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MLB must adapt to save season as COVID-19 cases keep rising – Sportsnet.ca

Published

4 years ago

July 27, 2020

TORONTO – The easiest thing in the world is to dump on Major League Baseball for the Miami Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak, and to be fair, the plan leaves the sport quite open to criticism.

Send 30 teams travelling around the United States as the coronavirus spreads relentlessly, while different levels of government there enact contradictory containment policies, as wide swaths of the population can’t even agree to wear a damn mask?

Like, really? Sound like a good idea?

Epidemiologists had long predicted that this venture was doomed to fail, and if the Marlins’ outbreak and corresponding cancellations resulting from it Monday weren’t enough to collapse the season, there was at least enough impact to get the entire campaign teetering.

“MLB is cooked,” texted Dr. Andrew Morris, medical director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Sinai Health System/University Health Network and an infectious diseases professor at the University of Toronto.

“MLB got sloppy and ignored the better advice of public health experts who told them this was a bad idea,” read another message from Dr. Nathan Stall, an epidemiologist and a geriatrics and internal medicine specialist at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital.

Fair, which is why executing a May plan amid July realities always had a longshot feel to it, even with an impressively comprehensive protocol and every-other-day testing. The six weeks owners spent trying to extract financial givebacks from players would surely have been better spent re-examining the teams-in-their-own-city structure and considering alternatives as conditions shifted.

Writers Bloc

Discussing the Marlins situation with an infectious disease specialist

July 27 2020

Still, getting lost in a stream of I told-you-sos at this very moment is counter-productive with the season on the brink, and far more necessary at this point is trying to rescue the situation before everything falls over. Without being trite, a weekend of baseball offered a reminder of how important it is to have escapes in our lives, particularly in difficult times, and that it’s worth fighting for small semblances of normalcy amid the wait for a vaccine or an anti-viral.

Given that COVID-19 continues to rout the Team Hoax and heads-in-the-sand set in the United States, the Americans simply haven’t done the necessary work to run the MLB schedule as planned. The return of baseball in Asia and soccer in Europe came only after the coronavirus was contained, with the return of sports part of strategic re-opening.

The States looked to be headed in that direction back in May and early June, when the current scheme was hatched, but then Florida did Florida, several other regions became hot-spots, too, and here we are.

To that end, that’s why the bubbles in the NHL and NBA have always been the more sensible model, but remember that when MLB first floated a similar plan, players nixed it almost immediately.

Now, though? Maybe a reset is needed before the season comes crashing down.

“I honestly think MLB needs to put aside its pride, hit the pause button, deal with this outbreak for two weeks and take that time to set up proper bubbles, ideally in settings with low community prevalence of COVID-19,” said Dr. Stall. “It would be insanity to push ahead.”

Dr. Morris is thinking along the same lines, suggesting MLB officials immediately take the following steps: First, call an urgent meeting and consider bubble approaches like the NHL or NBA; Second, engage the players union to signify that’s it’s already a crisis; Third, enhance isolation among players during the time between games, rather than only at the games themselves; and Fourth, begin a public campaign to promote masks and social distancing as a way to contribute to containment efforts in the U.S.

“It’s only going to amplify,” he added. “I know they aren’t stopping, but they will be forced to. Travel is just starting.”

Baseball Central

Mark Shapiro on Marlins situation, upgrading Sahlen Field, rule changes

July 27 2020

To this point, baseball is moving forward, business as usual, with the regular slate of games continuing uninterrupted save for contests featuring the Marlins and Baltimore Orioles, and Philadelphia Phillies and New York Yankees being postponed while MLB conducts more COVID-19 testing.

In a release, MLB said it is coordinating with the union, and that members of the Marlins travelling party that were in Philadelphia over the weekend are self-quarantining as they await results.

The Toronto Blue Jays are scheduled to play the Phillies in Philadelphia on Friday and were set to host the Miami Marlins on Aug. 11 in their temporary home opener in Buffalo. Veteran starter Tanner Roark went to work Monday at Nationals Park for the first of four against defending World Series champion Washington trying to keep things business as usual amid the circumstances.

“I feel pretty confident, I guess, strong. Not nervous,” he said. “You can’t do anything about it if you get it and if you’re feeling symptoms, you have to step up and tell somebody before it spreads throughout the entire clubhouse. That’s the main thing. Even if you feel the slightest thing, you have to speak up and say something to not jeopardize an entire clubhouse and shut down games.”

Manager Charlie Montoyo dispatched his coaches to remind players of the need for vigilance in light of the Marlins outbreak — they didn’t hold a team meeting to conform with COVID-19 protocols — and repeated how “the moment we left Canada, there was concern.”

