COVID carelessness mars baseball’s finish
Maskless Turner has virus, jumps right into party
When you were a teenager, did you ever throw a party when your parents were away?
That’s what the Dodgers and Major League Baseball did Tuesday night.
With no parents at home, no adult supervision, the Dodgers partied like it was 2019.
As with your teenage party, it might take a while before we get a complete assessment of the damage, like when your dad found the broken wine bottle in the hot tub a week later.
Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner — pulled from Game 6 of the World Series in the eighth inning because his coronavirus test came back positive — joined the postgame celebration, hugging teammates and their wives,
stripping off his mask, jumping into the team photo.
Hey, it was a miracle season for the Dodgers, so why shouldn’t a twoweek quarantine miraculously take only two innings?
Turner’s teammates defended him. He’s our leader! The Dodgers better hope Turner didn’t lead them to the nearest overcrowded emergency room. Turner could turn out to be the son of Typhoid Mary and George Custer.
At least if any Dodgers or their wives and kids wind up sick, they’ll get preferential treatment, like the athletes have been getting all along in the pandemic.
It’s too bad. Baseball was sooo close to pulling off a fantastic season. MLB tried to do it right, locking fans out of the ballparks, taking heavy precautions, acting like at least semiresponsible adults.
The players didn’t always get it. There was a lot of nomasking in dugouts, too many grouphug celebrations. I saw one Houston player in his dugout spitting like he was a lawn sprinkler. Awesome!
There were a couple of outbreaks and some postponed and canceled games, but everyone scrambled, and in the end, MLB hit the playoffs running, and made it through. Until Tuesday night’s party.
Dodgers partowner Magic Johnson in the stands without a mask ( at one playoff game at Dodger Stadium, Johnson sat next to a maskless Tommy Lasorda, age 93). Commissioner Rob Manfred doing a postgame interview with no mask. Then Mr. Positive, Turner. It was a veritable unmasquerade ball.
Where were the adults? In Cancún for the week?
Had there been adults, surely they would have yanked Turner from the game in the second inning, not the eighth.
According to USA Today, MLB learned in the second inning that Turner’s test from Monday came back inconclusive, so it had the lab rerun that test and expedite his Tuesday test, which was positive.
Any responsible adult would make all the kids wear masks. Rolemodeling and examplesetting have never been more important, and sports can do a lot in terms of promoting social distancing and maskwearing, proven ways to fight the spread of the virus. Maskwearing by athletes helps combat dangerous misinformation spread by a certain president.
Instead, the Dodgers set a terrible example in what could have been a fine season rescued from the virus rubble.
MLB issued a statement Wednesday saying Turner “emphatically refused to comply” with security telling him to remain in isolation in a private area of the clubhouse. It promised a thorough investigation of his actions.
We’ll see how that unfolds, but if Turner gets a token fine, shame on Manfred and MLB. For endangering lives, making baseball look foolish and defying orders, Turner should be suspended for half a season, at least.
As Turner waded into the celebration, he hugged several of the players’ wives, most of whom were unmasked. One of the wives Turner was near held an infant in her arms.
Then Turner pulled off his mask, and sat next to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, a cancer survivor whose nickname is Doc. Doc and Sneezy? Makes me Grumpy.
Then, the team picture. Other MLB teams took socially distanced team photos, which sent a dramatic message: We take this pandemic seriously.
The Dodgers? Apparently they think they’re above the rules.
Incidentally, do MLB security people have tasers? If we can tase peaceful protesters, we can tase ballplayers who refuse orders to not spread a deadly virus.
Sure, it would have been tragic had Turner been forced to miss the celebration with his teammates. They just won the World freakin’ Series! Once in a lifetime ( unless you are, say, with the San Francisco Giants).
But, guess what? We’re all missing onceinalifetime experiences because of the virus, we’re all facing sacrifice and disappointment.
Turner and the Dodgers, though, they’re special.
Which feeds the narrative that athletes are receiving preferential treatment. They get the OK to return to work. They get frequent testing when many of us struggle to get tests, even though ballplayers are not faced with losing their businesses or their homes.
The least the athletes can do is obey the basic safety rules, and the least team and league officials — the supposed adults in the room — can do is rein in the offenders.
Turner, by the way, is a free agent. So is the virus.