Passan and Rosenthal: Baseball WILL Return This Summer... We Just Don't Know When *Fart Noise*
I fucking love Ken Rosenthal. As far as insiders go, I think he's the best of the best, regardless of the sport. That might be bias speaking, but I truly believe it. He's the "cremé de la cremé", if you will. He comes off as a funny, self deprecating guy too, in spite of being the best at what he does. Same for Jeff Passan, who dropped this article on us yesterday:
In his article, Passan asks himself, "what's the latest?" regarding MLB's return. He admits that there's "Lots... but nothing".
Like everyone else, I am absolutely desperate for baseball. And not Taiwanese/KBO baseball, I want the real thing. I'm sorry, I just can't get up for a product I know little about, even if it is "live" and "professional". Just doesn't do it for me, even if it's a classic case of 'beggars can't be choosers'.
And all of that adds up to me reading Rosenthal and Passan's articles and getting really freaking depressed, because even they don't know how/when MLB is going to return. They're long articles much adieu about nothing. Nothing at all, and do not take that as disrespect to Rosenthal or Passan. It's just me pointing out that nobody at all, not even the most inside of insiders know anything concrete as of now. And it's the uncertainty that is killing me and other baseball fans.
He hit on all of the key talking points:
- MLB won't return until there's mass testing that won't take away from the public
- MLB has thrown around quarantining all teams AZ
- MLB has thrown around playing in AZ, TX, and FL
- MLB won't open up a second before government regulations allow
- Nothing has been presented from the league to the MLBPA and won't until they are dead set on one direction
- All plans are fluid
If anything, the one new thing that MLB is considering (though I see zero chance of it actually happening) is playing in regular stadiums and potentially allowing 15,000 fans as a way to adhere to social distancing guidelines. ***Shits on the Cubs for not being able to fill Wrigley***
The long story short is that nobody knows anything right now. All we know is that we need a LOT more testing and as he said in the article he referenced, there isn't enough of it right now, and the federal government and local governments on vying over who should be supplying the test. FUCK THAT. These assholes are one massive Spiderman meme:
It's not solely President Trump's fault there's not mass testing. It's not the solely the governor's fault there's not mass testing. It's ALL of their fault that there's not mass testing and that we're working towards an economic reopening at a snails pace. It's allllll political. God I hate these people. Quit the he said/she said bullshit and figure out a way to get testing to the people. This shouldn't be politicized like it is.