My first weekend of baseball as a Marlins fan was the best of times and the worst of times.

We took two out of three at philly and Alcantara is a bonafide ace. That was the best of times. Immediately following Sunday’s 10-6 thrashing of those scumbag phillies, the worst of times began as my fish started dominating headlines in a manner I wasn’t expecting for years.

Now the doomers are out in full force on the internet thinking that baseball will be canceled over the Marlins. Are you kidding me? I’ve been a lifelong Marlins fan for a few months now. I love the team. But even I know that baseball would never shut down over the MARLINS.

.

However, some of the league might be shut down for a week, and the complicity for this falls squarely on the Marlins. They knew of a potential outbreak before Sunday’s game, and had a casual group text decision to play through it anyway. This put the phillies and their opponents at risk and exponentially exacerbated the scheduling chaos. It’s shocking that this was allowed to happen.

You can’t blame the Marlins players for this irresponsible decision – they are young and playing for their jobs. The failure lies in league and club leadership that allowed for the decision to be put in players’ hands in the first place. Manfred must address that immediately with updated protocols.

.

I also put blame on the doomers who are dominating discourse throughout the sports universe. If the Marlins had taken the responsible and cautious approach, the PR hysteria would’ve been no different on Sunday than it was during the week. In a way, it was worth it for baseball’s image to just push the problem past opening weekend. That’s on society as much as it is on baseball.

If these doomers cared about mental health as much as they normally pretend, then they should know that sports is an essential industry. Recognize that in your attitude and also recognize that, with adequate testing and protocols, it is possible to prevent outbreaks. Sports leagues all over the world have been doing it for months.

.

Chances are low that phillies players caught the virus. If that’s the case, this isn’t such a big deal in the grand scheme of things as long as lessons are learned going forward. This was predicted, and it can be overcome. Maybe they should set up a postseason bubble to keep the playoffs smooth though.

Most importantly, this primes our brain for what is about to happen with football, the most essential industry in the world. Get the scaries out of the way with baseball so we can be ready to power through with NFL.