Failed tests no reason to strike baseball out

At least 49 players employed by the Miami Marlins were available and medically cleared Monday to play major league baseball. None did.

As many as 60 Phillies were also healthy and available. They didn’t play.

The Yankees, roughly 60 of them, were OK. No game.

The Orioles? Same thing.

And that’s what panic looks like in an era of control gone wild.

As it happened, 14 members of the Marlins traveling party, as many as 11 reportedly players, were found to have failed virus tests Sunday. That delayed their departure from Philadelphia, where they’d just spent a weekend series making Phillies fans testy. And that sent the fear-spreading in motion.

Before noon Monday, there would be no Orioles-Marlins game. And the Yankees would be told not to bother showing up at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies would be given the night off from baseball, and instead were known to be at the ballpark taking virus tests. The visiting clubhouse was ordered to be fumigated.

And for all of that there was no game on a night with per

fect baseball weather.

Cancelling games because of failed tests was not the reason why teams were permitted to keep a pool of 60 players ready to be on a 30-player, gamenight active list. The list was approved for exactly the opposite reason: To enable the games to be played.

If the plan was to go into lockdown because some players would fail virus tests, there would have been no reason to start the season in the first place. Of course there would be some failed tests. That thing is going around. But a failed test is only that: A failed test. It is not a death sentence, nor is it even likely to mean an individual will become ill. The test-taking is a stipulation for doing the job. So the players comply.

That’s why there would be a reasonable Plan B. The players would be tested and tested and tested some more, and if any of them to flunk, they would be sequestered until they could pass enough tests that they no longer would be declared contagious. Even players who were found to be in close contact with those infected must be shielded.

It would be the tests themselves that would trigger that determination, and they would not at all be influenced by whether or not — wait for it — anyone actually was feeling ill. No, if the tests said a player was contagious, an elbow-bump-agreement is an elbow-bump-agreement. So into hiding that player must go. But from there, a team could dig through its 60-man roster to find replacements, the industry would roll on, and everyone would be healthier for the caution.

It all sounded like a fair deal for everyone, actually. The grown-ups-in-charge were tsk-tsking at the idea of players behaving themselves several dozen feet away from anyone else. Insulting as that was, those authorities did have the power to yank the licenses of any business unwilling to be doubly careful not to accelerate a virus spread, and as such had to be appeased. And baseball, in a neighborly burst of good will, made certain to establish responsible protocols to ensure that its industry could continue to safely operate.

With that, the players, management, TV talent, umpires, grounds crews and skeleton ballpark staffs could go to work. And even if the stadium gates were forbidden to swing open, the fans at least could enjoy baseball on TV, with fun, live entertainment providing some measure of a healing affect during otherwise stressful times.

Where was the problem?

To the Marlins’ credit, they understood the situation Sunday, as they grasped their responsibilities. They were aware that some of them, including scheduled starting pitcher Jose Urena, had failed the tests and would be unavailable. Yet they decided to be professional and play the game. As it happened, they would even prove to play it better than Vince Velasquez, Cole Irvin and Nick Pivetta, among others.

“We’re taking risks every day,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “That’s what the players all around the league are doing. You travel all the time. It’s a risk we take. We’re going to have to be adjustable, we’re going to have to be flexible, we’re going to have to be patient.”

Because the Marlins did play, some were in what could have been considered close contact with some Phillies. For that, the Phils were re-tested again Monday, with the chance that some could be found dirty. Depending on how quickly the samples can be analyzed, there may not be a Yankees-Phillies game Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park.

Joe Girardi, among others, has assured that responsible social distancing has been enforced in the clubhouse, as ordered in baseball’s 100-page document on proper virusera behavior. Yet it’s possible that some players will have been ruled to have been in close-enough contact with infected teammates to be ordered to be sheltered. If so, watching a would-be IronPig play is preferable to watching no one play at all.

“We were somewhat aware that something was going on,” Girardi said of the outbreak among the Marlins. “We sent a text out to our players and made sure they knew what was going on. We’re constantly reminding guys that you have to be safe. You can’t really have a lot of contact with other people because you put everybody in danger.”

In sports, in business, in life, that’s kind of how it all works: Problems occur, and they should be anticipated and backup plans should be in place. Simply surrendering every time there is a challenge should never be an alternative.

The Miami Marlins have a virus crisis. That might mean some important players, like Urena, or possibly some critical Phillies, will have to be scratched for a while. That’s unfortunate. It was also expected. But there are procedures in place to assure that major-league baseball can continue. Use them.