oldtimer

Back in the NC mountains after a 685 mi drive from my florida home. Gas price of 1.49. 46 and windy here, some difference. a lot of people are lookng for a shorter baseball season, but this is a heck of a way of making that happen. Looking forward to the start of play, maybe in june or July.

The real balance will be between people earning a living and the health of our population. Both are important or even critical. Leadership is trying to address both and of course are drawing criticsm, some realistic and some more political in nature. We do best in society when we cooperate for the benefit of all. Baseball is a business. Its return is in no way more important than opening other businesses throughout the country. Of course as sports fans we miss it a lot but its only part of the whole economy.

I believe a season could begin sometime in the June/July time frame, but the admission of fans to parks will be problematical. Even if the outbreak dies down, one asymptomatic person can infect hundreds in a crowded setting. Hot spots like NY City and Boston will take a while to die down. We may see some fans allowed in later in the summer but I can see full parks. If that is the scenario, MLB has to decide if it wants to attempt to have a season at all.

My understanding is that the rule was set for the 2018 season such that a team could not use the replay room to decode the signs as the game was in progress. You could use prior tapes or after the game was over you could. That is the distinction as i understand it. Since the replay room has to be able to communicate with the dugout for the purpose of questioning umpires calls, the means of communication was set up in advance. A person could just as easily go between the two to communicate as well. Clearly the temptation is there to decode the signs during the game, since the same guy is allowed to do that before and after. My understanding was that a hitter who got to second could then use the information and relay it to the player at the plate. No banging of trash cans and no buzzers worn beneath the uniform. Also, easily defeated by changing signs with a player on second. I'd bet that other clubs have done the same or similar things so a harsh punishment is neither warranted or fair, unless Manfred wants to open the investigation to other teams, such as the Yankees. Probably the rule should be looked at, since it is hard to enforce and not importants, since teams can avoid any harm by just changing signs. I have no information about the Yankees or any other club using similar sign stealing as the Sox used, but it is quite likely that they did.

The Sox were guilty of our replaqay booth decoding the signs so that if we got a runner on second he could relay that knowledge to the hitter. Just as I expected and probably not differet than a lot of clubs have done. Manfred made a lot of hoopla over it but the punishment was mild as it should have been. It's Over, get on with it.

I agree. Almost certainly signing Mookie would require a very long term contract at big bucks. Lets hope we have learned a lesson and try walking a diffrerent path to resurgence. By the way, the long term saga of my neice's son-in-law ended well. After 12 days on a ventilator he was removed and on Easter Sunday he was able to talk to his wife and children. He is still weak but was discharged to the rehab unit. The Doctors and nurses lined up to applaud his long fight as he was moved to rehab. Good things do happen.

After 12 days of unrelenting bad news, our prayers were answered and his fever broke last night. Now he will remain ventilated and hopefully will be able to recover some or all of his strength. Thanks for your concern.

We have had a family member in intensive care for 12 days now and he is not responding to the specialty drugs. A young man with 2 children. There is still hope but it has been a protracted fight. I still think sports keep us occupied but this pandemic is certainly front and center in our lives. Anyone with a large family has a moderate probabily of the same experience, just based on the number of infections.

Our relief pitching was poor. Good field play and luck got us the win. I am just as happy we are moving on to a different group. Will we get to play this year. Very doubtful anything happens until June and even that is optimistic. More likely 2nd half start.

Still going roughly. Ventillator although heavy does of the new drug may be helping. Fingers crossed as of now. Thanks for your concern. Warning for younger people, you too can be hit hard with this. Varies based on genetics I think. So far us old folks here in Florida have escaped the disease, but every day the risk continues. While in my 80th year, I am still out there playing decent softball and enjoying life. Take care of yourself and no doubt you can get there and more. Just please take care.

Most things seem trivial compared to COVID-19. With a large family and the numbers being posted, it is only a matter of time until this virus strikes within the family. Probably the same for most of us. In our case, my neices son-in-law is now in ICU on a ventilator and a new med fighting for his life. He is young and strong but still felled by this cursed disease. They have two fairly young children. We are praying for his recovery. Everyone -Stay safe.

It has sounded like a few players may have been going in and looking at replay technology to try to understand the signs being used. That information was then made available to runners who reached second. Those players could then relay the information to the batter. If this is what happened, it is only slightly different than having a really smart sign stealer at 2nd base without the technology. I'd hazard a guess that all teams were doing some of that. Manfred's findings should ask the question of whether similar situations occurred throughout baseball before deciding on penalties. What Houston did went way beyond what I described above.

Clearly the athletes (wealthy) get preference over those who are not wealthy. Hard to judge whether it impacts life and death care scenarios but it certainly is grounds for bad press.

Manfred indicates the investigation is completed and only waiting on him to complete the written report. He is saying the many COVID-19 related issues have delayed him in that regard, but did say the report will be out before the season begins, whenever that is. With reported cases in the US rising at an accelerating rate, it is hard to believe the season could start until the end of May, and even that is optimistic.

I leave Florida in a month and even if here, one spring training game is enough. $50 a seat tickets to see a couple of starters for 3 or 4 innings seems like a bad deal.

I don't think many want to put a robot behind the plate. I recommend techology assistance for the umpire, who still is behind the plate. From a fan's POV, it still looks the same.

What a noxious thing to do. People are dying for lack of space and equiment in NY hospitals. A month or two delay until we get over the hump makes more sense.

Are you older than me? I'm 79 and have seen a lot of the Sox and am a fan in both good and bad times, as I hope everyone here is. Hang in there, we need to add perspective.

By better or worse, your saying in comparison to the K-zone, which most of us believe is accurate. Why not then use to k-zone to inform the umpire so he/she can get the call correct every time. That eliminates batters arguing the calls (often rightly so). I do believe it will come in the near future.

I prefer technology to incompetence

I agree with this point of view. I would hate to tell a patient, "sorry the ventilator is not available, you have to wait while we do Tommy John surgery on someone". Elective surgery needs to wait, even though it may inconvenience a sports team.

I think of it as technology assisted umpires. Still have the ump but the techology relays the ball/strike call except for the swing and foul tip. We get consistent calls instead of watching 3rd strikes called balls and pitches 2 inches outside called strikes. The techology is available. Tiime to use it.

Elective surgery is frowned on at this time. Stay out of the hospital until COVID-19 is under control. May be a month or even more but its a wait that should be taken.

Having Sale for 61 innings/year while getting Ace Starter pay is not a good deal, just better than not getting anything. I hope for the best but don't expect him to be the same guy who was great for us.

A number of us, including Kimmi, have questioned the sense of giving long term contracts to players over 30. That especially applies to pitchers who have a lot of mileage on them and the moreso when they have exhibited soreness in their arms and shoulders. Under DD, we went ahead with contracts of that type and it is probably what got him fired. I doubt if Bloom will make similar moves, but in the meantime, we will have to work through what is on the books. Sale may be able to come back from this in a year but he will be 32 and his arm will be a question mark. We will have the $48 mil from Price, whats left of Eovaldi and the remainder of the $145 mil from Sale when he gets back. Not an enviable situation.