Quiz #66. Pluck It
What does the hair on my eyebrows have to do with Major League Baseball? Steve's Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz for July 8, 2020.
When Sara cut my hair on Sunday, July 5th, I asked her to trim my head and neck to get rid of any wayward hair and fuzz that, sadly, are another odd and unpleasant part of getting older.
The back of my neck, after. Neat and trim. No fuzz. No problem.
When it came to my eyebrows, Sara used tweezers to pluck one wayward, wandering follicle. It startled me and hurt like hell. I asked Sara not to do that again.
Trim—do not pluck.
Which is better?
The painful pluck that knocks the problem out or the gentle trim that nips but does not necessarily wipe it out.
It’s not the perfect analogy, but I think that dichotomy is often at play with the delivery and anticipation of bad news. How do you like your bad news? All at once in an exploding geyser—or the slow, steady drip of a leaky faucet that finally overflows one day. An out-of-the-blue memo announcing layoffs—or media leaks and internal discussions among team leaders hinting that some “cost cutting” is coming?
If you’re familiar with my worldview by now, you know that I don’t just think of the glass as either half empty or even half full. I like to look around, figure things out and get ahead of the game. To me, the question is whether the glass is emptying out or filling up. If the glass is leaking faster than it’s filling up, it doesn’t matter whether you call it half full or half empty. In the end, it will eventually be empty. Of course, you take steps to plug the leak or imagine how to stop the leaks if you can--but, if you can’t, why waste time debating if it’s half full or half empty? Pluck it and move on.
Early morning on the back deck with Happy. Reading, thinking and waking up to a troubled but beautiful world.
And so it is that I woke up at 5:07AM on Tuesday morning, July 8th. Unable to sleep late (again), I tried to figure out what’s happened—and what will happen—in the world. In my morning download of newsletters and emails, I had several announcements from Major League Baseball and the Phillies that M.L.B. had announced its 60-game schedule.
July 23rd. Opening Day for baseball in the year 2020. Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees. The Phillies open at home against the Florida Marlins on July 24th. Just over 2 weeks away.
In the last 30 years, I have only missed the Phillies’ Opening Day two times. Once because of a rain out (and it did not rain) and another time because I was recovering from brain surgery. Even with a Phillies’ mask, I won’t be going to Opening Day in 2020—and one way or another, no one will.
And yet, in my morning reading for a Tuesday, there was also an ominous headline in “The Morning” newsletter from the New York Times. In “As M.L.B. Stumbles Out of the Gate, Player Pushback Gets Louder,” Tyler Kepner wrote how players and team executives are skeptical and frustrated by M.L.B.’s handling of the coronavirus so far. Like that steady drip, more and more players are saying they will sit the season out. There are at least three issues.
First, the initial set of test results has been delayed--leaving players and staff in limbo, especially as many of them isolate from those infected or thought to be infected. Players, staff and executives are frustrated by the delay in test results. (Tell that to the people waiting hours in their car for a test in Arizona.)
Second, even though it’s a small number of players who are infected, word has now spread that some are sick including slugger Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves. Per Kepner, Freeman’s wife has taken to Instagram to talk about her husband’s battle with body aches, chills and a fever.
Kepner writes how Freeman’s illness has impacted teammates including Nick Markakis.
“I talked to Freddie Freeman the other day, and just hearing the way he sounded over the phone kind of opened my eyes,” Markakis, 36, told reporters on Monday. “Freddie didn’t sound good. I hope he’s doing good, I hope he’s healthy, I know these guys need him more than anybody. Just to hear him, the way he sounded, it was tough.”
Markakis added that he has three children and has already missed much of their youth. Given his teammate’s ordeal, and the prospect of playing in empty stadiums, Markakis said goodbye.
“We play for the fans, and to take them out of the equation, it’s tough, and I think that was kind of the blow for me,” Markakis said. “I knew coming into it, but until you actually get into the situation and you go there and experience it, it changes things. I love the game. I hate to see it the way it’s going right now, but that’s the way things have to be.”
Third, the virus is surging. Is this really the right time to say, “Play Ball!”? Kepner includes this from Sean Doolittle, an outspoken reliever from the Washington Nationals who spoke to Washington reporters this past weekend.
“We’re trying to bring baseball back during a pandemic that’s killed 130,000 people,” Doolittle said, as reported by The Washington Post. “We’re way worse off as a country than we were in March when we shut this thing down. And, like, look where the other developed countries are in their response to this. We haven’t done any of the things that other countries have done to bring sports back.
