NEW YORK — Thirty baseball teams from 28 cities, trying to play 60 games each amid a coronavirus pandemic that seemingly hasn’t peaked in the United States.“Baseball games can work,” said Dr. David Hamer, professor of global health at the Boston University School of Public Health. “I think it’s feasible.”
Unlike the NBA and NHL, Major League Baseball teams won’t be sequestered into bubbles — they’ll be travelling all around the country.“I don’t think you can completely quantify exactly what the risk will be,” Adalja said. Can all of that keep players safe? Can it keep MLB from straining resources in their host communities? What if fans are allowed to attend games in September and October, as some team owners have suggested?According to data released Friday by MLB, just 0.4% of samples from players and coaches tested since June 27 have come back positive. That’s far below the national positive rate of about 9%.
“The risk of aerosol transmission on a plane is pretty much limited to the row you’re in and maybe a row ahead and a row behind,” Hamer said. Experts aren’t worried that travelling ballclubs might endanger communities in a significant way. The travelling parties will be relatively small, and because they’ll be using private transportation, there shouldn’t be much interaction with people not affiliated with the league in some manner.
Everyone should