Dodger pitcher Joe Kelly is suspended for eight games and Manager Dave Roberts is suspended for one, and the Astros who cheated their way to a World Series title in 2017 get nada. The upside-down, topsy turvy year of 2020 continues.
Up is down, right is wrong, a circle is a square in 2020. Did Kelly even hit anybody? Eight games? He missed Alex Bregman. Was it the yawn by Kelly that got under Commissioner Rob Manfred’s skin? Maybe the pouty face mimicking Carlos Correa? Kelly did have some comments for Correa after striking him out. Maybe that was it. But in Manfred’s “thorough” investigation of the incident did he not hear the live mic that picked up an Astros player profanely referencing somebody’s mother while shouting at Kelly?
Astros manager Dusty Baker was comical as well as he brushed off a question about the incident stating that his players didn’t say anything. Baker’s fighting for his guys. I get it, but if he was surprised at all by the location of some of Kelly’s pitches he better get used to it. This is just the beginning of what will go on all season long. Fortunately for the Astros the season is only 60 games long. Kelly’s actions were mild compared to what may be coming. Jose Altuve may end up with a baseball firmly planted in his earhole. And Manfred will continue to hand out suspensions because in today’s MLB cheating in a World Series is allowed but a pitch that gets away, a yawn and and a pouty face is strictly prohibited.
Meanwhile Joe Kelly just endeared himself to Dodger fans for life.
Manfred actually has bigger fish to fry right now. If the Miami Marlins continue to have positive tests for COVID-19 does MLB shut down the league or just shut down the Marlins? The Philadelphia Phillies, the Marlins’ most recent opponent, has had zero positive tests and the rest of the league has been negative as well for the most part. The Marlins, so far, have had the only outbreak. Eliminating one team for a season would mean schedule adjustments and changes, but it makes more sense than shutting down the entire operation when only one team had the issue.
As of now the Marlins games have been postponed until at least next Monday. If there are still positives the postponement will be extended. But again if the rest of the teams are negative a decision will have to be made. There can’t be a stop and then a restart. We’ll be in August by the end of the week. Manfred will have to decide…the whole league is done for 2020 or just the Marlins? Hopefully he puts more thought into this decision than he did into Joe Kelly’s yawn. Of course as long as the Astros aren’t affected Manfred should be fine. Looks like it will be play ball!
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For selfish reasons I didn’t like the the CIF’s decision to move the fall sports calendar, which includes football, to January, but I understand it. They really didn’t have a choice. If one athlete gets sick it’s a disaster. Lawsuits and court cases would be never ending which could have had a long term affect. One local AD told me that even if CIF said that the football season was good to go and on the calendar for August, the schools would still have said no. The administrators wouldn’t have wanted to take the risk and the parents in a lot of cases wouldn’t have allowed their kids to play. It had to be done. Commissioner Rob Wigod and CIF made the right call.
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Sorry, just not feeling the NBA restart. It’s been too long, too much of a break and jamming all of the teams into a bubble in Orlando isn’t my idea of a good time. Also why didn’t the league go straight into the playoffs instead of playing eight regular season games? Why are those games necessary? Or since March Madness was canceled this year the NBA should have created its own version. One and done and wrap up the whole thing in a couple of weeks. Can you imagine the intensity of games? It would have been the most exciting NBA season in years. In this current version wake me up when the NBA finals start.
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So if the 2020 high school football season starts in January 2021 and ends in April when does the 2021 season start? Is it in August again or will it be pushed back later into 2021? Also before the season kicks off in January don’t we need some passing tournaments? How about the SGV Shootout at Arroyo Thanksgiving weekend? Works for me.
That’s my principle.
Tim can be reached at tim.midvalleysports@gmail.com or on Twitter @tspeterson40.
The WEATHER will make it dangerous to play football in January? In LA??? Are you worried about kids slipping on the ice? Lots of the country has colder and wetter weather in October and November than we do in winter here, and somehow they manage. Try not to live up to the stereotype of the soft Southern Californian.
If we’re talking about danger from bad weather, frankly I’d be more worried about heat stroke in August and September than I would about a “storm” in January.
@ Blessed Suggestion: I wish you safety and good health. Everyone is free to choose their own religion, or not choose one.
At my doctor’s appointment this Tuesday, I was told that COVID is going to be with us for three more years. Since politics has been covered on this site to the point of exhaustion, who’s up for changing my religion?
