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Report: MLB Revisiting Postseason Bubble Amid Recent COVID Outbreaks
MLB’s corona-abbreviated 2020 season has gotten off to a rocky start with two teams—the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals—playing catch-up in the wake of recent coronavirus outbreaks. Both clubs were admittedly lax in following league protocols but even if Miami and St. Louis are more attentive going forward, the possibility of further COVID complications across MLB still exists. Just this past weekend, the Indians were forced to reprimand—and subsequently quarantine—two of their starting pitchers for going off premises during their trip to Chicago.
With those concerns in mind, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reports that MLB is considering a playoff format similar to the “bubble” models successfully adopted by both the NBA and NHL. MLB workshopped constructing its own bubble environment as early as April (Phoenix was considered the favorite to host games) but the idea was ultimately back-burnered after the league faced significant resistance from players, many of whom had no interest in being away from their family for the better part of four months. But with over a billion in TV revenue at stake, baseball can’t afford any more setbacks. MLB needs the postseason to go off without a hitch and restricting cross-country travel by playing all of its games in the same general vicinity would seem to accomplish that.
A neutral-site World Series would be unprecedented but with home-field advantage already essentially meaningless in a year without fans, now seems as good a time as any to break with tradition. If MLB does opt for a postseason bubble, the league would likely follow the NHL’s lead in establishing two or more “hub” cities where games would be held. New York and Chicago each have two venues at their disposal, though Los Angeles is probably the more likely host site given the comparatively warmer climate of Southern California.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, one proposal being considered would be for the National League to stage games at Dodger Stadium with the American League playing its October slate at Angel Stadium in nearby Anaheim. With MLB debuting an expanded 16-team postseason in 2020, Dodger and Angel Stadiums may not have the bandwidth to hold all those games, which is why Petco Park in San Diego (roughly two hours south of Los Angeles) could serve as a third site, at least for the best-of-three Wild Card round. Bay Area parks in Oakland and San Francisco could also be called upon if the league requires additional stadium space to accommodate its 16 playoff teams.
Though MLB seems to be leaning toward Southern California for hosting duties, East Coast and Midwest hubs have also been discussed. In that scenario, Citi Field (Mets), Yankee Stadium, Citizen’s Bank Park (Phillies), Nationals Park and Camden Yards (Orioles) would comprise MLB’s proposed East Coast hub with Guaranteed Rate Field (White Sox), Wrigley Field (Cubs) and Miller Park (Brewers) the favorites to host the league’s Midwest slate.
Passan acknowledged logistical challenges in adopting a postseason bubble. Among other issues, the league would have to navigate earlier-than-usual start times (before noon local time in some cases), limited practice availability and enough time between games to thoroughly disinfect clubhouses. But in the absence of a better idea amid the most harrowing year of our collective lives, October baseball in Southern California could be where the 2020 season is headed.
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MAC Becomes First FBS Conference to Cancel Football Season Over COVID Concerns
The Mid-American Conference has canceled its football season this fall because of player health and safety concerns regarding COVID-19.
The decision was made Saturday morning after league presidents met to discuss the upcoming 2020 season and voted to cancel it. Northern Illinois president Lisa Freeman, a former research scientist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, indicated on Thursday reportedly that her school would not play this fall because of the health and safety concerns according to Brett McMurphy of Stadium Sports.
The MAC also reportedly lost $10.5 million dollars because of the Power Five’s decision to eliminate or reduce non-conference games and Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports said the conference was left with only five "pay" games with the Power 5 left in 2020.
Thamel also says the MAC could explore the spring as a potential option to play games.
The decision on Saturday also cancels all other fall sports at Mid-American Conference schools.
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Phillies and Marlins Set to Play Five-Day, Seven-Game Series in September
Let’s play two … or seven. Usually seven-game series are reserved for the playoffs, but with 22 games to make up following the league’s recent wave of COVID outbreaks, MLB schedule-makers have gotten increasingly creative with their methods. Beginning September 10, the Phillies and Marlins will embark on an unprecedented seven-game set in Miami comprised of games Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday with doubleheaders slated for both Friday and Sunday.
