Turner's test ended a 58-day stretch in which no MLB player tested positive for COVID-19GETTY IMAGES
It was a "fitting end to the 2020 baseball season" last night as the Dodgers won the World Series, with 3B Justin Turner -- who tested positive for COVID-19 earlier in the game -- seen on national TV "celebrating with his teammates, holding the World Series trophy, taking off his mask for the team picture," according to Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY. MLB played a season in the middle of a pandemic, "starting, stopping, starting again, being quarantined, living the final four weeks in a bubble, only to still see the World Series almost end without a final champion." One MLB official on the prospect of whether Game 7 would have been played said, "Unclear. Thankfully, we don’t have to make that decision" (USA TODAY, 10/28). In California, Jeff Fletcher notes Turner’s positive test "snapped a 58-day stretch in which no major league player tested positive." MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said, "It’s a bittersweet night for us. We’re glad to be done. I do think it’s a great accomplishment for our players to get the season completed, but obviously, we’re concerned when any of your players test positive" (ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, 10/28).
RISKY BUSINESS: ESPN.com's Jeff Passan noted Turner "ignored the protocol that calls for COVID-positive players to isolate," and he did so "with the support of his teammates and the organization." Next to nobody had been "as important to the Dodgers as Turner over the last seven seasons." He was "their leader," so if that "meant taking the risk of contracting the virus, if it meant stoking the ire of those watching, those were consequences they were willing to suffer" (ESPN.com, 10/28). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Jared Diamond cites a source as saying that when Turner was told by MLB security that he had to vacate the postgame celebration, he "refused." Diamond writes Turner "continued to share space not just with other players who had already been in close contact with him throughout the game, but with his teammates’ spouses, children and other family members who had not been." It was a "shocking conclusion to a bizarre scene that saw a long-awaited Dodgers championship overshadowed by the revelation that, not long after the final out, Globe Life Field had become the epicenter of a potential Covid-19 nightmare" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/28).
BLOWN SAVE: In N.Y., Ken Davidoff writes, "After all the hoops Major League Baseball jumped through to get to this marvelous point, it failed to stick the landing." The news of Turner’s diagnosis "sparked multiple questions: Why wasn’t the game immediately put on ice upon learning this news? Why were players and bubbled family members, many not wearing masks, allowed to celebrate on the field after the game?" When Turner himself re-emerged on the field, it was, "at best," a "horrendous optic." MLB was "so close to a blowout victory." Yet now "we close up shop talking about the blown save" (N.Y. POST, 10/28). THE ATHLETIC's Ken Rosenthal writes in the end, it "couldn’t simply be about the Dodgers winning their first World Series since 1988, or a decision by Rays manager Kevin Cash that was a case of analytics run amok." This is '20, and there had to be "some negative turn, one last COVID-19 twist to raise new questions." A source said that Turner was "adamant about wanting to join the celebration, and he had the "support of at least some club officials." If anyone with the Dodgers "objected to Turner joining the on-field celebration, their concerns were not readily apparent" (THEATHLETIC.com, 10/28).
RAISING QUESTIONS: ESPN's Buster Olney said, "Because of what happened, it just raises questions. What did Major League Baseball know, and when did they know it? Was Justin Turner pulled out of the game quickly enough. After he was pulled out of the game, was he quarantined? Was he told to stay away from teammates? After the game, how was it allowed that he was around his teammates? Why wasn’t he wearing a mask? For baseball, it was an ugly look to the 2020 season." ESPN's Passan said, "There’s going to be a lot of discussion over the next week, two weeks, month, two months, who knows how long, about how the Dodgers acted here and about Justin Turner’s decision. The fact is, they made that choice. They are going to live with it" ("Get Up," ESPN, 10/28).
