And the MLB 2020 season negotiations begin

[actionjackson]

Oh yay! Recklessness, willful negligence and stupidity reign. The blood on both sides of the border is on your hands MLB. There are others of course, but you had a chance to set an example by doing the right thing, and you failed miserably.


https://twitter.com/ShiDavidi/status...38485360398343


Coming from Florida of all places. Brilliant!

[CBeisbol]

Mike Leake, the first player to opt out of the 2020 season

Joe Ross also expected to otp out

[CBeisbol]

Ryan Zimmerman has opted out

[low]

Good. I hope more keep opting out.

[Westheim]

None of them will be missed.

[ForeverRoyalKC]

Ryan Zimmerman, Joe Ross and Mike Leake opting out is a smart move.

[CBeisbol]

Originally Posted by Westheim

None of them will be missed.

The best benefit of the doubt that I can give you is guess you don't know much about how DC feels about Zimmerman

[actionjackson]

...And now for something completely different...

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1277686654627729409

Please stop the insanity of starting this season. Some things are just not meant to be. Let's pack it in, and try to return strong for 2021, or you know, continue to be abjectly moronic in the face of reality.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by low

Good. I hope more keep opting out.

If they have any sense they will.

[CBeisbol]

Ian Desmond opts out

With an explanation worth reading

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCCp7aSp...on_share_sheet

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

...And now for something completely different...

https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1277686654627729409

Fear-monger more, perhaps? New virus strains are discovered probably not every day, but certainly regularly and all the time. Having "pandemic potential" means ****. Every car that gets started has the "potential" to run you over. This has nothing to do with the current crisis. You're gonna link everything if you think it serves your point of view.

The BBC should also be slapped and fined for even tweeting like this, but unfortunately they're holier in England than the pope's in the Vatican.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Fear-monger more, perhaps? New virus strains are discovered probably not every day, but certainly regularly and all the time. Having "pandemic potential" means ****. Every car that gets started has the "potential" to run you over. This has nothing to do with the current crisis. You're gonna link everything if you think it serves your point of view.

The BBC should also be slapped and fined for even tweeting like this, but unfortunately they're holier in England than the pope's in the Vatican.

Has nothing to do with fear mongering. Things are plenty bad enough over here thank you. The hospitals in the southern and western States are already bursting with COVID patients. If that virus develops, we don't need it crashing in on top of everything else. Moving players/staff/journalists/broadcasters etc around in planes particularly from the hardest hit areas of this disease is the definition of insanity. It's nowhere near under control in this part of the world, but yeah sure, f**k the health care workers, let's make it worse, and needlessly make their jobs way more difficult in order to get one of the least essential businesses moving again. That's some brilliant logic right there.

Cars kill a ton of people every year. But they're not crazy contagious like this disease is, particularly in locations where the vast majority of teams in this league are. Smoking kills a ton of people every year. Incredibly contagious? Nope. Heart attacks, strokes, cancer etc kill a ton of people every year. Contagious? Nah. Flu kills lots of people every year. This is much worse and more contagious than flu, and now it's starting to hit young people hard too.

It is absolutely absurd to even consider starting baseball up in this part of the world at this point in the pandemic. It's been demonstrated over and over again that no matter how hard you try to contain this thing, it will spread. It doesn't respect borders, and it's been shown to be darn near impossible to set up "bubbles" to contain it. Broadway has shut down for the rest of the year, and they're saying that the earliest that they can return is early spring, 2021. Why do the sports leagues think they're so goddamn special? Why do they think their athletes are super human, and will neither get sick, nor become vectors for this illness? Answer: They don't give a s**t because it's all about the Benjamins. I hope more players opt out, and sanity prevails. Call me crazy, but I'd like to get this thing under control, and get some relief from the lunacy in this part of the world. There's also the brutal economy, and huge social unrest. Let's just go back to the way it was though right? No can do, because the way it was ain't there anymore. Let's try to deal with what is, shall we?

[Westheim]

It is absolutely possible to play sports, even contact sports. The Bundesliga (and the 2nd Bundesliga below it) just finished their season in orderly fashion. There were a couple of infections with one team before the first game of the season resumed, but they were already infected from the outside and didn't spread it to other teams. There was one moron that intentionally touched everybody's **** (the Rudy Gobert Treatment all over) and was kicked out for it.

