PLAY GALL!
MLB, others ignore risks for rushed reopening$
MLB REMINDS me of that wonderful “Honeymooners” episode when Ralph wins a spot on the “$99,000 Answer.” Through sheer nervous panic, he chooses to return next week to answer questions about something he knows little about: popular music.
He and Norton get to work, spending the week in preparation, — Norton playing on the piano every song they can find but prefacing every tune with a few bars of Stephen Foster’s “Swanee River” until Ralph demands he cut it out.
Showtime arrives, and Ralph smugly declares to the quizmaster that, “I intend to go straight on, forge ahead, to the $99,000 answer!”
The first question he was asked, for $100, was to identify a composer. The song, of course, was “Swanee River.” Ralph’s mumbles in search of an answer until the quizmaster tells him he must have an answer. Ralph answers, “Homina, homina, homina ... Ed Norton”?
To that similar end, we have MLB, in the sustaining midst of a pandemic, smugly declaring it plans to “forge ahead!” opening an abridged, spectator-less season with a made-for-TV-money Yankees at Nationals game on July 23 in, of course, prime time.
Well, way down upon the Swanee River and good luck. Apparently MLB feels that on July 23, all 30 teams and its traveling parties and clubhouse crews — hundreds of people — will be immune from the deadly virus. All the busses, taxis, airplanes, airports, hotels and chairs thoroughly inspected and disinfected.
Then there’s chosen personal behavior, such as Cleveland’s Franmil Reyes, who apologized for his recent no-mask attendance at a nodistancing party.
But who cares? Play ball!
Of course, when the fresh cases arise and those infected have their travels and contacts examined, there will be a freak-out factor that the logical could predict but MLB ignored in favor of fingers-crossed millions in TV money, plus the sale of “MLB 2.0” caps.
Given that spectators will be banned, what else could drive the fourmonth delayed start of the season other than TV money? It’s certainly not the desire to best ensure the health of players and those who surround them. Positive virus tests could replace the torn quad and Tommy John surgery as the medical issue du jour.
Then the same will occur in the renewed NBA and NHL seasons and within NFL training camps.
I certainly hope I’m wrong, but I can’t see this going well. These games — and all they encompass — will not be played within petri dishes and test tubes. They’re ballparks and what it takes to arrive in them, not biohazard control facilities.
MLB could’ve — should’ve — cautiously and judiciously put this season to bed. But, as usual, even if it leads to a ventilator, follow
the money.
SURE made a significant story last week, former A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell’s lament that he has been persona non grata throughout MLB because he took a knee during the national anthem. How sad ... if only it were true.
What missed the cut in that story was Maxwell’s ensuing arrest for pointing a gun at a female food delivery worker who’d been called to his home. He took a plea deal and was placed on probation.
➤ Judging from the NFLPA’s silence, the union is good with DeSean Jackson’s outrageously stupid, hateful and inflammatory “enlighten my people” antiJewish posts. Where is NFLPA president DeMaurice Smith on this? Did he and Roger Goodell receive a group discount on a bunker?
The silence on this matter confirms that the growing double-standard has become so prevalent and glaringly indisputable it leaves open-minded, reasonable people disgusted. And in the name, of all things, equality.
Meanwhile — on behalf of ignorant, selectively blind lunatics — the NFL continues to take its decentminded fan base for granted — and more than ever, that’s a mistake.
➤ Paragons of virtue: Wouldn’t it be lovely if the Wilpons, greed-suckered into two Ponzi schemes, sold a piece of the Mets to Steve Cohen, a hedgefunder whose firm SAC Capital was fined a record $1.2 billion for insider trading, and to Alex Rodriguez, enriched (and suspended) by MLB and its teams as a steroid cheat.
Couldn’t wait to see Rob Manfred grin through that introductory announcement.