We have all seen statistical models of how this current pandemic is supposed to go. But, just like in sports, the computer-generated models are just that. The game is played by people… people who are capable of some really good or really bad things. So, I will not even speculate on what will happen. I learned a long time ago to control what I can control and quit worrying about the rest. I am a big believer that you get what you believe.
There are many companies working on cures and vaccines. Just consider these three (3) things (there’s a whole lot more):
- A drug used to treat HIV and cancer patients has shown success in treating some of the most severe COVID-19 patients, and just got cleared by the FDA to start a phase 2 clinical trial. Much of the work behind the drug is happening right in Washington State. LINK
2. Last month, residents of Kiryas Joel, a New York village of 35,000 Hasidic Jews roughly an hour’s drive from Manhattan, began hearing about a promising treatment for the coronavirus that had been rippling through their community.
The source was Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, 46, a mild-mannered family doctor with offices near the village. Since early March, his clinics had treated people with coronavirus-like symptoms, and he had developed an experimental treatment consisting of an antimalarial medication called hydroxychloroquine, the antibiotic azithromycin and zinc sulfate.
After testing this three-drug cocktail on hundreds of patients, some of whom had only mild or moderate symptoms when they arrived, Dr. Zelenko claimed that 100 percent of them had survived the virus with no hospitalizations and no need for a ventilator. “I’m seeing tremendous positive results,” he said in a March 21 video… LINK
3. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine said they believe they have found a vaccine for the coronavirus after studying a similar virus. LINK
The mainstream media typically just covers the surge of this pandemic and while I do not think we should ignore common sense, like wearing a face mask (which I have not been able to obtain, as yet) when you are out, I do believe in the power of the human spirit to overcome and prosper.
While I do not know anyone with COVID-19, I do know people who have lost loved ones to the pandemic. I know of a person who lost his job and committed suicide. In our business, people are asking for refunds for systems they have just gotten. Yesterday, we had a man who had just received a whole-house reverse osmosis system on Wednesday and was laid-off on Thursday. He asked to return it and we agreed to, but asked that he hold on to it until we sell it to someone else (that way we don’t have to pay about $1,000 in shipping costs again). When we sell it, we will just have a Bill of Lading sent to him and he will send it to the next customer (who hopefully won’t return it).
We typically sell 50-70 of these whole house RO systems a month. In March we sold 16. They sell for $9,000 to $15,000 dollars so it has impacted our revenue. However, overall revenue is still growing – people are just buying smaller items. No matter what is happening in society, people still need good water. Labs require filters and craft beer brewers and distilleries are working at full bore.
Yesterday, we sold a RO system to a distillery in Milwaukee and they needed it right away. Our VP of Operations volunteered to drive it up in a company truck on Sunday. Life goes on. We all do our part. I just wanted to give a little pep talk before I turned my attention to baseball.
Mookie Betts May Never Play for the Dodgers
Yes, that is possible… but I believe that Andrew Friedman will have something to say about that. MLB and the players union have already agreed upon that. If there is no season, Mookie will be a free agent and Cody and Corey will have accumulated one more year of service time… without playing.
Now, I am not saying there will not be a partial season in 2020. It doesn’t look good right about now, but things have a way of changing. If there isn’t however, the Dodgers will still be the favorites in 2021 and I believe that Mookie Betts will re-sign with the Dodgers, Andrew Friedman and Company will not let him walk away. You may that is not his M.O…. and it isn’t, but he has NEVER been in this type of situation. He has a roster that is the envy of every team, a loaded farm system and he has the money to spend.
Price and Kershaw will have another year of training with Driveline Baseball under their belts and both could be primed for a huge 2021. The guy the Dodgers could lose is Alex Wood (as his Driveline workouts have restored for velocity and filthiness). However, someone like Jimmy Nelson, another year removed from surgery could step up.
I am not giving up on 2020, but I am prepared for whatever happens. If the season is gone, then I will prepare for 2021.
R.I.P. Bill Withers
Music to Live By
For those of you who care to read a non-partisan post on what happens next, GO HERE.
Shouldn’t more of the rich and famous be doing this:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/singer-pink-says-she-had-covid-19-gives-1m-to-relief-funds
Yes. They should. There’s a whole lot more the .01% SHOULD be doing to contribute to the general welfare but that’s been true since 1980.
You mention some positive things people are doing, but you avoid talking about the stupid, incompetent, selfish things that have been going on since our government was first advised of this virus months ago. I too shall avoid talking of ineffective actions and hope for the very best going forward.
I know not of whole house RO systems, but I know I cannot afford one at this time. Glad your business is holding on and I trust you aren’t following other neoliberal game plans of gouging the public.
I was disappointed to read MLB’s decisions on players service status. Anything to benefit them would be the expected policy I suppose. How do teams benefit from all this? I trust they will find a way.
