Medical Update

This is becoming sickening. Seemingly all I read or hear about relating to sports is something to do with the medical profession. It seems like an epidemic within a pandemic.

At least 10 New York Yankees  have been placed on the 10 day IL. Most notably, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton reside there along with D.J. Le Mahieu. The frequency of players finding the IL is such that I didn’t even know that backup catcher Kyle Higashioka is on it with a right oblique strain. Which explains why journeyman Eric Kratz has been relieving starting catcher Gary Sanchez for the past week. 

If that isn’t enough, reliever Zach Britton went on the IL on Thursday. And starting pitcher James Paxton (left elbow strain) and Gleyber Torres (hamstring) are likely candidates to join those injured teammates. 

The starting lineup is a patchwork of second tier players, with the exception of Aaron Hicks, Sanchez, Luke Voit and Gio Urshela. Voit is the hottest bat in the American League right now, tied with Mike Trout for the most home runs in the league with 10. Urshela the steady fielding third baseman, kept on hitting and with some pop in his bat. 

Contrast that with the anemic performances by Sanchez, Hicks, Torres thus far, along with Brett Gardner, mired in a 3 for 30 slump, giving him a batting average of .164. Plus, outside of Garret Cole and Jordan Montgomery in the rotation, the pitching has been atrocious, including the vaunted bullpen. The performances of Britton and Paxton may have explanations. Masahiro Tanaka may not have fully recovered from the line drive Stanton hit off of his head. But the lousy pitching from prized receiver Adam Ottavino is inexplicable. 

No wonder the Yankees were swept by the Rays at home this week. Without the full team and Tampa Bay relatively young and healthy, it was a mismatch. Which is why the Rays are atop of the AL East and the Yankees appear shell-shocked. 

The battle for New York was to begin on Friday night. Except that COVID-19 suddenly appeared with the Mets while they were in Miami, when one player and one staff member tested positive. Once more the Yankees have to wait on a team infected with the coronavirus to see when they next play. It certainly is not this weekend, as “out of an abundance of caution” the Mets and Yankees won’t be playing at Citi Field. 

Meanwhile, each Yankee on the IL gets another day more to get healthy, but this will lead to more 7 inning doubleheaders, which the Yankees do not excel in. Such is the nature of the Yankees 2020 season.

The Mets aren’t the only team to fall ill this week. While the St. Louis Cardinals and Marlins are back to health, the Cincinnati Reds had positive tests and their series was postponed. So, by my count, the Mets, Reds, Cardinals, Marlins and Phillies all had positive tests. Teams affected were throughout the AL East, NL East, NL Central and AL Central. And we haven’t reached the halfway point in the season, plus hurricane season is going to be thriving this year, creating plenty more scheduling woes for the second half of the season. 

One additional COVID 19 sorry in baseball. Pittsburgh Pirates President Travis Williams tested positive for the coronavirus. The Pirates abysmal season got even worse. Hopefully he will recover swiftly and without any persistent after effects. The same cannot be said about the team.

Don’t be shocked by the Houston Astros suddenly starting to win. That is not surprising, given the talent they have. However, Houston has 11 players on the IL, starting with star pitcher Justin Verlander, and most recently, AL MVP runner-up Alex Bregman. Yordan Alvarez, last year’s AL Rookie of the Year, is now out for the season as he faces knee surgery. I don’t see them winning the crown, as Tampa, the Yankees, Minnesota and Oakland are far deeper and better than Houston, Nonetheless, if they suddenly get healthy, the Astros are still enough of a force to be reckoned with. 

Some other noteworthy items from baseball this week. Led by the emerging star Fernando Tatis, Jr. the suddenly relevant San Diego Padres slugged four grand slams in four consecutive games, setting a new MLB record. Tatis earned the ire of the Texas Rangers when he connected on a 3-0 count for a grand slam with the Padres already up by 7 runs late in the game. Breaking the unwritten rule is a no-no, so the Rangers pitcher threw behind the body of the next Padres hitter, slugger Manny Machado. 

