Series Not Completed
The 1919 Stanley Cup Finals was one of sports’ greatest tragedies.
Here’s how we can avoid a similar disaster in 2020.
by Simon Lehrer
April 15 –– Social distancing is taking a massive toll on the sports world. Leagues have shut down. Fans are demanding refunds for canceled events. Teams lose money by the day. The entire industry is in trouble, at least for the immediate future.
Live sports could use a good comeback story. Rumors have been tossed around for weeks –– a basketball bubble in Las Vegas, the entire baseball season in Arizona, the NHL playoffs in a tiny New Hampshire town.
These are just fantasies, for now. But as states begin to ease social distancing restrictions over the coming months, the return of sporting events looms as an inevitable controversy.
The term “unprecedented times” is thrown around an awful lot nowadays. Yet exactly one century ago, the world faced a similar crisis. A pandemic swept the world from 1918 until 1920, infecting nearly one quarter of the global population. The Spanish Flu ultimately killed 50 million people.
Six professional baseball players and one umpire died of the virus in 1918 alone, yet the sports world operated virtually unchanged. Within months of America’s initial outbreak, the inaction of professional leagues led to an avoidable tragedy.
For more than 125 years, the Stanley Cup trophy has been awarded every spring to hockey’s champion. There are two exceptions –– in 2005, when a lockout canceled the NHL season, and in 1919. The historical decision made on April 1st of that year has been engraved on the Stanley Cup for over a century now.
It reads, 1919: SERIES NOT COMPLETED.
Toronto author Steve Chapelle spent years researching the 1919 NHL Playoffs. His book, No Decision: The 1919 Stanley Cup Final, was released this past October, just months before the coronavirus outbreak.
“It wasn’t just low-tech back then. It was no tech,” Chapelle explains. “That was before things like penicillin, so if you got an infection, you were on your own.”
101 years ago, much like today, America was desperate for the distraction of sports. World War I had just ended, and the H1N1 virus was becoming an international crisis. Meanwhile, the National Hockey League went on as planned, with a rapidly increasing number of players starting to get sick during the playoffs. This culminated in a surreal scene during Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Players from both the Montreal Canadiens and Seattle Metropolitans had fallen ill throughout the week. The Canadiens roster was particularly depleted. Joe Hall, one of the team’s best defensemen and the oldest player in pro hockey, was showing severe symptoms. Several other Canadiens had been ruled inactive by the fifth game.
At the conclusion of that game, players from both teams were quite literally sprawled around the ice, having collapsed from exhaustion. Days later, many of them were hospitalized with the virus.
The series was tied at two wins and a draw for each team. Montreal had three healthy players remaining, and with a deciding Game 6 just hours away, the Stanley Cup Finals were canceled on April 1st. Four days later, Joe Hall died from the virus. He was 37 years old.
“Back then, when lifespans were shorter, [Hall] would be like an NHL player today in their mid-40s or older,” Chapelle says. “They also didn’t have anywhere near the conditioning as athletes now.”
The world is much better equipped to combat a pandemic now than it was a century ago. That said, the 1919 Stanley Cup should still serve as a dire warning to sports leagues in 2020.
Even with strict measures in place to restart certain sports, such as league-wide quarantines and rapid testing, the risks might still far outweigh the rewards.
“It may be possible to restart leagues with aggressive repeat testing and social distancing protocols,” theorizes David Lee, an epidemiologist and University of Miami professor in the public health school. Lee has previously worked with the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “However, the risk of infection will still remain given the close contact of competition. Participation would have to be strictly voluntary, with the support of governing unions. Leagues would have to agree to entire 14-day or longer team quarantines if infections spike, in order to control outbreaks.”
Is it possible to put an entire league on hold for at least two weeks if an outbreak occurs? Yes. But it would create a number of logistical problems, altering each team’s schedule and extending the season, not to mention the ensuing PR nightmare of shutting down their league –– again –– due to the pandemic.
As for when fans might be able to watch sports in person again, health experts say the picture is even more bleak. Bill Hanage, a professor at Harvard’s Chan School of Public Health, says the return of crowds can only happen with two key components –– herd immunity and antibody testing.
“Crowds will only come back when there is population-level immunity,” Hanage explains. “That depends on how many people have been infected. We will get a better picture after the first surge is past us and we have antibody testing...it all depends on data not yet known.
