COVID-19 is threatening all team sports once again, less than a week after Major League Baseball began their season.
This after 14 Miami Marlins became the first team to have an outbreak among players, announced Monday morning. Players testing positive include Catcher Jorge Alfaro, outfielders Garrett Cooper and Harold Ramirez, and pitcher Jose Urena, tested positive for the disease. Two coaches from the team also tested positive for the disease.
The Miami Marlins/Baltimore Orioles game tonight and Philadelphia Phillies game for tonight against the New York Yankees have been canceled. An emergency meeting has been scheduled by baseball leadership.
“This is a worst-case scenario,” ESPN’s Jesse Rogers told David Kaplan during his radio show Monday morning.
MLB, unlike the NBA and NHL, did not set up an inclusive ‘bubble’ for players to reside in prior to beginning play. Up until now, players across all leagues have tested positive, including White Sox third baseman Yoan Moncada and the Chicago Blackhawks Corey Crawford who rejoined his team this week after a battle with the virus. Moncada rejoined the White Sox last Thursday.
Crawford’s fellow Blackhawk and team Captain, Jonathon Toews, was deemed ‘unfit to play’ suddenly last week.
Eight more players and two coaches with the Miami Marlins have tested positive for COVID-19, as an outbreak has spread throughout their clubhouse and brought the total of cases in recent days to at least 14, sources familiar with the situation tell me and @JesseRogersESPN.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 27, 2020
This past week, the Illinois Elementary School Association canceled fall sports includes boys and girls golf, boys basketball, girls softball, and boys and girls cross-country for the 2020-2021 school year. The Illinois High School Association is expected to rule on High School sports later this week.