Starting C.I.F. football in Jan. is terrible. Scratch the season and say goodbye to the Seniors that did not get to play and showcase their talents to recruiters. Start the season 2021 on time. More injuries may occur in football come January as the weather will play a factor. Kid gets seriously hurt because of schedule change I see a non Covid 19 lawsuit coming anyway. Cancel 2020 hope the Holidays help with us staying at home and flattening the curve. 2021 will offer a Vaccine, a New season for all sports, working back at the office and yes a New President.
Why not put together some more Top 10 lists, or where are they now, or old pictures?
I do get your frustrations at the new comment spin on MVS. However saying sports is not political is naive. Ali. Kapernik,Tuberville,Senator Kemp and Bradley all used pro sports to raise their political profiles. But you say not amateur sports. MVS focuses on amateurs. Lets start with Jim Thorpe and Tommy Smith, The cancellation of Olympics because of political differences and yes even today high school football.The OC thinks they should play because the health need for kids to play trumps the need to stay home, all political. If you delete commentary that leans into politics you may as well turn off the commentary section because that is what most of it is. But if you do that and then you include your own political thoughts you have turned MVS into Fox News or CNN. Anyway, after parsing the writing style of your posters your articles and TopTens are dominated by two people with a few odd contributors. Hang in there Peterson. This too shall pass.
High school football, any sport for that matter, being played in January is the best-case scenario. It’s much easier to say play in January then cancel it than saying the season is canceled and by miraculous reason, the season could have been played.
Hey Tim,
Why don’t you either delete political comments or disable comments altogether? We aren’t here for those types of conversations anyway.
From T. Peterson: I’ve deleted quite a few actually. But the thing is when I let one go through that leans left I feel that I should let another go through that leans right for proper rebuttal. But you’re right. I probably should delete all of them going forward. It’s ridiculous that everything, even sports, is political now. What’s even more comical though is that these people write out these long diatribes actually being naive enough to think they will change the other person’s mind. It’s such a waste of time. People log on to a sports site for entertainment and to get away from politics. Some people just don’t get it.
8 Games for a pouty face? He didn’t hit anyone. He didn’t get a warning. He wasn’t ejected. How does the Comizar justify 8 games? He had to. He and everyone with a little common sense knew it is going to be bean ball every time the Cheaters took the field if he didn’t do something bold. He had to send a message to the League. Poor Joe Kelly is just a symbol of that desire to restore order before it’s even lost. Why did Roberts get a game suspension and Baker got a fine? Their punishment should have been equal. How do the Dodgers split with the Giants and sweep the Cheaters? I thought putting a runner on second base in extra innings was supposed to speed up the game. 13 innings? Going to be some kind of season!
The CIF Southern Section absolutely made the correct decision in delaying football and all the other fall sports until at least January. Based on the way things are currently going, I believe we’ll be fortunate to have any sports during the 2020-21 school year.
I guess pitchers can’t even throw inside any more, at any level of baseball. It’s gotten to the point where batters have charged the mound or stepped toward it simply because a fastball got close to them.
Don Drysdale would probably have some choice words about the current trend if he were still alive today.
The real reason high school sports have been cancelled this fall is not that anyone’s going to be fined or jailed for exposing kids to the virus. It’s as simple as knowing that a principal can be dismissed at the end of any school year, for any reason. The mere suspicion that a kid, or a group of kids, got infected on a particular campus is reason enough to not renew a given principal’s contract, and that’s the hazard these leaders are trying to avoid.
Put another way, the various principals see the retention of their high-paying jobs as being far more important than fall sports.
Joe may not have been as heroic as when Rick Monday saved the American Flag from being burned. Or Joe may not be as loved as Latinos love Jaime Jarin, Fernando Valenzuela, & Pedro Guerrero. Or the pride Dodger fans have for Jackie Robinson ……however Joe is somewhere in that stratosphere. He just became one of my favorite Doyers!
Peterson, are you saying there was another option? MLB can isolate the Marlins instead of shutting down the whole season? So I could’ve isolated the elderly and those susceptible to the virus instead I’d shutting down the entire economy? Whaaaaat?
Gavin Newsome aka Havenocluenewsome
Hey Peterson, one group, the Marlins, are having COVID 19 problems. Shut down the whole system because one group is having a problem? Where have you been the last few months? ………The Government shut down the whole economy…. stop making sense Peterson! Stop it!