The teams will get a slight reprieve thanks to MLB adopting seven-inning doubleheaders for the remainder of 2020, shaving a combined eight innings off Friday and Sunday’s twin offerings. To accommodate the NL East rivals, who are making up for lost time following last week’s coronavirus-necessitated hiatus, the start of Boston’s series in Miami was pushed back from September 14 to the following day.
It’s going to be a hectic finish for the Marlins, who close the season with an exhausting 27 games in 23 days. According to the Associated Press, that includes a frantic span of four doubleheaders in 10 calendar days. Miami’s weeklong layoff and subsequent roster shakeup amid a rash of positive COVID tests gives the Fish little margin for error. Luckily, Miami’s seven-game meetup with Philadelphia will be staged at retractable-roof Marlins Park, preventing weather from further complicating an already-ambitious schedule.
The Marlins and Phillies aren’t the only ones being stretched thin. To make up for last week’s string of postponements, the Cardinals and Brewers have added three doubleheaders to their September slates. In a rare scheduling quirk, Milwaukee will serve as the nominal home team for Game 1 of September 25th’s planned twin bill at Busch Stadium.
With five doubleheaders on tap for the each of the Phillies, Cardinals and Marlins—and maybe another one in the hopper for St. Louis following Friday’s scrapped game against the Cubs—there won’t be much rest for the weary in MLB. Such is life in the COVID age.
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NHL Reports Zero Positive Coronavirus Tests Out of Over 7,000 Administered
As the saying goes, two out of three ain't bad.
The "two" here refers to the NBA and the NHL. The NBA's success within their Orlando bubble has been highly publicized and may even be the format of the league for the 2020-21 season (see video above), and the NHL reported similarly encouraging news on Monday afternoon.
NHL statement on COVID-19 testing results: pic.twitter.com/bjPuANz8Sq— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) August 3, 2020The other phases of the NHL's Return to Play protocol involved self-isolation (Phase 1), voluntary on- and off-ice training (Phase 2) and formal training camps (Phase 3). The movement into the hub cities and return to play represented the end of Phase 3 and start of Phase 4, and, as the test results indicate, the process has been a resounding success. For more details and dates regarding the Return to Play plan, check out our summary here.
Like the NHL, the NBA reported two consecutive rounds of coronavirus testing where zero of the 344 tests came back positive (via Shams Charania).
Unfortunately, the "two out of three ain't bad" expression indicates that one is bad. Major League Baseball has dealt with a pair of coronavirus outbreaks within a team, as both the Marlins and the Cardinals experienced multiple positive tests and had to temporarily but their seasons -- as well as those of their opponents -- on hold. There have been murmurs that the season will not be able to go on like this, but commissioner Rob Manfred was adamant in telling ESPN that "there is no reason to quit now."
But MLB's problems are a different story. As for the bubble used by the NBA and the hub used by the NHL, the returns to game action have gone well and we have to admire the efforts from the league's executives in coming up with a plan, and the players and coaches for following through with the rules.
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Reports: Cardinals Game Postponed After Positive COVID-19 Tests
ST. LOUIS, Mo (KMOX) -- According to reports, the Cardinals game vs. the Brewers today has been postponed due to positive coronavirus tests.
RADIO.COM Sports MLB Insider Jon Heyman tweeted that the game would be postponed over positive tests from the Cardinals.
Brewers-Cardinsls game tonight postponed due to positive test— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 31, 2020Sources: Cardinals had positive tests, forcing postponement— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 31, 2020Joel Sherman of the New York Post added that the Cardinals are currently isolating at their hotel in Milwaukee, while Craig Mish says that he's hearing there are only two Cardinals who are infected.
