The major roadblock on the path toward resuming Major League Baseball is the absence of widespread national testing due to shortages, and all the states and municipalities that need kits and reagents well before sports leagues should think about requesting such resources.
There's no clear end to that issue, and White Sox players have expressed their reservations about even appearing like they're eager to cut in line.
Major League Baseball is going to play a big part in a more widely available form of testing, although it's toward a different end. Tuesday night, stories appeared in the usual places -- The Athletic, ESPN, USA Today -- reporting that 27 of the league's 30 teams are volunteering to participate in a massive COVID-19 antibody study conducted by Stanford, USC and the Sports Medicine Research and Testing Laboratory.
The study ropes in 10,000 people, ranging from players, staff, front office members and their relatives, as well as part-time employees like ushers and concessionaires. They're receiving tests that require the subject to put a drop of blood on a testing stick, which will turn around results in 10 minutes, similar to a home pregnancy test.
Both MLB and the leaders of the study said that they're not using the study to help determine when the league can restart. One might be inclined to read that cynically given how badly Rob Manfred and the owners want something to show for 2020 financially, but everybody involved should hope their words can be taken at face value. Such a seroprevalence study is good for estimating the proportion of a population that has been exposed to the coronavirus in the United States, but it's limited in its test sensitivity and how much weight can be put on the results. Major League Baseball would be valuable public health partner, in that it can easily channel these tests to a wide cross-section of the country, especially if it's including non-athletes, family members and gameday employees. As it pertains to this study, MLB shouldn't try to do or be anything more than that.
Spare Parts
Even outside of the comfy confines of the AL Central, the White Sox still project to have a winning record in a Cactus League that boasts a hefty middle class, Dodgers aside. They're tied for sixth place at 57-55 in Dan Szymborski's 112-game vision, but that's only five games behind second-place Cleveland. ZiPS gives the Sox a 30.7 percent chance of finishing in the top four, which is better than the 24.4 percent chance it gives the Sox of advancing into October from the standard alignment.
James Fegan played an important role in increasing our Danny Farquhar awareness before the aneurysm cut Farquhar's pitching career short, and their paths generated a mutual appreciation.
Everybody would be wearing No. 42 if baseball games could be played today, but even though the league lies dormant, Jackie Robinson Day is still highly applicable to Tim Anderson, partially because he's done hiding who he is and wants to be, and partially because he's the lone African American on the White Sox.
For the first time in forever, a Jerry Reinsdorf team unconditionally fired a general manager. The heat is reduced on the White Sox's side since the rebuild trades have largely connected, but at least we know it's possible if adding to the core stalls out again.
I've been to a number of concerts where it feels like the people around me need the show more than I do. I've never seen Weird Al live, and I wouldn't have assumed that he'd be the kind of guy who could generate that kind of connection live, but this lengthy profile effectively explains how he can be a rite of passage for grade-schoolers and adolescents decade after I was one.
I've explored affiliate programs before while trying to figure out ways to generate revenue without ads, but worthwhile books are the only things I feel like promoting, and I avoid Amazon as much as I can, so I passed.
Bookshop.org's affiliate plan seems like a much better arrangement, as its goal is to support independent bookstores, especially ones who don't have their own robust online infrastructure to offset unexpected brick-and-mortar closures.
So I'm giving that a shot. When reviewing books in the future, the links will point to my Bookshop.org store page, with a disclaimer that Sox Machine would receive a portion of sales made through the link (the page linked above already has all the books I've recommended since the relaunch). I'd still suggest ordering straight from your preferred local bookseller if you can, but this seems like the second-best option if your favorite shop isn't set up for it, and you'll support your favorite(?) independent blog along the way.
Apropos of nothing, a big post is coming tomorrow. Clear your schedules accordingly.
