March 11, 2020

We Shouldn’t Let MLB Decide Where and How to Play Baseball

Jason Freedy/Image of Sports/Newscom via ZUMA

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Major League Baseball is pondering the possibility of moving games in cities affected by the coronavirus outbreak:

This could take on several forms, these people said. Teams could play at other MLB stadiums in cities less affected by the crisis, when its primary tenant is on the road. They could stay at their spring training facilities in Arizona or Florida and stage regular-season contests there, since those places are experienced at hosting major-league games. Baseball has even received outreach from outside parties with facilities large enough to host MLB teams if they can’t play at home.

Nothing has been decided, these people said, but all of the options are being considered as viable possibilities. Ultimately, baseball realizes it might have no choice in the matter, as local governments begin to assert their authority. MLB hopes to treat each team’s situation individually and make determinations about how to proceed on a case-by-case basis, the people familiar with the matter said.

IANAEpidemiologist, but isn’t this kind of crazy? Shouldn’t this be a federal decision, not a local one? Seattle and New Rochelle may be outbreak centers right now, but does anyone believe that’s likely to stay the case for long? Once we start testing widely and the disease has spread a little more, it’s going to be nationwide. At that point, isn’t it the CDC that has the greatest knowledge? Why put this on the backs of local health authorities who are limited in what they know and under intense pressure not to ruin local businesses?

Right now, nobody knows what to do because we’re hearing a dozen different messages from a dozen different sources: Mike Pence, Anthony Fauci, local health authorities, state health authorities, cable news, Trump’s tweets, doctors who have just returned from Italy, and so forth. It’s time for this to stop. I know that Donald Trump doesn’t want to risk his reelection by doing anything unpopular, but it’s time for the federal government to show some leadership anyway. We shouldn’t leave it up to MLB to decide if they want to play games in front of the usual crowds. We should tell them whether it’s safe to play in front of the usual crowds.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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