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OT: The road back from COVID -- South Korea baseball

DaCat

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The South Korean professional baseball league, KBO, is cautiously planning on starting their exhibition season on April 21. After 6 games, the regular season is scheduled to start. So it'll be an interesting test case of whether sports can be played while the world fights the pandemic. This is an interesting read from ESPN, with a short video clip from Greenie.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28998585/can-us-return-sports-soon-south-korea-clues
 
The South Korean professional baseball league, KBO, is cautiously planning on starting their exhibition season on April 21. After 6 games, the regular season is scheduled to start. So it'll be an interesting test case of whether sports can be played while the world fights the pandemic. This is an interesting read from ESPN, with a short video clip from Greenie.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/28998585/can-us-return-sports-soon-south-korea-clues
Interesting!
 
There's a huge disparity in the degree to which S.Korea has managed the outbreak there. Every nation is or will be challenged by this, but S. Korea seems to have responded in textbook fashion.

Over here, my hope is for a full season next year.
 
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There's a huge disparity in the degree to which S.Korea has managed the outbreak there. Every nation is or will be challenged by this, but S. Korea seems to have responded in textbook fashion.

Over here, my hope is for a full season next year.
The numbers don't favor football in the fall right now. Why? Today was the highest number of people testing positive for covid 19. Maybe,with any luck,things will slow down
 
Even if the teams tried to play,the stands would be half full. Then,as soon as players and fans got the flu or covid-19, all hell would break loose. I got a serious case of the flu,the day Fitz broke his leg, versus Iowa,in 95, I think. Took two weeks to recover. The Coronavirus seems to affect the red blood cell count. More dangerous. Years ago,I spent two weeks in the hospital after my white blood cell count went low,do to my humidifier poisoning me. Nasty,nasty time. I made the " Grand Rounds" for that one. LOL
 
If this works, we're all going to have our favorite South Korean baseball team soon. We are all so in need of our fix and it will be the only drug around.
You mean you don't like the Arizona league idea? You know the one the confines players, coaches, etc. to hotels and ballparks. They seem to think it's fine to separate them from their family's for four or more months. I don't!
 
You mean you don't like the Arizona league idea? You know the one the confines players, coaches, etc. to hotels and ballparks. They seem to think it's fine to separate them from their family's for four or more months. I don't!

Most don't see their families during the season anyway. But I am also very skeptical it will happen, much less work.
 
You mean you don't like the Arizona league idea? You know the one the confines players, coaches, etc. to hotels and ballparks. They seem to think it's fine to separate them from their family's for four or more months. I don't!
As a one time deal, I don't think that's the most important concern. Other professions require people to spend months away from home at a time. They are getting nicely compensated for this. The bigger concern are safety concerns for players and support staff.
 
If this works, we're all going to have our favorite South Korean baseball team soon. We are all so in need of our fix and it will be the only drug around.

They literally have cheerleaders on top of the dugouts to help you pick your favorite team. ;)

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As a one time deal, I don't think that's the most important concern. Other professions require people to spend months away from home at a time. They are getting nicely compensated for this. The bigger concern are safety concerns for players and support staff.
Other then the military, what other professions require someone to spend 4 -6 months away from their family? Also it's estimated that about 500 people will in the stadium at a time and some like the groundcrew people, basic stadium personal, clubhouse staff and TV and radio technicians are not so highly compensated. Then there is restaurant staff, hotel workers and bus drivers who would be needed to service the players.
 
You mean you don't like the Arizona league idea? You know the one the confines players, coaches, etc. to hotels and ballparks. They seem to think it's fine to separate them from their family's for four or more months. I don't!

players do
 
Other then the military, what other professions require someone to spend 4 -6 months away from their family? Also it's estimated that about 500 people will in the stadium at a time and some like the groundcrew people, basic stadium personal, clubhouse staff and TV and radio technicians are not so highly compensated. Then there is restaurant staff, hotel workers and bus drivers who would be needed to service the players.
Well.... you're expanding things a bit. They aren't playing a 6 month or even a 4 month season. But... people take on projects that require them to travel away for a few months and its not worth moving their whole family. My brother in law is currently doing that. Actors and other artists take on jobs where they live on location for a few months. I just don't think its so uncommon.

Your second point, however, is a good one. Those people will likely be local, but the question is whether you have to quarantine all of them or whether you just take precautions and do testing as much as possible. Again, this whole scenario only works in a condition where the number of reported cases is low or next to none in the area so that risks are low (but never nothing).
 
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Korea is a different situation as there is widespread testing and they track where people who have tested positive have been (and pretty much everyone wears a mask).

According to this article, seems like there's a split among players (single vs. married w/ kids and/or expecting and likely btwn those who have made some good $$ and those who need a paycheck).

