Toronto Blue Jays left fielder Teoscar Hernandez (37) celebrates with Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo (25) and Blue Jays shortstop Santiago Espinal (5) after hitting a home run against the Washington Nationals in the fourth inning at Nationals Park.
Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports via Reuters
Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo is a baseball expert. He played the game professionally. He’s been teaching it at the highest levels for decades. When Montoyo has something to say about hitting the curveball, I’m all ears.
What Montoyo is not is a health expert. Yet, again and again, it’s poor Charlie Montoyo who is pushed out by the Jays to explain what is happening as Major League Baseball’s 2020 season collapses around them.
On Thursday, MLB postponed Toronto’s three-game weekend series against the Phillies in Philadelphia. Two members of that team – a staffer and a coach – have tested positive for coronavirus. This result comes four days after Philly finished a series against MLB’s plague ship, the Miami Marlins.
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This leaves the Jays stranded in Washington, where they finished up Thursday night. If the Nationals allow it, they may stay in D.C. ahead of starting up again in Atlanta on Tuesday. Or they may head up to Buffalo. Or they may find a parking lot and see if they can get a bunch of tents at Walmart.
When you want to know what’s going on in this rapidly changing situation, the person who ends up explaining it is Montoyo. And, God bless him, Montoyo is not the right person to be doing that explaining.
He is a lovely guy and a wonderful public face for the franchise. But he doesn’t exactly fill you with confidence that the baseball’s coronavirus plan is air tight. Or sealed. Or covered loosely with a tarp.
Here’s Montoyo on Thursday, when asked about the many flagrant violations of baseball’s on-field ‘no-contact’ rules (i.e. spitting, high-fiving, et cetera) we’ve witnessed since play restarted:
“That’s a good point. And they’re trying. It’s only been a week of games and you’re trying to change people’s minds over [things] that have been done for over a hundred years in baseball. … Little by little, we gotta stop that.”
Or Montoyo on whether the Jays will in future be accompanied by a COVID-19 compliance officer:
“I don’t know about that yet. There’s a rumour about that.”
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Or Montoyo on a report that, from now on, the team will be confined to its hotel:
“I think that’s coming, but I haven’t really gotten the rule yet. But I heard it just like you have, that there’s a rumour that’s coming.”
Shouldn’t they probably have done that the whole time?
“Yeah.” (Then a quick shift in tone.) “It’s just not that easy. People have families and stuff. But I’m not making excuses. … Not everybody believes the same thing that everybody does. It’s almost like politics, you know what I’m talking about.”
Montoyo delivered this whole spiel with enormous good humour. It’s clear he wants to be clear. It’s also clear he has no real idea what the rules are, how they should work or why anybody’s telling him to do anything.
If Montoyo thinks standard physical-distancing rules can be achieved “little by little” – though the pandemic doesn’t care how irritating they are – he is not the man to be enforcing them.
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If Montoyo thinks the team can be of two minds – “like politics” – about who the players see, and under what circumstances, and then get on planes together to go to new places and see new people, he is even less so.
What really jumped out was the moment Montoyo tried to explain the protocol surrounding family visits on the road.
“Before the family comes here, we send them tests. And they have to be tested before they get to our players,” Montoyo said.
So you send them tests. They take them. They send them back. Then they get in a car or a plane or whatever and come to you.
Since we are all minor-league epidemiologists now, we can all see the flaws – multiple – here. What if they were infected, but not yet showing positive when they were tested? What if they got infected on the way to you? The only way to ensure people are pristine is to quarantine them before they are tested and cleared. Montoyo didn’t say anything about a quarantine. Just a test and a trip.
Philadelphia just found out how well that works. The Phillies last came into contact with the Marlins on Sunday. Their employees didn’t test positive until Thursday.
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Though Montoyo continues to refer to what baseball has going as a “bubble,” it is nothing of the sort. Apparently, it’s completely porous. By his own admission, people are coming in and out of it all the time.
