It was 2003 and Toronto was digging in for a battle with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and the hysteria was such that some Major League teams like the Philadelphia Phillies were expressing concern about an upcoming road trip:
To Montreal.
Never mind the city is a six-hour drive northeast of Toronto, depending on traffic and how long you want to make a pitstop at The Big Apple. (C’mon. You know you want to.) Or that there were no confirmed cases in Montreal. It was Canada and, well, that’s close enough.
That was different times and a much more widespread virus, but with each new report about the spread of COVID-19, I find myself thinking back to the SARS outbreak and in particular how Major League Baseball handled the situation. So far, no Canadians have died from coronavirus. Unfortunately, two Americans have passed away – both in the Seattle area – to add to the growing worldwide total and it would be logical as a small part of our preparations to wonder about the impact on the sports world, especially with March Madness just around the corner.
For us in Toronto, sports – particularly the Blue Jays – became something of a rallying cry in 2003. Yes, there was the famous SARS concert at Downsview Park on July 30, when Rush, the Rolling Stones and AC/DC headlined Molson Canadian Rocks for Toronto.
But before then, does anybody remember how Rogers Communications, the Blue Jays parent company, purchased roughly 35,000 tickets to an April 29 game against the Texas Rangers and sold them for $1? That $1 offer coming on the heels of a World Health Organization report that warned against travel to the city after a SARS outbreak that ended up leading to 44 deaths in Canada, mostly in Toronto and southern Ontario.
Such was the concern that Elliot Pellman, baseball’s medical advisor, convened a pair of conference calls with the head trainers of 10 teams scheduled to visit Toronto from April to the All-Star Break of that season and urged them to tell their players to refrain from signing autographs, visiting hospitals, using public transportation and otherwise mingling with big crowds, while acknowledging that: “If you take the total number of cases, the chances of one catching SARS are still incredibly remote.”
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Still: Los Angeles Angels player representative Kevin Appier, whose team was to follow the Kansas City Royals and Rangers to Toronto, suggested his team’s series be moved to L.A.
The Royals, the first team in on that homestand, were good citizens: signing autographs, going out and about. And what is it about the Royals and Toronto? In April 2001, a game between the two teams was postponed after panels from the Rogers Centre roof fell on the field before batting practice. It was played 24 hours later – Friday the 13th, no less – without a hitch. Then, on April 16, 2018, a shard of ice falling from the CN Tower punctured a hole in the Rogers Centre roof, necessitating the postponement of a game against – who else? – the Royals.
At the time of the SARS warning, 19 people had succumbed to the virus. A crowd of 48,097 showed up, including the U.S. ambassador to Canada and Gene Orza, the No. 2 man at the Major League Baseball Players Association. The WHO lifted its advisory 24 hours later – one week after initially announcing it to a storm of protest from local, provincial and national politicians.
At any rate, what we’re dealing with now isn’t as limited as SARS, which was essentially isolated in parts of China and Toronto. COVID-19 is a different animal, with sports teams in Europe and Asia playing games behind closed doors with no fans or simply, as is the case of the Chinese Basketball Association, suspending its league.
The Golden State Warriors, in fact, signed Chasson Randle this weekend to a 10-day tryout. He was one of 40 American-born players – including former NBAers Ty Lawson, Jeremy Lin, Lance Stephenson and Tyler Hansbrough – playing in China. Italy’s Serie A has called a meeting of team owners for this week after re-scheduling several games. Regions of that country have been hit hard and it has been suggested the regular-season schedule might be shortened. Canadian IOC member Richard Pound has already suggested the end of May is a go/no-go deadline for the 2020 Tokyo Games and this summer’s Euro soccer championship faces a moment of reckoning, spread out as it is over 12 cities in various countries – including Rome.
Eventually – thankfully – SARS was brought under control and life returned to normal. Folks went to games. Images from that Tuesday night in Toronto were seen on TV sets around the world. How and what will be demanded this time of our sports teams and our athletes and, yes, fans remains a mystery. In the meantime, those of us who live in a world of statistics and new-fangled analytics and deep, deep analysis of the games we love need to remember the value of information: of cold, hard numbers. Not fear. Oh, and the Royals are in town from April 9-12, in case you’re wondering.
