The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Manfred confident MLB season can get through COVID-19
Commissioner Rob Manfred says he’s confident his sport can get through the regular season and postseason without being stopped by the coronavirus, though not every team may play all 60 games and winning percentage could be used to determine playoff teams.
During an interview Saturday with The Associated Press, Manfred said MLB knows which player introduced COVID-19 into the clubhouse of the Marlins. Miami and Philadelphia both postponed games for an entire week.
“I think that if everybody does what they are supposed to do, we can continue to play, have a credible season and get through the postseason,” Manfred said.
Just 1½ weeks into a regular season shortened from 162 games per team to 60, the coronavirus has forced 17 postponements in 10 days and prompted at least two more players to opt out Saturday: Milwaukee All-Star outfielder Lorenzo Cain and Miami second baseman Isan Díaz.
At least 18 Marlins players have been infected along with two St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals-Brewers game in Milwaukee on Saturday was postponed after one more player and three staff members with St. Louis tested positive.
Disclaimer: What follows is cart-ahead-of-the-horse stuff. We’re not sure any of the changes enforced on college football by the coronavirus will apply in 2020, let alone any year beyond this. (The NCAA could move to cancel everything next year, though it probably won’t.) Some if not all tweaks could be one-shot — or, if the 2020 season doesn’t happen, no-shot — deals. But we live in the South, which means we’re hard-wired to discuss to college football 24-7-366, and we can’t help but ask:
Will Notre Dame’s guest
ACC membership lead to permanent football fidelity? Will 10-game conference schedules become the across-the-board standard? (Probably not in the Big 12, which has but 10 members, and Oklahoma and Texas can play only so many times.)