The same players who are being told not to fistbump their (repeatedly tested and cleared) teammates are then permitted to leave the team hotel and meander around Florida, Arizona, Georgia or wherever.
(Montoyo did say the Jays “are trying to stay put” in their hotels already. One wonders how much work the word “trying” is doing in that sentence.)
However you parse it, this isn’t health and safety. It’s health-and-safety theatre. By saying the words “health and safety” often enough, baseball has convinced some people that’s what it is doing.
In fact, it is doing the opposite. MLB’s COVID-19 plan ought to called its sickness-and-danger protocols.
None of this is Charlie Montoyo’s fault. He’s like the rest of us – someone with no scientific expertise figuring this thing out on the fly. Except most of the rest of us are not delivering updates to the media.
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So why are the Charlie Montoyos of baseball the ones out there explaining the plan?
Because baseball’s decision-makers a) evidently have no better handle on how this should be working, and b) don’t want to be on the record when this falls apart entirely.
Until then, everyone gets to pretend baseball has this whole shmozzle under control. You don’t believe that’s true? Just take a look at Charlie. Does he look worried to you?
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TORONTO – Singles star Leylah Fernandez and doubles specialist Gabriela Dabrowski will anchor Canada’s five-player lineup when the team tries to defend its Billie Jean King Cup title in mid-November.
The 26th-ranked Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open finalist from Laval, Que., is the lone Canadian in the top 100 of the WTA Tour’s singles rankings.
Dabrowski, from Ottawa, is ranked fourth on the doubles list. The 2023 U.S. Open women’s doubles champion won mixed doubles bronze with Felix Auger-Aliassime at the recent Paris Olympics.
Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, Ont., returns after a breakout performance last year, capped by her singles win in Canada’s 2-0 victory over Italy in the final. Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino is also back and Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion from Mississauga, Ont., returns to the squad for the first time since 2022.
“Winning the Billie Jean King Cup in 2023 was a dream come true for us, and not only that, but I feel like we made a statement to the world about the strength of this nation when it comes to tennis,” Canada captain Heidi El Tabakh said Monday in a release. “Once again, we have a very strong team this year with Bianca joining Leylah, Gaby, Rebecca and Marina, making it an extremely powerful team that is more than capable of going all the way.
“At the end of the day, our goal is to make Canada proud, and we’ll do our best to bring the same level of effort and excitement that we had in last year’s finals.”
Fernandez, who beat Jasmine Paolini to clinch Canada’s first-ever title at the competition, is ranked No. 42 in doubles.
Canada, which received an automatic berth as defending champion, will play the winner of the first-round tie between Great Britain and Germany on Nov. 17 at Malaga’s Martin Carpena Arena.
Australia, Italy and wild-card entry Czechia also received first-round byes. The tournament, which continues through Nov. 20, also includes host Spain, Slovakia, the United States, Poland, Japan and Romania.
Stakusic is up 27 spots to No. 128 in the latest world singles rankings. Marino is at No. 134 and Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, is ranked 167th.
Canada will look to become the first team since Czechia in 2016 to successfully defend its Billie Jean King Cup title.
Malaga will also host the Nov. 19-24 Davis Cup Final 8. The Canadian men qualified over the weekend with a 2-1 victory over Great Britain in Manchester.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
PITTSBURGH – Sidney Crosby plans to remain a Pittsburgh Penguin for at least three more years.
The Penguins announced on Monday that they re-signed the 37-year-old from Cole Harbour, N.S., to a two-year contract extension that has an average annual value of US$8.7 million. The deal runs through the 2026-27 season.
Crosby was eligible to sign an extension on July 1 with him entering the final season of a 12-year, $104.4-million deal that carries an $8.7-million salary cap hit.
At the NHL/NHLPA player media tour in Las Vegas last Monday, he said things were positive and he was optimistic about a deal getting done.
The three-time Stanley Cup champion is coming off a 42-goal, 94-point campaign that saw him finish tied for 12th in the league scoring race.
