Jeter on Marlins virus outbreak: Nothing fishy
As the Marlins prepare to restart their season after suffering a coronavirus outbreak that reached 20 individuals on the team, Miami CEO Derek Jeter admitted fault while arguing that it was difficult to predict that the virus might spread throughout the team if they didn’t cancel the game.
“I think probably everyone’s learning a little bit as we move along here,” said Jeter, whose team played a July 26 matchup against the Phillies despite having four players test positive. “So I think hindsight is 20/20. (It’s easy to) look back and say ‘Oh, well, we shouldn’t have played.’”
The former Yankee-greatturned-Marlins partowner added: “It’s important to point out the fact that you don’t know where it came from. You don’t know how quickly it spread.”
At least one outside voice expressed concern before more players turned up positive — including Zachary Binney, an epidemiologist at Oxford College of Emory University sought out for his insights on sports and the pandemic.
“This game absolutely should not be played and they should call it right now, because those are unlikely to be the last positives on the Marlins,” Binney tweeted on July 26 upon learning the news.
Jeter, who became a partowner of the team in 2017 after his dedicated career with the Yankees, was tasked with the difficult juggling act of empathizing with his organization, defending them from rumors of irresponsible behavior, and admitting where the team “let their guard down” during
Monday’s press conference.
“We did have a couple individuals leave the hotel,” said Jeter during a Monday press conference. “We had guys leave to get coffee, to get clothes. A guy left to have dinner at a teammate’s house.”
But he defended the team against rumors of the team behaving recklessly while they were on the road playing a preseason game in Atlanta.
“There were no other guests on site. There was no salacious activity. There’s no hanging out at bars. No clubs, no running around Atlanta. No running around the town.”
“What it boiled down to on this particular trip was guys were around each other, they got relaxed and they let their guard down.”
Jeter also said that the players did not make the call to play — early reports claimed that the Marlins players decided as a team to play.
“There is no particular organization or group of players that are allowed to make decisions on the field of play,” said Jeter, who said that the choice to play was cleared by higherups.
“So you know: the league, our players’s organization was aware, the Phillies organization was aware, the Joint Committee was aware, and excited to go out and play the game.”
For Jeter, the key to keeping the season going is owning up “mistakes” and following the league’s revised safety protocols.
“Looking back, guys probably would have done a little bit better if they would have kept their masks on. They would have social distanced. But, we get a chance to reset and start all over again, and we’re fortunate to be able to have that opportunity.”