Roark, in his matter-of-fact manner, described the virus as a fact of life, saying all players could do was be careful and keep their fingers crossed that they don’t become infected. He added that both owners and players had signed up for a season within these confines.

Asked if in hindsight baseball should have taken a different approach to travel, he replied: “I don’t know. Where would we have that bubble at?”

“If you think about the places that have domes, Arizona was a hot-bed for a while before we left for summer camp, Florida is still a hot-bed, Texas was turning into more and more cases,” Roark continued. “There’s just so much that has to go into materializing a great solution to play together in a bubble. It’s hard to fathom that with baseball.”

Baseball Central

The heat shouldn’t be on Mattingly for playing his Marlins on Sunday

July 27 2020

Rookie teammate Santiago Espinal’s experience over the past couple of weeks is emblematic of the dichotomy of the times. He debuted Saturday and Sunday he stole his first career base in extra innings, scoring the go-ahead run in what finished as a 6-5, 10 inning loss to Tampa Bay.

“This first week has probably been the best week of my life,” he said. “This is my dream and came it true.”

At the same time, he made the decision during summer camp in Toronto to limit himself to the hotel and ballpark all summer.

“I said to myself, ‘If it’s going to be like this, I’m just going to stay in my room,’” he said. “I think it’s the best thing to do, just stay in your room, order in your food, talk to your family over the phone, just to be careful.”

As for trying to reconcile breaking into the majors while also putting his health at risk to make it happen, Espinal said: “I know what’s happening in the world. What I’m trying to do is to try and be careful with everything that’s going on and when I get on the field, when I get here to the locker room the focus is to do my job and try to help the team win. As soon as the game is over I try to be careful, I stay in my room and that’s it.”

There-in may be a compromise solution for baseball to pursue a path forward, with players bubbling themselves in hotels both at home and on the road, minimizing interactions with the public, and reducing their probabilities.

The path the sport is on might have made sense in May or early June, or might make sense somewhere else at present, where COVID-19 is under control. In the United States it’s very clearly not, and if MLB doesn’t adapt, it will become another symptom of what ails the country, rather than a distraction from it.

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Flames re-sign defenceman Ilya Solovyov, centre Cole Schwindt

Published

9 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

CALGARY – The Calgary Flames have re-signed defenceman Ilya Solovyov and centre Cole Schwindt, the NHL club announced Wednesday.

Solovyov signed a two-year deal which is a two-way contract in year one and a one-way deal in year two and carries an average annual value of US$775,000 at the NHL level.

Schwindt signed a one-year, two-way contract with an average annual value of $800,000 at the NHL level.

The 24-year-old Solovyov, from Mogilev, Belarus, made his NHL debut last season and had three assists in 10 games for the Flames. He also had five goals and 10 assists in 51 games with the American Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers and added one goal in six Calder Cup playoff games.

Schwindt, from Kitchener, Ont., made his Flames debut last season and appeared in four games with the club.

The 23-year-old also had 14 goals and 22 assists in 66 regular-season games with the Wranglers and added a team-leading four goals, including one game-winning goal, in the playoffs.

Schwindt was selected by Florida in the third round, 81st overall, at the 2019 NHL draft. He came to Calgary in July 2022 along with forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenceman MacKenzie Weegar in the trade that sent star forward Matthew Tkachuk to the Panthers.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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Oman holds on to edge Nepal with one ball to spare in cricket thriller

Published

9 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

KING CITY, Ont. – Oman scored 10 runs in the final over to edge Nepal by one wicket with just one ball remaining in ICC Cricket World Cup League 2 play Wednesday.

Kaleemullah, the No. 11 batsman who goes by one name, hit a four with the penultimate ball as Oman finished at 223 for nine. Nepal had scored 220 for nine in its 50 overs.

Kaleemullah and No. 9 batsman Shakeel Ahmed each scored five in the final over off Sompal Kami. They finished with six and 17 runs, respectively.

Opener Latinder Singh led Oman with 41 runs.

Nepal’s Gulsan Jha was named man of the match after scoring 53 runs and recording a career-best five-wicket haul. The 18-year-old slammed five sixes and three-fours in his 35-ball knock, scoring 23 runs in the 46th over alone when he hit six, six, four, two, four and one off Aqib Ilyas.

Captain Rohit Paudel led Nepal with 60 runs.

The 19th-ranked Canadians, who opened the triangular series Monday with a 103-run win over No. 17 Nepal, face No. 16 Oman on Friday, Nepal on Sunday and Oman again on Sept. 26. All the games are at the Maple Leaf Cricket Ground.