QUIBBLES AND BITS
• If you’re a team looking to flesh out its outfield – ahem… now, who would that be? – it makes sense to pay attention to what’s going on in the Reds and Cardinals outfield battles this spring. The Reds are a trendy pick in some quarters and they won’t be able to use or keep all six outfielders after adding Nick Castellanos, which could leave somebody such as Phillip Ervin on waivers. As for the Cardinals? Their top prospect, Dylan Carlson, could force somebody out of the lineup and while it would take some doing to pry away Maple Ridge, B.C., native Tyler O’Neill from them… well, you know.
• According to Sport Bild’s Tobias Altschaffl, German Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich are expected to sign Canada’s Alphonso Davies to a new long-term deal within the next few weeks that would tie him up through the 2025 season. Davies has become an ever-present under new coach Hansi Flick and was dominant last week in a Champions League win over Chelsea. Another Canadian player could be on the move: there are published reports that 20-year-old forward Jonathan David, currently in the top Belgian League at Gent, is a target for Manchester United.
• Maybe it’s time to start throwing some coach of the year love in the direction of Alain Vigneault, whose Flyers have recorded two 10-win months in a single season for the first time since 2001-2002 (December and January) and December and March 1974-75.
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• Lots of storylines out of Major League Soccer’s first weekend – new teams, Chicharito – but my goodness what a loss for the circuit on Sunday when Atlanta FC’s Venezuelan scoring machine Josef Martinez suffered a ligament tear chasing down another attacker. Martinez has 77 goals in the past three regular seasons and five more in the playoffs. Atlanta FC, which faces Mexican powerhouse Club America in Concacaf Champions League play, has already used its full designated player allotment.
• I’ll go with TFC head coach’s Greg Vanney explanation for the decision to leave Liam Fraser on the bench in Saturday’s 2-2 draw against the fierce man to man marking of the Earthquakes. I am surprised, however, that Alejandro Pozuelo, the most gifted all-around player on the pitch for TFC and a player who last season helped revitalize what had been a weakness for the Reds, isn’t an automatic choice on every set piece.
• Interesting article by Emily Kaplan of ESPN discussing the in-bred nature of hiring an NHL head coach, and how since 2005, 60 per cent of the 162 head coaching hires in the NHL have previous head-coaching experience, compared to 58 per cent in the NBA, 45 per cent in Major League Baseball (which gets routinely pilloried for re-cycling) and 36 per-cent in the NFL. The NHL also leads in turnover: in that time there have been 152 NBA hires, 126 NFL hires and 121 in the Majors.
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THE ENDGAME
One of the oft-stated concerns when teams go into Denver to face the Nuggets is the impact of playing a game at high altitude – an impact visiting teams traditionally think manifests itself in their next game.
The Raptors have, however, done OK, which is perhaps surprising for a club travelling from the Eastern time zone and ought to offer a bit of comfort after Sunday’s loss to the Nuggets in the first game of a nine-day, five-game road trip. In fact, including 2012-2013, the Raptors are 4-4 in games following games in Denver. Different lineups and health and time of year – I get all that – but past games in Denver have greased the skids a bit (a six-game losing streak in 2012-2013 following a loss; a four-game losing streak in 2013-2014 after a win) and most recently, in November 2016-2017, two consecutive losses after an overtime loss followed by a six-game winning streak.
Their next game on this swing is Tuesday in Phoenix. Luckily, they avoid both L.A. teams, although the trip does conclude with back to back games Sunday and Monday against the Sacramento Kings and Utah Jazz. The bigger concern right now, in my mind, is Pascal Siakam’s troubles against elite teams such as the Milwaukee Bucks or, as we saw Sunday, against a Nuggets team that I’ll predict right now outlasts one of the L.A. teams in the playoffs.
He needs Marc Gasol to return to health. We all do.
Jeff Blair hosts Writers Bloc with Stephen Brunt and Richard Deitsch from 2-5 p.m. ET on Sportsnet 590 The Fan.
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