Arizona Congressman Tests Positive For Coronavirus
BLITZER: We hope it doesn't happen, but Major League Baseball season potentially could come to an end fairly soon. Just tonight, a Cardinals game against the Milwaukee Brewers was postponed as is the doubleheader scheduled for tomorrow after more and more players are testing positive for the coronavirus. All of this comes as the league reported at least 29 players and team employees who tested positive this week. CNN's Martin Savidge has more.</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sports leagues are using shortened seasons, bubbles, team sequestering and rapid testing to let the games begin. Could the winners and losers teach us something? Take baseball. Already, a number of games are on hold as more than 20 members of the Miami Marlins tested positive for coronavirus. Players aren't sequestered and teams travel to outbreak hotspots. The Washington Nationals were so concerned about going to Florida, they put it to a vote.</s>DAVE MARTINEZ, WASHINGTON NATIONALS MANAGER: And we all decided that it was probably unsafe to go there.</s>SAVIDGE (voice over): Friday, the Cardinals-Brewers game postponed after two members of the St. Louis team tested positive. Meanwhile, the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association have opted for a different approach, keeping participants in a closed environment where they live, practice and play their games -- the bubble. So far, so good. During training camp, the NHL testing more than 800 players, there were two positive the first week and none the second. The teams now face off in two secure zones in Edmonton and Toronto, Canada.</s>GARY BETTMAN, NHL COMMISSIONER: We are feeling good about the fact that we've got a contained environment. In fact, one player was quoted as saying from the bubble, that this is the safest he's felt since the middle of March.</s>SAVIDGE (voice over): At the NBA bubble in Orlando for the season resumed Thursday, they are also declaring success. The league says only two players inside the bubble have tested positive and that was over two weeks ago.</s>ADAM SILVER, NBA COMMISSIONER: In essence, everyone is tested on a nightly basis and then they, as a practical matter don't leave their room until they have the results the next morning.</s>SAVIDGE (voice over): Still to come, football. The NFL says they take safety seriously reconfiguring locker rooms, reducing travel schedules, doing away with preseason games. But like baseball, the NFL is allowing players and staff to go home, increasing their risk of getting infected. In an open letter, Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote, "In a year that's been extraordinarily difficult for our country and the world, we hope that the energy of this moment will provide some much needed optimism." But growing numbers of NFL players opting out of the 2020 season would seem to indicate they don't share that optimism.</s>SAVIDGE (on camera): So what have sports taught us? Pretty much what you already knew that quarantine and ample access to testing is a winning strategy. Martin Savidge, CNN, Atlanta.</s>BLITZER: Thank you, Martin. And there's breaking news into THE SITUATION ROOM right now. Matthew Stafford, the quarterback for the NFL's Detroit Lions has been placed on the league's reserve COVID-19 list by his team. This move does not necessarily indicate that Stafford himself has tested positive for COVID-19. CNN sports analysts and "USA Today" sports columnist Christine Brennan is joining us right now. Christine, let's talk about what's going on the NBA bubble, and I hope it works. It is working so far, but baseball and football attempting to play while traveling from city to city that's causing a lot of potential problems. You heard ESPN reported that the baseball Commissioner Rob Bamford is warning of a potential league shutdown. How do you see it?</s>CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Wolf, I think if there's one more outbreak, especially on the West Coast for Major League Baseball, they may well have to shut it down. I hope I'm wrong, but they've already been two, of course, the one in the East with the Miami Marlins and then of course, the St. Louis Cardinals. That's eight teams involved, 33 games over one week postponed, and I don't think Major League Baseball can handle one more of these. I think if something happens on the West Coast and we know the hot spots in California, Texas, Arizona, if there's one more outbreak in Major League Baseball, I really do think as much as they want to get this season in, as much as the TV money, Wolf is everything to Major League Baseball, I just don't think they'd be able to pull it off if there's another outbreak.</s>BLITZER: I suspect you're right. ESPN is also reporting that the Commissioner is blaming the League and the players for not doing a better job of following COVID-19 protocols. But he made the call to let these teams play and they're not using what's called the bubble. Should baseball, Christine, follow the lead of basketball, hockey and soccer and force all the players to be in a bubble instead of traveling from city to city?</s>BRENNAN: Wolf, they should have done that, absolutely, and if not one bubble, maybe a couple -- many bubbles. I've never said the word bubble more in my life. But maybe you would have had something in New York, maybe Washington, maybe one out West one in the Midwest, and then have it all there -- more of a tournament just as the men's soccer and the women's soccer have done. And of course, just as the NBA and the WNBA are doing because a bubble really is the only answer and you don't have to take my word for it or your word for it. Wolf, let's take Dr. Anthony Fauci his word for it. Back in the middle of June he said that he thought that football would have to play in a bubble to be a success. Obviously, that's difficult to do. Major League Baseball those showing us really the future for both college and pro-football and just how difficult this is to pull off.</s>BLITZER: As you know, the NFL has canceled all the preseason games in August getting ready for the regular season in September. Do you expect the Commissioner to take more precautions after seeing what has now happened with baseball?</s>BRENNAN: I certainly do, Wolf, although baseball had a 113-page list of protocols and clearly they weren't being followed and look at what baseball, the mess that baseball is in right now. I think that the NFL has been lucky that they have had this time to look at all the mistakes that everyone else has made and also the good things that have worked. But, you know, football is the antithesis of social distancing. Literally, it's blocking and tackling every play. Twenty two guys all on a big pile, everyone slobbering on each other. I just don't know how it works. With the outbreaks and the problems we're having in this country with the coronavirus and COVID-19, I just don't see how the NFL can pull it off, but at least they're professionals. College football, 18 to 23- year-olds. That's just pure recklessness if colleges try to play football.</s>BLITZER: Well, you wrote a column and you write this and I'll put it up on the screen, Christine, "The historic recklessness of that decision should it happen will be remembered for decades." You're referring to college football for example, tell us why.</s>BRENNAN: The question, Wolf, is how many deaths, how many hospitalizations, how many illnesses are we willing to accept to have our college football this fall? My thought is the answer should be zero for deaths. But as we learn this today, "The Washington Post" broke a story that the Southeastern Conference where football is king, they actually had a call with some of their student athletes, the football players, and the football players were very concerned and one of the officials for the Southeastern Conference, Wolf actually said these words, it is a given that there will be cases, there will be illnesses and outbreaks on every team in the Southeastern Conference. How in the world as leaders of young people in universities, university presidents, how can they possibly move ahead, knowing that they are going to subject these football players and also field hockey, volleyball et cetera to what could of course alter their lives if not kill them, or a member of their family and or an assistant coach or a staffer or a referee? That today, that breaking news from "The Washington Post" I think shows us just how difficult this is and how reckless and how history will judge these universities if they don't shut it down now.</s>BLITZER: Yes, these are life and death decisions, a lot of these individuals have to make. All right, Christine Brennan, as usual, thanks very much. Meanwhile, public health experts have been urging Americans for months and months to do something very simple. Simply wear a mask, and now, they may not necessarily even be enough. We will tell you what's going on when we come back.