For nearly two months, Major League Baseball continued amid a pandemic, including its last month with the players all tucked safely in a bubble.
It almost worked perfectly.
Third baseman Justin Turner was pulled in the eighth inning of the Dodgers’ World Series-clinching victory on Tuesday night after MLB officials learned that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Turner tweeted soon after the game:
“Thanks to everyone reaching out! I feel great, no symptoms at all. Just experienced every emotion you can possibly imagine. Can’t believe I couldn’t be out there to celebrate with my guys! So proud of this team & unbelievably happy for the City of LA”
Although Turner was supposed to be quarantined after the positive test, he nonetheless returned to the dugout and the field for the postgame celebration, including hugging several teammates. He removed his mask for the team photo with the World Series trophy.
“He’s part of the team,” outfielder Mookie Betts said. “We’re not excluding anybody.”
Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers’ president in charge of baseball operations, said he understood Turner’s desire to go on the field: “I can’t state strongly enough how big of a role he played in the success of the organization, for him being a free agent not knowing how the future is going to play out, I don’t think anyone was going to stop him from going out. … From his standpoint, him having a chance to take a picture with the trophy was incredibly important and meaningful to him.”
Friedman conceded that, “if there were people around him without masks, that’s not good optics.”
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) October 28, 2020
Friedman said the Dodgers would return to their hotel on Tuesday night and undergo coronavirus tests, and they would begin contact tracing to determine how to move forward.
Turner’s positive test snapped a 58-day stretch in which no major league player tested positive, according to figures released by the sport.
“It’s a bittersweet night for us,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said on the Fox broadcast after the game. “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.
“We learned during the game that Justin tested positive. He was immediately isolated to prevent the spread.”
Turner’s test from Monday came back inconclusive earlier in the game on Tuesday, and then later in the game, the Dodgers learned that a subsequent test was positive, and Turner was removed.
Turner had come to bat three times and he played seven innings at third base, but he was replaced in the eighth by Kiké Hernandez, with no public explanation, then Edwin Rios played the ninth at third base.
World Series MVP Corey Seager said he learned of Turner’s positive test a few minutes after he left the game, and he was disappointed that it could cast a pall over Turner’s celebration.
“To have that happen to a guy like that, a dude that’s reinvented himself when he came here, what he’s meant to this organization, what he’s meant to this franchise, what he’s meant to this community, to take that away from him, it’s gut-wrenching,” Seager said. “It hurts me. I can’t imagine how he feels. If I could switch places with him right now I would. That man more than anybody deserves to have his picture with that trophy.”
Turner, who turns 36 in November, has said he has hazy memories of watching Kirk Gibson hit the iconic 1988 World Series home run from his grandmother’s Lakewood living room.
“I’m sure it’s really hard tonight, and we all feel for him,” pitcher Clayton Kershaw said of Turner’s positive test. “But I hope that he can take solace in the fact that we’re not here without him. He has been our guy for a long time. He’s done so many incredible things for this organization. He’s been the rock in the postseason for us every single year.”
The news of Turner’s positive test came just after a season that many didn’t think would be completed in the first place.
After months of a shutdown and negotiations over how to bring the sport back, games were postponed in the first two weeks after outbreaks with the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals.
However, players apparently followed the protocols better, and the rest of the season was played with limited interruptions.
Teams in the postseason entered strict bubbles to help them make it through the month with minimal chance of interruption. Teams with a chance to make the postseason were quarantined for the final week of the regular season, and then into the postseason.
Coronavirus tests were administered to the players every day during the postseason, after testing took place every other day during the regular season.The Dodgers were sequestered in a hotel during their Wild Card Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, and once they reached the division series in Arlington, Texas, they were limited to their hotel and the ballpark for more than three weeks.
MLB even restricted the food the players could have delivered, and many players were unable to stay with their family members, even though they were also in Arlington.
Friedman said Turner’s positive test was less worrisome to the other members of the Dodgers, who had already been quarantined with Turner, than it will be for the players to be sure they are clear before rejoining the world, so to speak.
“Now it’s important that we all test negative,” he said, “and follow whatever protocols are in place, so we don’t go out and potentially spread it to other people.”
https://goo.gl/hYDEHJThanks to everyone reaching out! I feel great, no symptoms at all. Just experienced every emotion you can possibly imagine. Can’t believe I couldn’t be out there to celebrate with my guys! So proud of this team & unbelievably happy for the City of LA#WorldSeriesChamps
— Justin Turner (@redturn2) October 28, 2020
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