Texas Rangers meet about coronavirus concerns with season opener slated for Seattle
The Texas Rangers held a team meeting Friday afternoon to discuss the coronavirus outbreak.
The 20-minute meeting in their spring training clubhouse was led by Jamie Reed, the team’s director of medical operations, and included a video produced by MLB and presented to every team.
The virus, which has killed more than 3,300 people worldwide, including 15 in the United States. Of those, 14 deaths have occurred in King County, Washington. The county seat is in Seattle.
The Rangers are scheduled to open the season with four games in Seattle beginning March 26. At the moment, there are no plans to alter anything about those games, the Rangers said. Players, manager Chris Woodward said, asked questions about interacting with fans, including signing autographs.
“We talked about how we can keep ourselves healthy,” said Woodward, who was playing with the Blue Jays when the SARS pandemic killed 43 people in the Toronto area. “It is something we’re all obviously concerned with. There is a little uncertainty how rampant it is, or even how dangerous it is. We’re trying to inform [our players and staff] what it is and how we can prevent it.”
The Rangers basically echoed what most experts have been saying: Wash your hands a lot. They’ve left fan interaction up to each player. If necessary, the Rangers will provide players with balls and Sharpie pens so that they don’t have to share pens from fans.
“Obviously, they’ve had issues in Seattle with it. We’re going to clearly inform our players and our staff before we get there as to what we’re going to do to best prevent anybody being exposed to it,” Woodward said.
At least one player asked about keeping his children safe, Woodward said.
“Be careful. If you shake hands, don’t touch your face right after,” Woodward said the players were instructed. “I think that’s the biggest thing. You can shake hands all you want, just go wash your hands after.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 6:55 PM.