Antibody testing can determine whether someone has already contracted and recovered from the virus. On Monday, Major League Baseball announced that 10,000 league employees will participate in one of the country’s first antibody testing case studies. The study aims to help researchers determine how many people have already been exposed to COVID-19 without showing symptoms.
This is crucial information which could help the government decide the right time to ease social distancing restrictions. Yet even if the study shows that coronavirus was more prevalent than originally thought, and therefore has a lower mortality rate, social distancing will still be necessary to prevent a second bump in cases.
“Some modification of social distancing will remain for many more months,” asserts James Curran, a former Assistant Surgeon General at the CDC. Curran led one of the first AIDS task forces in 1981. “There may be variation in some areas but places with large populations and high COVID-19 exposure will be the strictest.”
Among the people President Trump has enlisted on a task force to reopen America’s economy are NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, UFC president Dana White, Patriots owner Robert Kraft, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Restarting sports, reopening the economy, going back to “normal” –– get ready for these hot topics to dominate the foreseeable future. It is up to those influential figures, particularly Silver and other league commissioners, to make the right decision, which will likely not be a profitable one.
That task force should use the Stanley Cup for inspiration, with a warning forever engraved in the trophy. 1919: SERIES NOT COMPLETED. For now, the fate of the 2020 series remains unknown.
“There’s going to be a massive amount of money lost in the meantime,” says Chapelle. “Realistically, we don’t need sports, we want it. But when the day comes, there is going to be an explosion of relief.”
That day is still months away. But if sports return at the right time, it will be back for good –– with no incomplete series and no more delayed seasons. Well...at least not until the next pandemic.
Building for the Future:
ONE SPORTS START-UP IS THRIVING IN QUARANTINE
by Simon Lehrer
MARCH 31, 2020 -- With much of the United States under lockdown, 80% of American companies are projecting revenue loss this month, according to a poll of CFOs and finance leaders across the United States.
The key to a successful business right now is whether the product can be used at home. While public spaces like movie theaters struggle, streaming sites are seeing higher demand than ever. Many restaurants and bars have shut down, as delivery app usage has soared.
Here is a tale of two startup companies.
The first, ClassPass, provides group fitness training in gyms across the country. They have moved mostly online, offering virtual sessions with trainers. Yet with public workout spaces shut down across the country, ClassPass lost 95 percent of its revenue in just 10 days. There are shelter-in-place orders until June in some states. The company would be lucky if it’s still operating by the conclusion of this crisis, whenever that may be.
The second, Teambuildr, was designed to create workout programs for individual athletes. With sports shut down all over the world, teams need a platform to monitor their players, ensuring that they stay in shape during the hiatus. High-profile sports teams and athletes have begun to partner with Teambuildr over the last month –– teams from the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, MLS, and England’s Premier League are all now using the program. According to chief executive Hewitt Tomlin, the company is seeing a massive spike in activity.
“This month is our highest reporting month ever,” says Tomlin, who founded Teambuildr in 2011 after graduating from Johns Hopkins University. “We’ve had five times the amount of inquiries that we would usually get. Everyone here is entering a new phase for the company.”
Teambuildr's client list was already impressive before the pandemic, but now teams in every major American sports league have gotten on board, as well as teams from other countries. With the NBA and NHL hoping to resume their seasons by June, coaches need a way to keep track of their athletes’ training regimens, even with players scattered all over the world in quarantine.
“Coaches are able to go in and build bodyweight programs, down to each individual player,” explains Teambuildr’s director of sales and marketing, Luke Green. “It also allows an athlete to design their own regimen. But it’s mainly built for strength coaches, and now that they can’t train face to face, the timing is perfect here.”
Major League Baseball is in hiatus, still anticipating that the 2020 season will be played. Over the last few weeks, nearly a dozen pro baseball teams have signed contracts with Teambuildr. The budding partnership with MLB has created a huge bump in profits and exposure for the company.
The St. Louis Cardinals are the latest team to sign on, joining the Atlanta Braves, Miami Marlins, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Angels, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, San Diego Padres, Oakland Athletics, and Arizona Diamondbacks. Six NBA teams are using the program –– the Houston Rockets, Denver Nuggets, Detroit Pistons, Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Charlotte Hornets.
While a surge of professional teams are taking notice of Teambuildr, many collegiate programs have already been using the website. West Virginia, SMU, and the University of Kentucky are some notable Division I schools who monitor their athletes on Teambuildr. More are joining in, including one of the most successful programs in college football.
