Twenty-Four Hours When Sports Hit the Halt Button

A solemn address on Wednesday night from the Oval Office by President Trump, who had previously played down the severity of the coronavirus, seemed to settle, once and for all, the severity of the moment, as if the roiling of the world’s financial markets hadn’t already.

And once one of the professional leagues decided to shut down operations, it appeared inevitable that others would follow like tumbling dominoes.

“There is an enormous concern in the sports world not to be left out there to be criticized,” Vincent said. “One thing about a herd is if it all merges together, there’s some safety in it. That’s why it exists.”

Such swift, dramatic actions produced a series of sometimes bizarre vignettes around the country’s sports arenas, and even some overseas.

The Baltimore Orioles were aboard their team bus, headed to Fort Myers, Fla., for a spring training baseball game against the Minnesota Twins when it was halted and turned around.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/sports/coronavirus-sports-canceled.html