The game has been called off in the same week a large outbreak affecting the Miami Marlins led to the indefinite suspension of the team's season. The Philadelphia Phillies ballpark, Citizens' Bank Park, was also ruled out of commission while it was being sanitized after the Marlins played their season-opening series there last week.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred expressed optimism earlier this week that the league could successfully navigate positive tests over the shortened 60-game season while keeping players safe. The league's owners did not discuss suspending or cancelling the season on a regularly scheduled Monday conference call, Manfred said.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more details come in.
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Anthony Fauci Baseball Card Shatters Sales Record for Topps Now
After 50 Cent threw an infamously horrible first pitch at Citi Field, the well-known sports card company Topps decided to honor the moment as part of a new series in the 2015 set. Never before had Topps created a series to honor first pitches, and the results were awesome. 50 Cent was joined by actor Jeff Bridges, rock star Eddie Vedder, guitarist Tom Morello and several others.
Of course, like his notoriously awful pitch, 50 Cent's card stole the show. The back of the card started off with a solid pun -- "When it comes to memorable ceremonial first pitches, 50 Cent is certainly 'In Da Club' -- and recapped the pitch that "nearly hit a photographer." The front showed the rapper in action.
Plus, @toppscards will commemorate @50cent's memorable 1st pitch with this special #FirstPitch card! #Mets pic.twitter.com/5gvuQuXGVN— New York Mets (@Mets) February 4, 2015The 2016 set featured more First Pitch cards, including those of golfer Jordan Spieth, basketball player Kristaps Porzingis, Boston Marathon bombing survivor Rebekah Gregory, and several more. The cards are fun, they're unexpected and they were certainly popular among the fans.
Thus, when Topps Now released a card featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci tossing out his memorable first pitch to open the 2020 MLB season (at a $9.99 price), it should come as no surprise that there were a lot of interested fans. But just how many fans is staggering.
The Dr. Anthony Fauci card is now the best selling card in ToppsNow history, with 51,512 cards sold in 24 hours. Obliterates previous record of 19,396 cards sold of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s debut hit. pic.twitter.com/jnyWkwQgue— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 27, 2020The premise of Topps Now is that cards representing notable events are created immediately after those events occur. The catch is that those cards are only available for purchase for 24 hours after their release, and so you have to be quick if you want to get your hands on these cards.
Apparently, 51,512 people were ready in that 24-hour span. That means that nearly 36 cards were being purchased every minute after release. As Rovell mentioned, Guerrero Jr.'s card held the previous record, trailed by two Shohei Ohtani cards, an Aaron Judge card and Bryce Harper's first Phillies card. The Topps Now archive details these sales statistics.
The copy editors of this card were not as harsh as those who created the 50 Cent card, though, neglecting to mention that Fauci's pitch was nowhere close to where Sean Doolittle was set up. Instead, it reads as follows:
Dr. Anthony Fauci, longtime Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and ardent Washington Nationals fan, signaled the official start of the 2020 MLB regular season by throwing out the first pitch before the Nationals took on the Yankees on Thursday evening. The 79-year-old Brooklyn native, donning a Nationals jersey, hat and facemask, fired a strong effort to the plate before the Nationals took the field.
Before we go any further, let's compare the two pitches.
Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch before the Nationals-Yankees game. pic.twitter.com/04Tbkh7Voa— ESPN (@espn) July 23, 2020Fauci commented on the pitch in an interview with RADIO.COM affiliate 1010 WINS.
"Oh my goodness, I bounced it," Fauci said. "The mound looked like it was 150 feet away from the plate. It looks much further when you’re up there, that’s for sure."
It's nearly impossible to be critical of the 79-year-old's slightly underwhelming pitch, especially when he's got a few other things on his mind.
Major League Baseball now has to deal with Fauci's area of expertise, perhaps more than ever before. With a new explosion of COVID-19 cases affecting the Marlins' roster, both the Marlins-Orioles series and the Phillies-Yankees opening game have been called off, leaving the MLB season to hang in the balance.