“A lot of schools have joined recently that wouldn’t otherwise be,” said Tomlin. “Ohio State football signed a contract last week. They typically have their athletes in person 50 weeks a year, they’ve got a 5-man strength staff, a whole lot of funds. Ohio State football probably would not have called us before –– but we’re solving a problem for them right now that didn’t exist before.”
Strength coaches around the world are using the program, and universities from small Division III schools to behemoths like Kentucky and Ohio State are using the website as a way of monitoring their athletes. Word about the website has also traveled overseas, where Premier League soccer giant Arsenal is now using the program to stay active. MLS team Real Salt Lake has also signed a contract.
While the quarantine has helped Teambuildr explode in popularity, Tomlin believes that activity on his website won’t just die down once the crisis is over.
“I expect this to be a permanent bump,” he says. “Especially at the collegiate and high school level, people will look at this crisis as something to prepare for in the future. That will continue to drive demand up for our product.”
Teams can not afford to start back at day one once their league resumes, whenever that may be. And while all of those leagues continue to lose profits each day –– the MLS cut salaries by 25% on Wednesday –– Teambuildr will continue to thrive in this new world of isolation.
“Where much of the economy is contracting, we are actually preparing for a time of growth.” Tomlin reflects. “Considering the circumstances, we’re really grateful.”
SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY
by Simon Lehrer
SOUTH FLORIDA (MARCH 20, 2020) -- There is no greater distraction than sports. The world needs such a distraction right now, maybe more than ever before.
For however long this coronavirus outbreak threatens our safety and well-being, Earth will be an entirely different planet. The new normal includes practicing good hygiene, along with an inconvenient but vital concept known as social distancing.
When all is said and done, the benefit of social distancing will far outweigh the cost. It is crucial to heed federal warnings, especially from the CDC, who have recommended no gatherings larger than ten people for the immediate future. This means, in no uncertain terms, that the entire world of sports is suspended indefinitely.
It took 20 hours for life as we know it to completely change. The events of March 11th and March 12th, 2020 were unprecedented, historic, life-changing moments.
On Wednesday the 11th, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic due to COVID-19. Sports leagues were operating virtually unchanged at that time. Some teams had begun limiting access to the media. The NBA was putting a plan in place to hold games in empty arenas. The NCAA announced their intention to play the Division I basketball tournaments without fans.
Earlier that day, in a Publix located next to Miami’s Brickell City Centre, one woman could be heard by practically the entire store having a loud phone call questioning the new virus. “Do you even know anyone who knows anyone that has it?” she asked in a rhetorical fashion. “What if this ‘virus’ is just a scare tactic?”
The cashier next to her chimed in, “She’s probably right. I don’t give a shit about it.”
Later that evening, at 9:00 eastern time, President Trump held a news conference banning all travel from Europe. It was the first of many dominoes to fall throughout the ensuing twenty hours. The president had just walked off stage as a stunning Instagram post started to gather national attention, first on social media, and then in breaking news headlines everywhere.
Tom Hanks has coronavirus. Tom Hanks has coronavirus.
Immediately, that seemed to become the story of March 11th, 2020. If banning travel to Europe was headline 1A, Tom Hanks contracting the virus was 1B. Newsrooms all over the country scrambled to get word out that one of Hollywood’s biggest stars had tested positive for COVID-19.
Yet, in Oklahoma City, there were other worries. Just seconds before tipoff between the Thunder and Utah Jazz at Chesapeake Energy Arena, OKC’s head doctor sprinted from the visitor’s locker room to center court. After a brief meeting with officials, everyone was removed from the court.
In the teams’ respective locker rooms, players and coaches were ordered to stay put. Soon after, the game was suspended. Fans went home, given no explanation as to why other than the words “unforeseen circumstances.”
Around the country, word was beginning to spread –– an NBA game had been postponed, fans were told to leave immediately, and the players were not allowed to leave the arena. At 9:27 eastern time, speculation turned into confirmation.
“Utah Jazz All-Star Rudy Gobert has tested positive for coronavirus,” tweeted @ShamsCharania, The Athletic’s Lead NBA Insider.
Less than fifteen minutes later, the National Basketball Association was suspended indefinitely.
