• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The Boston Red Sox Monday, April 20, 2020 * MassLive.com Coronavirus in MLB: Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw doesn’t think quarantined baseball is realistic (report) Matt Vautour Clayton Kershaw is still hopeful about playing baseball in 2020, but the Dodgers ace isn’t on board with the idea of quarantining everyone in Arizona and/or Florida. Kershaw likely spoke for quite a few Major League Baseball players when he told the Los Angeles Times that he wasn’t willing to be away from his wife and children for that long, especially during this pandemic. “We all want to play baseball. I get that; I want to play baseball too,” said Kershaw 32 in the article that posted Sunday. “But there is something about being in the big leagues and you can’t compromise that. Playing in spring training stadiums and quarantining for months without your family and certain things like that, I don’t think that’s doable if you’re talking about doing it for four to five months.” Kershaw has a 5-year-old daughter Cali and two sons, Charley 3 and Cooper 3 months. Among the solutions proposed to start play during the coronavirus pandemic was bringing all 30 Major League Baseball teams to Arizona where they’d play mostly in Spring Training stadiums with no fans, while being isolated from the rest of the world. Coronavirus: MLB will allow teams to furlough, reduce pay of non-playing employees (report) Chris Mason Pay cuts may be coming to baseball soon. According to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, commissioner Rob Manfred will allow teams to furlough or reduce pay of non-playing personnel on Monday. Though the ballplayers aren’t affected, managers, coaches and front office members could be. It’s not mandatory, so it remains to be seen how the Red Sox will respond. “Teams would not be required to take such measures, but baseball’s decision would provide the possibility of relief for clubs facing the most significant financial duress as the 2020 season remains on hold,” Rosenthal writes. While player salaries have yet to be affected, they certainly could be. On Friday the NBA announced a plan to cut athletes’ paychecks by 25% beginning May 15. It’s unclear when professional sports will return, but Dr. Anthony Fauci offered some optimism that they could be back this summer. “There’s a way of doing that,” Dr. Fauci told Peter Hamby of Snapchat’s Good Luck America last week. “Put them in big hotels wherever you want to play. Keep them very well surveilled and name me a surveillance. But have them tested, like every week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family. And just let them play the season out. People say, 'Well, you can’t play without spectators. Well, I think you’d probably get enough buy-in from people who are dying to see a baseball game, particularly me. I’m living in Washington. We have the world champion Washington Nationals. I want to see them play again." MLB has been eyeing a restart in Arizona under similar fan-less guidelines. * RedSox.com Celebrate Patriots' Day Monday on MLB Network Ian Browne BOSTON -- Monday is Patriots' Day in Massachusetts, but there will be something missing besides the Boston Marathon. The Red Sox have always taken part in that tradition-rich holiday by playing an 11 a.m. game at Fenway Park. Though that isn’t possible this year, MLB Network is featuring the Red Sox for its entire day of programming on Monday. For early risers, Game 4 of the 2004 World Series will start at 7:30 a.m. ET, allowing viewers to relive that magical night when the Red Sox won it all for the first time in 86 years. A 2004 World Series highlights package will follow at 9:30 a.m. And at 11 a.m., watch the classic game from April 20, 2013. It was the first game at Fenway after the Marathon bombings, when David Ortiz gave his epic speech that includes an F-bomb that not even the FCC had an issue with. Daniel Nava won the game with a dramatic homer. “Boston, this is for you,” Don Orsillo appropriately told his viewers on NESN as Nava rounded the bases. The game will be reaired at 11 p.m. At 2 p.m, the 2013 World Series Film will be shown, allowing viewers to flash back to key moments of that magical “Boston Strong” season. The most nostalgia-tinted game of the day starts at 4 p.m., when the Yankees and Red Sox celebrate the 100th anniversary of Fenway Park with their game from April 20, 2012. For those who can’t get enough of Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series -- which is probably nearly all of you -- MLB Network will chronicle the pivotal moments of that game at 7 p.m. as part of the MLB Greatest Games series with studio hosts Bob Costas and Tom Verducci reliving the instant classic with Kevin Millar, a key participant from the game. * The Athletic Manfred will allow teams to furlough or reduce pay to some employees Ken Rosenthal While the Atlanta Braves, Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants are among the teams that reportedly will pay employees through May 31, Major League Baseball will inform clubs on Monday of a decision that will give them greater flexibility in dealing with non-playing personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic. Effective May 1, Commissioner Rob Manfred will suspend Uniform Employee Contracts, enabling teams to furlough employees or reduce their pay, according to major-league sources. Teams would not be required to take such measures, but baseball’s decision would provide the possibility of relief for clubs facing the most significant financial duress as the 2020 season remains on hold. The Uniform Player Contracts contain a similar provision to the UECs, allowing Manfred to withhold pay in the event of a national emergency. President Trump declared a national emergency on March 13, and players and owners reached an agreement two weeks later on how players would be paid in the event of a shortened or canceled season. A club’s nonplaying personnel includes managers and coaches at the major- and minor-league levels, some front-office staffers and scouts. Once baseball suspends the contracts of those employees, clubs can talk to them about a variety of adjustments, including the deferral of pay, sources said. The suspension will allow clubs to continue those employees’ health benefits. Manfred recently informed league staff they would be paid through May 31 while also revealing that he and other senior league employees would see their salaries reduced by an average of 35 percent, according to ESPN. As baseball continues to discuss plans for how to begin the 2020 season, it is working with a former official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as its lead medical consultant, sources say. Dr. Ali S. Khan, the dean of the college of public health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center since 2014, spent nearly two decades in a variety of positions with the CDC, most recently as its director of the office of public health preparedness and response. Khan’s professional interests, according to his biography on the UNMC web site, are emerging infectious diseases, bioterrorism and global health security. He attended the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and completed a joint residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Michigan. He later earned a master’s degree in public health at Emory University. * The New York Post Dustin Pedroia’s Red Sox future sounds even more ominous Mark Fischer Don’t count on Dustin Pedroia making a miraculous return once baseball’s coronavirus-induced suspension finally ends. The Red Sox great, whose left knee has ailed him since Manny Machado famously slid into it with his spikes in 2017, isn’t “at a point where he’s thinking to be ready to come back and join us,” interim manager Ron Roenicke recently told reporters. The 36-year-old Pedroia has played in just nine games over the past two seasons due to his troublesome knee, and suffered another significant setback while rehabbing in January. Pedroia didn’t participate in spring training and was said to be weighing his options, which likely included retirement, when baseball suspended operations on March 12 due to the pandemic. The Red Sox haven’t had much luck at second base without Pedroia, leading them to sign Jose Peraza this offseason. The 25-year-old Peraza hit .239/.285/.346 in 141 games with the Cincinnati Reds last season. Pedroia, the 2008 American League MVP, has won two World Series with the Sox, but was inactive for their 2018 title run. He has made more than $103 million in 15 seasons with Boston, and is slated to earn $13 million annually through the 2022 season. * The USA Today Joe Kelly says 2018 Red Sox would have 'swept through the playoffs' if they actually cheated Henry McKenna While the MLB's investigation into the Boston Red Sox's cheating scandal from 2018 remains unresolved, players from that squad continue to say they never cheated. Second baseman Rafael Devers and World Series MVP Steve Pearce are among the Red Sox players who have denied cheating, and former Red Sox and current L.A. Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly chimed in during a recent interview with WEEI. "From the get-go, I just thought it was laugh-out-loud funny.

Load more

  6

Copy Link