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NFLPA Accepts Offer to Scrap All Preseason Games; Roster Sizes of 80 Expected for Training Camp
Household names like J.J. Watt, Todd Gurley and Patrick Mahomes have grown increasingly impatient with the NFL in recent days, clogging Twitter feeds with their #WeWantToPlay rallying cry as commissioner Roger Goodell has continued to drag his feet on establishing league-wide protocols to combat COVID-19. Amid escalating tensions, the NFL has made a rare concession, appeasing the players’ union by offering to scrap the entire preseason.
It’s a huge victory for the players, as they formally accepted the offer on Tuesday evening, who have long campaigned for fewer exhibition games, citing their relative insignificance (the preseason has always served fringe-roster types more than veterans) and the injury risk they present.
From @GMFB: The NFL offered the NFLPA zero preseason games as part of negotiations, which means that's how many there will be. Goodbye preseason games, at least for 2020 ✌🏽 pic.twitter.com/dbLGcQVlKi— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) July 21, 2020With so little time to prepare for the season amid unprecedented circumstances—training camp will represent each team’s first organized workouts of the offseason—it’s no surprise the preseason became a casualty of the coronavirus.
Among other things discussed in the NFLPA's call on Tuesday included the expectation roster sizes of 80 to start camp, a voluntary and high-risk opt-out plan and a stipend for the event of lost games. The union is still pushing for a longer ramp-up period toward camp, per NFL Network's Tom Peliserro.
Updates from NFLPA call with players tonight:- No preseason games in 2020- Union still pushing for longer ramp-up period in camp- Roster sizes expected to be 80 to start camp- General agreement on voluntary and high-risk opt-out- General agreement on stipend if games lost— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) July 21, 2020The league had slowly been moving toward scrapping the preseason for months, reducing the number of preseason games from four to two, one and eventually zero. With stadiums unlikely to accommodate fans—the Giants and Jets, among others, won’t permit spectators at games until further notice—teams had little financial incentive to hold exhibition matchups, which surely made it easier for the NFL to pull the plug on its doomed preseason slate.
Considering football is a contact sport, limiting exposure to the virus by staging as few games as possible would seem to be a wise move. Minimizing travel has also been a point of emphasis in sports as MLB and two of the NCAA’s Power Five conferences (the Big Ten and Pac-12) have already opted for localized schedules. Those factors along with continued uncertainty over COVID protocols and best practices ultimately made the preseason expendable.
While Golden Tate and others have been vocal in opposing the league’s preseason, which, to be fair, has never been the most aesthetically-pleasing brand of football, exhibition games have traditionally served as a showcase for end-of-the-roster players hoping to make their NFL dreams come true.
Now that opportunity has been dashed, putting players without established roles in a uniquely vulnerable position. Even rookies or promising up-and-comers could see their development stunted without preseason game reps to fall back on.
Of course, the NFL, like all of us, is just trying to make the most of a bad situation.
So long, NFL preseason. We’ll see you in 2021.
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Texans' J.J. Watt Lists Unknowns About 2020 NFL Season
(SportsRadio 610) -- Players still have a lot of unanswered questions about the 2020 NFL season.
It becomes even more concerning with rookies scheduled to report to training camp on Saturday.
Texans defensive end J.J. Watt has joined hundreds of players on four calls with the NFLPA in the last two weeks, and they still don't have "a single valid" Infections Disease Emergency Response plan, he said Thursday on Twitter.
"We don't know if there are preseason games or not. We don't know if there will be daily testing, semi-daily testing, etc. We don't know how a potential Covid test would affect contracts, roster spots, etc. Nothing has been agreed upon regarding what training camp will actually look like and how the 'ramp up' period will work."
Watt reiterated that players want to play, but these questions remain unanswered.
An NFL proposal sent to the NFLPA Tuesday night included two preseason games, but the union does not want any preseason games and has called for daily COVID-19 testing.