A video from several days prior immediately started trending, and for good reason. Rudy Gobert had played a little joke on reporters who were taking this whole coronavirus thing seriously, by going out of his way to touch the microphones used by every notable Jazz player following their morning shootaround. All-Star Donovan Mitchell was one of those teammates, and his COVID-19 test –– conducted in the visitor’s locker room of Chesapeake Energy Arena –– also came back positive.
There was a fascinating article in the Salt Lake Tribune following the incident, titled: “We should thank Utah Jazz’s Rudy Gobert, not vilify him.” In summary, writer Kristina Luna says that while Gobert was clearly complacent about the seriousness of this virus, so was everyone else. Had he not made light of this issue only to have it come back and haunt the entire league in such an ironic and dangerous manner, there would have been no domino effect.
Thankfully, there was a domino effect. It was quick. It was grim. For sports fans, it was both painful and utterly unforgettable.
Within 20 hours, every major sport in America was put on hold. The NHL came first. This was no surprise –– many hockey players had likely been exposed to the virus already, through sharing arenas and locker rooms with basketball teams. The MLS was next. March Madness was canceled shortly after.
This created a fascinating situation on the morning of March 12th, 2020. Major League Baseball was not ready to reach a decision. With an entire slate of Spring Training games scheduled for that Thursday afternoon, MLB either had to act quickly enough to cancel those contests, or risk exposing players and fans to a rapidly spreading virus.
Just before 3:00 eastern time that afternoon, Major League Baseball announced the indefinite suspension of their season. As they made that decision, five games were being held throughout Florida. These contests were absolutely meaningless, with zero positive impact on the upcoming season.
In fact, the impact may have been quite negative. That morning, there were less than 25 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Florida. Exactly one week later, the number of positive tests in the state has eclipsed 500. Did MLB play a role in that dramatic increase?
The average attendance for Grapefruit League games is right around 7,000 people. Multiply that by five and you’ve got up to 35,000 people, all in confined spaces. With this highly infectious virus spreading throughout the country at an unprecedented rate, there was truly only one valid option –– cancel everything, right now. MLB’s decision-makers did eventually reach that conclusion, but not before allowing roughly 30 thousand Floridians the choice to expose themselves.
Yes, it was a choice. Option 1: watch one of the last sporting events for a long time while exposed to thousands of people, any of whom could have a deadly, invisible virus. Option 2: STAY HOME.
No matter what you might choose, Major League Baseball should have never allowed its fans to make that decision. Listed below are the attendance numbers from Grapefruit League games on March 12th.
Yankees at Nationals (West Palm Beach, FL): 8,043 fans
Braves at Tigers (Lakeland, FL): 6,137 fans
Marlins at Cardinals (Jupiter, FL): 6,118 fans
Blue Jays at Pirates (Bradenton, FL): 5,275 fans
Phillies at Rays (Port Charlotte, FL): 3,950 fans
That adds up to 29,523 people who chose the distraction of sports over their own safety. It’s a choice we no longer have, but the afternoon of March 12th should serve as a warning to every sports league that considers coming back before it’s truly safe to do so.
The crowd reactions were split inside FitTeam Ballpark, where the reigning champion Washington Nationals hosted the Yankees that day. One father from Miami Lakes spent practically the entire game on his phone, discussing with family a rapidly depleting amount of available supplies –– particularly produce and toilet paper. ‘Why did you even come here today?’ I asked him.
“Just wanted my son to watch some baseball before it was too late,” he responded.
Kristal Rosas is an Orlando resident who attended the Yankees-Nationals game that afternoon in West Palm Beach. When MLB made their announcement halfway through the game, Rosas scoffed, and clearly disapproved with the league’s decision.
"I think everyone’s making way too big a deal over this,” she said.
The game was in its later stages, entering the sixth inning, when MLB’s announcement began circulating around the stadium. Some fans left. Every notable player was taken out of the game. But the father-son duo said they would stick it out to the end, regardless of who was on the field, because any baseball is better than no baseball. Now, the entire 2020 season is in question.
Between March 11th and March 12th, in the span of just 20 hours, sports came to a complete stop. The domino effect of Rudy Gobert’s positive coronavirus test was a historic moment. It may have even saved lives, prompting a relatively quick suspension of sports that in turn spawned a complete shutdown of society within days.
These are unprecedented times. The immediate future may look bleak, but sports will be back at some point. It could be months, it could be a year, it might be even longer than that.
For now? All we can do is stay inside, watch our favorite highlights, and long for the day when it’s safe to finally let the games begin again.