NYDN: "Baseball Screwed Up Coronavirus Like It Screws Up Everything Else"

Bradford William Davis, New York Daily News:

Baseball Screwed Up Coronavirus Like It Screws Up Everything Else

As usual ... baseball waited as long as possible to do the right thing — suspending spring training and the first two weeks of the MLB season. The decision ... [came] later than every major American sports league's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The league can't feign ignorance about the coronavirus risks of packing thousands of people into a stadium. By its own admission, the MLB was in conversation with "with a wide range of public health experts, infectious disease specialists, and governmental agencies," including the Centers for Disease Control.

Yet, short of asking Marlins Man to lick every mustard dispenser he's ever used, the league could not have possibly shown more contempt for expert wisdom by allowing the games to persist as long as they did. ...

The virus is just the latest confirmation that MLB is comfortable being the last to respond to a crisis of any degree or kind.

Even though the league was informed by organizations about the possibility of illegal sign stealing, it took a public report and whistleblowing player witness to launch a probe expansive enough to confirm the rumors out of Houston were true.

Then, as baseballs flew out of ballparks at record rates for years, and accusations of a "juiced ball" spread around the league like a highly contagious respiratory infection, it took complaints from players and studies conducted from scientists outside the league to force MLB to admit their equipment was responding differently to the crack of the bat.

In its farcical statement Thursday, the league claimed that "nothing is more important to us than the health and safety of our players, employees and fans." ...

[B]y dragging their cleats, baseball put its most loyal fans at greatest risk. Per the Sports Business Journal, the average age of a baseball fan is 57, the oldest in American sports. Older adults (60 and up, according to data collected by the World Health Organization) are most at risk of dying from the coronavirus.

Also:

Rush Limbaugh Thinks COVID-19 Is The 19th Coronavirus

Conservative talk show Rush Limbaugh ... who has suggested reports of the deadly disease are part of a conspiracy to undermine President Trump, further misinformed his audience Wednesday by claiming the virus is referred to as COVID-19 because there have been 18 other coronaviruses.

"Why do you think this is COVID-19?" he said. "This is the 19th coronavirus. They're not uncommon."

The Washington Post reported ... the virus' name is short for Coronavirus Disease 2019, which is the year it was identified. ...

The popular right-wing pundit has compared the coronavirus to a "common cold" and referred to informed media coverage of the growing pandemic as "panic." [This is a steady mantra at Fox News] ...

Limbaugh also struggled to wrap his brain around the word "lethal" ...

"What does lethal mean?" he demanded. "Does lethal kill you? Does lethal infect you? Does lethal give you a temperature of 102 versus 100?"

As the Post simply put it: "Lethal kills you."

As can stupidity, sometimes.