I still don’t see how this season gets played but then I say that because I’m reading what the scientific experts are saying and though I hear the politic speak daily I try to ignore it as I find most of those people feckless dimwits – we are still not under a national stay at home order. Until that happens, we’re screwed. I suggest you check out Dr Ho’s charts on that subject.
Stay home America. And happy “Hug a Newsman Day”!
Good column Mark.
No question a number of existing drugs/treatments available to combat the virus and antibody tests are getting under way so there is light ahead. Guessing a vaccine gets fast tracked to fall. Testing is already under way.
Hopefully, John Hopkins and others are right and as temperatures rise, the virus spread will slow and we can begin opening up the country, some parts ahead of others. New therapeutics expected to be ready in June.
How long can we realistically stay at home before we collapse the entire economy and roll into a depression level situation? Eight more weeks? But we can’t maintain this through the summer and into the fall.
So, I’m not counting out Baseball this year.
I can see the Dodgers re-signing Mookie Betts, but the Dodgers and the rest of baseball has taken a pretty good financial hit and that has also hit fan bases across the country. What will the economics look like as we come out of this and head into 2021. One quarter of all small business could collapse and disappear if this goes on much longer. That means a lot of people out of work. It will create a domino effect.
What will that mean to free agent contracts and long term deals moving forward? Can a player like Betts still expect to receive a long term, maximum deal? All of this is unknown at this point. But life has changed and will never be quite the same again.
Does that mean that players like Cody Bellinger and Cory Seager opt for more security and less uncertainty, choosing to sign early instead of waiting for free agency?
That will no doubt impact teams, owners and players moving forward. Lots of uncertainty at this point and few answers.
excellent questions.
The antibody tests will be the best and fastest way out of this. Once they can test to see who is immune (either naturally or because they’ve had the virus and recovered), those people can be released back into the workforce.
A vaccine will need a long test period (longer than the next few weeks or months) but there have got to be a lot of people who are now immune. We just need to be able to find them.
We all need to do what is asked. Colorado governor suggested that masks should be worn in public. Did not make it mandatory, but that might be coming. I am of the belief that if they do not start playing by July, MLB has no other option than to cancel the season. As painful as that may be, if it keeps people from dying it is the only decision that makes sense. We all love baseball. Most of us love talking the game. But national health has to be the priority, and I for one can live with that. There was a story, can’t remember where I saw it, that Betts might be amenable to signing a 1 year bridge deal. After all. he will only be 28.
I think fans have suggested that, but there’s no way Betts will do that. Someone will offer him a big deal… but after this financial disaster, it might be less than expected. The loss of revenue is going to hurt everyone and lessons learned in financial disasters certainly carry over into the future.
It’s possible, Betts might not get a $300 Million dollar deal. The Dodgers have some of the deepest pockets in baseball and can weather the storm better than most. If anything, this pandemic could put the Dodgers in the driver’s seat to get Betts.
I can guarantee you that the teams will use COVID-19 and the revenue loss attached to it as a bargaining chip when negotiating contracts for the next couple of years, so I agree that Betts might not get what he was expecting. Another thing to consider is reduced attendance for the next couple of years as people will have less disposable income than normal. Many will need a few years to dig out from the financial hole this has put them into. That would be another reason that teams would offer lesser contracts, although the Dodgers will be in as good a financial position as anyone to go after Betts.
One of the PBS stations had “The Natural’ on last night, so I watched it again. I think it is the best sports movie of all time, and by far. The climactic scene is not just about Roy Hobbs hitting a home run to win the pennant; it is even more than about good winning over evil, as momentous as that is. The fictional events of the film are set some 50 years earlier than the film.. Within the fictional context, you are watching a moment in baseball which has become a legend, forever cemented in time against that sky of bursting light,, just like the real baseball stories that I read a a boy, about Gabby Hartnett’s “homer in the gloamin” in 1938, or Grover Cleveland Alexander coming out of the bullpen to strike out Tony Lazzeri in the World Series of 1926. Stories which had taken on a mythological quality, a moment in time frozen forever.
We all miss baseball, and this was going to be a very enjoyable season for us Dodgers fans. Obviously, it would be inappropriate to overly lament this, compared to more serious tragedies. I do not think that there is much chance at all of baseball this year., and even if they somehow put something together for two months, would it be worth it, or enjoyable? We might as well just look forward to the next season, though many things will not be the same, in terms of franchise stability, attendance, and employment of the stadium personnel, as well that of the fans. It was still nice to watch “The Natural,” though it took on an even more poignant quality than before. I think that almost all of this tragedy could have been prevented, but that is just my opinion, of course.
If Betts signs or if he does not, I can see no way he gets the 400 mil they have been talking about. There has to be some sort of middle ground. Especially since we all know the financial hit this country is taking.
Thanks for articles 1, 2 and 3, I shared them on Facebook and some have already read and shared them, very interesting…