Baseball Should Just Cancel Season After Marlins Outbreak

He wouldn't call it what it was when asked by MLB Network's Tom Verducci, but for Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred, he truly does have a "nightmare" on his hands.

Word came down Monday that the Miami Marlins had as many as 11 players and two coaches test positive for COVID-19 after their final game in Philadelphia, a game that oddly enough was played despite the fact that three Marlins had tested positive before game time, yet Major League Baseball allowed the Marlins decide for themselves whether to play or not.

How is that possible in today's day an age? And Manfred had the audacity to tell fans across America that Major League Baseball has protocols to handle the virus. Malarkey.

Even Dodgers pitcher David Price said as much in a Twitter post that part of the reason he opted out of the 2020 season was because he felt baseball didn't take the appropriate steps to protect the players.

Now the results from a three month battle over money between baseball and the players union has reared its ugly head.

As a result, the Marlins two home gamse against the Baltimore Orioles were postponed. The Yankees game against Philadelphia was also scrapped. Manfred gave no indication when those games would be made up. And this is supposed to be a legitimate 60-game season.

There is no telling where the Marlins may have picked up the virus. Chances are they got it in Florida, a state that is the capital for COVID-19 related cases right now after the state didn't take the virus seriously enough during the spring and early summer.

Whatever the case, the Philadelphia Phillies with whom the Marlins played this past weekend were surely exposed; so much so that the Philly clubhouse staff that served the visitors locker room are in quarantine.

And remember this is the same Phillies organization that went through its own surge of cases - about a dozen before baseball summer camp kicked off.

Manfred can sit there tell people that MLB expected cases to "prop up," but the reality is baseball could have been more proactive in their approach. Many suggested baseball should have gone into a bubble, but the players didn't want that, and that bubble would have been in Florida and Arizona -- two COVID-19 hotbeds.

The most obvious thing baseball could have done was simply suck up its own pride, realize that the season was lost and canceled the season. Yes that would have meant lost television revenue. That also would have meant lost service time and lost dollars for the players, but the facts are the facts, players safety is paramount for the game today, for the game tomorrow.

Now the entire sports world sits and waits to see what the latest round of tests reveal for the Philadelphia Phillies. If it's bleak, what will baseball do next? What will the trickle down effect be for the NFL? The NBA? The NHL? Major League Soccer?

If baseball cares about safety, and if they listen to the health experts, they will understand that COVID-19 can spread and spread like wild fire. Baseball has put its players, the staffs of each organization as well as the employees at team hotels and flights at great risk. All it takes is one guy to carry the virus to pass it on to someone else.

And here we are, five days into the season, some players are wearing masks, many are not. Many players are not taking the proper precautions and are still spitting and snorting all over the dugout, the field, what have you; it's a train-wreck. Nobody seems to understand nor care, and nobody is doing their part well enough.

Baseball players are creatures of habit, asking them to change all of their habits when it relates to game preparation and clubhouse activity is asking a lot.  Heck there was even a story by Jeff Passon that quoted one player who admitted all it would take to ruin the season would be one guy on the road to have sex with a woman who may carry the virus, or go partying with people who may have it asymptomatically. Anything is possible.

Don't believe me, look at the streets in New York City for example where youngsters are out having a good time and not social distancing.

This is a disaster for baseball.

Baseball's dilemma is not going to end just here, it will continue. The longer games are played, the more likely the spread of Coronavirus will continue, and the more likely we will see another explosion of the virus on a team or teams. What then if we are sitting here in mid-August and half the league is forced to use their taxi squads, and then those squads get infected as well?

Suck it up Mr. Manfred. Mr. Tony Clark, the President of the Baseball Player's Union. Stop the insanity before someone seriously gets sick. Cancel the season, and save baseball for tomorrow.