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29017716/too-much-iron-players-say-mlb-arizona-plan
 
Well.... you're expanding things a bit. They aren't playing a 6 month or even a 4 month season. But... people take on projects that require them to travel away for a few months and its not worth moving their whole family. My brother in law is currently doing that. Actors and other artists take on jobs where they live on location for a few months. I just don't think its so uncommon.

Your second point, however, is a good one. Those people will likely be local, but the question is whether you have to quarantine all of them or whether you just take precautions and do testing as much as possible. Again, this whole scenario only works in a condition where the number of reported cases is low or next to none in the area so that risks are low (but never nothing).
They have said that it would take up at least 4 months, which includes 2 or 3 weeks of Spring/Summer Training. I love baseball and i'm big Cubs fan but, playing a game during this time is just uncalled for.
 
There's a huge disparity in the degree to which S.Korea has managed the outbreak there. Every nation is or will be challenged by this, but S. Korea seems to have responded in textbook fashion.

Over here, my hope is for a full season next year.
As of the current stats, South Korea has tested 10.3k per 1M people, and the US 8.9k. So they’ve done 1.0% of the population and us 0.9%. We will almost certainly pass them this week. The global “leaders” are Norway and Sweden at 2.3% and 2.2%. South Korea was ahead of us in containing it, but in terms of widespread testing, at this point it’s pretty similar.

(Granted there are plenty of potential problems with the data collection here but hopefully it’s at least in the right ballpark (whoops, pun...), at least for the testing #’s. The number of total cases is the one that is most off / not comparable country to country in large part bc of such wide disparities in testing regimes.)
 
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As of the current stats, South Korea has tested 10.3k per 1M people, and the US 8.9k. So they’ve done 1.0% of the population and us 0.9%. We will almost certainly pass them this week. The global “leaders” are Norway and Sweden at 2.3% and 2.2%. South Korea was ahead of us in containing it, but in terms of widespread testing, at this point it’s pretty similar.

(Granted there are plenty of potential problems with the data collection here but hopefully it’s at least in the right ballpark (whoops, pun...), at least for the testing #’s. The number of total cases is the one that is most off / not comparable country to country in large part bc of such wide disparities in testing regimes.)

I think if you look at the testing numbers from 1 or 2 months ago there would be a much bigger gap. Here we are nearly 3 months after the first reported cases in both the US and SK, and it's good news we're almost caught up, but a lot of lives were unnecessarily affected.
 
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As of the current stats, South Korea has tested 10.3k per 1M people, and the US 8.9k. So they’ve done 1.0% of the population and us 0.9%. We will almost certainly pass them this week. The global “leaders” are Norway and Sweden at 2.3% and 2.2%. South Korea was ahead of us in containing it, but in terms of widespread testing, at this point it’s pretty similar.

(Granted there are plenty of potential problems with the data collection here but hopefully it’s at least in the right ballpark (whoops, pun...), at least for the testing #’s. The number of total cases is the one that is most off / not comparable country to country in large part bc of such wide disparities in testing regimes.)

But the huge difference in population adds an important piece of context to those figures.

The U.S. population is 328,239,523, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. South Korea’s is 51.8 million.

That means South Korea has tested roughly one in every 144 of its residents. In the U.S., the per capita testing rate is closer to one in every 900 residents.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...covid-19-testing-omits-key-detail/2906983001/
 
I think if you look at the testing numbers from 1 or 2 months ago there would be a much bigger gap. Here we are nearly 3 months after the first reported cases in both the US and SK, and it's good news we're almost caught up, but a lot of lives were unnecessarily affected.
And timing is everything. Cases were doubling every other day at one point. That meant this thing has spread far and wide before we got our act together. If we were able to test at high rates early on, we could have limited its initial spread which would have made it much easier to contain, shortening the time of this shut down.
 
The good news is that recent trends suggest that the spread of the virus has peaked and may be starting to flatten in the US. The number of positive tests are still increasing at an alarming rate, but the rate of change has decreased.

United States:

DATE / TOT. INFECTED / CHANGE
04-09-2020 / 459,165 / + 31,705
04-10-2020 / 492,416 / + 33,251
04-11-2020 / 525,704 / + 33,288
04-12-2020 / 554,849 / + 29,145
04-13-2020 / 579,005 / + 24,156


In South Korea, they seem to have it under control for now:

DATE / TOT. INFECTED / CHANGE
04-09-2020 / 10,423 / + 39
04-10-2020 / 10,450 / + 27
04-11-2020 / 10,480 / + 30
04-12-2020 / 10,512 / + 32
04-13-2020 / 10,537 / + 25
04-14-2020 / 10,564 / + 27


This is why SK baseball may play its first Spring training exhibition game as early as April 21.

