Cubs News: Is it really that difficult to follow the rules?

The Chicago Cubs haven’t had one positive Covid-19 test since testing started in late June (except Tommy Hottovy).  So what the heck is the problem with the rest of baseball?

MLB and the MLBPA fought, negotiated, threatened, fought some more, then finally reached a deal on a 2020 season.  A key component was a detailed and thorough plan for protecting players from infection.  The plan wasn’t just for the benefit of a season. The Chicago Cubs Anthony Rizzo and Jon Lester are both cancer survivors and consequently, likely more at risk from Covid-19.

Overall that was key.  Healthy players mean safe players, which means a complete season. Sick players and then health and lives are at risk and the season ends early.

So what the heck were the Marlins players thinking? The first week of a season at risk and they’re out at a nightclub in Atlanta, and by the time they reached Philly, they were a traveling pandemic nightmare.

It’s not like there weren’t warning signs.  Before the season at risk even began, 40 plyers and staff had tested positive.  That makes the actions of the Marlins even more brazenly bizarre.

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Not that was MLB on the mark either. When the scope of the Marlins infection became apparent, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told the world that “MLB was not facing a nightmare scenario.”

That attitude was short-lived as almost immediately it dawned on the Commissioner that he’d made a colossal mistake.  He then wrote to MLBPA President Tony Clark that further outbreaks such as that endued by the Marlins would risk the entire season.

No kidding? So how many Marlins players are being suspended for sheer stupidity, for violating the rules governing play during this season at risk?  Frankly, I’d have suspended the entire team for the rest of the season.

Anthony Rizzo was among players critical of MLB as well, as he tweeted out that it was crazy to let players sit in a clubhouse eight hours waiting out a rain delay. He’s right about that.

Cubs Manager Davis Ross was only partly right for calling our Manfred’s criticism of players.  He said, “I don’t know that I have an objection to pinning things on the players.   I have an objection to pinning things on my players, who haven’t done anything.”

Well, the Cubs aren’t perfect either. I see a lot of high fiving and lack of mask-wearing to go around among the Northsiders, too.

This season at risk is closer to collapse than you might think.  Sure, the stats seem to indicate that overall the problem isn’t widespread, but that’s not the issue.  It takes one team to mess up a week of scheduling, infect an opposing team’s visitors clubhouse, require an in city quarantine, and infect opposing players. The Marlins have forced the postponement of their series with the Nats and Orioles.  The Phillies have had to postpone their series against the Yankees and Blue Jays.

Now the Cardinals have been forced to postpone two games of four-game series against the Brewers due to two players testing positive.  The playoffs and World Series might come down to the last two teams standing, not who wins what division.

Twenty-eight teams have had players and staff test positive since the season began a week ago.  If MLB, the MLBPA, and the players don’t shape up, I give the season two more weeks before it all ends in a sea of positive tests.