There's more to that story than they're telling. They said the Marlins were following the safety procedures. From the telecasts I've watched the players are playing pretty loose with the guidelines. A lot of lowered mouthpieces and people standing shoulder to shoulder. Masks don't do any good if you uncover your mouth to speak. What they should be doing is having only the 9 or 10 (with the DH) players actually in the game sitting in the dugout. The rest should be spread out in the stands with their equipment. You make a substitution- the player from the stands goes directly to the field. The player being replaced should head to the clubhouse- or leave the ballpark entirely if they drove there in their own vehicles. The players who are injured or definitely not playing that day shouldn't be there at all. No reason to come to the park.

UCD baseball (assuming it still has a team come winter quarter) can do all of this. I've said it before- there's no reason for injured players and redshirts to be in the dugout. They don't even need to be in uniform. Starting pitchers who are charting pitches on their off- days can sit in the stands. Reserves can just chill out in either the baseball or soccer stands (or even bring a chair and sit on the soccer field) until needed with one of the coaches, All these extra players in the dugout means they don't have room for a bucket of baseballs and that means someone running down the steps almost every inning to give them 3 or 4 balls and blocking people's view. I don't know why they even have redshirts fetching bats + delivering baseballs anyway. There aren't any skills learned. The regulars are not exempted from menial tasks. If they get hurt picking up a bat during a timeout it's their fault.

I think if UCD baseball does play in 2021 they might as well close the games to spectators (even parents) When you consider all the people getting free passes and bringing outside food. the ticket and concession income probably does not offset all the costs of having fans in attendance. Every penny is going to matter going forward.

I agree; from the little I’ve watched , they don’t seem to be follow their protocols. And who knows what is happening away from the field.

I'm watching watching the BOS/NYM game right now. They just showed Alex Verdugo walking past his teammate much closer than six feet yelling that he had a hot microphone. Neither player. had a mask on.

It's almost as if there was a reason that the NBA and NHL are doing a bubble.

It certainly seems like MLB is going to try and power through, positive tests be damned. The problem becomes if things get delayed. Are they going to tack on these games at the end of the season? They've already added on a few extra days to the postseason with the added round. You know they don't want to go any farther into November with the World Series than is absolutely necessary.

This also doesn't bode well for the NFL since there's obviously much more close contact than in MLB. As for college, I'm not entirely sure how they go about having any sort of a season. You've got the money issue for one. The players aren't getting paid. Then there's the issue of them being college students, most of whom are probably living at home right now. So you're going to move them back to college just to play sports. Major conference football I'm sure they'll push through because there's so much money involved. Smaller conference football and lesser sports are way less likely to be played. Just push things to the spring and see where we're at then. This thing didn't really blow up here until April. So in four months we've seen deaths and cases skyrocket, then cases leveled off/dropped a bit while deaths dropped dramatically, and now cases and deaths are increasing again, all in a four month span. So who knows where we'll be on Jan 1.

Now that Fox Sports is inserting digital fans in the stands that can cheer, boo, and leave early when the game stinks, makes you wonder if we’d really notice if the players were all digital inserts as well. Arguably an AI umpire or ref would be far more objective.

I was thinking this would have been the perfect time for an AI plate umpire for balls and strikes, a distanced human ump for plays at the plate (thankfully the days of Jackie Robinson stealing home are long gone). They added the extra inning ‘start at second’ rule, why not a COVID-free robo plate umpire?

I saw that at least 1 collegiate baseball summer league- the Northwoods League- is playing right now. Most of their teams are in MN/WI/IA, but there are some in MI and ND too. Not only that (and this probably varies by team), but the Rochester (MN) Honkers team at least is allowed to even have a couple hundred paying fans in attendance. Smaller communities that aren't in COVID- 19 hot spots I guess. It's something at least.

What really is puzzling is how are they handling the housing ? The players typically stay with host families- are the families expected to take regular COVID- 19 tests as well, I wonder ? Seems like they split the league up into several regions this year, so strictly regional play before the playoffs seems like what they're doing to limit travel.

