The Los Angeles Dodgers’ dedication to massive spending finally paid off. They won the World Series for the first time in 32 years with a 3-1 Game Six win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is the win is already being overshadowed by the COVID-19 diagnosis of Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner who was pulled in the eighth inning after the team apparently only learned then that Turner was positive.
But that was just the tip of the iceberg of further evidence that the 2020 MLB season should’ve never have happened.
Sure it’s great the Dodgers were able to get the elusive World Series and quiet all the critics. But their own carelessness concerning COVID-19 along with the MLB’s sloppy and lazy approach to keeping everyone safe is going to be talked more as questions continue to rise to the surface regarding this potential Game Six super-spreader.
First, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, the results of Justin Turner’s test from Monday came back during the second inning as inconclusive.
Okay, if that’s the case, why was Turner even allowed to continue playing in Game Six, moreover though what’s the point of testing if you’re not going to get the results prior to the game?
From there, the second test obviously came back as positive which supposedly didn’t make its way to the Dodgers until the eighth inning when the MLB informed LA to pull Turner from the game.
All of that though is on Major League Baseball and the Dodgers. What happened after the game is an implication on Justin Turner for being a completely selfish piece of shit.
Upon Julio Urías striking out Willy Adames for the final out in the ninth, Turner actually left his short time in quarantine and joined his teammates on the field for the post game celebration. But if leaving quarantine was bad enough for a COVID positive player which at this point Turner undeniably was, he proceeded to hug his teammates and held the Commissioners Trophy while the team continued to pass it around.
It actually got worse though from there, during the team photo Turner actually took off his mask and sat next to his teammates for the picture.
Ironically, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said that when Major League Baseball learned of Turner’s positive test the third baseman was “immediately isolated” to “prevent the spread”.
However, according to Ken Rosenthal Turner was “told not to go on the field, or asked not to go on the field.” Rosenthal continued saying, “he insisted upon it, the Dodgers insisted upon it, and that is why he was out there.” Meanwhile, Andrew Friedman seemingly defended Turners careless and selfish actions telling the New York Daily News’ Bradford William Davis, “He wanted to be on the field and take a picture with the trophy … I don’t think there was anyone that was going to stop him from going out.”
Turner tweeted afterwards that he was feeling “great” and had “no symptoms at all”.
There’s no word on when the Dodgers will be returning to LA from Texas as the team will undergo rapid testing at the hotel.
Despite all of that though this is really reprehensible action by all parties involved whether it be the Dodgers organization, Major League Baseball, Rob Manfred, and Justin Turner. Yet, any kind of action taken by the MLB would be laughable considering not only did they go on with Game Six as scheduled without having all test results in, they actually let the Dodgers continue to play a player whose original test came back as inconclusive in the second inning.
I’m sorry, but this is worse than the Astros cheating scandal and heads need to roll starting with Rob Manfred.
Nonetheless, this whole cluster fuck is just another example why the United State still can’t get a good hold on controlling the pandemic which has already killed over 220,000 people in the U.S. alone.
