SEATTLE — Multiple outlets, including ESPN’s Jeff Passan, have reported that Major League Baseball will submit a plan to the Major League Baseball Players Association sometime in the next week about reopening the 2020 season after it was shut down by the spread of the novel coronavirus, with teams opening a second spring training in early June with the hope of starting the season on July 1 or shortly thereafter.
Passan reported, using several agents, players and baseball executives as sources, that “general managers and managers from at least dozen teams have reached out to players and suggested they ramp up all baseball activities.”
The actual details of MLB’s reopening plan are not yet known. The once-proposed sequestration of all 30 teams to Arizona seems to have been pushed aside because players don’t want to be forced away from their families for four months. It received heavy criticism from some of the game’s biggest stars such as Mike Trout and Clayton Kershaw.
The belief is that players would prefer to play the season in their home stadiums if possible, allowing them to see their families. The plan of three 10-team divisions separated into geographical locations seems to be plausible. And there is also a proposal for teams to hold their spring training 2.0 in their home cities instead of returning to Arizona or Florida sites.
Earl Thomas in hot water
BALTIMORE — The lawyer for the wife of Baltimore Ravens safety Earl Thomas said she is being subjected to an “unfounded ongoing investigation” by Texas police after she allegedly pointed a loaded gun at her husband’s head upon finding him in bed with another woman last month.
According to a police affidavit, Nina Thomas tracked down her husband at a short-term rental home in Austin in the early morning hours of April 13 and found him and his brother, Seth, in bed with two women.
The affidavit says Nina Thomas admitted to pointing the pistol at Earl Thomas’ head “with the intent to scare him.” She had taken the magazine out of the gun and disengaged the safety, but police noted “she was unaware the gun had a round in the chamber.”
Nina Thomas struck Earl Thomas repeatedly with her free hand before her husband eventually wrestled the 9 mm Beretta from her grasp, the affidavit said. At that point, he told the woman with whom he was romantically linked to call the police.
Nina Thomas was arrested on a felony charge of burglary of a habitation with the intent to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The incident was first reported by TMZ.
Thomas, a seven-time Pro Bowler and four-time first team All-Pro, was a member of the Seattle Seahawks’ Legion of Boom secondary from 2010-18.
The Associated Press and The Seattle Times
