L.A. Dodgers bench coach Bob Geren did one of the many things you shouldn’t do with a mask during a broadcast of his team’s 11-2 over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday night.
Geren pulled down his mask to cough.
While the moment was quick and seemingly small, it felt much bigger in the context of MLB’s turbulent and, perhaps, disastrous season. It’s yet another example of the league’s failures amid a shortened season during the novel coronavirus pandemic. There was a sense that MLB would fail to launch. Now that the season is finally underway, it’s fair to wonder whether it will last much longer.
The Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals are experiencing outbreaks in their locker rooms while leagues like the NBA, NHL, WNBA and NWSL have been able to keep positive tests at zero after initially quarantining anyone who was COVID-positive at the start of the season. The outbreak in MLB has left players and commissioner Rob Manfred pointing fingers at one another.
It’s an embarrassment, which is why Geren’s simple gesture of pulling down his mask to cough feels like a big moment. His inability to cough into his mask — like the CDC recommends — feels representative of the league’s failures as whole. MLB is failing to safely operate during the pandemic, and unless it changes its way of doing things, the league may have to cancel.
