EFTA00025443.pdf

From: The Washington Post <email@washingtonpost.com> To: < Subject: The Daily 202: As a baseball season like no other begins, escaping coronavirus proves impossible Date: Thu, 23 Jul 2020 17:45:53 +0000 Sign up for this newsletter Read online The Washington Post The Daily 202 Intelligence for leaders. Presented by American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network ii,Jame By James Hohmann s with Mariana Alfaro Hohma I Email As a baseball season like no other begins, escaping coronavirus proves impossible A reporter approached Sen. Mitt Romney in the Capitol on Wednesday afternoon to ask: "Do you have confidence in the president's handling of this crisis right now?" "Which? There are so many crises going on," replied Romney (R-Utah). "I'm not sure which." L. :Mitt Romney arrives for this week's Senate Republican lunch. (Stefani [ Reynolds/Bloomberg) Mitt Romney arrives for this week's Senate Republican lunch. (Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg) The 2012 GOP presidential nominee was not trying to be flip and lamented President Trump's response to the novel coronavirus when the reporter clarified. But our nation faces cascading crises: the worst civil unrest since EFTA00025443 1968, the worst economic upheaval since 1933 and the worst public health emergency since 1918. This morning's jobs report shows another 1.4 million workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, the 18th straight week that more than a million Americans have filed claims. Other ongoing crises get less attention because of the contagion, but that does not mean they have been solved. There is an opioid crisis causing deaths of despair, the climate crisis that imperils the future of the planet, a looming sovereign debt crisis that most political leaders seem nonchalant about, rising great-power conflict with China, including a new space race, and fresh complications overnight in Afghanistan as America struggles to exit her longest war. ADVERTISEMEN1 Content from American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network It's time to remove hurdles to cancer care. Congress addressed the affordability of Covid-19 testing and treatment. Cancer care needs the same. It's time to reduce out-of-pocket costs and ensure cost-sharing assistance benefits cancer patients. Professional sports offer a comfortable getaway from the challenges of life and the burdens of reality. For a few hours, and a few bucks, you can go to the ballpark and escape. That has always been part of the joy that comes with the price of admission. On this Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season, delayed by nearly four months because of the coronavirus, such escapism is impossible. Largely, this is because no one is safe from covid-19. To wit, the Kansas City Royals revealed Wednesday that Hunter Dozier, who hit 26 home runs last season, tested positive and will be placed on the injured list. EFTA00025444 This abridged 6o-game season, instead of the usual 162, will not be baseball as we know it; it might better be described as covidball. First off, there will be no spectators allowed in the stands, so all of us will be watching on television and fake crowd noise will be piped into the ballparks. There is supposed to be social distancing — and mask wearing — in the dugout. Players have been told not to give high-fives. Or spit. Or chew sunflower seeds. Coaches have been told they are not allowed to touch their faces. iti Tradition-bound Major League Baseball has made rule changes that would have been considered sacrilege not long ago, including introducing designated hitters in the National League and starting extra innings with an automatic runner on second base. Historically and culturally, baseball has been far less political and polarized than professional football and basketball. Players have tended to be less outspoken than their counterparts in other sports. (I touched on this in 2017 after completing a personal quest to watch games at all 3o major league stadiums.) But times are changing. The sport has not been immune to the national reckoning on racial injustice. San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler and several of his players knelt during the national anthem earlier this week before an exhibition game, provoking an attack by Trump. "Looking forward to live sports," he tweeted on Tuesday, "but any time I witness a player kneeling during the National Anthem, a sign of great disrespect for our Country and our Flag, the game is over for me!" EFTA00025445 In a show of solidarity, "Black Lives Matter" will be stenciled on several mounds across the league this weekend, including in Washington. The league has also given players the option to wear patches on their jerseys that use the phrase. The topsy-turvy process that got us to Opening Day has itself been a metaphor for the country's broader struggle to control the virus. Baseball is the first of the big four sports to play a regular season game since March. The United States has lagged Europe and Asia in restarting professional sports. Players are being tested regularly now, but there have been long delays in turning around results — just like for the rest of society — that limit the values of the tests. Vr So often, it has felt like America just cannot catch a break these past few months. It is perhaps apt that the forecast calls for scattered thunderstorms to linger in Washington into the evening before tapering off after sunset. adjusts his face mask during a Senate health committee hearing on June 30. (Al rago/Reuters) Tony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, adjusts his face mask during a Senate health committee hearing on June 30. (AI Drago/Reuters) Tony Fauci, the government's top infectious-disease expert, will throw the ceremonial first pitch of the first game at 7 p.m. Eastern in Washington as the Nationals take on the New York Yankees. ESPN will broadcast it live. In a video released Wednesday by the Nationals, the 79-year-old Fauci said he was nervous about getting the ball past home plate. Washington star Ryan Zimmerman told him not to worry. "If you bounce it, there's nobody there to boo you," he quipped. EFTA00025446 I will never forget flying to Houston last October to watch the Nationals win in the World Series with my dad. But it feels hard to believe that incredible playoff run was just nine months ago. It feels like nine years. The season opener is a doubleheader: The Dodgers will play the Giants tonight in Los Angeles after the Nationals-Yankees game. But San Francisco's star catcher Buster Posey will not play. He has opted to sit out the season because he and his wife adopted identical twin girls who were born prematurely, and he doesn't want to put them at risk. Among the dozen or so other stars skipping this season are Zimmerman, Atlanta's Nick Markakis, Los Angeles's David Price and Colorado's Ian Desmond. The members of my fantasy baseball league normally gather in the basement of a Capitol Hill bar for an annual draft. This year, we gathered virtually to respect social distancing protocols. We also waited to hold our draft until late last night because so many players kept announcing that they wouldn't play this season. None of us wanted to pay for pitchers and hitters who will not generate any stats for our teams. (For those who care about the game, the roster for "The 2O2s" includes Gerrit Cole, Francisco Lindor, Clayton Kershaw, Nelson Cruz, Javier Baez, Jose Altuve, Matt Olson, Eddie Rosario and Kyle Schwarber. Picking Cole as one of my staffing pitchers creates a somewhat awkward dynamic tonight because I will be cheering for the Nationals as the new Yankees ace starts against them. So it goes.) Everything comes with some risks amid the pandemic. The fi rst road game for the Nationals will be against the Toronto Blue