It was supposed to be a glorious evening for the Los Angeles Dodgers. They defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 3-1 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX for their first World Series title since 1988 and their seventh World Series in franchise history.
Instead, coronavirus dominated the headlines as Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner of Long Beach, CA was forced to leave the eighth inning of game six because it was verified that he had the disease. He was replaced by Edwin Rios.
When FOX Sports reported the positive test immediately following the game, Turner was not seen celebrating with his teammates. However, according to Jesse Yomtov and Bob Nightengale of USA Today, he would later come out on to the field, lifted the trophy, hugged teammates, and participated in photo sessions.
Turner did have a mask when holding the trophy, but was seen next to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and hugging his wife on the field in photo sessions without a mask. What makes matters worse is that Dodgers President Andrew Friedman had no problem with Turner coming on to the field.
He stated, “I don’t think anyone was going to stop him from going out.” Well, why not? Aren’t the Dodgers aware that coronavirus has killed 232, 238 Americans and 1, 174, 283 people worldwide?
The Dodgers actions Tuesday night look extremely poor. They had an opportunity to show leadership by example and failed to do so. Turner needed to be in self isolation immediately following the positive test result and by allowing him to celebrate with his teammates, it shows they were not taking coronavirus as seriously as they could have.
Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred now needs to deliver with immediate sanctions on the Dodgers’ organization. After the game he stated “(Turner) was immediately isolated to prevent spread.” However, that seemed to be only temporary instead of permanently.
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