Phillies' Monday Night Game Against Yankees Postponed After More Than A Dozen Marlins Members Test Positive For COVID-19
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A coronavirus outbreak has struck the Miami Marlins as the team just finished a three-game series with the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. The Marlins are now quarantining in Philadelphia while tonight's Phillies game vs. the Yankees has been postponed.
The game has been postponed as the future of immediate games is a mystery.
More than a dozen members of the Marlins organization have tested positive for COVID-19 and are now in isolation at the team's hotel in Philly. Sources say the team is staying at The Rittenhouse Hotel in Center City.
One word describes the development for fans— disappointed.
"It's unfortunate. If they do postpone games, cancel games, that would be really unfortunate," one Phillies fan said.
At worst, baseball fans fear a season cancellation could be on the horizon.
"I don't think the whole season is gonna play out, to tell you the truth. I think they're just gonna cancel it. And good luck for football, I hope it comes back but I doubt it," fan Paul Staas said.
The ballgame went forward Sunday as a list of positive cases rapidly expanded among Marlins players.
That decision to play on has been widely criticized. Critics say the MLB's own guidelines and rules were sidestepped, as the decision to play ball was made unilaterally by the Marlins organization despite the rapid spread of the virus.
So far, there's been radio silence from the Phillies organization. The Marlins have been more transparent, issuing a statement about full testing, reading in part:
"The members of the Marlins' traveling party are self-quarantining in place while awaiting the outcome of those results."
The Marlins were set to play the Orioles in Miami tonight, but that game too has been postponed.
Orioles fans sitting down to a cheesesteak in Philadelphia feared the virus would rear its head and interfere with the shortened baseball season.
"I was a little worried about it because it's kind of like a domino effect, once one team falls you think a lot of other teams are going to fall," Orioles fan Tyler Witherspoon said.
"Sports are back and then if this cancels the rest of the season, that would be a big bummer," Orioles fan Leo Martin said.