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Fear Grips Major League Baseball as Virus Puts Reopened Season in Doubt

OAKLAND (KPIX) -- There's much uncertainty and some fear in the ranks of Major League Baseball, as coronavirus spreads through one team's clubhouse.

Unlike the NBA where all active teams are playing at one venue, Major League Baseball opened across the country and many in the league expected to see COVID-19 cases at times throughout the 60-game season. They didn't expect it would come this soon.

"There's trepidation for coming here. Now you see what happened so I don't think that ever goes away," said Bob Melvin, manager of the Oakland Athletics.

Melvin voiced his concerns about playing during the pandemic after more than a dozen players and coaches within the Miami Marlins organization tested positive for coronavirus.

"I'm not surprised," said Dr. George Rutherford, a professor of epidemiology at UCSF.

Dr. Rutherford anticipated that, if cases broke out they would most likely happen to a team in a city where the transmission levels are high, such as Miami, Houston or Dallas.

"It's going to be a rocky road and there are some bumps on it and this is a bump. If there are a lot of bumps, it's going to be tough to think about finishing the season," Dr. Rutherford said.

The Marlins game Monday was postponed and two other games were canceled but the season will still go on, the commissioner of baseball proclaimed. Dr. Rutherford says this is a good test to see how the outbreak within the Marlins started and how the league will navigate around it.

Meanwhile, the A's are worried about their upcoming road trip.

"We'll see if it gets worse," Melvin said. "We'll talk about it as a group today -- about the road trip -- and we'll see."

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