“Sports are like the reward of a functioning society. And we’re trying to just bring it back, even though we’ve taken none of the steps to flatten the curve.”
Last Friday, July 3rd, baseball’s biggest star, Mike Trout, said he’s “playing it by ear,” on the fence about playing this season because his wife is pregnant with their first baby due the first week in August. He’s worried that if he gets sick or needs to self isolate for 14 days, he will miss the delivery. Bob Nightengale wrote about it in USA Today.
“I love baseball,’’ Trout said. “I love playing this game. We all want to play. It’s going to come down to how safe we are going to be. If there’s outbreak or something happens these next few weeks, we’ve got to reconsider. …
“I’ve got to do right by my family. A lot of guys have questions. It’s a tough, crazy situation in this country and in the world. Nobody has the answers.’’
I don’t see how Trout agrees to play in 2020. I have no insight, but my own guess is that he’s waiting for others to opt out so his own decision won’t be out of line with others. If he’s out, I think it’s game over.
Nearly two months ago, on May 18th after I first read highlights of M.L.B.’s proposed plan for baseball in the age of coronavirus, I wrote Quiz #55. No Spitting expressing my belief that baseball and other professional sports would NOT be able to come back in 2020. Since then, the virus has continued to spread, surging in recent weeks. It remains highly contagious with mounting evidence of its dangers in confined spaces and among asymptomatic people. Even without fans, I just don’t see how you can have groups of people in sustained close physical contact on—and off—the field, all while maintaining health and safety plus keeping to a structured schedule of fair competition that’s essential in any sports league.
IF they do play baseball, here are a few random thoughts and questions I’ve been thinking about over the last few months.
As noted in Quiz #57. 1 in 12,766, like a lot of people, I have gone to great lengths to get a foul ball.
Back in 2019, I skinned my knee, beating out a 10-year-old boy when I dove on the concrete for a foul ball.
If there’s baseball in 2020, what happens to foul balls? With empty stadiums, who gathers them? Is it dangerous if more than one person “goes” for a foul ball? Do foul balls get collected? Re-used? Sold? (There is a real market for “game-used” baseball equipment including balls, jerseys and even the bases themselves.) Would you buy a “game-used” baseball from the 2020 season?
Managers and players have to stay six feet apart when arguing with umpires. Have you seen a baseball game where a player or manager argues with an ump? These are typically not calm and reasonable discussions. Who’s going to keep them six feet apart? What if a player or manager breaks through that invisible barrier? Does the ump back up? Run away? Does the player or manager chase him? Will someone have to restrain the player or manager? Who? What if one of those people gets infected?
The games are supposed to be played without fans. Really? At the very least, fans will still gather outside stadiums or the out-of-town hotels where visiting teams are supposed to self-isolate. What if a few fans show up or sneak in? Who’s going to throw them out? What if players and staff want their families to attend games? If they’re already inside each player’s “bubble,” what’s the harm? Who keeps them out?
What will baseball look and sound like in an empty stadium?
Will people watch?
Will I watch?
And don’t get me started on football. (See Quiz #62. Football Fantasy.)
What did NOT happen?
A. For Father’s Day, Sara ordered me 3 face coverings featuring the Phillies logo. They arrived this Monday, July 7th;
B. The M.L.B.-sanctioned masks came without a filter--even though there’s a space for a filter and the package says you’re supposed to wear them with a filter. Still, the directions had no indication of what size (or type) of filter to order. Judging from Amazon, filters are another Wild, Wild West of 2020 in America. I have no clue on what to order and what works;
C. Back in February, I ordered some N95 masks when I first heard about them and was worried about the virus looming on the horizon. As noted in Quiz #30. “Slugger,” in March we turned almost all of our masks into a drive for a local hospital to get them to healthcare workers. Still, we kept a few that Sara has set aside in a special kit we have in case anyone in our family gets coronavirus and we need to care for them at home;
D. This weekend, I ordered a lung exercising device from Amazon to add to that special kit for use in case anyone in the family gets the virus;
E. In the basement, we have six cases of Gatorade that we’ve stockpiled in case someone gets sick and dehydrated.
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Want more?
Here’s the next quiz in the series: Quiz #67. Twitter+
Here’s the previous quiz in the series: Quiz #65. Dog Days.
Here’s the first quiz in the series: Quiz #1. Stella and Social Distancing, March 13, 2020
Here is an archive of all the quizzes.
The quiz is explained here: Steve’s Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz.
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