I don't know this for certain but I believe a few of the Northwoods parks were featured in the film Major Leagues:Back to the Minors. Technically the team in the film was the Salt Lake Buzz (now called the Bees), but it stands to reason those parks are in MN, considering a good portion of the film was shot at the Metrodome.

I almost wonder if leagues have determined that imperfect referees and umpires make more money than perfect ones, they certainly make the news more. We may be at a point where, with enough camera angles, AI could probably be taught to make objective calls at home plate and the line of scrimmage. And might not be far off from being able to watch more complex parts of plays as well. Would it make the game better or worse if every instance of holding in the backfield was called? Hard to say. But what we can say with certainty is that the Astros and Patriots would be first in line to try and find some way to cheat or confuse the technology.

Football and basketball would be really hard since judgement plays a big role. A good ref learns how to make good non-calls that have no impact on a play and allows a good pace of play. Seems hard to program into AI. But using cameras or sensors for ball placement or in bounds/out of bounds seems like a good idea

Baseball is more cut and dry, or should be. I’d start with balls and strikes (and probably fair/foul), with a distanced home plate ump for plays.

Courageous new NCAA rules to confront the COVID virus announced today. “THIS WILL MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE!”
Both men and woman soccer players who spit on or at opponent players will now be told to sit out two games instead of the current one game sit.
You gotta be proud of our brave and dedicated NCAA to make these very tough decisions.
Other new anti COVID rules involve the football coin toss where now only the two team captains can attend with an official instead of four.
Probably Totally ineffectual, but I guess they are trying to be relevant. Somewhat funny, but very sad when you think about it.

Those are some pretty lame excuses for precautions. If one game didn't deter spitting, two games won't. I didn't know it was such a huge problem in college soccer. I thought it was more of an accident from tripping or hard contact on the field. What are you going to do- not spit when you get elbowed in the stomach or face ? If it's intentional maybe U.S. soccer should just be cancelled and the sport should just be left to the rest of the world. Or maybe just stick a fork in UCD men's soccer and re- balance by cancelling field hockey ? Maybe they could turn the field into a sanctuary for unicorns ?

I think that sport is kinda dumb anyhow. It's just soccer with sticks instead of kicking.

Outkick: FLORIDA, TEXAS, AND CALIFORNIA HAVE A FRACTION OF COVID DEATHS OF NEW YORK, by CLAY TRAVIS

"As the number of confirmed coronavirus cases surged in Florida, Texas, and Arizona over the past six weeks a breathless media covered the daily numbers with fever pitch intensity. America was in the grips of a second wave they gleefully reported, the deaths we’d seen in New York were now poised to descend upon red states that had opened up too quickly...."

"And then, just as the media feeding frenzy was poised to take off to unimaginable levels, the deaths never came...."

"Here are the deaths per 1 million rate in this country for all fifty states:

1. New Jersey 1,792
2. New York 1,685
13. Arizona 519
19. Colorado 320
28. California 238
37. South Dakota 153
39. North Dakota 138
47. Montana 60

"These two states literally have the worst death rate in the entire world.... [per capita basis]

New Jersey 1,792
New York 1,685
Belgium 849
England 680
Spain 608
Peru 594
Italy 582
Sweden 568* [No lockdown]
Chile 502
United States 478

" “How is it possible that New York has fewer cases and more deaths than California, Texas, and Florida combined? Especially when Florida, Texas, and California have 90 million people living in their three states compared to New York’s 19.5 million"..."

https://www.outkick.com/florida-texas-and-california-have-a-fraction-of-covid-deaths-of-new-york/

I don't believe they should be postponing all fall sports until spring, just cancelling them. We're still going to be dealing with COVID- 19 in the spring + this is putting at least a couple hundred more student athletes and coaches in the city when they normally wouldn't be.

It also creates a bit of a scheduling headache, since there are a few teams that share facilities. Volleyball would need to play all its matches at Hickey Gym until basketball is done. It's my understanding that the men's + women's water polo teams' schedules usually don't overlap. Lacrosse plays its games at the football stadium, right ?