It is *possible*. If you get your crap together, which the US as a whole, sadly, has not. I have opinions, but I assume I don't have to explain why this is and have the thread disappear into the OT swamp, too.

That still means the league can play. Strict isolation rules. If Guy X doesn't wanna play, so what, he can stay home. I don't care.

Baseball must have a substantial interest in playing any sort of season, because there is no guarantee that Corona's defeated by '21 (and it puzzles me you'd infer as much in between all your doomsaying). And if there's no 2020 season, and no 2021 season, at some point a substantial amount of people might realize that they don't need baseball after all, at which point everybody's investment (either money or an entire life of training) goes down the drain. Corona can still be here three years from now. Nothing will survive being shut down for three years.

[Hrycaj]

Originally Posted by CBeisbol

Ian Desmond opts out

With an explanation worth reading

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCCp7aSp...on_share_sheet

I know this is a separate topic altogether but I really applaud him for calling out what youth baseball has turned into. He absolutely nailed it in a couple of sentences.

[Syd Thrift]

Westheim is very bravely risking the lives of others for his enjoyment. We are talking True Americanism here. I’m sure Teddy Roosevelt would be proud.

[TheMaus2]

if its every player's prerogative to opt out, they can opt out. I can't blame anyone for opting out while cases continue to spike, and a shortened season making this less appealing. same with every NBA player.

but I look forward to whatever product is put on the field.

[TheMaus2]

Originally Posted by Hrycaj

I know this is a separate topic altogether but I really applaud him for calling out what youth baseball has turned into. He absolutely nailed it in a couple of sentences.

sadly this applies to all youth sports

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Westheim is very bravely risking the lives of others for his enjoyment. We are talking True Americanism here. I’m sure Teddy Roosevelt would be proud.

...And from nearly 5,000 miles away no less. No effect for him if these tone deaf decisions re-ignite a pandemic that hasn't really slowed down yet, but rather is spreading like a raging wildfire at the moment. Unless of course if Germany doesn't ban flights from the US and Canada (where it's not bad right now, but where opening the border except for absolute necessary commerce is reckless to say the least - professional sports leagues, no matter how important they think they are...do not fall under the category of necessary at all). Pass the kerosene man! Let's get this party started! WOOO!!!

[Syd Thrift]

Originally Posted by actionjackson

...And from nearly 5,000 miles away no less. No effect for him if these tone deaf decisions re-ignite a pandemic that hasn't really slowed down yet, but rather is spreading like a raging wildfire at the moment. Unless of course if Germany doesn't ban flights from the US and Canada (where it's not bad right now, but where opening the border except for absolute necessary commerce is reckless to say the least - professional sports leagues, no matter how important they think they are...do not fall under the category of necessary at all). Pass the kerosene man! Let's get this party started! WOOO!!!

I *think* the EU is banning people living in the US (so US citizens living in, say, South Korea are exempted, but New Zealand nationals living in the US are not) from going there at the moment, so True Heroes like Westheim should still be able to get to the US and back to Americanly watch some American games, at least until the EU decides that the US is so far behind the curve that they have to stop all travel, period, and he needs to quarantine or something.

[actionjackson]

Originally Posted by Westheim

...If you get your crap together,...

At the present time, this is not remotely close to happening, and probably won't unless the mouthbreathers, who think this is all some sort of socialist hoax, stop invoking their Constitutional right to infect others with a deadly virus. If the situation were not as politicized is it is, I might be on your side, but this is where we are, and wishing it away doesn't seem to be changing that. Let us deal in what is, not what should be.

If even one staff member at the hotel that the two teams will be staying in at the SkyDome (it should never have been re-branded the Rogers Centre, but I digress) contracts the virus without knowing it, and takes it home to their family, all that effort is wasted. Shall we quarantine them too? Hardly seems fair to me, as they're just innocent bystanders in this fruitless, silly exercise.

Given that the only 14-day quarantine that will happen is the one at the start of training camp, I find it exceedingly hard to believe that this won't happen, perhaps multiple times. As a resident of Toronto, despite my lifelong love of baseball (day one Blue Jays' fan), I'm not cool with this needless spreading of the virus, and the potential impact it will have on others.