Let's keep our fingers crossed.
 
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As of the current stats, South Korea has tested 10.3k per 1M people, and the US 8.9k. So they’ve done 1.0% of the population and us 0.9%. We will almost certainly pass them this week. The global “leaders” are Norway and Sweden at 2.3% and 2.2%. South Korea was ahead of us in containing it, but in terms of widespread testing, at this point it’s pretty similar.

(Granted there are plenty of potential problems with the data collection here but hopefully it’s at least in the right ballpark (whoops, pun...), at least for the testing #’s. The number of total cases is the one that is most off / not comparable country to country in large part bc of such wide disparities in testing regimes.)

Of course, total numbers are less meaningful than when these tests were applied during a pandemic. The earlier the better. Quarantine some early in the outbreak - save 20 lives, 10 weeks later - save maybe one or two lives. Trump wasted the month of February and he knows it based upon his lame answers and attacking the press during his press conferences.
 
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Of course, total numbers are less meaningful than when these tests were applied during a pandemic. The earlier the better. Quarantine some early in the outbreak - save 20 lives, 10 weeks later - save maybe one or two lives. Trump wasted the month of February and he knows it based upon his lame answers and attacking the press during his press conferences.
I wasn’t talking about lives, I was talking about the existence currently of widespread testing as it relates to playing baseball games in SK vs US. Now there are more cases per capita in the US vs SK so that increases potential for a resurgence later, but once you’ve reached community spread the potential for a resurgence is always there. SK had a big incidence in one area and the rest of their country it remained relative mild, thus far.
 
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But the huge difference in population adds an important piece of context to those figures.

The U.S. population is 328,239,523, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. South Korea’s is 51.8 million.

That means South Korea has tested roughly one in every 144 of its residents. In the U.S., the per capita testing rate is closer to one in every 900 residents.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...covid-19-testing-omits-key-detail/2906983001/
No. My numbers were in tests per 1M population. So we have nearly caught them in testing, even population adjusted. Others have made the point that we were slower to get there, which is definitely true - our testing program was bungled early on.
 
Of course, total numbers are less meaningful than when these tests were applied during a pandemic. The earlier the better. Quarantine some early in the outbreak - save 20 lives, 10 weeks later - save maybe one or two lives. Trump wasted the month of February and he knows it based upon his lame answers and attacking the press during his press conferences.
I think we need to remember that this post is on the FB board and not the Cultists vs. TDS Sufferers board.
 
Just read that South Korean elections for the National Assembly had very high turnout yesterday. Hopefully that bodes well for things returning to normal and also for our elections in November.
 
Sports Illustrated has a thorough look at what it’s going to take to bring sports back in this country. Spoiler alert: it ain’t happening without a vaccine.
https://www.si.com/mlb/2020/04/10/sports-arent-coming-back-soon
Yup. I have come to the sad conclusion that we won't have college football this fall. Any event that involves large crowds will be a real problem until either a vaccine or some type of herd immunity is in place.

I think pro sports are still TBD. They will do everything possible to play, even if it means in empty stadia.
 
Yup. I have come to the sad conclusion that we won't have college football this fall. Any event that involves large crowds will be a real problem until either a vaccine or some type of herd immunity is in place.

I think pro sports are still TBD. They will do everything possible to play, even if it means in empty stadia.
Agree , since all schools are closed. Football players would need stay, eat and study where?
 
I guess the first two weeks of the KBO are in the books, and here is one article from ESPN's Dan Mullen on his observations so far.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29179582/how-become-kbo-diehard-learned-my-first-two-weeks

I admit I haven't gotten into it yet, but ESPN has this handy guide:

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id...orylines-more-everything-need-kbo-opening-day

ESPN's KBO Power Rankings
1. Kiwoom Heroes. Must replace 2019 league RBI leader Jerry Sands, who signed with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan.

2. LG Twins. The 1-2 American punch of Casey Kelly and Tyler Wilson leads pitching staff.

3. Doosan Bears. Defending champs lose league MVP Josh Lindblom, who signed with the Milwaukee Brewers.

4. SK Wyverns. Lose top two pitchers Kwang Hyun Kim (to St. Louis Cardinals) and Angel Sanchez (to Japan). That would be like losing both Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander.

5. KT Wiz. Youngest pitching staff in league last year.

6. NC Dinos. Led KBO in home runs in 2019.

7. Samsung Lions. Top hitter Darin Ruf has returned to the United States.

8. Lotte Giants. Last year's worst team has added Dan Straily and Adrian Sampson.

9. Kia Tigers. 2017 champs continue to fall closer to the basement.

10. Hanwha Eagles. Even Warwick Saupold won't be enough.

Voted on by Alden Gonzalez, Joon Lee and David Schoenfield.
 
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