wrilbo67

Apparently its perfectly normal to store that amount of ammonium nitrate in one place. Newcastle, England has an even-larger stockpile. https://www.smh.com.au/national/lebanon-blast-alarms-nsw-residents-living-near-ammonium-nitrate-stockpiles-20200805-p55iwr.html Lebanon blast alarms NSW residents living near ammonium nitrate stockpiles "The two proposed storage plants near Newcastle’s CBD could together stockpile 15 times the amount of ammonium nitrate believed to have triggered the blast in Beirut, which has killed at least 100 people."

Although its still hilarious sometimes...

They’d have to alter the schedule so that NFC and AFC teams don’t play each other this year, until the super bowl at least. That’s probably not as big a deal. but just given the size of nfl teams and the specialized equipment they need to train/practice, I think it’d be a major logistical challenge to set up 16 camps in each city and have a bubble big enough to support all the players and staff they need to make the team run. just reading about the logistics involved with playing in London and the months they need to prepare for it gives me high doubts they could pull it off 32x in basically weeks.

it’s the integrity of the game in the context of everything else. If we’d successfully beaten covid and needed to play this brand of faux-baseball to ensure covids demise, I’d be fine with it. But as I pointed in one of previous posts- the games are a joke, the season and schedule are now also a joke, and we’re actively putting players at risk of catching the disease. When you add all that up, the games have no value and they’re endangering people. the English premier league returned and finished their season. Even though some fans complained the game was competitively compromised, they at least weren’t trying to hold matches while significant portions of the country were still rampant with COVID.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state/spartans/2020/07/27/michigan-state-16-players-four-staffers-test-positive-covid-19/5522556002/ Detroit Free Press: Michigan State: 16 student-athletes, four staffers test positive for COVID-19 last week As members of Michigan State football team remain in quarantine or isolation until early next month, the school announced Monday that 16 student-athletes and four athletic department staffers tested positive for COVID-19 last week

Based on your assertion that "they didn't follow protocols," I got the impression that's how the team outbreak started, but I guess that's not the case. And yes, I agree with you that it was completely irresponsible to look to the team shortstop to make a call on that one.

Well, the one team thing was my nightmare scenario because its already exposed a ton of problems. I guess we're halfway to your nightmare scenario. The biggest problem I see is that these teams are traveling in and out of places that aren't taking the disease seriously. It's not like we've all been responsible and are free to enjoy baseball without fans as the disease winds down (as was the case with the English Premier League). We're mid-pandemic (if we're lucky/responsible) convincing ourselves that it's over. Also, where did you read that they broke protocols, or that it was multiple players who did so? The only protocol I know that was broken was choosing to play when they knew were already positive on Sunday.

Are you sure they got it in a strip club though? It's nice to imply they contracted the disease doing something largely considered irresponsible but they could've just as easily gotten it at the grocery store, the coffee shop or the barber shop. Florida is hotbed of infections right now, so we can't pass much judgement on where it was contracted. And lets not forget that the Rays, Rangers, Astros, Dodgers, Angels, Diamondbacks, As, Giants and Braves all play in states where the disease is running rampant at the moment. Given the infection levels, we don't have many safeguards that those teams (or their visiting opponents) won't catch the disease just living their day-to-day lives in those cities. This is especially true given the complete lack of seriousness those states have shown around the disease. The "one team has an outbreak," scenario was literally the nightmare scenario when this was announced and MLB didn't make it a week without it happening.

I'm definitely not in shock- that's kind of the point. I've been saying from the beginning- that all they need is one team with an outbreak and all kind of problems ensue: logistical, ethical and competitive. But they're literally accomplishing nothing at this point. This isn't a high-quality product for the fans. The game barely resembles baseball. They're putting players' health at risk. And they pissed off a bunch of fans with a labor dispute to start it. The only reason they're pushing forward is to avoid cutting a big check to their sponsors and broadcasters. I've been saying since the beginning that they shouldn't start the season, and now I'm saying that they should definitely kill it.

"The Yankees, also marooned in Philadelphia since Monday, will now travel south and play two games against the Orioles at Camden Yards, according to multiple reports. That leaves the Phillies without an opponent until Friday, and with four games against the Yankees to make up." This is comically incompetent. I could see a scenario where this ends with two teams losing so many players they combine forces to finish the season (kind of like how some NFL teams combined in the 40s to get through WWII). Go Miampa Marl-Rays!

At some point, though, the competitive integrity of the league becomes an issue. If teams refuse to play the Marlins (as the Nats are) because of their outbreak, does that become a forfeit in the Marlins favor? If instead, the Nats all opt out of the season, the team is likely fielding a AA/AAA team. Just as things stand, if a bunch of Nats players opt out, and the Braves, Phillies and Marlins are all in the midst of an outbreak, the Mets have a free pass to build a major lead in the division until their opponents come back. That's the point we're all making- the disease and the opting out are not uniform actions. A team that gets one infection is likely to have many more, and the people most likely to opt out at that points are the ones playing those infected teams. So once you have one player infected, you have that entire team potentially infected, and all of their regional opponents at risk and likely to opt out. And since everyone is competing for the same 16 playoff spots, the problem daisy chains across the league as certain teams now have inside positions to make the playoffs. The opt-out mechanisms are great, but they quickly ripple out across the league. Its literally happening in front of us. The latest news is that the Marlins and Phillies are shut down. This is five days into the season. This is a joke.

Its starting to look like they don't want to be there.

The problem is that the precautions they put in place weren't based on any sort of science- They were a PR stunt to make everyone think MLB was taking the disease seriously. They're already stretched on their precautions 3 days into the season. The Marlins are going to have to dress guys with 0 MLB experience as players and coaches. The Nats players are refusing to fly to Miami for their weekend series. The Braves and Phillies were both exposed to the Marlins during their incubation period, so they might have their own outbreaks soon. This season could literally end with the Pawtuckett Red Sox and Norfolk Tides battling for the AL East title.

nice work, mlb