Even with the pandemic's tightening grip on the U.S., I always felt that Major League Baseball should try to play _ and keep trying _ until it became impossible to do so.
The problem? It was naive to think that everyone would have the same definition of impossible. And now that the Marlins have been sickened with the sport's first COVID-19 outbreak, reportedly involving 13 players and staff, the boundaries of what is possible are being stretched again.
"I don't put this in the nightmare category," commissioner Rob Manfred said Monday night during an interview on MLB Network. "Obviously we don't want any player to get exposed. It's not a positive thing. But I don't see it as a nightmare. We built the protocols to allow us to continue to play. That's why we have the expanded rosters. That's why we have the pool of additional players."
Officially, MLB sees the Marlins' coronavirus flare-up as manageable, and the contingency plans went into immediate effect when Monday's two games were postponed: Their home-opener against the Orioles in Miami (one of the nation's hot zones) and Yankees-Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, where the infected Marlins had just spent the weekend.
As a result, the Yankees stayed put in their Philly hotel while the visitors clubhouse was thoroughly fumigated. The four-person staff who tended to the Marlins was placed in quarantine and the Phillies spent Monday getting tested again.
The rest of MLB's schedule went off as planned, and there was never any consideration for either canceling or suspending the season during the owners' weekly meeting on Monday. After what they went through to get here, that wasn't surprising.
"No, there really wasn't," Manfred said. "We talked about the situation. I think most of the owners realize that we built protocols anticipating that we would have positive tests at some point during the season. But the protocols were built in order to allow us to continue to play through those positives. And I think there was support for the notion that we believe that the protocols are adequate to keep our players safe."
But it does beg the question: If a team-wide outbreak, involving roughly 30% of the Marlins' traveling party _ with the potential to infect numerous staffers, hotel workers, bus drivers, and many others _ wasn't enough to push the pause button on the entire league, what is? Apparently, Manfred will know impossible when he sees it.
"I think a team losing a number of players that rendered it completely noncompetitive would be an issue that we would have to address and have to think about making a change," Manfred said. "Whether that was shutting down a part of the season or the whole season, that depends on the circumstances. Same thing with respect to leaguewide."
Until then, brush up on the 108-page operations manual, wear a mask and cross your fingers. The Marlins, however, are not the worst-case scenario. Not yet anyway. That could involve someone in a high-risk group getting seriously ill.
The Astros' Dusty Baker, one of the most beloved figures in the game, just turned 71. The Nationals' Dave Martinez missed three games toward the end of last season due to a heart condition. And speaking of cardiac issues, Red Sox ace Eduardo Rodriguez remains sidelined with myocarditis (heart-muscle inflammation) _ a known complication of COVID-19, which Rodriguez was just getting over.
Just the thought of traveling down to Miami for this weekend's Marlins series was enough to rattle an emotional Martinez during Monday's media session. He already wakes up nervous every morning about his own team's test results and washes his hands "99 times a day."
"I'm going to be honest with you _ I'm scared," Martinez said. "I really am ... Hopefully they make the right decision. That's all I'm going to say."
By late afternoon Monday, the White Sox announced that their manager, Rick Renteria, was sent for a coronavirus test after reporting a "slight cough and nasal congestion." He also would miss that night's game.
Compare the White Sox's abundance of caution to the Marlins deciding to play Sunday despite having four players test positive, including the starting pitcher, Jose Urena, who was scratched that morning. By the next day, that number ballooned to nine more team personnel, raising the possibility they could have infected the Phillies during the game, or the clubhouse staffers during the weekend.
Until the latest rounds of tests come back, MLB can't pretend to grasp the extent of the Marlins' outbreak. Even then, as far as the Phillies are concerned, those results won't offer any guarantees, considering that it can take days after the initial exposure to come up positive.
And what of the Yankees? Should they feel comfortable if MLB gives them the green light to take the field Tuesday night? It's impossible to know for sure.