The eight World League 2 teams each play 36 one-day internationals spread across nine triangular series through December 2026. The top four sides will go through to a World Cup qualifier that will decide the last four berths in the expanded 14-team Cricket World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Canada (5-4) stands second in the World League 2 table. The 14th-ranked Dutch top the table at 6-2.

Oman (2-2 with one no-result) stands sixth, ahead of Nepal (1-5).

Canada won all four matches in its opening tri-series in February-March, sweeping No. 11 Scotland and the 20th-ranked host Emirates. But the Canadians lost four in a row to the 18th-ranked U.S. and host Netherlands in August.

Canada which debuted in the T20 World Cup this summer in the U.S. and West Indies, is looking to get back to the showcase 50-over Cricket World Cup for the first time since 2011 after failing to qualify for the last three editions. The Canadian men also played in the 1979, 2003 and 2007 tournaments, exiting after the group stage in all four tournament appearances.

The Canadian men regained their one-day international status for the first time in almost a decade by finishing in the top four of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier Playoff in April 2023 in Bermuda.

—

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024

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Vancouver Canucks will miss Demko, Joshua, others to start training camp

Published

9 hours ago

September 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

PENTICTON, B.C. – Rick Tocchet has already warned his Vancouver Canucks players — the looming NHL season won’t be easy.

The team made strides last year, the head coach said Wednesday ahead of training camp. The bar has been raised for this year’s campaign.

“To get to the next plateau, there are higher expectations and it’s going to be hard. We know that,” Tocchet said in Penticton, B.C., where the team will open its camp on Thursday.

“So that’s the next level. It starts day one (on Thursday). My thing is don’t waste a rep out there.”

The Canucks finished atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record last season, then ousted the Nashville Predators from the playoffs in a gritty, six-game first-round series. Vancouver then fell to the Edmonton Oilers in a seven-game second-round set.

Last fall, Jim Rutherford, the Canucks president of hockey operations, said everything would have to go right for the team to make a playoff push. That doesn’t change this season, he said, despite last year’s success.

“The challenges will be greater, certainly. But I believe the team that we started with last year, we have just as good a team to start the season this year and probably better,” he said.

“As long as the team builds off what they did last year, stick to what the coaches tell them, stick to the system, stick together in good times and bad times, this team has a chance to do pretty well.”

Some key players will be missing as Vancouver’s training camp begins, however.

Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin announced Wednesday that star goalie Thatcher Demko will not be on the ice when the team begins it’s pre-season preparation.

Allvin did not disclose the reason for Demko’s absence, but said the 28-year-old American has been making progress.

“He’s been in working extremely hard and he seems to be in a great mindset,” the GM said.

Demko missed several weeks of the regular season and much of Vancouver’s playoff run last spring with a knee injury.

The six-foot-four, 192-pound goalie has a career 213-116-81 regular-season record with a .912 save percentage, a 2.79 goals-against average and eight shutouts across seven seasons with the Canucks.

Allvin also announced that veteran centre Teddy Blueger and defensive prospect Cole McWard will also miss the start of training camp after each had “minor lower-body surgery.”

Vancouver previously announced winger Dakota Joshua won’t be present for the start of camp as he recovers from surgery for testicular cancer.

Tocchet said he’ll have no problem filling the holes, and plans to switch his lines up a lot in Penticton.

“Nothing’s set in stone,” he said. “I think it’s important that you have different puzzles at different times.”

The coach added that he expects standout centre Elias Pettersson to begin on a line with Canucks newcomer Jake DeBrusk.

Vancouver inked DeBrusk, a former Boston Bruins forward, to a seven-year, US$38.5 million deal when the NHL’s free agent market opened on July 1.

The glare on Pettersson is expected to be bright once again as he enters the first year of a new eight-year, $92.8 million contract. The 25-year-old Swede struggled at times last season and put 89 points (34 goals, 55 assists) in 82 games.

Rutherford said he was impressed with how Pettersson looked when he returned to Vancouver ahead of camp.

“He seems to be a guy that’s more relaxed and more comfortable. And for obvious reasons,” said the president of hockey ops. “This is a guy that I believe has worked really hard this summer. He’s done everything he can to play as a top-line player. … The expectation for him is to be one of the top players on our team.”

A number of Canucks hit milestones last season, including Quinn Hughes, who led all NHL defencemen in scoring with 92 points and won the Norris Trophy as the league’s top blue liner.

Several players could once again have career-best years for Vancouver, Tocchet said, but they’ll need to be consistent and not allow frustration to creep in when things go wrong.

“You’ve just got to drive yourself every day when you have a great year,” the coach said. “You’ve got to keep creating that environment where they can achieve those goals, whatever they are. And the main goal is winning. That’s really what it comes down to.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 18, 2024.

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