point better without the seemingly, probably and comparatively stuff. I'll take your Absolutely not - meaning your intent, and give you the benefit of the doubt, but bolstering your Germany testing point, by running down the USA's actions, or lack thereof wasn't helpful. You could have kept the USA out of it, and made your good point on testing.

Weird how Parker bolded a couple of adverbs to highlight the uncertainty of his viewpoint while you bolded entire portions of a sentence to... say what, exactly? 

Oh, to point out what you inferred from Parker's post, not what he actually said.

 

And before you get super upset and reply, I have no interest in responding and will not do so.

 

Read Parker's posts again and try not to infer your own political stance upon them. Just read the damned posts, they're informative and useful. If you wish to debate the merit of them afterward, feel free to do so.

[MN_ExPat]

I've been thinking this point over a good bit over the last few days.  I think John and Nick both make very good points, and I actual agree with both of them (I know... weird right?).

 

I LOVE baseball.   Probably to the point of obsession according to my wife and daughter.  I truly want to see MLB back on the field this year, but I understand (even though it would break my heart) if it can't be for a multitude of reasons.

 

I've never deserted baseball (never will), but I found my passion waning as the Twins sunk into a bit of a morass at the end of the first decade of the 2000's.     No, the thing that rekindled my obsession was my son and the ability to share the game with him.     

 

What I truly miss and want to see more than any other (baseball thing) is my son and his teammates on the diamond.   He has truly embraced the game and it has turned a passion into a true joy (it also helps that he has a true knack for the game and had taken a huge step forward this year again ).   This is what I miss the most.     To me and my thinking, there is little more pure about baseball than HS and College players love of the game.   

 

So while I would love to see MLB and our Twins charge out of the dugout and take the field this year... what I miss the most and pray we will see soon (as long as we can safely do so) is my son and his friends/teammates getting to be boys again and being able to play the single greatest game God has ever granted upon the face of the earth.

 

Take care everyone