I’ve been to Fenway Park three times in the past three weeks to watch the Boston Red Sox play, and I haven’t had to wear a mask.
Jason Varitek and Alex Cora aren’t so lucky.
The two former Red Sox players, who are now coaches for the team, have to follow Major League Baseball’s anti-science mask protocol.
The league’s rules say that 85% of a team’s on-field personnel must be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus; otherwise, all of the coaches have to wear masks. That rule applies to every Boston Red Sox coach since the team has not met the vaccination threshold yet.
So, while more than 35,000 fans can enter Fenway Park and not wear masks, it’s a must for the coaching staff — which interacts with far fewer people than the fans.
This rule applies to vaccinated coaches as well. Meanwhile, players, vaccinated or not, don’t have to wear the mask. Not forcing players to wear masks makes sense because virtually every team plays outdoors, and there is an insignificant risk of coronavirus transmission outdoors. However, it should also apply to the coaching staff. If they want to wear a mask, fine. But forcing them to wear one, especially the vaccinated coaches, makes little sense.
As many know by now, these vaccines work. They mitigate the effects of the virus and have helped reduce the coronavirus death rate in the United States. The incentive of getting vaccinated for many people wasn’t a fear that coronavirus would kill them; it was so that the country can get back to normal.
The overwhelming majority of MLB teams have at least 85% of their on-field personnel vaccinated. As of about two weeks ago, 20 of the 30 MLB teams had reached the mark. That leaves 10 of the 30 teams subject to the rule.
The players have had access to the vaccine for months now. Some people refuse to get the vaccine for a myriad of reasons — whether it’s thinking that they know more than medical experts or otherwise. That’s not a good reason to penalize the coaches, though. After all, we haven’t heard of some epidemic of unvaccinated players giving people the virus.
It’s not like the league enforces similar rules for fans, either. I am fully vaccinated, but I have been to Fenway with unvaccinated people this year. They, like me, did not wear a mask.
Major League Baseball may keep this mask charade up for the entire season, but after that, then what? Some people will never cooperate. It’s not fair to punish others as a result.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts. He is also a freelance writer who has been published in USA Today, the Boston Globe, Newsday, ESPN, the Detroit Free Press, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Federalist, and a number of other outlets.