Good for Tatis and for the beautiful slide he executed to avoid a tag at third base, too. This kid is exciting and the Padres are going to be a legitimate threat for the NL crown in years to come, if not already.

The San Francisco Giants do not like Mike Trout. For whatever reasons one Giants pitcher, Shawn Anderson, who is known to be wild, is throwing up and in at the Angels star, with three of the pitches near Trout’s head. Angels manager Joe Maddon has expressed his opinion on this matter. Giants manager Gab Kapler, who has played for Maddon, only remarked that Anderson was “jittery.” Note to Kapler: Get him out of there if Anderson cannot pitch to Trout. For all of thisTrout two pitches later barely missed a homer and settled for a triple. Perhaps the earful Maddon gave the umpires might be heard by Anderson?

College football was jolted this week with the revelation that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had to close down because of COVID, sending students home for remote learning. The head of the school had said if there was no teaching on campus, there would be no football. Let’s see whether that holds true.

Notre Dame was stunned by a rash of COVID cases. Football practice actually was cancelled for two days. That NEVER happens at Notre Dame. Unwilling to give in to the virus, Notre Dame is treating the COVID scare as a minor inconvenience, temporary in nature. No football is anathema to what Notre Dame is about, no matter how good its academic rank is. Notwithstanding that 5 players tested positive and 6 more are in quarantine. 

Guess what? Parties on and near campus happened, with few availing themselves of masks. The headline in an article published in The Chronicle of Higher Education said “Chapel Hill and Notre Dame Are Just the Beginning.” 

Sadly, this is what the experts all along have been predicting and the naysayers and doubters are still clinging to their beliefs. I heard one slightly intoxicated youth at Notre Dame say that “..this is all a hoax.” 

This is where the administrators need to earn their money. Take a stand. Protect the kids who obviously need to be protected. Sure, there is going to be a harsh monetary cost to this, not soon to be replenished. But  lives lost to COVID can never be replaced. 

The stupidity of the NCAA to permit college football teams to practice if their season has been shut down is astounding.  Coaches worried about the players not learning the plays and being rusty when and if spring football comes about isn’t the right thing to do. They didn’t allow the spring sports teams to continue to practice when their seasons were cut short. 

Of course, the difference is the money involved and what power football wields because of it. This is a pandemic which is growing again before flu season is upon us. Can’t somebody think rationally for a change and unify the schpbpls in their efforts to combat this deadly virus? Wait—it is in the hands of each state to make that call. Fat chance there could ever be unanimity.

In NFL news, there are players who are against first year Giants head coach Joe Judge’s tactics of making his players run punishment laps after mental miscues and for having hard tackling drills. To those who criticize the Giants head man about his tactics, I say leave it be. This Giants team was in disarray when he first started on the job. Judge needs to communicate in no uncertain terms what he expects, and if the highly-compensated Giants’ players don’t like it, I am certain that Judge would agree that they can seek employment elsewhere. I don’t know if this high school/college way of doing things will work or there will be a revolt; the proof will be in the record the Giants accrue in 2020. 

Throughout this training camp period, teams are losing what seems to be a myriad of players to injury early on. My theory is that the different kinds of training the MLB and NFL players are substituting has not been enough for the demands of their sport. Compare that with the lack of serious injuries in the NBA and NHL, where there were bubbles and longer training  before the season, and maybe I am right. 

Washington Head Coach Ron Rivera has squamous cell cancer. He intends to take no time off while fighting the spread of the cancer. I liked him with the Chicago Bears; he was taught and gritty. I am rooting for him to win this fight. 

The Lakers and Bucks lost the openers of their playoff series to eight seeds Portland and Orlando. In the second games, the top seeded teams prevailed. Damien Lillard, who nearly single-handed carried the Blazers into the playoffs, suffered a dislocated finger. Portland’s hopes were faint enough. If Lillard isn’t playing in the stratosphere and is limited by his injury, Portland stands no chance to advance. 

