Expecting father Rose plans to hit the pitch with Caps in Florida
On Canada Day, 45 to 50 members of the Vancouver Whitecaps organization will board a plane for Orlando and the MLS Is Back tournament.
Count Andy Rose to be among those flying to Florida.
“My plan is still to go and be there with the team,” said the Whitecaps midfielder.
It would be understandable if Rose decided to forgo the tournament, activating the clause in the return-to-play agreement that would allow him to miss the event on the grounds of a risk to his health because of an underlying condition, or a family emergency — in this case, the impending berth of his daughter.
When the tournament was announced two weeks ago, the ever-present risk of the COVID -19 pandemic was still a cause for concern, but the league and MLS Players Association felt comfortable with the Florida plan. But massive spikes in the number of novel coronavirus cases are threatening to spike not only the plans of the MLS, but those of baseball and basketball as well.
Florida moved into the six digits of total cases on Tuesday, with 3,289 cases being reported in the past 24 hours to push the total to 103,506, with another 64 deaths boosting the Sunshine State’s total to 3,238 deaths.
On Monday, the Orlando Pride — the women’s arm of the Orlando MLS franchise — pulled out six days before their opening game in the NWSL Challenge Cup after six players and four staff tested positive for COVID-19.
Over the weekend, Major League Baseball shut down all 30 training camps until the facilities could be disinfected and deep cleaned. Five members of the Philadelphia Phillies were reported to have tested positive Friday, with The Associated Press reporting at least 40 positive tests among MLBers.
The MLS Is Back tournament is scheduled to be played in the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex contained within the Disney World grounds. The theme park is also set to reopen next month, even with a rising number of the 77,000 employees sitting in opposition to the move.
A petition on moveon.org has compiled 6,000 signatures from workers and family members, and a similar petition for the California-based Disneyland park has more than 45,000 signatures.
“Both my parents are employed with Disney, and I am a precious cast member,” wrote Christine H. “I absolutely do not feel safe having my parents, or anyone else going back to work. There has been a massive resurgence of the virus here in Florida, proving that now is not the best time to reopen. This is a disaster waiting to happen, stay safe everyone!”
“Hospitality workers do not deserve to be sacrificed on the altar of the almighty dollar,” another wrote. “Tourism can wait, but this virus will not. Many cast members are the very demographics most vulnerable to COVID-19 and should not be forced to risk their lives just to relieve the broken unemployment system.”
“All that news is a cause for concern for everyone. The numbers are frustrating to watch and to see,” Rose said Tuesday afternoon. “I’d say there are still unanswered questions. It’s definitely a leap of faith from the players that our safety and our health is going to be the main priority. Can I exactly know how it’s gonna look from a day-to-day basis? Quite honestly, no.
“You know, we’ve got a load of information, but there are still things like who’s allowed in the bubble, are people going to be able to get outside, and what happens then when they come back in? From a worker standpoint, how that’s gonna look is still … a cause for concern for sure.
“At the end of the day, I think it is a bit of a leap of faith. From the players’ standpoint, the MLSPA spoke to infectious disease specialists and they felt very at ease with the plan and they felt like it was airtight and they were confident about sending us down there.
“So we, as a players’ union, signed the contract to make it happen. So that’s the situation we’re in, and we really hope the safety and our health is going to be the top priority when we get there.”
In response to the rapidly changing situation, the league issued a handbook detailing its plans to deal with player protection, and a meeting for players is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
The CDC has reported that diabetics are 12 times more likely to die from COVID-19 if infected, while a French study reported that 30 per cent of diabetic patients either died or required ventilation within a week of hospitalization. And it’s not just the lethal side of the pandemic — the long-term effects of lung damage are just beginning to be understood.
The level-headed Rose stressed the need for people to get answers from the right people, not social media, when making a decision like this.
“It’s still really important for all of us as individuals to listen to the people who really know what they’re talking about and follow their guidance.
“We’ve had talks with my wife’s doctor, our team doctor, the infectious disease specialists that the team has been working with, (so) my plan continues to be the same — I’ll go. I had an appointment with my endocrinologist a couple of weeks ago and obviously we talked it all through.
“Diabetes is different for everyone. It just really depends where you’re at with individually managing your body. I pay very close attention to my glucose levels and my management of it has been good. So it really hasn’t been a huge cause for concern. So that’s where my mindset has been at.”
Rose’s main concern has been for his wife, Ryan, and he makes sure he’s the one going out in public for grocery shopping and other errands, and takes every recommended safety precaution.
Ryan is due somewhere between what would be the second and third match of the Orlando tournament, and if Andy was to fly back from Orlando for the birth, he wouldn’t be allowed in the hospital, but would be self-isolated at home. Extended family is in town to help out the family as well.
“It’s a tricky — really tricky — situation,” said Rose. “I want to be there with the team. I want to play that by ear, but my focus is very much on health and safety of my family.”