Fauci says MLB should play too late into fall
While the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association inch closer to returning and concluding their 2019-2020 season, it has been one problem after another for Major League Baseball who has yet to even start their 2020 campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The players and owners remain quite far apart in terms of a financial deal and a plan in place to return.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred even told ESPN on Monday night that he was “not confident” that there would be a 2020 season based on the way negotiations have been unfolding with the MLBPA. While there was still hope that a shortened season could be played and concluded later in the fall, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, seems to have thrown a wrench into those plans as well.
In an interview with Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, suggested that the league not run a season into late October or after.
“If the question is time, I would try to keep it in the core summer months and end it not with the way we play the World Series, until the end of October when it’s cold,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told The Times. “I would avoid that.”
MLB was planning on finishing the regular season on September 27th, with the postseason taking place afterwards. This has been an issue the league has been adamant about, with national television partners opposed to playing games into November and December which could result in increased competition with other sports leagues and television shows. The players’ most recent proposal would see an 89-game season end in mid-October which Fauci is strongly against.
“This virus is one that keeps fooling us,” Fauci said. “Under most circumstances — but we don’t know for sure here — viruses do better when the weather starts to get colder and people start spending more time inside, as opposed to outside. The community has a greater chance of getting infected.
“The likelihood is that, if you stick to the core summer months, you are better off, even though there is no guarantee. … If you look at the kinds of things that could happen, there’s no guarantee of anything. You would want to do it at a time when there isn’t the overlap between influenza and the possibility of a fall second wave.”
The doctor did go on to say that even in warmer weather, the risk is still there but it seems to be more of an issue during the colder months. “Even in warm weather, like in Arizona and California, we’re starting to see resurgences as we open up,” Fauci said. “But I think the chances of there being less of an issue in the end of July and all of August and September are much, much better than if you go into October.”
It remains to be seen whether the league and players will be able to put their differences aside and work out a compromise to play the 2020 season, but at this point it may be best they don’t considering Dr. Fauci’s recommendations.
Opening day of the season was originally scheduled for March 26th, but the league was shut down earlier in March as a result of the pandemic.
