SportsBeat KC: Major League Baseball confronts 1st COVID crisis. Will it be the last?
Some sports have re-started more successfully than others.
Baseball is going through a rough patch now, with about half of the Miami Marlins’ traveling party, mostly players, contracting COVID-19 during the team’s season-opening series at Philadelphia. The outbreak has now had ripple effects, too, with other games being postponed.
Baseball’s nightmare scenario hasn’t occurred in some other sports, such as soccer, that have re-started in the U.S. and abroad amid the ongoing pandemic.
It’s time to ask, if behaviors don’t change and coronavirus numbers continue to climb in the U.S., whether the health risks are worth it for baseball, college athletics and the NFL. In today’s episode of The Star’s daily SportsBeat KC podcast, columnist Vahe Gregorian joins host Blair Kerkhoff for that discussion.
Carry on? Or cancel? Can you want sports to be played but raise the possibility of it being a bad idea? After a break, you’ll hear from Royals manager Mike Mathney and All-Star Whit Merrifield on how the Marlins’ news hit the Royals’ clubhouse Monday.
Story links:
Royals: Marlins’ COVID outbreak bad for all of baseball, potentially devastating
Five Patriots players, including two starters, opt out of 2020 NFL season
This story was originally published July 28, 2020 at 11:33 AM with the headline "SportsBeat KC: Major League Baseball confronts 1st COVID crisis. Will it be the last?."