And here's the big one. Baseball and soccer can't be playing in the Dobbins Stadium complex at the same time. It's not just that foul balls can wind up on the soccer field. Fans watching the soccer game could be struck because their backs are to the game. You'd pretty much have to play weekend soccer games in the morning (like 9 or 9:30) when baseball is home playing in the afternoon. Soccer would have to play early because you can't have them waiting on the completion of an extra- inning ball game. Soccer, however, has a clock. And since the complex doesn't have lights that really limits flexibilty.

It will be interesting to see how they handle it.

You are correct that solving double bookings in the rainy season isn't always easy. It's not just the games, but the practice times, or even logistics of irrigation and striping. I'm sure it is solvable, especially if spectators aren't involved. There could be practice space on IM fields, the ARC, or new rec pool if recreation activities are still off. But you're right that the juice may not be worth the squeeze unless things dramatically improve. At least college athletes and fans usually have some level of cooperation. As a funny aside, I once learned you can't schedule a high school cheerleading competition and lacrosse for the same weekend because they beat the tar out of one another. The incident report included something about aerosol glitter to the eyes, cleats to the head, and somehow a toilet getting shattered.

CDC: A Quarter of Young Adults Say They Contemplated Suicide This Summer During Pandemic

https://fee.org/articles/cdc-a-quarter-of-young-adults-say-they-contemplated-suicide-this-summer-during-pandemic/amp?__twitter_impression=true

Todd Lowdon@tlowdon
·
"Keep calm & carry on. Franklin Templeton-Gallup survey finds inordinate fear of C19 health consequences for anyone under 65. "This misperception translates directly into a degree of fear for one’s health that for most people vastly exceeds the actual risk."

https://twitter.com/tlowdon/status/1295785277093367808?s=20

https://twitter.com/brithume/status/1295693228096839681?s=20

Football has become political: Republican Governors allow football; most Democrat Governors don't.

https://twitter.com/Outkick/status/1295928223046361091?s=20

Well, as you all know, it is not turning out very promising for the schools that decided to open up early. UNC, Penn, Tenn, ND and especially Purdue (whose Prez is a former GOP Governor), all are, mostly cancelling on campus classes To remote classes after opening up for in-class instruction. (It is driving the faculty nuts). Not so for the athletes. They have to stay and be potentially exposed.
So, yes to movie, we have politicized the game of football. But, then in these times, what is not political like the dog I saw being walked yesterday wearing a MAGA collar?

Andrew Bostom@andrewbostom

"1/ Very Reassuring U.S. Return To Campus C19 News: ZERO reported C19 hospitalizations despite >11,000 students testing C19+, i.e., being declared “C19 cases” "

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1302377713697804289?s=20

Stephen S. Luther, MD@SLutherMD
·
Sep 4
Replying to @andrewbostom

"Although the test results and zero hospitalizations for this population are not surprising, I’m astonished the academicians hired to educate our students find such large scale asymptomatic testing for low risk people a scientifically prudent thing to do."

https://twitter.com/SLutherMD/status/1302052269156859909?s=20

This :

Doesn't Sweden already have herd immunity?

They don't have a vaccine... It literally says herd immunity through the use of a safe and effective vaccine...

Speaking of herd immunity, flu shots are now available if you haven’t gotten yours yet. Free with many insurance plans at your local pharmacy.

Need to get me one of those, it suddenly turned cold as hell.

Ivy League now cancelling winter sports:
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/30305855/ivy-league-cancels-winter-sports-season-delaying-spring-play-sources-say

Elon Musk on Covid testing.

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1327125840040169472?s=20

I'm not sure why Elon Musk doing the antigen test. It is not definitive, especially among asymptomatic people, compared to the more expensive and slower PCR test. Antigen tests have a place, like where you are testing a whole team every day and need to basically run a continuous sieve to determine who should get more scrutiny from the limited PCR resources, but Musk could buy his own whole PCR lab if he wanted so he wouldn't have to wait on results for 3 days like the rest of us.

PCR is an antigen test.

Either way, isn't a test that is wrong 50% of the time, useless?