Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the news this week after he cautioned that the season could be canceled entirely if minimum health conditions weren’t met at some point. However, the New York Yankees president Randy Levine seems somewhat surprised by Fauci’s remarks.
Levine isn’t giving up in having a season in 2020, and said he thinks everybody with a stake in Major League Baseball getting its season started should cooperate with each other in order to achieve that goal.
Speaking on Fox News Radio’s “The Brian Kilmeade Show,†quoted by the New York Post, Levine stated that “I really believe everybody should just work together to do this. I was kind of surprised this morning when I saw one story about Dr. Fauci where he said that now he doesn’t — he thinks some sports might not play till next year, but last week on the YES Network, he said that — quite the opposite,’’ Levine said.
Will we see the Yankees again this year?
Here are Fauci’s recent comments: “Safety, for the players and for the fans, trumps everything. If you can’t guarantee safety, then unfortunately you’re going to have to bite the bullet and say, ‘We may have to go without this sport for this season.’ I would love to be able to have all sports back. But as a health official and a physician and a scientist, I have to say, right now, when you look at the country, we’re not ready for that yet.â€
The Yankees’ executive went on: “He [Fauci] said that he, like the governor [Andrew Cuomo], would like to see games with fans in the seats … — I’m sorry, with no fans in the seats and there — if there is mitigation, possibly, depending on conditions on the ground, fans in the seats. So I mean it’s confusing, and that’s why all of us with good intentions have to come together, need to come together and put a plan together that works.â€
In the end, the only factor that will determine whether the New York Yankees will return to the field this year is the coronavirus. “It’s going to be the virus that determines what the timetable is because if we get the virus under really good control, it is conceivable that you may be able to have some baseball with people practicing physical separation,’’ Fauci said. “Namely, you don’t pack a stadium.’’