Stamford, CT: Oh man, a crappy burger at my local diner never tasted so good. Welcome back to civilization! What else is going on? Lots of sh!te and it’s almost all bad. We got nooses, for crying out loud, an Amazin’ Mets ownership group coming together, and good ol’ Covid trying to take out team sports in 2020. Good times!
A Confederacy of Dunces
It’s 2020 and we’re still talking about freaking nooses. Bubba Wallace was the driver who got confederate flags banned from Nascar events. The flag is not racist, they said. “We swear, it’s just about our culture and where we grew up.” I reckon there are probably some non-racists out there who fly the flag out of some misguided homage to their homeland, or something. Well screw them. They’re guilty by association. F you and your ugly racist flag.
Classy move by his fellow drivers pushing him to the front though.
Worse than the Wilpons?
In other news, the A-Rod, J-Lo group that is trying to buy the Mets is rumored to be adding Barstool founder Dave Portnoy. It’s like someone dared God to put together an ownership group that Mets fans will hate more than the Wilpons. “You keep underestimating me, Saint Peter? I am God you know. Now hold my beer.”
Check out this guy, all class.
Covidoptimism
Everyone around here is pretty bearish on sports resuming this year. Perhaps I’m seeing what I hope will happen, but I think there are reasons for optimism. Trump is a bewildering display of complete incompetence. But it is true that we’re testing a lot more people and we should be expecting a lot of new cases.
Tbe U.S. is testing over a half million people a day now, up from 100,000 in April. And the death count is steadily dropping nationwide, and is even going down or staying flat in most states that have seen an uptick in cases. That means it’s less deadly that we thought, and could be reported as good news. Look at this death chart from the failing New York Times. Fewer dead people is the most important metric.
Sports leagues are going to be testing all of the players. We know there are a ton of asymptomatic people out there. So, it’s simple math that the sports leagues are going to get some hits. This shouldn’t cause panic, it was inevitable.
Take the curious case of Auston Mattews. The Maple Leafs (not Leaves) star had been skating with other players when he tested positive. I haven’t been able to find out (and I tried no fewer than three Google searches) if he had symptoms. I do know that his roommate and training buddy Frederik Andersen tested negative. Throw Matthews and anyone else who tests positive in a room for two weeks, then test them again. By the time games start, everyone should be good to go. This could work, right?… Right?
The NHL tested over 200 players and got 11 positive results. Isn’t that in the ballpark arena of about what you would expect?
Come back tomorrow for Angry Ward, who is anxiously awaiting a call from A-Rod. “Hey Ward, we need one more jerk.” Follow us on Twitter at @BenWhit8, @MeetTheMatts, @Matt_McCarthy00, Instagram @MeetTheMatts and like our Facebook page, Meet The Matts.