The union also wants for positive COVID-19 tests to be classified as a non-football injury.
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Big Ten Announces Member Schools Will Only Face Conference Opponents This Fall
Amid continued coronavirus uncertainty, the Big Ten dropped a bombshell Thursday, announcing the league will only schedule games against conference opponents this fall. In doing so, the Big Ten becomes the first of the Power Five leagues to adopt a conference-only model for fall sports. The ACC had previously announced a delay to Olympic sports (soccer, volleyball, cross-country and field hockey) while the Ivy League plans to curtail its athletic programs until at least January 1.
The Big Ten is expected to announce today that it will go with a conference-only football schedule for this fall, a person with direct knowledge situation tells @TheAthleticCFB.— Nicole Auerbach 😷 (@NicoleAuerbach) July 9, 2020Choosing to eschew its non-conference slate is an unprecedented measure by the Big Ten, but it’s probably what is needed right now. We’ve seen professional leagues take drastic steps to reduce travel, hoping to limit players’ exposure to the virus (the NBA and NHL are both resuming in restrictive “bubble” environments), and it seems colleges are beginning to follow suit.
Thursday’s landmark announcement comes as a major blow to college football—the NCAA’s biggest moneymaker by far—effectively wiping out marquee games featuring Ohio State and Oregon, Wisconsin versus Notre Dame and Penn State against Virginia Tech, among other highly-anticipated matchups.
The first major domino among Power 5 conferences...Lost non-con games would include:Ohio State at OregonWisconsin vs. Notre DamePenn State at Va TechMichigan at WashingtonIowa vs. Iowa StateMichigan State at BYUCincy at Nebraska. https://t.co/Ehm7wuW9WC— Jesse Simonton (@JesseReSimonton) July 9, 2020With the college sports season fast approaching, the NCAA finds itself in a race against the clock. Will football and other sports delay their seasons or will other conferences follow the Big Ten’s lead in adopting abbreviated, conference-only schedules in a last-ditch effort to keep the fall sports season alive? With COVID-19 not showing any signs of slowing down (in fact, its prevalence has increased in many areas of the country), the upcoming fall sports season—and the reopening of colleges in general—remains very much in flux.
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NFLPA Recommends League Cancel All Preseason Games
Earlier this week, the NFL announced plans to cut two games off its anticipated preseason slate in response to the continuing coronavirus pandemic. Now the players association is petitioning the NFL to scrap its preseason altogether. Union reps voted on the issue during a Thursday conference call and submitted a formal recommendation the following night.
Abandoning the preseason would be unprecedented and obviously wouldn’t bode well for the league’s plans to resume play as scheduled this fall. ESPN’s Dan Graziano reports the players addressed a myriad of topics during their Thursday conference call, discussing safety measures aimed at combatting the virus. NFLPA medical director Thom Mayer, who urged players to stop conducting group workouts amid the continued prevalence of COVID-19 (advice that has seemingly fallen on deaf ears), was among those present for Thursday night’s call. With training camp on the horizon, the league is hoping to finalize its safety protocols, which could include protective masks and reduced roster sizes, in the relatively near future.
Players didn’t seem too broken up about the NFL’s decision to slash its preseason from four games to two, with Golden Tate and others expressing their disdain for the league’s laughable exhibition slate. Though owners and front-office types would argue the preseason has merit, allowing coaches a longer look at fringe roster types while giving veterans a chance to shed some of their rust, established players with little to gain see it for the farce that it is, a shameless money grab designed to boost ticket revenue and increase brand exposure. It’s also an inherently risky proposition—more than a few stars have been lost to injuries suffered in meaningless preseason games.
With COVID continuing to wreak havoc, the players have as good an excuse as they’ll ever have to backburner its tedious preseason schedule. Doing so would mean we’d have to wait a little longer for football, but the imminent returns of baseball, hockey and NBA hoops should still give fans plenty of sports fodder to occupy their time in the coming months.
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