Crosby has spent all 19 of his NHL seasons in Pittsburgh, amassing 592 goals and 1,004 assists in 1,272 career games.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Tadej Pogacar was so dominant on Sunday, Canada’s Michael Woods called it a race for second.
Pogacar, a three-time Tour de France champion from Slovenia, pedalled to a resounding victory at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montreal.
The UAE Team Emirates leader crossed the finish line 24 seconds ahead of Spain’s Pello Bilbao of Bahrain — Victorious to win the demanding 209.1-kilometre race on a sunny, 28 C day in Montreal. France’s Julian Alaphilippe of Soudal Quick-Step was third.
“He’s the greatest rider of all time, he’s a formidable opponent,” said Woods, who finished 45 seconds behind the leader in eighth. “If you’re not at your very, very best, then you can forget racing with him, and today was kind of representative of that.
“He’s at such a different level that if you follow him, it can be lights out.”
Pogacar slowed down before the last turn to celebrate with the crowd, high-five fans on Avenue du Parc and cruise past the finish line with his arms in the air after more than five hours on the bike.
The 25-year-old joined Belgium’s Greg Van Avermaet as the only multi-time winners in Montreal after claiming the race in 2022. He also redeemed a seventh-place finish at the Quebec City Grand Prix on Friday.
“I was disappointed, because I had such good legs that I didn’t do better than seventh,” Pogacar said. “To bounce back after seventh to victory here, it’s just an incredible feeling.”
It’s Pogacar’s latest win in a dominant year that includes victories at the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.
Ottawa’s Woods (Israel Premier-Tech) tied a career-best in front of the home crowd in Montreal, but hoped for more after claiming a stage at the Spanish Vuelta two weeks ago.
“I wanted a better result,” the 37-year-old rider said. “My goal was a podium, but at the same time I’m happy with the performance. In bike racing, you can’t always get the result you want and I felt like I raced really well, I animated the race, I felt like I was up there.”
Pogacar completed the 17 climbs up and down Mount Royal near downtown in five hours 28 minutes 15 seconds.
He made his move with 23.3 kilometres to go, leaving the peloton in his dust as he pedalled into the lead — one he never relinquished.
Bilbao, Alaphilippe, Alex Aranburu (Movistar Team) and Bart Lemmen (Visma–Lease) chased in a group behind him, with Bilbao ultimately separating himself from the pack. But he never came close to catching Pogacar, who built a 35-second lead with one lap left to go.
“It was still a really hard race today, but the team was on point,” Pogacar said. “We did really how we planned, and the race situation was good for us. We make it hard in the last final laps, and they set me up for a (takeover) two laps to go, and it was all perfect.”
Ottawa’s Derek Gee, who placed ninth in this year’s Tour de France, finished 48th in Montreal, and called it a “hard day” in the heat.
“I think everyone knows when you see Tadej on the start line that it’s just going to be full gas,” Gee said.
Israel Premier-Tech teammate Hugo Houle of Sainte-Perpétue, Que., was 51st.
Houle said he heard Pogacar inform his teammates on the radio that he was ready to attack with two laps left in the race.
“I said then, well, clearly it’s over for me,” Houle said. “You see, cycling isn’t that complicated.”
Australia’s Michael Matthews won the Quebec City GP for a record third time on Friday, but did not finish in Montreal. The two races are the only North American events on the UCI World Tour.
Michael Leonard of Oakville, Ont., and Gil Gelders and Dries De Bondt of Belgium broke away from the peloton during the second lap. Leonard led the majority of the race before losing pace with 45 kilometres to go.
Only 89 of 169 riders from 24 teams — including the Canadian national team — completed the gruelling race that features 4,573 metres in total altitude.
Next up, the riders will head to the world championships in Zurich, Switzerland from Sept. 21 to 29.
Pogacar will try to join Eddy Merckx (1974) and Stephen Roche (1987) as the only men to win three major titles in a season — known as the Triple Crown.
“Today gave me a lot of confidence, motivation,” Pogacar said. “I think we are ready for world championships.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