Brooklyn is clearly no match for the defending champion Toronto Raptors, even without Kawhai Leonard. Leonard’s team, the Los Angeles Clippers, has a battle on its hands with the Dallas mavericks. It might have been 2-0 Dallas but for a piece of horrible officiating tossing Krisaps Porzingis in Game 2 for coming to the defense of teammate Luka Donic. Use your heads, zebras!! 

The injury bug is alive in the Mavis-Clips series. Patrick Beverley is day-to-day for LA, while Porzingis and Trey Burke are listed day-to-day and shooting guard Seth Curry is out with an undisclosed leg injury.

Boston has thus far handled the Sixers, who are clearly showing the loss of Ben Simmons to his injury. Miami seems to have Indiana’s number, with Jimmy Butler leading the way for the Heat, aided by the 24 point performance of Duncan Robinson, out of Michigan and Williams College. James Harden’s 34.3 ppg average is the difference between Houston and OKC;  Fear the Beard. 

The best matchup is between Utah and Denver. Two evenly matched teams. The series could make the maximum seven games to decide who moves on to the next round.

Contrary to anyone’s belief, I do not sit home and watch the wall-to-wall coverage of the opening rounds of both the NBA Playoffs and the Road to the Stanley Cup. I may be a sprits junkie, but that is way too much, especially when factoring in the MLB games to watch starting with the Yankees’ telecasts. 

I did watch the Islanders eliminate #3 seed Washington and Alex Ovechkin in five games. New York played a complete game, dominating the center ice play and thwarting the Capitals again and again. 

The Vegas Golden Knights took out the Chicago Blackhawks in five games. Switching goalies in the beginning of the series was risky, but it worked out fine for Vegas. 

St. Louis and Vancouver are mired in a tough series, and those kids in Montreal are giving the Philadelphia Flyers all they can handle. Boston Colorado, Tampa Bay and Dallas advanced relatively unscathed. Colorado looks exceptionally impressive; I wonder if the talent in the Western Conference may be a tad below that of all of the teams in the Eastern Conference?

What is also apparent is that the designated home team does not have a clear cut advantage in the playoffs. Wearing the home colors makes one the home team, and the use of different locker rooms, benches, along with the sounds of virtual fans cheering is done to enhance the atmosphere as best as possible. In the end, these are neutral site games, and the teams which perform the best inside of the bubble and have made the greatest adjustments, are the ones which will win. Announcers in the Islanders-Capitals gems noted how much fun and well-adjusted the Idles were in Toronto.

One other NBA note. Mark Jackson on ESPN on Thursday night went off on the amount of defensive effort coming from Carmelo Anthony as a rejuvenated member of the Portland Trail Blazers. This apparently was a shot at former Denver Nuggets coach George Karl, who, as much as he recognized the athleticism and scoring ability of ‘Melo, couldn’t get him to play D. 

Karl responded with a fact-laden shredding of Jackson, complete with how many times Karl has coached a team to the NBA Finals, Coach of the Year awards, and saving it for last , a shot at Jackson leading the Warriors to a 51 season before his replacement, Steve Kerr won over 60 games with the same crew and won an NBA title. Maybe Jackson’s mind needs a stint on the IL…

In more announcer news, Reds TV announcer Thom Brennaman was pulled form the air abruptly after offering a hot mike homophobic slur between innings of a doubleheader, FOX also pulled him from his gig for NFL football.  Plus NBC analyst Mike Milbury, a Colgate man, offered insensitive comments about women on Thursday night. Brennaman has been suspended. Milbury should suffer a harsh fate too. Mouthpieces who can’t keep their mouths shut.

Finally, what else is new. I had CT scan today for a lower back issue. My appointment with Dr. Martin O’Malley in Manhattan for my ankle had to be rescheduled due to an emergency surgery. I wonder which pro athlete needed some help…

So that’s it, sports fans. My medical update. Stay safe. Be well. Stay off of the IL.