Major League Baseball needs to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine, and other thoughts – The Boston Globe

Thank God smallpox and polio vaccines came along before all-knowing Dr. Google.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has ordered a mandatory vaccination policy for those who work in his office. He should do the same with his players, coaches, managers, and clubhouse workers. Unfortunately, Manfred is a lawyer and knows hell never get a mandate past baseballs all-powerful Players Association.

I say, go for it anyway. Go all Kenesaw Mountain Landis best interest of baseball (with exemptions for legit medical or religious reasons, of course). Tell the fellows that playing major league ball is a privilege, not a constitutional right. Hit the vax-way or the highway.

Without it, well have more situations like the one that postponed Thursdays marquee Red Sox-Yankees matchup in New York, and the panic when four Phillies players went into COVID protocols before last Sundays game at Fenway.

Six Yankees tested positive Thursday, including All-Star Aaron Judge. The Red Sox are one of only seven teams that have been unable to reach the 85 percent vaccination threshold. Alex Cora said that some of the Red Sox five All-Stars who interacted with Judge in Denver are not vaccinated.

Mandate the vaccine.

Love the way Kik Hernndez plays, and his versatility is useful, but he sure makes a lot of noise for a .237 hitter who has spent a lot of his career as a utility/bench guy. Prior to the All-Star break, Hernndez was moaning about the Sox schedule Adrian Gonzalez style saying its not fair that the Sox and Yankees dont get four days off for the break. He added, But hey, MLB likes money and Red Sox-Yankees makes money. So, let there be money.

Right, Kik. Its the same with those annoying Sunday night games they make you play when you are on the Red Sox. Its a tradeoff of playing for a high-profile team.

When Sox-Yankees was postponed Thursday because of the COVID-19 outbreak, Hernndez took a goofy victory lap, telling the Globes Alex Speier, Things happen for a reason. Its hard to make fun of the situation considering its the other teams health . . . but everything happens for a reason. Everybody else got an extra day. We got our extra day one way or another. Wow.

Quiz: Name two Red Sox teammates who homered in the same game 56 times over the course of their careers (answer below).

Is Danny Ainge going to take a job with the Suns or the Jazz? I want to work again, Ainge said from the West Coast this past week. I just dont want to do the crazy lifestyle that I had for the last 18 years. I have nothing right now. I just got done with a long walk and swim this morning. And taking my wife to tennis. We just got back from spending lots of time with our parents that we havent seen since the pandemic started, so we had some good times with our family and theres nothing on the horizon as I see it. The [Massachusetts] house is for sale but were not moving for sure. Were not certain on that.

Irked that he lost a $33 million bonus for not making first-, second-, or third-team All-NBA, Jayson Tatum told the Globes Gary Washburn, How could you watch my game and the season I had and think I wasnt one of the best 15 players? Tatums probably right, but the comment is unfortunate. Let everybody else say it for you.

Can we hose everybody down now about the Red Sox draft? Yeesh. Those picks are not all going to be Corey Seager, David Ortiz, and Kyle Schwarber. Lets see how they develop.

Noting that Dan Duquette assembled more than half of the 2004 world champion Red Sox before he was fired by the new Red Sox owners at spring training in 2002, I asked the Duke if he ever received a championship ring after the Sox broke the curse. No, Duquette said, chuckling. I got a watch when they retired me.

Along the same lines, hope the Phoenix Suns dont forget former general manager Ryan McDonough. A Hingham native and son of a great Globie, the late Will McDonough, Ryan is the guy who drafted Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton, and acquired Mikal Bridges for Phoenix. McDonough was let go by the Suns in October 2018.

US Olympic swimmer Michael Andrew demonstrated his team spirit by refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine because I didnt want to risk any days out, adding, Were kind of a, I wouldnt say conspiracy-theory type family, but were definitely on the side where we look for what other methods are. Swell. Hope he finishes last.

No sport has fallen off the map around here more than mens tennis. Maybe its because we lost the inimitable Bud Collins in 2016. I am old enough to remember when Longwood was a big part of our sports summer. Anyway, if you remember a time when Pete Sampras set the record with 14 major championships in 2002, know that Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic (last weekends Wimbledon winner) each have now 20 won Grand Slam singles titles.

Full circle: Haywood Sullivan hired Don Zimmer to manager the Red Sox in 1976. Whitney Goldstein, Zimms granddaughter, is head coach of URI softball and just hired Tori Constantin as an assistant. Constantin is the granddaughter of Haywood Sullivan.

Catcher Michael Trautwein, son of former Red Sox pitcher John Trautwein, was drafted in the 13th round by the Reds. John Trautwein has dedicated his life to teen suicide awareness (Will to Live Foundation) since losing his son Will at the age of 15 in 2010.

Soul-crushing baseball numbers: According to Tom Verducci, in the last 26 minutes of the clinching Game 6 of last years World Series, there were exactly two balls put into play. Over the course of the entire game, the ball was put into play once every 6.5 minutes. Half of the outs in the game were strikeouts. George Will calculates that 36 percent of big league at-bats end in homers, strikeouts, or walks, with four minutes between each ball put into play. MLB batting averages have declined by 15 points over the last two seasons. Translation: Nothing is happening. How can MLB ask young fans to watch this product?

More bleak numbers, these from Tyler Kepner of the New York Times: Nineteen percent of MLB players in 1986 were African-American. Today, its 7.6 percent. Mookie Betts was the only Black American player on the original 32-man 2021 National League All-Star team. There were 12 Black players on the NL All-Star team in 1972. Betts was also the only Black American to play in last years World Series.

Lots of respect for veteran coach Gregg Popovich, but Pop needs to dial it down a little with his insulting dismissal of those who question him. Hes been around long enough to know it was going to get testy after his US Olympic squad was beaten in back-to-back games by Nigeria and Australia in pre-Olympic exhibitions. Condescending Pop sounds ridiculous when he pretends the United States has not dominated international competition in recent years.

If you watched the finale of Stephen Kings Liseys Story on Apple TV+ you saw Jennifer Jason Leigh and Joan Allen beat up on a villain with a Patrice Bergeron-signed hockey stick.

Former Red Sox coach Dave Jauss was the hero of the All-Star Home Run Derby. Now a Mets coach, Jauss went to Amherst with Duquette and served a succession of perfect meatballs to Mets slugger Pete Alonso on Monday night.

This is the first NBA Finals in 15 years without Kobe Bryant, Steph Curry, or LeBron James.

Quiz answer: Jim Rice and Dwight Evans.

Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @dan_shaughnessy.

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Major League Baseball needs to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine, and other thoughts - The Boston Globe