The new contender is a New York Yankees baseball player. A really big one.
I find this unbelievable, but apparently it is true. Tonight’s game between the Red Sox and Yankees was postponed after three Yankee players, Aaron Judge, Gio Urshela, and Kyle Higashioka tested positive for the Wuhan virus in the Yankee clubhouse. Judge was on the American League All-Star team that played (and won) two days ago, and wasn’t vaccinated. Now they are testing all of the All-Star team players who came into contact with him, and that means that every team in the league was potentially placed in peril. Indeed, the whole season could be in peril.
I don’t understand how MLB allowed a non-vaccinated player to play in the game, or be in the dugout. I don’t understand how anyone in Judge’s position could be so foolish and irresponsible as not to be vaccinated at this point. And Judge is supposed to be one of the nicest, most admirable professional athletes in captivity.
Except that he is apparently an asshole.
Well, as many a Fenway Park crowd has said over the decades, as uncivil as it may be, “Yankees suck.”
Ethics Alarms 
Were the other two players vaccinated?
If any other player on the All-Star teams test positive, it will be impossible to tell who infected whom.
But, apart from whether MLB let an unvaccinated player play, didn’t they test everyone anyway?
I am not ready to lay the blame just on Judge.
-Jut
Well, he’s the only one who was at the All-Star game and mixing with players of every team.
I cannot find reports that clearly and definitively indicate Judge’s vaccination status. There are reports, including the one at the link, which (only) for the sake of argument may be considered accurate, that say he is in the MLB protocols and that he tested positive. Given that there are virus breakthroughs and false positives, it seems to be jumping the gun to conclude he is unvaccinated and therefore a contender for asshole of the year. He may well be, but it should be evidence first, then judgment.
It has been reported like a mystery game. We know that one of the players, not Judge, tested positive before the All-Star Game. The NY GM said “most” of the now six players being watched were previously vaccinated. We know Judge was the only one at the All-Star game, and that this is why the players on other teams are being tested and forced to socially distance. As I wrote the piece and the headline, no names were available. I learned that Judge was the All-Star involved after I finished the draft, and went back and updated it.
So, the logic is: Judge was in the all-star game. Judge is in the COVID protocols. At least one of the Yankees in the COVID protocols is not vaccinated. Therefore, Judge is unvaccinated.
Methinks there is a logical fail somewhere there.
No, the initial report said that the Yankee All-Star was not vaccinated, before it was revealed to be Judge. Judge is the reason players all over the Al are being tested. That’s a fact. You’re giving him the benefit of a very large doubt—that he either tested positive despite being vaccinated, or that the test was a false positive. Based on the frantic reaction yesterday, calling off the game, testing players, I find that all possible but unlikely. We also know at least one of the + testing player has shown symptoms as well. If that player wasn’t Judge, I don’t think the reaction would have been so extreme.
We’ll see.
I smell an effort to protect Judge, who is the only star involved. The King’s Pass.
That would not surprise me, well, that and HIPAA.
The latest: “Among the six Yankees players currently with positive tests, the majority had received a COVID-19 vaccine and were asymptomatic, general manager Brian Cashman said.’
“The majority”? Why not say which? Cashman isn’t bound by HIPAA. Cover-up, I think, and only Judge of the group is worth covering up for.
I cannot find that initial report, and “we’ll see” is exactly my position.